Arlen Specter: “I fully realize it is unpopular to speak for aliens, unpopular to speak on what might be interpreted to be in favor of…”

“I fully realize it is unpopular to speak for aliens, unpopular to speak on what might be interpreted to be in favor of enemy combatants, but that is not what this Senator is doing. What I am trying to establish is a course of judicial procedure to determine whether they are enemy combatants. I submit that the materials produced on this floor and in the hearings of the Judiciary Committee show conclusively that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals do not have an adequate way of determining whether these individuals are enemy combatants. What we are doing is defending the jurisdiction of the Federal courts to maintain the rule of law. If the Federal courts are not open, if the Federal courts do not have jurisdiction to determine constitutionality, then how are we to determine what is constitutional? My own background is one of a reverence for the law, a reverence for the independence of the judiciary, and a reverence for the rule of law as interpreted by our Constitution. If it hadn't been for the Federal courts, the Supreme Court of the United States, we would not have seen the decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.”