Political Quotes

“My good friend from Connecticut is aware there is a proposal pending on the floor of the Senate that would say, for the first time in American history, if a U.S. citizen decides to collaborate with an enemy, they cannot be held as an enemy combatant. I think the Senator is very familiar with the history of the law in this area. Unfortunately, during the entire history of our country, during other conflicts, American citizens have, on occasion, collaborated with the enemy, one of the most famous cases being the In re Quirin case, where an American citizen in New York and other places was helping Nazi saboteurs try to sabotage America. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled an American citizen could be detained as an enemy combatant because the decision to collaborate with the enemy was a decision to go to war with their country, not a common crime, and that the law to be applied was the law of war. I am certain the Senator is familiar with the Hamdi case, where an American citizen seized in Afghanistan was allowed to be held as an enemy combatant. The Hamdi decision reaffirmed In re Quirin, and the Padilla case involved an American citizen captured in the United States accused of collaborating with al-Qaida.…”