May I suggest why I think we need to do this and why I support Senator Inhofe. We have gone through a great debate in this country, which is long overdue. What does it mean to be an American? And what role unites us and what divides us? I…

this is a debate which you wonder why you are having it the more we talk about it. How did we get here from where we started? Let me suggest that what Senator Inhofe was trying to do here is important. Senator Bingaman, my good friend from…

Let's go back to the original question and incorporate it into the answer. The Senator asked me if I know of a case where the American Government provides a service in some language other than English that I find unjustified? The answer is…

I will be glad to answer. That is a great question. Here is the way I view what we are trying to do. Please, others, speak up. Even though we are trying, in this amendment, to promote the idea that English is the national language and the…

just to put this debate in perspective for myself and myself alone, I wish I could speak an additional language. It would make me a better person. I think I would enjoy that experience. I know enough German just to be dangerous. I lived…

I will give the Senator my answer and then yield to anyone. I know we need to wrap this up. In my opinion, the phrase, ``unless otherwise authorized or provided by law,'' we would preserve that service. Simply stated, that language to me…

quickly, while Senator Vitter is speaking for a lot of people who believe we should not do this together, we should have border security and come back and look at a different way of doing this with 11 or 12 million people, that does not…

I have been involved, along with many other people, trying to work hard. And if this were an easy problem, we would have solved it many years ago. As a nation, in 1986, we offered amnesty under Ronald Reagan, and 3 million people have…

I think we've reached a plea bargain with 11 million illegal aliens.

We have to recognize that for several generations, people have made America home. And we've accepted the benefit of their labor.

I have limited time, so I am not going to read them all. But I ask each Member of the body to look, if they can, at these short quotes, or if they want to listen to the whole testimony, they can certainly retrieve it and ask the question…

I know abortion is important. It's important to me. It's important to you. I know it's an important central concept in our jurisprudence. But we can't build a judiciary around that one issue. We can't make judges pledge allegiance to one…

Are you really a closet bigot?

Men and women, black and white, your colleagues who say that Sam Alito, whether I agree with him or not, is a really good man.

The idea that our president or this administration took the law in their own hands and ignored the precedent of other presidents or case law and just tried to make a power grab, I don't agree with.

I would also like my esteemed colleague from Arizona, Senator Kyl, to address the misunderstandings that seem to have made their way into the press. For instance, when I returned from Iraq this morning, I was surprised to see the New York…

if Senator Kyl would be so kind, could he explain how our amendment will affect ongoing litigation? Specifically, my understanding is that the Supreme Court granted certiorari recently in a case.

Yes, I assume that they will do so. No sense in kicking out a detainee's current habeas action in the DC Circuit just so that he has to refile a section 1405 review request--it would be better to let the current case go forward as a 1405…

You are absolutely correct Senator Kyl. I must admit, I'm a bit baffled by the assertion that our amendment is somehow internally inconsistent, that our provisions interfere with the McCain provisions in some way. While we must ensure that…

Yes, that is correct. But we do still allow some types of judicial review to go forward--those cases asking for review, in accordance with section 1405, of military commissions or CSRTs. And the very last paragraph of section 1405--I…

I agree entirely. If I could add one thing on this point: perhaps the best evidence that the current Rasul system undermines effective interrogation is that even the detainees' lawyers are bragging about their lawsuits' having that effect…

And those are the only channels that have been created where the detainee himself can pursue a remedy on his own in a semi- adversarial forum. These complaints about conditions of confinement, these are for the military itself to enforce…

So once this bill is signed into law, you anticipate that the Supreme Court will determine whether to maintain their grant of certiorari?

today I rise to comment upon the recently passed Defense authorization bill. That bill contained a Graham-Levin- Kyl amendment which dealt with the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay. I was very…

Yes, my friend from Arizona is correct, our language applies only to Guantanamo just because we understand that the Supreme Court only extended the jurisdiction of the courts over the detainees held at Guantanamo. And since the Rasul…