[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 158 (Thursday, November 15, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H8184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE SYSTEM

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, we all agree that terrorists should be 
brought to justice. But what kind of justice? The American 
jurisprudence system is the envy of the free world with its emphasis on 
due process. Yet the recent executive order substitutes our American 
justice system for military tribunals, where officers sit as judge and 
jury with secret evidence, secret witnesses, secret verdicts, and even 
secretly handed-down death sentences.
  This order is not reflective of the workings of the great solons of 
the law whose likenesses ring this Chamber. This is not reflective of 
Jeffersonian democracy. This is Kafka's trial writ large. We cannot, we 
should not let the actions of terrorists cause us to reject our 
American system of justice. The ultimate terror in a democracy is the 
destruction of constitutional principles.
  Let us defend against terrorism, and may we always remain one Nation, 
under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

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