[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 71 (Thursday, May 17, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H2818]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Griffith) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRIFFITH of Virginia. Madam Speaker, later today, we will debate 
the National Defense Authorization Act. Just yesterday evening, section 
1021 of last year's bill was given an injunction by U.S. District Judge 
Katherine Forrest when she stated:

       In the face of what could be indeterminate military 
     detention, due process requires more.

  As we debate this bill, we will have an opportunity to act on several 
amendments which will make due process a key part of this bill and 
eliminate the concerns that the judge had when granting that 
preliminary injunction.
  I take the opportunity today to remind us of some history. Dateline: 
Paris, December 20, 1787. In a letter to James Madison, Thomas 
Jefferson wrote, in regard to the Constitution of the United States 
that was being proposed:

       I will tell you now what I do not like. First, the omission 
     of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without aid of 
     sophism, for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, 
     protection against standing armies, restriction of 
     monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas 
     corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact 
     triable by the laws of the land, and not by the laws of 
     nations.
       To say, as Mr. Wilson does, that a Bill of Rights was not 
     necessary because all is reserved in the case of the general 
     government, which is not given, while in the particular ones, 
     all is given which is not reserved, might do for the audience 
     to which it was addressed; but it is surely a gratis dictum, 
     the reverse of which might just as well be said; and it is 
     opposed by strong inferences from the body of the instrument, 
     as well as from the omission of the cause of our present 
     Confederation--that would be the Articles of Confederation--
     which had made the reservation in express terms.
       It was hard to conclude, because there has been a want of 
     uniformity among the States as to the cases triable by jury, 
     because some have been so incautious as to dispense with this 
     mode of trial in certain cases; therefore, the more prudent 
     States shall be reduced to the same level of calamity.
       It would have been much more just and wise to have 
     concluded the other way, that, as most of the States had 
     preserved with jealousy this sacred palladium of liberty, 
     those who have wandered should be brought back to it, and to 
     have established general right rather than general wrong.

                              {time}  1030

  He goes on:

       For I consider all the ill as established, which may be 
     established. I have a right to nothing which another has a 
     right to take away.

  And he goes on:

       Let me add that a Bill of Rights is what the people are 
     entitled to against every government on Earth, general or 
     particular, and what no just government should refuse, or 
     rest on inference.

  There are those, in regard to the debate on the NDAA and particularly 
section 1021 of last year's bill and the similar language this year, 
that it is inferred that those rights are not given away. Jefferson was 
not willing to allow us to rest on the rights of inference, nor should 
we in this Congress also not be willing to rest on the rights of 
inference.
  And when particularly you have language such as this coming out of 
the court yesterday evening, this court finds the plaintiffs who are, 
as discussed below, have reasonable fear of future government action 
sufficient to confer standing.
  Ladies and gentlemen, many of you cannot see it, but behind me here 
in the desk is the word ``liberty stands,'' it is written in. It was 
not left to inference. It's right here for us to look at every day. 
And, ladies and gentlemen, as long as I serve in Congress, I will stand 
up for liberty and make sure that no citizen of the United States has 
their due process removed.
  I will support the Amash amendment, the Smith amendment, and the 
Goodlatte amendment. Thank you very much. I hope you do the same.

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