Yesterday, I cosponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would prevent the military from detaining United States citizens indefinitely as "enemy combatants." I also spoke on the Senate floor about the importance of maintaining our civil liberties and the legislative branch's responsibility to adhere to both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. A video of my speech is below, along with a transcript:

I rise today to speak in support of amendment number 1126 to the current pending legislation.

The purpose of this amendment is to make clear that the United States shall not detain for an indefinite period U. S. citizens in military custody. I understand that this has been the subject of a lot of debate. I also understand this would be a break not only with the current pending legislation but also with current practice.

Based on Supreme Court precedent and lower court precedent that some have interpreted to deem this a constitutionally permissible practice. It's often been suggested by several of my colleagues that it is the province of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution and that statement is absolutely correct as far as it goes.

But it's not the beginning of the analysis and the end of the analysis. We as U. S. Senators independently have an obligation consistent with and required by our oath to the Constitution, which I took just a few months ago, a few feet from where I stand now, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And that means doing more than simply the full extent of whatever the courts will tolerate.

In this instance, what we're talking about is the right of the U. S. military to detain indefinitely without trial a U. S. citizen simply on the basis that that person has been deemed an enemy combatant. Now, there is a real slippery slope problem here and it's the very kind of slippery slope problem for which we have protections like the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment.

You see, under the Fifth Amendment a person can't be held for an infamous crime unless they've been subjected to a process whereby a grand jury indictment has been issued. And a person can't be held and tried for a crime without having counsel made available to them, and without the opportunity for a speedy trial in front of a jury of the peers of the accused. We can scarce afford as Americans to surrender these fundamental civil liberties for which wars have been fought, for which the founding era, the founding generation fought so nobly against our mother country to establish and thereafter to protect.

We have to support these and I think at a bare minimum that means that we won't allow U. S. military personnel to arrest and indefinitely detain U. S. citizens regardless of what label we happen to apply to them. These people as U. S. citizens are entitled to a grand jury indictment to the extent they're being held for an infamous crime, they're also entitled to a jury trial in front of their peers and to counsel.

We cannot, for the sake of convenience, surrender these important liberties. I'm not willing to do that. That's why I support this amendment, amendment number 1126 to the pending legislation. I encourage each of my colleagues to do so.

Now, I want to point out, Madam President, that yesterday I voted against what became known as the Udall amendment. I did so in part because I don't believe that it fixed the problem I'm talking about here.

The Udall amendment didn't purport to address current practice or the policies as they've been established in recent years that this kind of detention is in some circumstances acceptable. It called for a study and it eliminated certain provisions in the proposed legislation, but it didn't fix the underlying problem.

This Feinstein amendment, amendment number 1126, does fix that. That's why I support it. I encourage each of my colleagues to do the same.

When we take an oath to the U. S. Constitution to uphold it, to protect it, to defend it, we're doing more than simply agreeing to do whatever the courts will tolerate. We're taking an oath to the principles embodied in this 224-year-old document that has fostered the greatest civilization the world has ever known.

Thank you, Madam President.