Sen. Rand Paul, joined by only one Republican, loses battle against martial law legislation

Talk about strange bedfellows!  Rand Paul, Kentucky’s Republican Junior Senator, found himself teamed up yesterday with Senate left-wing Democrats and the ACLU, in a failed attempt to insert an amendment into the massive National Defense Authorization Act, which would have limited the federal government’s power to enforce martial law against American civilians.

Sixteen Democrats and an independent joined with Republicans to defeat an amendment by Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) that would have killed the provision, voting it down with 60 against, and 38 for it; keeping in the controversial provision which allows the military to detain terrorism suspects on U.S. soil and hold them indefinitely without trial.

Senator Paul observed that the unamended law would mean that any American citizen suspected of aiding terrorism would get just one hearing, where the military could assert that the person is a suspected terrorist, and then he could be locked up for life, without ever being formally charged.  “I’m very, very, concerned about having U.S. citizens sent to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention,” said Sen. Paul.  Illinois Senator Mark Kirk was the only other Republican joining Sen. Paul in his support for the Udall amendment.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina—one of the staunchest opponents of the Udall amendment—had a different take on the need to empower the government to arrest and detain terrorism suspects . . .

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