Skip to content
LPBN-Icon-v1
ImmigrationProf Blog
A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network

Senator Byrd’s Regrets — Including Voting for the USA PATRIOT Act

By immigrationprof

FROM CNN — http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/28/patriot.act.ap/index.html

Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate’s dean and resident constitutional expert, counts only a few regrets in his 48-year Senate career: filibustering the 1964 Civil Rights Act, voting to expand the Vietnam War, deregulating airlines.

Add to the list a new one from this century: supporting the anti-terror USA Patriot Act after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

“The original Patriot Act is a case study in the perils of speed, herd instinct and lack of vigilance when it comes to legislating in times of crisis,” the West Virginia Democrat said Monday. “The Congress was stampeded, and the values of freedom, justice and equality received a trampling in the headlong rush.”

KJ