Civil Liberties

"The civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution are the most sacred rights that we hold as Americans. The Founders who wrote our Constitution and Bill of Rights exercised vigilance, even though they had recently fought and won the Revolutionary War. They did not live in comfortable and easy times of hypothetical enemies. They wrote a Constitution of limited powers and an explicit Bill of Rights to protect liberty in times of war, as well as in times of peace.

Every American was shocked and saddened by the tragedy of September 11, and my first and most powerful emotion was a solemn resolve to stop these terrorists. And that remains my principal reaction to these events. But we must also exercise caution in our response. We must ensure that in our pursuit of justice we do not compromise the very freedom and way of life that we seek to protect. There have been periods in our nation's history when civil liberties have taken a back seat to what appeared at the time to be the legitimate exigencies of war. Our national consciousness still bears the stain and the scars of those events: The Alien and Sedition Acts; the suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War; the internment of Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, and Italian-Americans during World War II; the blacklisting of supposed communist sympathizers during the McCarthy era; and the surveillance and harassment of antiwar protesters, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the Vietnam War. We must not allow these pieces of our past to become prologue.

Protecting the safety of the American people is a solemn duty of the Congress; we must work tirelessly to prevent more tragedies like the devastating attacks of September 11th. We must prevent more children from losing their mothers, more wives from losing their husbands, and more firefighters from losing their heroic colleagues. But the Congress will fulfill its duty only when it protects both the American people and the freedoms at the foundation of American society. So let us preserve our heritage of basic rights. Let us practice as well as preach that liberty. And let us fight to maintain that freedom that we call America."

ACHIEVEMENTS

Balancing Civil Liberties and Anti-Terrorism: Senator Feingold supported 90% of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act, but too many provisions were deeply troubling. Certain provisions may infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens, while doing little protect our country against terrorists. Senator Feingold was the only Senator to vote against the PATRIOT Act, because he believes that while we must give law enforcement the tools to protect us from future terrorist attacks, we can and should do so without jeopardizing our individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution - the very principles that make us Americans.

Read more about Russ' lone vote against the USA PATRIOT Act

Gaining allies in the Senate to fix the USA PATRIOT Act and Defend Civil Liberties: Three conservative Republicans, Senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo of Idaho and John Sununu of New Hampshire, have joined Senator Feingold and other Senators from both parties in introducing a bill, the SAFE act, to significantly modify the USA PATRIOT Act - to protect our country against terrorism and to protect the Constitution by modifying the very provisions of the PATRIOT Act that Senator Feingold originally opposed.

Defending Civil Liberties in the Senate: Senator Feingold is the Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, where he is a tireless defender and supporter of civil liberties.

Feingold seeks help against 'government power grab', (Capital Times, April 5, 2004)

Feingold: My lone 'no' is vindicated, (Wisconsin State Journal, April 5, 2004)

Feingold visits UW, speaks on Patriot Act, (Badger Herald, April 5, 2004)

John Nichols: Feingold deserves Senate historian's kudos, (Capital Times, November 21, 2002)

A Go-It-Alone Democrat Who's Seeking Company, (The New York Times, December 23, 2001)

Read the text of Senator Feingold's Sunday, November 11, 2001 speech to the University of Michigan, entitled "What We Can Do For Our Country."