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Joe Biden on Civil Liberties and Domestic Security
This candidate has withdrawn from the election
Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. This vote reauthorizes the PATRIOT Act with some modifications (amendments). Voting YEA extends the PATRIOT Act, and voting NAY would phase it out. The official summary of the bill is: A bill to clarify that individuals who receive FISA orders can challenge nondisclosure requirements, that individuals who receive national security letters are not required to disclose the name of their attorney, that libraries are not wire or electronic communication service providers unless they provide specific services, and for other purposes.
USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorization Amendment Bill S. 2271 ; vote number 2006-025 on Mar 1, 2006
Voted NO on extending the PATRIOT Act's wiretap provision. Vote to invoke cloture on a conference report that extends the authority of the FBI to conduct "roving wiretaps" and access business records. Voting YES would recommend, in effect, that the PATRIOT Act be extended through December 31, 2009, and would makes the provisions of the PATRIOT Act permanent. Voting NO would extend debate further, which would have the effect of NOT extending the PATRIOT Act's wiretap provision.
Motion for Cloture of PATRIOT Act; Bill HR 3199 ; vote number 2005-358 on Dec 16, 2005
Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. Motion to table (kill) the amendment that would provide that in order to conduct roving surveillance, the person implementing the order must ascertain that the target of the surveillance is present in the house or is using the phone that has been tapped.
Bill S1510 ; vote number 2001-300 on Oct 11, 2001
"No one is against wiretapping suspected terrorists. The question is how to bring this program within the law."
Twenty-seven years ago I helped craft the law that put in place the procedures that President Bush has chosen to ignore as he conducts wiretaps on Americans in his pursuit of terrorists. The Senate passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) 95-1 because our leaders were dangerously overreaching their powers. In the 1960s, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI secretly bugged Martin Luther King, Jr.; Richard Nixon used the FBI to spy on his political enemies.
But like many of his fellow candidates who have spoken out on this issue[wiretapping], Biden's objections to the program appear to lie more in Bush's circumvention of the courts than in the eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. "There is nothing the president needed to do to protect Americans that could not have been done through FISA," said Biden, citing provisions in the act for emergency seventy-two-hour warrantless wiretapping, and even for fifteen-day surveillance without a warrant in case of a war declaration.
Voted NO on HR 6304 a bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence, and for other purposes.
Voted YES on preserving habeus corpus for Guantanamo detainees.
Specter Amendment; Bill S.AMDT.5087 to S.3930 ; vote number 2006-255
Biden says the prisoners should be moved to the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has cosponsored legislation that would release all Guantanamo prisoners who have not been charged. This would mean releasing nearly all the prisoners.
Voted NO against the Military Commissions Act.
Military Commissions Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-366, 120 Stat. 2600 (Oct. 17, 2006)
Q: Does the Constitution permit a president to detain US citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants? BIDEN: No. The Supreme Court resolved this issue in a case called "Hamdi" in 2004. An American citizen held as an enemy combatant has a constitutional right to due process to determine whether his detention is legal and is adequately based on fact.
"The Constitution guarantees the right of habeas corpus unless in the case of rebellion or invasion it is suspended. My National Security with Justice Act reinforces this Constitutional right by extending by statute meaningful habeas review for all Guantanamo detainees."
Voted YES on requiring CIA reports on detainees and interrogation methods. Amendment to provide for congressional oversight of certain Central Intelligence Agency programs. The underlying bill S. 3930 authorizes trial by military commission for violations of the law of war. The amendment requires quarterly reports describing all CIA detention facilities; the name of each detainee; their suspected activities; & each interrogation technique authorized for use and guidelines on the use of each such technique.
Rockefeller Amendment; Bill S.AMDT.5095 to S.3930 ; vote number 2006-256 on Sep 28, 2006
Today's news revealed the Justice Department produced secret memos condoning the use of torture and other abusive interrogation techniques on detainees. U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) asked his colleagues to join him in condemning not only the Administration's duplicity with Congress and the American people, but also its policy permitting torture.
In July, Sen. Biden introduced the National Security with Justice Act to reform United States policies on the apprehension, detention, treatment and transfer of suspected terrorists. The legislation, among other things, unambiguously prohibits any United States personnel, including members of our intelligence services, from torturing and mistreating detainees. Specifically, Senator Biden's bill closes this loophole by prohibiting all officers and agents of the United States from using techniques of interrogation not authorized by the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. The legislation also closes black sites and extra-judicial prisons, prohibits extraordinary renditions, prohibits the torture and mistreatment of detainees in U.S. custody, modifies the definition of "unlawful enemy combatant," and extends habeas corpus to detainees.