The Senate voted 81-14 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, which lacks a ban on indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, and now President Obama must decide whether or not he will sign it, reported the Huffington Post. He had previously threatened a veto because it does not allow for the closure of Guantanamo Bay.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) railed against the lack of protections for Americans in a floor speech, claiming that the guarantee of a trial by jury for citizens was removed “because they want the ability to hold American citizens without trial in our country.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“Don’t let the wool be pulled over your eyes to think that you have protection and that you will get a trial by jury if accused of a crime,” he said. He counters claims that Americans will have a trial by jury if they get into an constitutional court by arguing that the decision to grant such aa court is “arbitrary.”

He called the current NDAA an “abomination.”

“Is our memory so short that we don’t understand the danger of allowing detention without trial? Is our memory so short that we don’t understand the havoc that bias and bigotry can do when unrestrained by law?” Paul said.

While there was at one point an amendment to the NDAA banning the indefinite detention of American citizens, a House-Senate conference committee scrapped it.

Watch the video of Sen. Paul, via his YouTube page, below.