Twelve years after the establishment of that First Congress, on March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as the third President of the United States. On that day, he said:

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration... Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.

It is no small irony that the Judiciary Act which established those Federal Courts long ago so near where I am now, was the engine for the decision last week that deemed that the Military Commissions Act, which stripped the Federal Courts of the right to hear habeas corpus cases in regards to those prisoners held by our government at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was not in violation of Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution.

I am neither a lawyer nor a legal expert. As such, I am not fit to speak to you expertly on the legal issues of that decision. But that decision did make one thing clear which I can speak expertly on, as an American citizen of equal franchise with every judge, Representative, and President in the land: in a moment of terror and alarm, we have wandered away from the creed of our political faith, as Jefferson warned us we might. Indeed, we have wandered so far that we cannot hold out hope that our institutions, our systemic checks and balances crafted specifically so that we do not wander from our core tenets of self-governance, cannot bring us back to our chosen path alone. They demand that we the people hasten the way.

We began that process last year, when through our efforts and contributions and execution of our franchise, we changed the nature of the membership of our Federal Representatives in the Congress. That has made the restoration of these fundamental values of our nation possible. But it has not been enough.

In our Senate, two bills have been introduced to committee: S 185, sponsored by Sen. Specter and Sen. Leahy, is the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007, introduced on Jan. 4, 2007, and remaining in the Senate Committee on the Judiciary; and S 576, sponsored by Sen. Dodd, Sen. Feingold, Sen. Menendez, and Sen. Leahy, the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007, introduced on Feb. 13, 2007, and which remains in the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Although S 576 is in my opinion the better bill, S 185 would seem to have the best chance of immediate passage by the full Senate.

On March 4, 1861, nearly one hundred forty six years ago, Abraham Lincoln, swore for the first time to preserve, protect and defend the union of the United States under the Constitution. On that day, he said:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

In that spirit, I wish to say to all Americans that it is with friendship and equal affection that I observe that while much about our nation’s government divides us, it is and always has been in union that we have followed this path lit by the shared beliefs of which Jefferson spoke. It is in union as well that we will need to lead our representatives back to the path which leads to peace, liberty and safety.

Therefore, several other members of this community and I have decided to use the week leading up to the 218th anniversary of the Constitution of these United States coming into force as the law of our nation to speak to you about the importance of the restoration of the freedom of persons under the protection of the habeas corpus to the law of our shared political creed, and to ask you to join us in calling upon the members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and of the Senate Committee on the Armed Services to refer S 185 and S 576 to the full Senate for immediate deliberation and vote. We do so in the hope and belief that the union of many American people can lead our representatives through our reasoned argument and entreaty to hear the better angels of our nature, and restore this tenet to its rightful place among the essential principles of our government.

I hope you will join us. Please visit our action items on this issue as posted here.