Brett Kavanaugh Senate Confirmation Hearings For U.S. Supreme Court
Sept. 5, 2018
Senator Graham: So when somebody says, post-9/11, that we've been at war, and it's called the "war on terrorism," do you generally agree with that concept?
Judge Kavanaugh: I do, Senator, because Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which is still in effect, and that was passed of course on Sept. 14, 2001, three days later.
Graham: Let's talk about the law in war. Is there a body of law called the Law of Armed Conflict?
Kavanaugh: There is such a body, Senator.
Graham: Is there a body of law that's called Basic Criminal Law?
Kavanaugh: Yes, Senator.
Graham: Are there differences between those two bodies of law?
Kavanaugh: Yes, Senator.
Graham: From an American citizen's point of view, do your constitutional rights follow you? If you’re in Paris, does the 4th Amendment protect you as an American from your own government?
Kavanaugh: From your own government, yes.
Graham: So, if you're in Afghanistan, do your constitutional rights protect you against your own government?
Kavanaugh: If you're an American in Afghanistan, you have constitutional rights as against the U.S. government. That's long-settled law.
Graham: Isn’t there also long-settled law that goes back to an Eisentrater case, I can't remember the name of it –
Kavanaugh: Yeah, Johnson vs. Eisentrager.
Graham: – Right, that American citizens who collaborate with the enemy are considered enemy combatants?
Kavanaugh: They can be. Ah, they can be. They're often, they're sometimes criminally prosecuted, sometimes treated in the military system –
Graham: Well, let's talk about "can be." I think the –
Kavanaugh: Under Supreme Court precedent.
Graham: Right. There’s a Supreme Court decision that said that American citizens who collaborated with Nazi saboteurs were tried by the military, is that correct?
Kavanaugh: That is correct.
Graham: I think a couple of 'em were executed?
Kavanaugh: Yeah.
Graham: So, if anybody doubts there is a long-standing history in this country that your constitutional rights follow you wherever you go, but you don’t have a constitutional right to turn on your own government, collaborate with an enemy of the nation. You'll be treated differently. What’s the name of the case, if you can recall, that reaffirmed the concept that you could hold one of our own as an enemy combatant if they were engaged in terrorist activities in Afghanistan? Are you familiar with that case?
Kavanaugh: Yeah. Hamdi.
Graham: OK. So, the bottom line is on every American citizen, though you have Constitutional rights, you do not have a Constitutional right to collaborate with the enemy. There is a body of law well developed long before 9\11 that understood the difference between basic criminal law and the law of Armed Conflict. Do you understand those differences?
Kavanaugh: I do understand that they are different bodies of law, of course, Senator.
Brett Kavanaugh Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court
https://youtu.be/mIaSR4OIcwg?t=9149