Ashley Brooke Moody in the 119th Congress. Mrs. MOODY. Mr. President, today is Constitution Day. Two hundred thirty nine years ago, our Founders signed the Constitution of this United States. Every Senator in this room has
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Mrs. MOODY. Mr. President, today is Constitution Day. Two hundred thirty nine years ago, our Founders signed the Constitution of this United States. Every Senator in this room has taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And every one of us swore that oath. I did it at the same time as Senator Husted, who is on the floor today.
Our Founders understood the danger of concentrated power; they had just fought a revolution against it. And they understood something about human nature: Power will always want more power.
So they put limits on it. They divided power among three branches. They built in checks and balances. They preserved the authority of the States. And with the Bill of Rights, they made one thing unmistakably clear: There are some places government simply cannot go. Government cannot silence you because it doesn't like what you say. Government cannot take away your right to keep and bear arms. It cannot search your home whenever it pleases. It cannot take away your liberty without due process. These aren't suggestions. They are hard limits on government power.
safeguards within our Constitution as obstacles to overcome. You don't like a decision from the Supreme Court? Pack the Court, add Justices until you get the decisions you want. You don't like the laws of the people that are enacted through their representatives? Just have an Executive, a rogue prosecutor, refuse to enforce the people's laws. Don't like what Americans are saying? Pressure private companies to silence them and call it fighting misinformation.
guardrails stand between you and what you want: Simply move the guardrails. And that is dangerous. It is the greatest threat to a constitutional republic.
The greatest threat to a constitutional republic is not disagreement. It is the belief that your cause is so important that the Constitution should get out of your way.
And today we are seeing something even more fundamental: this movement that I referenced to dismantle the institution the Constitution created. Right now, democratic socialists are calling for a far-reaching change to the very foundation of American Government, our Constitution. They want to abolish the Supreme Court, replace the Presidency, abolish the electoral college.
about policy. It becomes an argument about the very foundation of this country, the United States of America. It becomes an attack on the Constitution that we all swore an oath to protect and defend because when you start dismantling institutions designed to keep power in check, the next question has to be: Who keeps power in check then?
separation of power, from all three branches now. I have served as a Federal prosecutor; I have served as an attorney general in the great “Free State of Florida”; I have served as a judge for over a decade; and now I serve on behalf of the people, making their laws in the legislative branch.
must protect them. And that brings me back to our oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
We know what a foreign enemy looks like. But a threat to our constitutional system doesn't have to come from beyond our shores. It can come from within the very institutions the Constitution created. And what happens when those that have sworn the oath to protect and defend the Constitution, what happens when they themselves start advocating to dismantle it?
Constitution, but they are coming out and supporting organizations and policies and advocacies that would attack and dismantle the things that protect people's rights.
An oath means the most when keeping it becomes inconvenient. Just ask the officers, the deputies in my home county of Hillsborough County, who took the oath to protect and serve and went into live fire in order to do their jobs and uphold their oath.
Justice Clarence Thomas recently described the challenge this way:
It is that devotion that we are missing today and that we
must find in our hearts if this Nation is to endure.
independence. The Declaration of Independence announced the promise of America. The Constitution gave us the system to protect it.
Our job is not to move its guardrails when they become inconvenient. Our job is to defend them because our enemies do not have to defeat America on a battlefield if we are willing to tear down from within the institution and principles that have sustained this Nation for 250 years.
one of us took to support the Constitution, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Let's remember our duty and carry it out faithfully.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. HUSTED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 10 minutes, prior to the scheduled rollcall vote, for myself and Senator Heinrich.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.