Larry Craig’s Best Friend: The US Constitution

by merrie | September 8, 2007 at 11:51 pm

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The arrest of Sen. Larry Craig (R) in a Minneapolis airport men's room
and subsequent guilty plea to disorderly conduct could have been
easily averted if he had studied the United States Constitution. It
states in a straightforward and unambiguous manner, in Article 1,
Section 6 that “Senators and Representatives shall.be privileged from
arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective
Houses, and in going to and returning from the same.” The only exceptions are for treason, felony and breach of peace. Disorderly conduct is a misdemeanor. Since the Senator was on his way to Washington, and did cast a
vote later that evening after his arrest, his arrest and
subsequent questioning were, technically were speaking, unconstitutional.
So the question becomes, how is it that we elect officials to represent our rights in Congress, who apparently have no knowledge of the law of the land. That illustrates the fact that if you don't know your rights, you don't have any.

As word comes of Sen. Larry Craig’s reconsideration of his announced resignation from the U.S. Senate, it turns out that his best ally in getting rid of his guilty plea for his conduct in a Minneapolis airport restroom may be the United States Constitution.

If the senator had been a better student of the U.S. Constitution, his arrest may never happened at all, and if the U.S. Constitution is followed, as of course it should be, the senator’s arrest and guilty plea will have to be vacated.