Tim Kaine vice presidential campaign, 2016/Constitution
Ballotpedia's scope changes periodically, and this article type is no longer actively created or maintained. It may also contain neutrality issues.
This page was current as of the 2016 election.
See what Tim Kaine and the 2016 Democratic Party Platform said about Constitution rights below.
Kaine on Constitutional rights
- Introducing Tim Kaine as her 2016 running mate, Hillary Clinton told a crowd in Miami, Florida, "During law school, when his fellow classmates were taking internships at prestigious law firms, he took time off to work with missionaries in Honduras. And after he graduated from Harvard Law School, he could have done anything, but instead he chose to become a civil rights lawyer. One of his first cases was a pro bono case representing a woman who was denied an apartment because she was African American. So while Tim was taking on housing discrimination and homelessness, Donald Trump was denying apartments to people who were African American."[1]
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
- During an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe on June 15, 2016, Kaine told Mike Barnicle, "You guys are big believers in the First Amendment. You're journalists. But you can't just casually libel and slander people without there being a consequence. Every right in the Constitution is subject to some reasonable rules and regulation."[2]
- Kaine co-sponsored the Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act of 2014 in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision. The bill's co-sponsors said the justices misconstrued Congress' intent in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. "The Hobby Lobby case held that certain companies could deny women contraceptive coverage for religious reasons while also citing that religious objections could not be used to bar coverage for other conditions," Kaine said in a statement. "Contraception is an important preventive health service which has been constitutionally protected since the 1960s, but the Court has now made it fair game for corporate interference. This legislation will protect women's health choices.”[3]
Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
- During the vice presidential debate on October 4, 2016, moderator Elaine Quijano asked Kaine to respond to a question about law enforcement and race relations. In his answer, Kaine also addressed gun ownership and gun control. He said, "I'm a gun-owner. I'm a strong Second Amendment supporter. But I've got a lot of scar tissue, because when I was governor of Virginia, there was a horrible shooting at Virginia Tech, and we learned that through that painful situation that gaps in the background record check system should have been closed and it could have prevented that crime, and so we're going to work to do things like close background record checks. And if we do, we won't have the tragedies that we did."[4]
- Kaine supported and joined the sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on June 22, 2016, aimed at forcing a vote on gun control measures. Kaine described the second morning of the sit-in on CNN: "It was pretty amazing. They had shut the cameras off. They had shut the microphones off. And we were sitting in." Kaine also said, "It was a real team-building exercise. We felt the same way when we did the filibuster in the Senate last week. We went on the floor to say it’s time for meaningful reform because we cared about the issue, but what we found was being on the floor together made us feel stronger, made us feel like we were doing what our constituents want us to do and made us feel like we were inching closer to the day when we break the grip of gun manufacturers on Congress and embrace reasonable safety reforms."[5]
- On June 15, 2016, during a filibuster on the Senate floor that lasted more than 15 hours, Kaine pushed for legislative action to combat gun violence. Reflecting on how Virginia has been affected by gun violence, Kaine said, “We’ve got scar tissue in my Commonwealth, we’ve got scar tissue in this country and we’ve got scar tissue personally. And after every one of these instances, we resolve to be better, we resolve to do more. Yet why do we continue to be passive?” He continued, “In this body we don’t have to be heroes, we just have to not be bystanders. That is all we have to do, stop being bystanders and cast a vote.”[6]
- Kaine expressed support for a "comprehensive approach to curbing gun violence, including the expansion of mental health services, background record checks prior to gun purchases and responsible limits on combat-style weapons and high-capacity magazines."[6]
- Discussing gun safety measures and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in an interview on MSNBC on June 15, 2016, Kaine said, "[T]his is all about lack of backbone. I live in the state where the NRA has its headquarters. And every time I run they give me an F and they spend millions of dollars and they campaign against me. I've never lost a race. I could lose the next one. But if they were that strong, I would have lost one already. You've got to stand up and say the Second Amendment is like the First Amendment. You guys are big believers in the First Amendment. You're journalists. But you can't just casually libel and slander people without there being a consequence. Every right in the Constitution is subject to some reasonable rules and regulation. Most of gun owners in this country, most NRA members support background record checks, and so we need to do that so we can keep guns out of the hands of people who are going to use them to produce carnage either on others or on themselves."[7]
- Read what the 2016 presidential candidates and other vice presidential candidates said about Constitutional rights.
| The 2016 Democratic Party Platform on Constitutional rights | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
| The 2016 Democratic Party Platform on guaranteeing LGBTQ rights | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
| The 2016 Democratic Party Platform on gun control | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Tim Kaine Constitution Rights. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign website, "Remarks at an Event with Tim Kaine in Miami, Florida," July 26, 2016
- ↑ Media Matters, "Sen. Tim Kaine Debunks Media Myth Of NRA's Power To Oust Progressive Politicians," June 15, 2016
- ↑ Daily Press, "UPDATE: After Hobby Lobby Kaine, Warner back RFRA changes," July 10, 2014
- ↑ The Washington Post, "The Mike Pence vs. Tim Kaine vice-presidential debate transcript, annotated," October 5, 2016
- ↑ Vienna Patch, "Gun Control Sit-In: Virginia's Democratic House, Senate Members Support Protest," June 23, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Tim Kaine United States Senator for Virginia, "Press Release: Kaine During Filibuster: We have to Stop Being Bystanders to the Carnage of Gun Violence," June 16,2016
- ↑ Media Matters, "Sen. Tim Kaine Debunks Media Myth Of NRA's Power To Oust Progressive Politicians," June 15, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Democratic Party, "The 2016 Democratic Party Platform," accessed August 25, 2016
- ↑ Democratic Party, "The 2016 Democratic Party Platform," accessed August 25, 2016
- ↑ Democratic Party, "The 2016 Democratic Party Platform," accessed August 25, 2016
