1] I understand that @RandPaul is trying to marshal the spirit of the Sixth Amendment but the Confrontation Clause is just so narrow that this analogy really doesn't make sense.
2] The 6th Amendment's confrontation clause provides in "all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right... to be confronted with the witnesses against him." U.S. Const. amend. VI. Thru 14th Amendment, it applies with equal force to state criminal prosecutions.
3] However, it only applies in certain situations, and there are many criminal proceedings in which it does not apply at all. It does not apply at sentencing hearings, supervised release proceedings, or pretrial hearings.
4] If a statement's primary purpose is "not to create a record for trial," then the Clause does not apply. Nor does it apply to out-of-court statements offered for a purpose other than establishing the truth of the matter asserted. In other words, it doesn't apply to nonhearsay.
5] If @RandPaul was trying to say: "We have a tradition of confronting witnesses in this country," then I get where he's going. But that confrontation clause tradition itself is so narrowly applied in the law that it's hard to say it expands to a universal norm.
