"What we're doing here is that Democrats are blocking Republicans from offering amendments," said Mr. McConnell, head of the Senate Republicans' campaign committee, who maintains that the legislation would infringe on the Constitution's free-speech protections.

Mr. Bush also worries that this legislation infringes on free speech rights.

They said the legislation, which was based on a no-fault system that would eliminate most litigation, would have infringed on people's right to compensation for pain and suffering.

The rifle association mailed as many as three letters alerting each of its 2.8 million members that legislation proposing a seven-day waiting period for buying a pistol would seriously infringe on their right to bear arms.

In his public statements, Mr. McConnell argues that current campaign-finance legislation would infringe on free speech protections of the First Amendment.

However, fears that by legislating against acts such as treason, subversion, secession and sedition, the legislation would infringe human rights by adopting the mainland's concept of "national security" into the HKSAR.

Some people, for example, are worried that any such legislation could infringe on a woman's right to have an abortion, which has been established by Indian law since 1971.

However, there were concerns that the legislation would infringe human rights by introducing the mainland's concept of "national security" into the HKSAR.

Critics charge that the legislation permitting detention without trial infringes on rights that are protected by the country's Constitution.

Too often international legislation on intellectual property rights infringes the priority of the rights to health and life of millions of people, to the benefit of the profits of the multinational pharmaceutical groups.