Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
No one should face discrimination, including at the voting booth, or violence because of who they are. Congress plays a critical role in prohibiting discrimination, ensuring equal access to the ballot, and ensuring that if discrimination or voter disenfranchisement does occur, people have avenues for recourse and access to resources. In the 116th Congress, the Judiciary Committee passed several pieces of legislation to protect communities that have historically faced discrimination, including the first bill ever to pass the Committee and the House to provide explicit comprehensive non-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community; legislation to restore key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and to bolster its guarantee against voting discrimination by states and localities on the basis of race, color, or language-minority status; legislation to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on natural hair styles and texture; and comprehensive policing reform legislation.
The Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties also held hearings on numerous topics relating to civil rights and civil liberties, including on the history and continued impact of slavery and racial discrimination in America, LGBTQ discrimination, barriers to voting and the need to restore the Voting Rights Act, and ensuring the right to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 117th Congress, the Committee will continue to build on these accomplishments in order to protect the civil rights of communities that have historically faced discrimination, ensure the right to vote, and reform policing.
More on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Today, a bipartisan group of ten members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee-including Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), and former Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), wrote to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to memorialize the Director's commitment to provide a detailed look at how the government's phone and email surveillance affects United States citizens. The intelligence community has promised to provide a public estimate of that impact "early enough to inform the debate" on surveillance reform in the next Congress, with a target date of January 2017.
During its final session of the 114th Congress, the Senate passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S.2854/H.R.5067). In the Senate, the bill was led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO). In the House, original sponsors were Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). The bill now heads to the President to be signed into law.
BACKGROUND
Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) joined Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G.
Mr. Speaker, in June of 2007, this body passed and the President subsequently signed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act. Since that time, the Department of Justice and cold case advocates have reviewed hundreds of cases in a search for justice and a sense of closure for the families of those who fell victim to racial violence in one of the most tumultuous periods of this nation's history.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 2854/ H.R. 5067, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act. The Till bill's primary purpose is to provide federal resources to local jurisdictions in the resolution of civil rights era cold cases. This reauthorization represents a recommitment to the original goals of the bill as well as the strengthening and clarification of the law, as called for by interested civil rights groups and families.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, issued the following statement today regarding President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Marine Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security:
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. joined Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel, Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff sent a letter today to President Obama asking for Administration officials to brief all Members of Congress on Russian efforts to influence or interfere in the recent federal election.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, issued the following statement today regarding President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Marine Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security:
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. joined Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel, Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff sent a letter today to President Obama asking for Administration officials to brief all Members of Congress on Russian efforts to influence or interfere in the recent federal election.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. joined Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel, Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff sent a letter today to President Obama asking for Administration officials to brief all Members of Congress on Russian efforts to influence or interfere in the recent federal election.