National Security
The Judiciary Committee oversees many of the laws, agencies, and programs that underpin our national security infrastructure. Whether debating the constitutional limits of executive power, examining the application of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or evaluating counterterrorism efforts at the Department of Justice and the FBI, the Committee is working to ensure that the government keeps Americans safe-and does so in a way that respects our civil liberties and reflects our values.
More on National Security
Tonight, in a letter to her senior leadership, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates ordered attorneys at the Department of Justice not to defend legal challenges to President Trump's immigration order-which bans entry into the United States to travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and to refugees from around the world. Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement in response:
More than 160 House Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) today introduced legislation to defund and rescind President Donald Trump's executive order banning travel from Muslim countries and suspending the refugee program.
Today, the New York Times reported on a forthcoming Executive Order on "Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants." The order would permit the CIA "to reopen 'black site' prisons, like those where it detained and tortured terrorism suspects before President Obama shut them down." The order would also reverse President Obama's decision to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all wartime detainees in U.S. custody.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) welcomed four new Democratic Members to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and announced the new subcommittee structure for the 115th Congress.
Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) are new to the committee. Congressman Jamie Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, will serve in a newly created Vice Ranking Member position this Congress.
Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) along with House Judiciary Committee Democrats, joined Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15), the Ranking Member of the CIA Subcommittee of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD-07), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to reintroduce the Protecting Our Democracy Act to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate foreign interference in the 2016 election.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) sent a letter today to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) calling for safeguards to be put in place to ensure the investigation into Russian hacking is made a top priority and is completed in a thorough and bipartisan manner throughout the Presidential transition.