Press Releases

Today, U.S. House Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) reintroduced the "Democracy Restoration Act of 2014." This legislation would reinstate the right to vote in federal elections for millions of Americans with a past conviction who are currently out of prison. In the United States today, there are more than 5.8 million individuals who are ineligible to vote due to a felony conviction, yet nearly 4 million of those citizens are no longer in prison and almost 3 million disenfranchised individuals have completed their entire sentence.

Today, Representative John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representative Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led an 82 member letter to President Barack Obama urging him to renew enforcement of the ban on imported military-style firearms that was previously enforced during the H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. Enforcing this ban would serve the dual purpose of improving public safety in the U.S.

(ANN ARBOR) – Today, in a 5-4 ruling, the United States Supreme Court ruled in McCutcheon v. FEC that the aggregate limits imposed on campaign contributions through the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 are invalid under the First Amendment. Since significant First Amendment interests were at stake in this case, the Court held that the aggregate limits imposed by Congress on campaign contributions do not further the permissible government interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption or the appearance of corruption. After the ruling, today Congressman John Conyers, Jr.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-Va.) issued the joint statement below following President Obama's proposal to end the bulk telephone data collection program operated under the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) and reform other aspects of our nation's intelligence gathering programs.

Today, media outlets reported that the White House would propose legislation that would allow the NSA to obtain individual phone records only with the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This morning, the leadership of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence introduced legislation to end bulk collection but allows the government to continue to seize phone records without individualized judicial approval. Although neither proposal goes as far as the USA FREEDOM Act - introduced by Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), John Conyers, Jr.

Today, the House of Representatives debated H.R. 4138 the, "Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enforcements of the Law (ENFORCE) Act." This floor debate comes on the heels of the House Judiciary Committee having held a full committee markup on the legislation and a hearing a week prior entitled, "Enforcing the president's Constitutional Duty to Faithfully Execute the Laws." This legislation is a faulty solution in search of imaginary problems, and has no hope of being considered in the Senate, let alone becoming law.

Today, the Over-Criminalization Task Force, a bipartisan working group convened by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to consider reforms to the criminal justice system, held a hearing entitled "Criminal Code Reform." After delivering his opening remarks, Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement:

Today, President Obama announced a new initiative called "My Brother's Keeper" to address poverty, violence and incarceration rates among young men of color. Specifically, the Obama Administration will create a new presidential task force, the "My Brother's Keeper Task Force," that will assess which federal policies are aiding young men of color and which are failing them.