Media Center

Today, Democratic Members of the House Judiciary Committee led by Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder encouraging the Department of Justice to review the shooting of Trayvon Martin under a federal hate crimes statute. Under federal law, it is a crime to willfully cause bodily injury because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person. Mr.

Today, the House of Representatives passed by voice vote H.R. 4086, the "Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act." The bill is a necessary legislative fix in the wake of the decision in Malewicz v. City of Amsterdam, in which U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia broadened the scope of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) expropriation exception to the point where it undermined exchange between American historical and cultural institutions and their foreign counterparts. H.R.

Today at a Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security hearing on the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services Office, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr (D-Mich) called on the Congress to fund the COPS Program for Fiscal Year 2013 at the level requested by President Obama. The COPS Program has funded the hiring of more than 123,000 state and local police officers and sheriff's deputies in communities across America since its enactment under the Clinton Administration.

Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Representative Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.), Representative Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Representative Shelia Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Representative Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), and Representative Judy Chu (D-Calif.) introduced H.R.

Today the House Judiciary Committee passed by unanimous voice vote, H.R. 4086, "Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act." The bill immunizes foreign states from lawsuits that seek damages for artwork that is already immune from seizure pursuant to a presidential determination when the work is in the U.S. for temporary exhibition. H.R. 4086 makes Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) consistent with the aims of the Immunity From Seizure Act (IFSA).

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued a report finding that Michigan's emergency manager's law was unconstitutional, that the emergency managers were not working and had engaged in mismanagement and abuse, and that included a series of recommendations to remedy the legal issues created by the law and to address the underlying causes for the law's existence.

Today the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on "Executive Overreach: The President's Unprecedented 'Recess' Appointments". The hearing's purpose is to examine President Obama's recent recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and 3 members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).