One year ago today, eight members of the U.S. Senate – Senators Schumer, Durbin, McCain, Rubio, Bennet, Menendez, Flake and Graham – introduced S. 744, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” This comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. immigration system would bring millions of undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, strengthen American businesses, families,... Read more »
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 convic... Read more »
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 administrat... Read more »
(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 contribu... Read more »
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... Read more »
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 ... Read more »
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 L... Read more »
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: "Over the past several decades, the number of federal crimes has grow... Read more »
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. Additionally, leading fo... Read more »
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives considered and passed H.R. 2804, the “All Economic Regulations are Transparent (ALERT) Act of 2014.” Following passage of the legislation, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement: “I am increasingly disheartened as my Republican colleagues brought yet another ideologically driven, anti-regul... Read more »
