(DETROIT) – Last Thursday, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers ruled not to validate the petitions placing a referendum on Michigan’s emergency manager law on the ballot. In a split 2-2 decision, The Board did not validate the petitions after a group opposed to the referendum argued that text of the petition was not printed in the required 14 point font size, despite an affidavit submitted by t... Read more »
Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on “The Department of Justice’s Guidance on Access to Pools and Spas Under the ADA.” The purpose of the hearing was to examine the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (“ADA”) more than 20 year old mandate for businesses to take “readily achievable” steps to increase access for people with disabili... Read more »
Today, at a Congressional Summit on Overturning Citizens United, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) pledged to work towards passing a constitutional amendment to expressly permit Congress the power to regulate corporate spending in federal elections. The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United v. FEC equated corporate campaign donations with free speech, over... Read more »
Today, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on “Voting Wrongs: Oversight of the Justice Department’s Voting Rights Enforcement.” The purpose of the hearing was to examine the Justice Department’s recent handling of voting rights matters, including the Department’s decision to challenge certain state’s restrictive voter identification laws. House Judiciary... Read more »
Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights at a hearing entitled “Ending Racial Profiling in America.” He spoke to the need for Congress to enact his legislation to end racial profiling by law enforcement and the importance of community based policing as means to ... Read more »
(DETROIT) – Today, Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the following statement in response to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s new proposed consent agreement between the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit. Last week, Representatives Conyers, Hansen Clarke, and Gary Peters sent a letter to Governor Snyder requesting his administration to explain its position and to provide doc... Read more »
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 na... Read more »
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 exceptio... Read more »
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 an... Read more »
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... Read more »
