Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the following statement in advance of the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which falls on tomorrow January 21. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case wiped out a century of legal precedent, granting corporations the same free ... Read more »
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the detention center located at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. On January 11, 2002, the Bush administration transported twenty detainees to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, the first of 775 detainees that have been housed at the facility over the past ten years. A decade after its creation, 171 detainees remain housed at the facility, 89 of whom have been... Read more »
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a consolidated case involving recent changes to Texas’ congressional district map. According to the 2010 census, Texas gained more than 4 million new residents with much of the growth occurring in the state’s African American and Latino population. Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), Texas must seek preclearance from the Department ... Read more »
Yesterday, the Obama administration announced a common sense proposal to fix a bureaucratic snag in our immigration system that often results in the prolonged separation of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens from their children and spouses. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the following statement in response to the announcement: “I applaud the annou... Read more »
Today, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act.” The bill protects American jobs by modernizing criminal and civil statutes to meet new intellectual property enforcement challenges presented by the proliferation of websites dedicated to intellectual property theft and fraud. Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) made the following statement after... Read more »
Today, the House of Representatives approved a Senate amendment to H.R. 1059, a bill authored by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.). H.R. 1059, as amended, extends by six years the authority of the Judicial Conference of the United States to redact personal and sensitive information from financial disclosure reports filed by judges and judicial branch employees, s... Read more »
Rep. John Conyers, Jr. today commended President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for initiating the Nation’s first-ever National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. By Executive Order, the President has formally directed that the Plan be implemented, which is the product of more than a decade of international dialogue. In announcing the Plan during remarks made at... Read more »
Today, the House Judiciary Committee is considering H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA), a bill to combat online intellectual property theft and protect American jobs and consumers. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the following statement. “Prior to the bill’s passage, I am urging the Committee to adopt Mr. Smith’s manager’s amendment. The am... Read more »
Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) produced additional documents requested by the House Judiciary Committee through a subpoena issued by the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) made the following statement in response: “This committee has a legitimate oversight role with regard to DHS’s enforcement actions, and I agree that i... Read more »
Today, the House Judiciary Committee held an oversight hearing on the United States Department of Justice at which U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testified. The Majority focused most of their questioning on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) tactics during Operation Fast and Furious, a local operation planned by agents and prosecutors in Arizona. Operation Fast and F... Read more »
