Opening Statement

Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
In Support of Conyers Amendment to H.R. 4138, the
“ENFORCE the Law Act of 2014"

    My amendment would exclude actions to combat discrimination and protect civil rights enforcement from the scope of the bill.  The last thing we should want to do as a Congress is to pass  legislation that makes it more difficult to protect our citizen's civil rights, by executive action or otherwise.  Yet if H.R. 4138 had been law, several of the most critical civil rights milestones our nation has experienced would have been subject to unnecessary congressional challenge in the courts.

    In 1863, President Lincoln issued perhaps the most important executive order in our nation's history – the Emancipation Proclamation.  By this order, Lincoln freed the slaves in those Southern states that were engaged in military conflict with the Union.  By doing so, Lincoln not only encouraged slaves to take up arms in fighting the Civil War for the Union, he struck a blow for freedom that resonated around the world.  By issuing the order, however, President Lincoln made a decision to not enforce then existing laws protecting the institution of slavery, including the federal Fugitive Slave Act.  

    Clearly, history has shown Lincoln's decision to be not only a legal and military turning point, but morally correct.  And clearly, had the so-called "ENFORCE Act" been law, the Emancipation Proclamation could have been subject to an unnecessary and unhelpful legal challenge in the courts from the Congress.

    Another example is President Truman’s Executive Order 9981 issued in 1948 that desegregated the U.S. Military.  With more than 125,000 African Americans serving overseas in World War II, this was a worthwhile and appropriate action by the president.  Nevertheless, by issuing this order, Truman contravened the then military policy of segregating certain African American military units form White units.

    Again, had this bill been law, it would have permitted an unnecessary congressional legal challenge in the courts.  And such a challenge would not have been politically unpopular in many quarters.  Remember that 1948 was the year Strom Thurmond bolted from the Democratic Party to form the Dixiecrats and went on to carry four states and strongly compete in many others in the presidential  election.
 
    I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to consider the unintended consequences of the legislation before us.

    It would not only represent a permanent stain on the principle of separation of powers written by the Founding Fathers into the Constitution, it would make it far more difficult to protect our citizen's civil rights and other constitutional protections.

    Accordingly, I urge a yes vote to protect civil rights.