Activists, lobbyists and citizens this week have been pressing for at least one of six Republican members of the state House Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of sending Pat Steadman’s same-sex civil unions bill to the House floor for debate. On Tuesday, the House Democratic caucus officially joined More…
The coming debate in the Colorado House Judiciary Committee on same-sex civil unions bill SB 172 will center on Republican arguments for and against the legislation. The debate scheduled to take place under the Dome in Denver Thursday will underline the dynamics shaping the larger national debate on gay More…
With the GOP set to take over the House in January, I’ve been trying to pinpoint some immigration proposals — if any exist — that House Republicans, Senate Democrats and President Obama might agree on. Beyond mandating E-Verify and banning “sanctuary cities,” the next session might More…
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) today joined the growing list of lawmakers who said they want Congressional hearings on the 14th Amendment, specifically its provisions for providing citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. — including children of illegal immigrants.
But Gutierrez, an outspoken supporter of immigrants’ rights, has More…
Political reporters in Washington are preparing for a late night at work sifting through the National Archives’ just-released trove of memos and correspondence written by Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. The document release — available for public consumption here — is estimated to encompass about 46,500 pages, dating More…
The Senate just voted 70 – 29 for cloture, meaning the nomination of David Hamilton to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit will receive an up-or-down vote. The vote for cloture was a victory for the Obama administration and Senate Democrats who sought to push the nomination forward, More…
The Washington Post’s story today about liberals who are frustrated that the Obama administration isn’t pressing harder to win confirmation for liberal-leaning judges to the federal courts should also serve as a reminder that there are a whole lot of key Justice Department posts still not confirmed yet, More…
Seven major civil rights and open government organizations today sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees urging them to pass legislation to restrict the government’s ability to use the “state secrets” privilege to dismiss litigation charging government wrongdoing. Although the Obama administration yesterday announced a More…
Eight years after it was passed, the USA Patriot Act remains among the most controversial pieces of counterterrorism legislation in the so-called “war on terror.” On December 31 of this year, some of its more controversial provisions will expire, forcing Congress to revisit it More…
One of the highlights of today’s House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act was Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers’ (D-Mich.) repeated lamentations about the sneaky way that the Patriot Act got passed in the first place, offering an interesting glimpse into the behind-the-scenes workings More…
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