The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/policy-politics/page/2/)
While Sen. Jeff Flake cannot single-handedly block all votes on judicial nominees with his demand for a law protecting the Russia probe special counsel, he only needs one Republican defector to likely get his way.
Even with President Trump now on board in a bipartisan push to overhaul federal prison and sentencing laws, proponents face a number of remaining hurdles to pass the legislation before a new divided Congress convenes in January.
After a critical meeting on Tuesday, conflicting reports emerge over whether President Trump will firmly back a more ambitious federal sentencing bill in the Senate instead of just the House version focused on prisoner re-entry reforms.
In advance of Thursday’s opening of the annual convention of the Federalist Society, more than a dozen prominent conservative lawyers have joined together to urge their fellow conservatives to speak up about what they say are the Trump administration’s actions and rhetoric undermining the rule of law.
Voters besieged with scary events and frightening rhetoric mostly swung in the opposite direction at the ballot box last week. That’s expanded an encouraging bipartisan reform climate for newly elected, or re-elected, governors, DAs and legislators—if they’re willing to take heed, says a leading justice commentator.
The victories of reform-minded prosecutors like John Creuzot in Dallas County last week could signal a “sea change” in public support for reductions in mass incarceration and the easing of sentencing guidelines, advocates and experts tell TCR.
For decades, the prosecutorial profession has sorely lacked diversity. This year’s midterm elections demonstrated how decisively that has changed.
President Trump reportedly believes that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has patiently waited his turn after being passed over for Attorney General in 2016.
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is considering running for his old Alabama Senate seat in 2020. Sessions was fired as attorney general Wednesday. After he left the Senate in 2017, his seat was won by Democrat Doug Jones. Jones is up for a full term in 2020, and may be the most vulnerable incumbent senator facing reelection.
The measure was among numerous criminal justice-related initiatives on gun control, police training and marijuana approved by voters Tuesday. One big standout: Ohioans rejected an amendment to keep low-level drug offenders out of prison.