#house Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
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The Republican-controlled House Oversight and Accountability Committee has disbanded the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which focused on issues including voting rights, freedom of assembly and criminal justice reform policies.
In a committee meeting on Tuesday, Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said this doesn’t mean topics related to these issues can’t be brought before the committee.
“Let me be very clear: any topic that’s not mentioned in the subcommittee jurisdiction is reserved for the full committee,” Comer said. “We can have a committee hearing in this committee on basically anything we want.”
A spokesperson for the panel told The Hill that “Oversight Republicans are realigning subcommittees to ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies. Going forward, subcommittees will now be better equipped to meet our mission, identify problems, and propose meaningful legislative reforms for the American people.”
But Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is urging the committee to reinstate the subcommittee, saying that the loss of it sends an “unmistakable message to the American people that their civil rights and civil liberties are no longer a priority to the 118th Congress.”
Crockett, a civil rights attorney, said she was appointed to the Oversight Committee on Friday, when she heard the news that the subcommittee had been removed.
In a statement, Crockett called the decision “reckless and cruel.”
“Rather than squandering their authority on investigations of the President’s family, the Chairman and House Republicans should use their authority to conduct oversight and investigate the merciless murders of innocent Americans – mainly Americans who look like me – at the hands of law enforcement,” Crockett said.
“Systemic policing and extremist violence are killing people, devastating our communities, and breaking the hearts of families we took an oath to defend and protect at all costs.”
On Tuesday, Crockett introduced an amendment that would reinstate the subcommittee.
“Especially in a time like this – when across the nation, from small towns to big cities, Americans are crying out against the horrible injustice that was perpetrated against Tyre Nichols and so many others every single day, it is undeniable that the civil rights of the American people are under threat and this committee must do something about it,” Crockett said on Tuesday.
Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has thrown his support behind Crockett’s amendment.
Invoking the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who was chairman of the Oversight Committee before his death in 2019, Raskin said he feels an “obligation to stand in defense of this subcommittee.”
“Mr. Cummings was always adamant that there are two major purposes for the Oversight Committee and one is to make sure that the laws and programs that Congress adopts actually go to the benefit of the people that they’re intended for and not siphoned off in waste and self enrichment and corruption and other forms of fraud and abuse,” Raskin said.
“But the other purpose is to make sure that the government is always respecting the rights and the freedoms and the civil liberties of the people in the conduct of its operations,” he added.
In previous years, Raskin said, the subcommittee was able to address things in a bipartisan manner, including the war on drugs, the treatment of marijuana, governmental seizures and forfeitures that violated the civil liberties, as well as extremist political violence across the country.
It’s unclear why the subcommittee was removed, or if it will be reinstated at any point.
#us politics#news#2023#118th congress#us house of representatives#the hill#House Oversight and Accountability Committee#house Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties#rep. james comer#Rep. Jasmine Crockett#civil rights#voting rights#criminal justice reform#rep. jamie raskin#Elijah Cummings#conservatives#republicans#gop policy#gop platform#gop
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The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee disbanded the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which focused on issues including voting rights and criminal justice reform. Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said these issues may still be addressed with the main committee.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden supports a study on whether descendants of enslaved people in the United States should receive reparations, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday, as the issue was being debated on Capitol Hill.
Psaki told reporters that Biden “continues to demonstrate his commitment to take comprehensive action to address the systemic racism that persists today.”
Reparations have been used in other circumstances to offset large moral and economic debts - paid to Japanese Americans interned during World War Two, to families of Holocaust survivors and to Blacks in post-apartheid South Africa.
But the United States has never made much headway in discussions of whether or how to compensate African Americans for more than 200 years of slavery and help make up for racial inequality.
HR-40, a bill to fund the study of “slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies” has been floated in Congress for more than 30 years, but never taken up for a full vote.
Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced it in January.
Fellow Democratic Representative Steve Cohen, who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, told a hearing on Wednesday it was fitting to consider HR-40 at a time when the country is reckoning with police violence against Blacks and a pandemic that has disproportionately affected African Americans.
Biden told the Washington Post last year that “we must acknowledge that there can be no realization of the American dream without grappling with the original sin of slavery, and the centuries-long campaign of violence, fear, and trauma wrought upon Black people in this country.”
But like nearly all of the Democratic presidential candidates at the time, he did not embrace the idea of specific payments to enslaved people’s descendants, instead promising “major actions to address systemic racism” and further study.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last June following the death in police custody in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an African-American man, found clear divisions along partisan and racial lines, with only one in 10 white respondents supporting the idea and half of Black respondents endorsing it.
Calls have been growing from some politicians, academics and economists for such payments to be made to an estimated 40 million African Americans. Any federal reparations program could cost trillions of dollars, they estimate.
Supporters say such payments would act as acknowledgement of the value of the forced, unpaid labor that supported the economy of Southern U.S. states until the Civil War ended slavery in 1865, the broken promise of land grants after the war and the burden of the century and a half of legal and de facto segregation that followed.
#White House says Biden supports study of slavery reparations#biden#Reparations#Reparations Study#Freedmen#Black Freedmen#Reparations NOW
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In May 2016, DeSantis was chairman of a House national security subcommittee. In that post, he opposed closing Gitmo and transferring the prisoners to other prisons. He also opposed giving them the rights all other prisoners have, such as the right to know the charges against them and a trial. This gives a preview of how he might treat civil liberties as president. When he ran for governor, he ran ads showing him in his Navy uniform and said that he had dealt with terrorists.
All of this history is certain to come out during a presidential campaign. The question is whether it will hurt or help DeSantis. No doubt Democrats will be appalled by it. They will say that the prisoners should have been charged and given a trial. Only if they were found guilty should they have been kept in prison. However, many Republicans may approve of Gitmo and DeSantis' role there including the torture and violation of international law part, saying: "He kept us safe."
Electoral-vote.com
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Mar 13 - I often joke that I survived Washington because I had low expectations, but last week’s hearing of the House Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee would have tested the lowest of my low expectations. The purpose of the subcommittee is to look into the politicization of US government agencies and its effect on our civil liberties. But last week’s inaugural hearing of the committee was not at all a good look for the Democrats, who brought nothing but insults for the witnesses.
Things got off on the wrong foot very quickly, as Democrat committee Members seemed less interested in what witnesses Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger had to say than in attacking the messengers. Ranking Committee Member Stacey E. Plaskett, a Democrat from the Virgin Islands, began by calling Taibbi a “so-called journalist” who poses a “direct threat” to people who disagree with the work he has done on the “Twitter Files.”
Taibbi, who to the likely dismay of the Democrats on the subcommittee is hardly a right-wing Republican, corrected Plaskett’s smear, pointing out to her that, "I'm not a so-called journalist. I've won the National Magazine Award, the I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and I've written 10 books including four New York Times bestsellers." In addition, Taibbi pointed out that most of his journalism career was spent at Rolling Stone Magazine, which is hardly a conservative political outlet.
The Democrat decision to make this hearing a partisan political issue and attack the journalists who brought us the truth about secret US government censorship-by-proxy of Americans who hold views unacceptable to government elites is extremely unfortunate. The Democrat decision to attack honest liberals like Taibbi for bringing us the truth is baffling. Taibbi and Shellenberger and the other journalists involved in exposing government malfeasance in the Twitter Files have done a great service to all Americans concerned about the collusion between government and corporations to silence speech that the government does not like.
Matt Taibbi posted his statement to the subcommittee as another episode in the “Twitter Files” series and it may have been the most disturbing release to date. In this release Taibbi documented what he calls the “Censorship-Industrial Complex.” This is the collusion not only between government and big tech to censor “wrong” views, but also those parts of the so-called “non-governmental” sector that are directly funded by government.
This “NGO” sector, it turns out, has been a key tool in the US government’s efforts to censor Americans who fail to toe the US government line on everything from Covid to Ukraine. The “non-government” organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab, the Alliance for Securing Democracy and dozens more pose as simply good citizens concerned about disinformation while in fact they are mostly or completely funded by the US government to do the US government’s bidding.
Taibbi calls this the “absolute fusion of state, corporate, and civil society organizations,” but there is another word for it: fascism. And that is where we are headed in the United States unless all of us – conservatives, libertarians, liberals, and progressives - wake up and fight for the restoration of the First Amendment. ~Ron Paul
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Melody Barnes (born April 29, 1964) was chosen by then President-elect Barack Obama to serve as the Director of Domestic Policy Council (2008-11). Born in Richmond, Virginia to Charles and Mary Frances Barnes, she obtained her BA from the University of North Carolina, with Honors in History. She earned her JD from the University of Michigan. Barnes is a member of the state bar of New York and the DC Bar Association.
She began her legal career in New York, working at the home office of Shearman and Sterling, LLP, an international law firm. She served as assistant counsel to the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
She served as Director for Legislative Affairs for the Equal Opportunity Commission, she assume the position of chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She was the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, she served stints as a principal and lobbyist at the Raban Group. She has served as a board member for several organizations, including Emily’s List, The Constitution Project, and the Maya Angelou Public Charter School.
She was the senior domestic policy advisor to Obama for America. She was a key advisor in shaping the campaign’s education and health care agenda. She was named as one of three agency review co-leaders. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphakappaalpha
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Congressional Subcommittee Calls for Investigation into IRS's Alleged Monitoring of Private Transactions
Concerns Raised Over Potential Violation of Constitutional Rights
A Congressional subcommittee is demanding an investigation into reports suggesting that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may be using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor the private transactions and bank accounts of American citizens. The subcommittee, led by Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., is part of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The allegations have sparked concerns about the potential violation of constitutional rights and the implications of using AI in government surveillance.
Artificial intelligence has become a topic of great interest and excitement, but it is also accompanied by apprehension and caution. The subcommittee's inquiry aims to shed light on the IRS's alleged use of AI to investigate individuals suspected of tax fraud. The investigation was prompted by information provided by an investigative reporter who claims to have received confirmation from an official in the IRS's Criminal Investigation Unit.
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Rep. Hageman Leads Inquiry into IRS's Use of AI
Rep. Harriet Hageman, along with committee chair Jim Jordan, is spearheading the inquiry into the IRS's utilization of AI technology. Hageman is concerned that the IRS's alleged use of AI to access personal banking records and business information may violate constitutional rights, particularly the Fourth Amendment's protection against illegal search and seizure. The subcommittee has written to the Treasury and Justice Departments, urging them to preserve relevant records and materials for the investigation.
Expert Opinion Highlights Uncertainty Surrounding AI
John Pannell, a computer and technology instructor at City College at MSU Billings, believes that while the IRS may not be using AI for malicious purposes, there is still a significant amount of uncertainty surrounding the technology's ability to obtain personal information. Pannell emphasizes the need for caution and vigilance when it comes to privacy and security concerns associated with AI. He points out that some companies are challenging AI providers, questioning their rights to the data used to train AI models.
Constitutional Rights at Stake
Rep. Hageman shares Pannell's concerns about the potential violation of constitutional rights. She firmly believes that regardless of political affiliation, the IRS has no authority to use AI algorithms to access individuals' bank accounts without complying with the Fourth Amendment. Hageman is committed to ensuring that privacy and civil liberties are protected, and that the use of AI by the federal government is subject to strict scrutiny and adherence to constitutional principles.
The allegations of the IRS's use of AI to monitor private transactions and bank accounts have sparked a congressional investigation led by Rep. Harriet Hageman. The subcommittee is determined to uncover the truth and assess whether constitutional rights have been violated. While experts like John Pannell express confidence that the IRS is not engaging in nefarious activities, they stress the importance of addressing privacy and security concerns associated with AI.
As the world delves into the frontier of artificial intelligence, it is crucial to strike a balance between technological advancements and safeguarding individual rights.
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After the 9/11 attacks, civil liberties advocates warned that the government would use the crisis as an excuse to spy on Americans in ways unthinkable previously. The unprecedented intrusions by domestic anti-terrorist law enforcement agencies proved that fear right.
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What do you suppose happened after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021?
It appears that parts of the government used the Capitol riot to surveil people based on their political leanings. That's a revelation contained in a letter from the Treasury Department to South Carolina GOP Senator Tim Scott. Scott, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, requesting more information on a surveillance program uncovered by the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government investigation.
That surveillance program used search terms like "MAGA" and "Trump" as well as "Biden," "antifa," "Schumer," and "Pelosi." Scott noted that "Exchange events" convened by its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, "began shortly after January 6 under the prior Administration," and included the political search terms
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Congresswoman Nancy Mace Brags About Serving on Committee She Tried to Dismantle
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), in a recent hearing by the House Oversight Committee on whether to hold Hunter Biden in contempt, accused the president's son of having "white privilege." In response, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) blasted Mace by saying: “It was a spit in the face, at least of mine as a Black woman, for you to talk about what white privilege looks like.” Perturbed, Mace responded how she proudly served on the Civil Rights Subcommittee and how she represents a diverse district, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) had a simple fact-check for her.
“It was a very beautiful speech by the gentlelady who, as she mentioned, helped lead the now-majority side of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee. But I think it’s so exemplary of the point that she also oversaw the elimination of the Civil Rights Subcommittee.”
Here is the clip of the exchange:
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DISCRIMINATION AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF
THE MUSLIM, ARAB, AND SOUTH ASIAN
AMERICAN COMMUNITIES
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS,
AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
Washington, DC
"March 1st 2022, To my knowledge, today’s hearing is the first congressional hearing exclusively focused on the pervasive discrimination facing the
Muslim, Arab, and South Asian American communities. It is the
first time since 1986 the House Judiciary has had a hearing focused on any component of that community"
"Finally, we cannot hold this hearing today without examining
issues of discrimination as part of a broader context of persistent
White supremacist violence and extremism in the United States, a
a trend that has taken on a recent and disturbing revival. The recent
rise in hate crimes across the country has had a significant impact
on the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian community, just as it has
had on other minority communities."
"From the violence against mosques to the shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to the vandalization of Hindu temples, hate crimes and hate incidents continue to significantly target these communities."
"For example, according to the Justice Department’s 2020 hate
crime statistics, there were 87 anti-Arab offenses, 131 anti-Muslim
offenses, 94 anti-Sikh offenses, and 11 anti-Hindu offenses. We also
know that all these statistics are significantly underreported and
that they do not include hate incidents that fall short of the legal
definition of hate crime."
"For example, children from these communities are often subject
to bullying, a reflection of the interpersonal prejudices they face.
The Sikh Coalition has reported that 67 percent of Sikh kids who
have a turban have been bullied."
"The conversation we are having today is long overdue. It appears
that the most recent congressional hearing solely focused on issues
impacting any part of the Muslim, Arab, or South Asian American
communities was held in 1986 in the Crime Subcommittee. It is
long past time to shine a light on the needs of these communities
once again."
Unfortunately, when talking about Asian discrimination, often only East Asians are mentioned and represented, which is why I decided to include this hearing from March 1st, 2022, and pick out some of the quotes that I felt were important.
Some other things that weren't mentioned are just how underrepresented these groups are; just last year, during my Senior year, I was talking about how my orchestra had a lot of Asians, not just East Asians. I had mentioned how there were also South Asians and Indians, and the person I was talking to looked at me with this confused look and said: "Indians aren't Asian." He had no idea, and it reminded me how little South Asians are talked about, let alone East Asians. In conversations of Asian discrimination, you'll rarely hear about South Asians, and a lot of the time, they are almost erased from these conversations, which has also led to a lot of people wondering: "Am I not Asian enough?" This is due to East Asian countries being recognized as Asian but not South Asian countries and East Asia being loved and celebrated (and fetishized). At the same time, South Asia is continuously ignored, mocked, and laughed at.
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Arming the governing body to hold the first hearing on the US Department of Justice's alleged assault on American civil rights
The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will hold its first hearing Thursday to hear from senior lawmakers, FBI officials and legal experts on how the Justice Department has allegedly attacked American civil liberties.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, created and chairs the subcommittee. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 12:00…
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Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Wednesday he was in favor of paying slavery reparations to African Americans and Native Americans if studies found direct cash payments to be a viable option.
Critics have questioned Biden on his refusal to commit to paying reparations, which proponents say would serve as monetary compensation for the actions of white slave owners. Monies paid would also help to bridge the wealth gap between African Americans and white people. While some have suggested paying cash directly to the descendants of African slaves, Biden said he would need to look at studies concerning the idea first.
"If, in fact, there are ways to get direct payments for reparations, I want to see it," Biden said Thursday during a virtual town hall meeting hosted on social media by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). "But why are we waiting around for the study? We can deal with this stuff."
After acknowledging that his plans for educational and housing reform were not "mutually exclusive" to the concept of paying slavery reparations, Biden said "I can't believe that, whatever it is, the African American community would not support what I'm talking about in addition to fair reparations."
Biden demurred on specifically stating he was in support of reparations, saying the answer "would depend on what it was and will it include Native Americans as well."
Newsweek reached out to the National Urban League for comment. This story will be updated with any response.
Paying reparations has been a controversial topic in Washington. In 2019, a hearing on the topic was held by the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Although a bill was proposed to form a commission to study the feasibility of reparations, no action has been taken on the bill since 2019.
Co-sponsor of the bill New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said in a 2019 statement that addressing the "institutional racism and white supremacy" against African-Americans could not happen "without first fully documenting the extent of the harms of slavery and its painful legacy.'
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell disagreed with the idea, saying in 2019 that "it'd be pretty hard to figure out who to compensate."
"I don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea," McConnell told reporters.
#Joe Biden Wants to See Studies About Feasibility of Slavery Reparations#Reparations#Black Freedmen#Freedmen
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The Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties focused on several issues including voting rights and criminal justice reform.
Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky) said on Tuesday that even though the subcommittee is disbanded, topics related to those issues can still be brought before the committee.
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