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Tag Archives: Senate Judiciary Committee

Sentencing reform bill moves to Senate Floor

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday passed a bill that would significantly lower mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenses and allow judges to use more discretion when determining sentences for non-violent drug offenses. The committee also voted to add ...

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Senate committee reviews proposals

The airing of concerns is underway on proposed changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, designed to reduce costs and delays. Among the biggest concern witnesses testified about during a congressional hearing Tuesday had to do with proportionality, a ...

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Senators bicker over state stand your ground laws

WASHINGTON — Trayvon Martin’s mother told a panel of senators Tuesday that state stand your ground self-defense laws do not work and must be amended, reviving the politically charged gun control issue. Democrats who hold majority power in the Senate ...

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Senate hears call for federal sentencing reform

Growing federal prison populations and related costs are not sustainable, according to the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, who Wednesday called on his committee to work together to reform the system. “Fiscal responsibility demands it,” Sen. Patrick ...

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Senate committee OKs 3 judicial nominees

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved three of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees, including one for an influential appeals court, for a full Senate vote. Senators voted 18-0 to move forward with nomination of Sri Srinivasan to ...

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Senators look at antitrust enforcement

Preserving competition is in the best interest of consumers, senators agree, but they question how antitrust laws are enforced. “Vigilant antitrust enforcement means more money in the pockets of American consumers,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the Judiciary ...

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Holder promises more openness on nat’l security

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder promised the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the Obama administration will share more information with Congress and the American people about national security policies, particularly the government’s use of drone strikes. Holder’s comments ...

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Senators clash over need to ban assault weapons

WASHINGTON — Recent mass shootings like the massacre of first-graders and staffers at a Connecticut elementary school and the increasing deadliness of assault weapons makes a ban on those firearms more urgent than ever, the Senate author of a proposal ...

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Panel splits in advancing Cuomo court nominee

ALBANY — The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced the nomination of a New York City law professor to the state’s highest court, but only after many Republican senators faulted Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s choice for limited experience as a trial ...

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