Mayorkas Stonewalls Ohio’s Request To Help Track Foreign Nationals On Voter Rolls
In his defense, the DHS secretary has been busy enjoying high-end sushi and shopping in fashionable Georgetown boutiques.In his defense, the DHS secretary has been busy enjoying high-end sushi and shopping in fashionable Georgetown boutiques.Ohio Elections Officials Fail To Train Poll Workers On Blocking Foreign Nationals From Voting
In one case, a poll worker tells The Federalist trainers told her she is not the 'ID police' and threatened her job if she pressed the issue.
Gonzales: Garland expanding army of social justice warriors
The Department of Justice might have received $38.7 billion in the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill signed by Biden in December — which is a 10% funding boost overall to the department — but Attorney Merrick Garland believes it’s not enough.
Sitting before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Garland claimed that his department doesn’t “have enough people. We don’t have enough money. We don’t have enough jails. We don’t have enough judges.”
So that’s why crime is rising in major cities in the United States, is it?
Gonzales bit back and said he’s “chomping at the bit to expand his army of social justice warriors ready to knock down your door and prosecute you for — I don’t know — praying outside of a pro-life clinic.”
She went on, “You have the jails, you’re just letting people out. You don’t want to keep them in jail. So that’s fascinating.”
His claim to have a “lack of resources” sounds more like he simply has a lot of excuses.
John Doyle joined Sara on "The News & Why it Matters" to pepper in his thoughts on the matter: “If the state is not protecting you from violence, it is de facto endorsing it, like what’s happening here.”
He then dropped a shocking stat and said that the murder rate in places like El Salvador is “on track to be lower than it is in a lot of our major cities.”
If only Garland knew this.
For now, if he genuinely cares about protecting the American people from violent criminals — and wants more money to do so — perhaps he should ask Biden to stop sending all of ours to Ukraine.
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Biden's DOJ tries again at Supreme Court to block Texas heartbeat law
The Biden administration's Department of Justice said Friday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block Texas from enforcing its fetal heartbeat law while it continues to fight the law in court.
"The Justice Department intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay of the preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8," DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement emailed to reporters.
The announcement follows a decision from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule a lower court injunction blocking Texas' ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the point at which an unborn baby develops a heartbeat, except in the case of a medical emergency. Thanks to the 5th Circuit's decision, the law will remain in effect for now, permitting ordinary citizens to take abortion providers suspected of violating the law to court.
The heartbeat law has garnered significant controversy, with the Biden administration and pro-choice activists arguing it unconstitutionally infringes on a woman's right to seek an abortion.
In what was hailed by pro-life activists as a monumental victory, even if temporary, the Supreme Court last month refused to grant an emergency request to block the Texas law from taking effect in a 5-4 decision. President Joe Biden called the court's decision "an unprecedented assault on a woman's constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade."
Opponents have criticized the law's enforcement mechanism, which allows private individuals to sue abortion providers, abortionists, or anyone who helps a woman access abortion services after six weeks of pregnancy. Biden said that permitting private citizens to enforce the abortion ban with lawsuits "unleashes unconstitutional chaos and empowers self-anointed enforcers to have devastating impacts."
But the unique design of the Texas heartbeat law is precisely what has made it so difficult to challenge in court.
"This kind of scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States is one that all Americans, whatever their politics or party, should fear," Attorney General Merrick Garland said when the Department of Justice sued Texas in September. "If it prevails, it may become a model for action in other areas, by other states, and with respect to other constitutional rights and judicial precedents."
The Biden administration argued in its lawsuit "it is settled constitutional law that 'a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.'"
Biden's challenge to the Texas heartbeat law is not the only significant abortion case that will come before the Supreme Court. In December, the court will hear another case over a Mississippi abortion restriction that directly challenges the premise of the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which established a constitutional right to an abortion.
Gov. DeSantis accuses AG Garland of 'weaponizing the DOJ' against parents
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday accused Attorney General Merrick Garland of "weaponizing" the Department of Justice against parents by directing the FBI to address nationwide alleged threats of violence against school boards and teachers.
"Attorney General Garland is weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them through intimidation," DeSantis tweeted.
"Florida will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent," he said.
Attorney General Garland is weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them throu… https://t.co/dzKa04sCNc
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) 1633446312.0
Garland on Monday issued a memorandum announcing that the DOJ is "committed to using its authority and resources" to investigate alleged threats of violence against school officials. The attorney general directed the FBI and U.S. attorney offices to meet with federal, state, and local law enforcement leaders within 30 days to develop strategies against an alleged "increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation's public schools."
"Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation's core values," Garland said in a statement. "Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety."
The attorney general's directions are a response to a letter the National School Boards Association sent to President Joe Biden declaring school leaders are "under immediate threat." The letter cited several instances of protesters against school mask or vaccine mandates confronting school officials and in some instances engaging in disorderly conduct or making threats against schools.
The letter cited more than 20 examples of disorderly conduct or protests at school board meetings that involved intimidation, threats, or violence, likening these incidents to "domestic terrorism" or "hate crimes."
Critics counter that the acts of violence or threats described are already illegal, and that local law enforcement is capable of handling such crimes, as demonstrated by arrests already made. They, like DeSantis, say that the NSBA's request for federal intervention and Garland's response are meant to intimidate parents and dissuade them from protesting over mask mandates, critical race theory, transgender policies, and more.
DeSantis has continually taken the side of parents in the debates over school mask requirements and other coronavirus restrictions. As governor, he required that schools that implement mask mandates give parents the ability to opt their kids out from face-mask requirements, an order that is being contested in court.
Attorney General Merrick Garland reverses Trump policy, reinstates pause on federal executions
The Biden administration's Department of Justice on Thursday ordered a stop to scheduling further federal executions, reversing a Trump administration policy.
Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum declaring a moratorium on federal executions while the DOJ reviews its policies and procedures.
"The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely," Garland said. "That obligation has special force in capital cases."
Garland's memo noted that "serious concerns" have been raised by critics of the death penalty, including "arbitrariness," a "disparate impact on people of color," and a "troubling number of exonerations" in capital crimes cases.
Last July, the DOJ under then-Attorney General William Barr's leadership resumed federal executions after a 17-year pause. In 2003, a series of court rulings against the three-drug cocktail that was used in lethal injections caused the federal government to stop carrying out capital punishment. When Barr reinstated executions by lethal injection, the three-drug cocktail was replaced by one drug, pentobarbital, which is a powerful sedative.
That year, three men on death row at an Indiana prison were executed.
Between July 2020 and January 2021, 13 convicts on federal death row were executed.
Garland's order requires a review of Barr's revised lethal injection protocol to assess "the risk of pain and suffering associated with the use of pentobarbital." The DOJ will also review Trump administration policies that "expanded the permissible methods of execution beyond lethal injection, and authorized the use of state facilities and personnel in federal executions" and other changes that expedited the execution of capital sentences.
A spokesman for the White House told the New York Times that President Joe Biden approved of Garland's decision.
"As the president has made clear, he has significant concerns about the death penalty and how it is implemented, and he believes the Department of Justice should return to its prior practice of not carrying out executions," the spokesman said.
As a candidate for president, Biden said he opposes the death penalty and would work for its abolishment.
"Because we can't ensure that we get these cases right every time," candidate Biden tweeted, "we must eliminate the death penalty."
Since 1973, over 160 individuals in this country have been sentenced to death and were later exonerated. Because we… https://t.co/6fzYOV2WUI
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) 1564089290.0
However, the Biden administration in June asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the convicted 2013 Boston Marathon bomber.
Garland's memo does not address whether the administration will stop seeking the federal death penalty in criminal cases, which allows the case against Tsarnaev to proceed without becoming moot.
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