#Jeff merkley

[vyorei]

Protests in DC, nice job guys, people have to keep making noise.

Reading the names is also important.

Speak them.

Those people existed, had lives, were meant to live and grow and experience a world without occupiers pointing guns in their faces and dropping bombs on their children. They can't because the global powers who could prevent further chaos, failed to do so. There is blood on the hands of the Biden Administration.

Good to see USians aren't completely brainwashed.

BASED WASHINGTON DC ✊🇵🇸

[thekeypa]

Thank you to the members of Senate who voted against sending more weapons to Israel.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rowaida Abdelaziz at HuffPost:

A group of Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter Tuesday night to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to shut down four private detention centers. The letter, first reviewed by HuffPost and signed by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), targets facilities in New Mexico, California, Louisiana and Virginia. All of the facilities have faced serious complaints over treatment of detainees. Contracts for two of those facilities are up for renewal this week.

“We do not support a system that detains people in inhumane conditions that result in long-term medical issues, psychological trauma, and sometimes death. We urge that these facilities be shut down, in a step towards building an immigration system that welcomes and respects migrants,” read the letter. The letter, addressed to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Patrick Lechleitner, the acting director of ICE, also demands immigration officials to hand over a list of all public and private ICE detention facilities as well as a timeline for ending contracts at those four facilities. “After reports of inhumane conditions, including sleep deprivation, dirty drinking water, and psychological trauma, independent watchdogs and other experts have recommended that the Biden administration close the worst of these facilities,” Warren said. “This would be a meaningful step toward ending the federal government’s reliance on private detention centers.”

10 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), sent a letter calling for the closing of the inhumane ICE detention centers. It's also why ICE should be abolished.

[phoenixyfriend]

Most useful podcast I've heard this morning is Democracy Now again. Here's the 2/29/24 episode on Spotify:

It is also available online, with text format as well.

This episode has an extended interview with a sitting US Senator, Oregon's Jeff Merkley, about the work he and other pro-ceasefire officials are doing to push for Palestinian survival, the possible impact of Listen To Michigan, and the ramifications of Mitch MConnell stepping down as Senate Leader in November, in light of his history in US government.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

Keep calling your reps!

[floorcharts]

Who: Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon)

Twitter: @SenJeffMerkley

When: July 2022

What: Supreme Court

Watch on C-SPAN

Read Congressional Record

[meandmybigmouth]

Protect?. The oppression of the American people by the economic fascists has gone too far!. These fucks asking for special treatment at the cost of their employees freedom?  Again?. 

[biscuitsngravie]

Shut down Morrison Bridge entirely. You don't get peace until the occupation ends COMPLETELY. Call and email Jeff Merkley to call for a Ceasefire NOW. this will not stop.

[sinoeurovoices]

紀念六四34週年 美提名中國這3人角逐諾貝爾和平獎

今（4）日是六四天安門34週年。為了紀念該屠殺悲劇，美國國會及行政當局中國委員會（CECC）日前提名三位中國民權���士角逐諾貝爾和平獎，包括為抗議當局清零政策，而在天橋上拉起橫幅的的北京「四通橋勇士」彭載舟（本名彭立發）、前往武漢追蹤疫情消息而遭判刑入獄的公民記者張展，以及「白紙革命」先驅、至今仍「被失聯」的南京傳媒學院學生李康夢。 天橋上拉起橫幅的的北京「四通橋勇士」彭立發與張展、李康夢被美國提名角逐2023諾北爾和平獎。   圖：翻攝時代雜誌官網 共和黨籍眾議員、CECC主席史密斯（Chris Smith）和民主黨籍參議員默克利（Jeff…

[cabbagecrow]

merkley at the mall

[shedontlovehuhself]

Reminder

[thekeypa]

“The U.S. must end its complicity in the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. We need a ceasefire and a massive influx of lifesaving aid — NOW.”

[cannabisbusinessexecutive]

Lawmakers face closing window to pass landmark bipartisan marijuana bill

Lawmakers face closing window to pass landmark bipartisan marijuana bill

Lawmakers are facing a rapidly closing window to get key marijuana legislation across the finish line in the lame-duck session. Despite fetching broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate, opposition from GOP leadership and a tightening timeline is chipping away at the bill��s chances of passage. The measure, called the SAFE Banking Act, would undo federal restrictions that discourage banks…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Phillip Jackson at HuffPost:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would give federal and state officials more power to hold police departments accused of bad behavior to account. The Enhancing Oversight to End Discrimination in Policing Act, led by Warren and in the House by Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), would strengthen the power of state attorneys general to launch investigations into police departments involved in civil rights violations if the Justice Department fails to act on them. The bill would also task the Justice Department with looking beyond “traditional law enforcement mechanisms” when providing reforms to selective police departments such as mental health support, civilian oversight bodies, and community-based restorative justice programs, according to Warren’s office.

Warren had introduced a version of the bill in 2020. This newest version of the measure would also revitalize the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, granting an increase in funding to pursue civil rights investigations into police departments and other government offices accused of discriminatory practices. It would increase funding for the civil rights division to $445 million per year over a 10-year period. (For scale, the 2023 budget for the division was $189.9 million.)

Warren first introduced her bill following the death of George Floyd in 2020. That earlier draft also called for Attorney General Merrick Garland to rescind a 2017 memorandum from his predecessor, Trump-era Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that limited the DOJ’s ability to initiate consent decrees on police departments — a key way of stopping bad behavior. (Garland rescinded that memorandum in April of 2021.)

Nine senators co-sponsored the bill: Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). Several civil rights organizations are backing Warren’s new bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League and others.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and 9 other co-sponsors in the Senate are supporting the Enhancing Oversight to End Discrimination in Policing Act to strengthen police accountability. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) is pushing this in the House.

[ridenwithbiden]

A group of Democratic senators introduced a bill Thursday that would radically change the makeup of the Supreme Court, amid ongoing concerns over court ethics and its increasingly conservative makeup.

The legislation would appoint a new Supreme Court justice every two years, with that justice hearing every case for 18 years before stepping back from the bench and only hearing a “small number of constitutionally required cases.”

“The Supreme Court is facing a crisis of legitimacy that is exacerbated by radical decisions at odds with established legal precedent, ethical lapses of sitting justices, and politicization of the confirmation process,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said in a statement.

“This crisis has eroded faith and confidence in our nation’s highest court. Fundamental reform is necessary to address this crisis and restore trust in the institution.”

Only the nine most recently appointed justices would hear appellate cases, which make up a bulk of the court’s work. All living justices would participate in a smaller subset of cases under the court’s “original jurisdiction,” such as disputes between states or with foreign officials.

The bill was introduced by Sens. Booker, Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and it was co-sponsored by Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Calls for Supreme Court reform grew louder this year after ProPublica revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of perks from conservative political donors. Further investigations have uncovered multiple significant and undisclosed gifts from politically connected friends over his time as a federal judge.

Justice Samuel Alito also took a luxury vacation paid for by an influential conservative donor while in the judiciary, another investigation found earlier this year.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill earlier this year along party lines that would require the Supreme Court to create and abide by a code of ethics. Unlike lower courts, Supreme Court judges are not beholden to an official ethics code.

“An organized scheme by right-wing special interests to capture and control the Supreme Court, aided by gobs of billionaire dark money flowing through the confirmation process and judicial lobbying, has resulted in an unaccountable Court out of step with the American people,” Whitehouse said in a statement.

“Term limits and biennial appointments would make the Court more representative of the public and lower the stakes of each justice’s appointment, while preserving constitutional protections for judicial independence.

“As Congress considers multiple options to restore the integrity of this scandal-plagued Court, our term limits bill should be front and center as a potential solution,” he added.

Attempts to reform the Supreme Court have been denounced by both Republicans in Congress and by some members of the court, namely Thomas and Alito.

Alito argued earlier this year that Congress does not have the authority to force any reform on the court without a constitutional amendment.

“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” Alito told The Wall Street Journal. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.”

But Whitehouse’s office argued in Wednesday’s statement that the Constitution allows Congress to regulate how the court handles appellate cases from lower courts. That’s why all justices would still weigh in on “original jurisdiction” cases, avoiding the constitutional hang-up.

Trust in the Supreme Court remains near all-time lows, according to national opinion polling. A Gallup poll last month found that just 41 percent of Americans approve of how the Supreme Court is doing its job, with 58 percent disapproving.

[floorcharts]

Who: Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon)

Twitter: @SenJeffMerkley

When: July 2022

What: Supreme Court

Watch on C-SPAN

Read Congressional Record