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D emocratic Senators Kamala Harris of California and New Jersey’s Cory Booker were appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, the The Hill reported. As the first African-American member of the committee since the 1990s, there are a few pressing issues for them to address. SEE ALSO: Illinois Lawsuit Underscores 5 Ways Trump Is Reversing Obama-Era Justice System Reforms Booker vowed to serve as a “check and balance” on President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions . “The Trump administration has repeatedly demonstrated its hostility to the ideals of civil rights and equal justice for all,” he added. Senate Judiciary Committee — Out: Franken, In: Booker, Harris https://t.co/Dz5uCtnaVG — Axios (@axios) January 9, 2018 Among its several tasks, the Judiciary Committee provides oversight of the Department of Justice and the agencies that report to the department, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The members also consider the president’s judicial nominees. Harris is now the second African-American woman to sit on the committee after former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun , a Democrat from Illinois. Booker is the first Black man to serve on the powerful panel. Here are a few issues that Booker and Harris could give voice to on the committee: 1. Oppose Thomas Farr’s judicial nomination Trump nominated Thomas Farr for a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. His nomination has drawn widespread criticism . He has a long history of defending laws that weaken voting rights for African Americans and was part of a scheme by North Carolina’s former GOP Sen. Jesse Helms to intimidate Black voters. Looking forward to hearing Thomas Farr’s answers when @SenKamalaHarris & @CoryBooker hold him accountable for suppressing voters. #StopFarr pic.twitter.com/f9wDbCB1y5 — Let America Vote (@letamericavote) January 9, 2018 2. Restore federal oversight of police reform Under President Barack Obama , the Department of Justice investigated police departments and used its leverage to reach agreements to reform departments that had patterns of racially biased policing. Sessions has directed his department in a memo to review those agreements to ensure they align with Trump’s law-and-order policy. Ferguson is undermining Jeff Sessions' argument against DOJ-led police reform https://t.co/2ZRlnzcF8N pic.twitter.com/ZKkDSykEIE — HuffPost BlackVoices (@blackvoices) October 30, 2017 3. End excessive court fines on poor people Sessions revoked 25 Justice Department guidance documents on a range of federal laws. One of them was from President Obama’s DOJ that called on courts to stop trapping poor people in cycles of fines, debt and jail. https://t.co/HPLCStepfC attorney Jeff sessions his rescinded a obama-era law that prevented cities from going after blacks and other poor people over excessive court fines. — The Observation Man (@William53604792) December 26, 2017 4. Block voter suppression efforts Republican controlled states continue to employ a myriad of schemes to suppress voter turnout among racial minorities, poor people and other groups that tend to support Democrats. Those efforts include cutbacks on early voting, ID requirements and banning ex-felon from casting a ballot. On Tuesday, new concerns were raised after a federal judge lifted a decades-old ban on the Republican National Committee from engaging in voter intimidation. In 1981 RNC used off-duty police officers with badges & weapons to monitor polls in black & Latino areas of NJ. Court order blocking these voter suppression efforts just expired. This is very bad news for voting rights https://t.co/LGYJv7sj9Y — Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 9, 2018 5. Oppose efforts to renew the War on Drugs Sessions has signaled a return to the racially biased “war on drugs” policy that led to mass incarceration that will include stepping up drug and gun prosecutions, as well as enforcing mandatory minimum sentences. He revoked Obama-era policies on marijuana Thursday that is widely viewed as a major step in that direction. The war on drugs didn’t stop drug usage; it just ruined a lot of lives. Jeff Sessions is reviving it because he believes in using the criminal justice system as an instrument of racial and economic control of poor people and brown people. https://t.co/XRd8OldE2N — Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) January 4, 2018 SOURCE: The Hill SEE ALSO: Ben Carson Kicks Out 66-Year-Old Chicago Resident Of ‘Closed’ Meeting For Asking About Fair Housing CNN’s Angela Rye Rips Into Rick Santorum For ‘Talking Down’ To Her [ione_media_gallery src=”https://newsone.com” id=”3358541″ overlay=”true”]
5 Issues For Sens. Harris and Booker To Raise On The Senate Judiciary Committee
