U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday joined Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to introduce a resolution commending the men and women of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency for their honorable service.
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With the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Summer Study on the Heartbeat Bill just three weeks out, every committee member was contacted by The Tennessee Star, confirming their attendance and offering an opportunity for them to comment on their expectations of the two-day meeting. The Judiciary Committee, a standing committee of the State Senate, is comprised of nine members, seven Republicans and two Democrats: Chairman Mike Bell (R-Riceville), 1st Vice-Chair Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol), 2nd Vice-Chair Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro) and members Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma), Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), Sara Kyle (D-Memphis), Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield), Katrina Robinson (D-Memphis) and John Stevens (R-Huntingdon). The Judiciary Committee is responsible for all legal, law enforcement, judicial and court-related matters, as well as all other matters not covered by any other standing committee, according to the Tennessee General Assembly website. The Heartbeat Bill Summer Study is being undertaken by the Senate Judiciary Committee as an outcome of the only Senate hearing on the bill during the first half of the 111th General Assembly, which was held on April 9. After a reading a prepared statement, as reported by The Star, Chairman Bell made the motion, a move he said was rare for him as Chairman, to send the…
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In three weeks, the State Senate Judiciary Committee will undertake the much anticipated two-day Summer Study on the legislation known as the Heartbeat Bill. The Heartbeat Bill seeks to protect the life of unborn children from the point that their heartbeat is detected, usually at about six weeks after conception. The legislation was sponsored by Representative Micah Van Huss (R-Jonesborough) and Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) during the first half of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly as HB 0077 and SB 1236, respectively. The House version essentially sailed through the committee process, which passed its first stop at the Public Health Subcommittee on February 20, and was voted on by the entire chamber on March 7. With 65 Ayes, 21 Noes and 7 Present and Not Voting, it was only Democrats who opposed the measure, although two voted in favor of it. Meanwhile, all 7 Present and Not Voting were Republicans. The bill experienced a completely different fate in the State Senate, where it sat on notice for two months before being placed on the Senate Judiciary Committee calendar. As reported by The Tennessee Star, testimony and a question-and-answer period from expert witnesses lasted about one and a half hours,…
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by Chuck Ross Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham asserted Sunday that the former government officials opposing declassification of Russia probe documents “are worried about being exposed.” In an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, Graham also argued Democrats are unconcerned with whether the FBI misled the federal surveillance court in order to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. “I want all the documents around the FISA warrant application released. I want to find out exactly how the counterintelligence operation began,” Graham said. “I think transparency is good for the American people. Not one Democrat seems to care.” “I wish some Democrat would come forward to find out if the FISA court was defrauded by the FBI and the Department of Justice.” On Thursday, President Trump granted Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify documents from the Russia probe. He also instructed the heads of several federal agencies, including the CIA and FBI, to provide documents to Barr as part of his review of the origins of the investigation. Barr is looking into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation, as well as the surveillance activities carried out by the FBI…
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U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) questioned Attorney General William Barr on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Barr said the investigation was thorough and the allegations against President Donald Trump were proven false. Barr appeared before the committee to discuss Mueller’s report that showed Trump did not collude with the Russians in the 2016 elections or obstruct justice. Transcripts from Blackburn’s and Barr’s exchanges follow. Regarding the politicization of law enforcement agencies: Blackburn: What seems to have happened at the FBI is that there is a seedy, cynical, political culture within a group that developed, and these individuals, collectively, seemed to think that they could work within the power of their jobs and their roles with the federal government. There was an elitism and an arrogance there and it speaks to a very unhealthy work culture. The video clip is available here. The Special Counsel team’s investigation and findings: Blackburn: Are they meticulous investigators who will hunt down every witness and every piece of evidence? Barr: I think they are tenacious investigators. Blackburn: Are they devoted to finding the truth? Barr: Yes. Blackburn: Are they masters at taking down hardened criminals foreign…
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U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) on Thursday introduced SB 1166, the Internet Exchange (IX) Act, which will help to improve internet access for consumers, especially in rural areas. The senators made the announcement on Twitter, available here, and in a press release, which is available here. Today, @SenatorBaldwin and I introduced S. 1166, the Internet Exchange(IX) Act, which will help to improve internet access for consumers, especiallythose in rural areas. More: https://t.co/ieTjwkDcOD pic.twitter.com/mBHnKwHy3W — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) April 11, 2019 “You can’t have a 21st century education, 21st century healthcare, or a 21st century business without access to 21st century internet,” said Blackburn. “The bipartisan IX Act will make big strides in closing the digital divide in Tennessee by providing internet access to areas with the highest degree of need.” Baldwin said, “We need to strengthen our internet infrastructure to better serve Middle America and rural communities, and improve the online experience for people in all parts of our country. This bipartisan measure will help expand broadband access across our country. By investing in our internet infrastructure and adding more internet exchanges in Wisconsin and throughout the heartland, we can help more rural households and…
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“Its time for tech companies like Google and Facebook to start embracing the spirit of the First Amendment,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The senator made the remarks during a hearing titled, “Stifling Free Speech: Technological Censorship and the Public Discourse.” Video of Blackburn’s remarks may be watched here. Blackburn called out media giants to use their power responsibly and to respect diverse viewpoints, particularly conservative voices. She tweeted, “Big Tech shouldn’t censor stories and posts in our newsfeeds. Let free speech flourish. My full questions at the @senjudiciary hearing on censorship:”. Big Tech shouldn't censor stories and posts in our newsfeeds. Let free speech flourish. My full questions at the @senjudiciary hearing on censorship: https://t.co/asy2FRD16S — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) April 10, 2019 Blackburn also on Wednesday introduced SB1116, the Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (BROWSER) Act, she said in a press release. The BROWSER Act requires communications and technology companies to provide users with clear and conspicuous notice of their privacy policies and the ability to opt-in to the collection of sensitive information and to opt-out of the collection of non-sensitive information. It also prohibits these companies…
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U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) voted Thursday to advance Neomi Rao’s nomination to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines to move Rao’s nomination to the full Senate, Fox News said. Rao would fill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s vacant seat on the court. Rao is in charge of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, where she has a key job in President Donald Trump’s work to cut federal rules and regulations, Fox News said. She also is on leave as an associate professor of law from George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. She teaches and writes in the areas of structural constitutional law, administrative law, and legislation and statutory interpretation, according to her biography. She founded the law school’s Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Democrats and two Republicans — Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Thursday grilled Rao on her stance on topics from sexual assault to LGBT rights to deregulation, Fox News said. She said, “Tennesseans have regularly said over the last several years one of the things that concerned them most is the judges that…
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by Jason Hopkins Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the newly-minted chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) attendees that his panel will move on judicial confirmations at an ambitious clip. “Judges, more judges, then some more judges,” Graham joked in a Thursday afternoon speech. “We’re going to process as many conservative judges as we can.” The senator opened his remarks with a paean to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s bitter confirmation. “Why is Kavanaugh on the Court? Because Trump is tough,” Graham said. Earlier in the day, Graham and other Judiciary Committee Republicans voted to forward Neomi Rao’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to the full Senate. If confirmed, Rao would succeed Kavanaugh on a court often referred to as the second most powerful bench in the country. The Senate’s most recent judgeship vote came Wednesday with the confirmation of Eric Miller to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Miller is the president’s third appointment to that court, which has repeatedly stymied administration policy priorities. Four other nominations to the 9th Circuit are pending. Miller spent a decade as an attorney in the Department of Justice before…
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by Fred Lucas William Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee he wouldn’t be intimidated by anyone, including President Donald Trump, who nominated him to serve as attorney general. “I am not going to do anything that I think is wrong, and I will not be bullied into doing anything I think is wrong. By anybody. Whether it be editorial boards, or Congress, or the president,” Barr said Tuesday in response to questions by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “I’m going to do what I think is right,” he said. Barr testified all day before the Senate committee, talking about issues ranging from abortion and the First Amendment to Hillary Clinton and the controversial Uranium One deal. Here are seven big takeaways from the first of two days of confirmation hearings for Barr. 1. ‘You’re Crazy’: On Independence Much of the questioning from senators revolved around special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and Moscow’s potential ties to the Trump campaign. Barr’s general assertion of independence, however, could affect more issues if he is confirmed, as expected. Having served already as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush from November 1991 through January 1993 allows him…
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) issued a statement Wednesday night after she and her Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee were apparently denied meetings with President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr. Barr is set to testify before the committee this week, but it is already shaping up to be another controversial nomination process. Klobuchar says she has concerns about an unsolicited memo Barr sent to the Justice Department in June 2018 in which he raised doubts about the scope of Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction. Apart from whether Mueller [has] a strong enough factual basis for doing so, Mueller’s obstruction theory is fatally misconceived,” Barr wrote. Klobuchar told Rolling Stone that she has additional concerns with Barr’s alleged failure to submit all of his ethics reports to the Senate Judiciary Committee. When she and her colleagues sought to meet with Barr to discuss these concerns, Klobuchar claims they were brushed off. “I tried (as did Blumenthal) to get meeting w/AG nominee Barr and was told he couldn’t meet until after hearing. The reason given? The shutdown. Yet shutdown didn’t stop him from other…
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by Kevin Daley Attorney General nominee William Barr sent a memo to the Department of Justice criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, particularly those aspects of the probe relating to obstruction of justice in June. The unsolicited document, whose existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, argues President Donald Trump’s dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey does not rise to obstruction of justice, since the president was carrying out his constitutional responsibilities. “As I understand it, [Mueller’s] theory is premised on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law,” Barr wrote. “Moreover, in my view, if credited by the Justice Department, it would have grave consequences far beyond the immediate confines of this case and would do lasting damage to the presidency and to the administration of law within the executive branch.” Barr conceded a sitting president could obstruct justice by destroying evidence or tampering with witnesses, according to the Journal. Still, he insisted that the president cannot commit obstruction of justice when exercising his lawful powers. Elsewhere in the memo, he warned that moving against Trump based on an inventive theory of criminal liability would inflame much of the country and compromise faith in…
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by Robert Romano The Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 28 advanced to the Senate floor for a vote the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. But, retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) did so conditionally, saying he would only support Kavanaugh on the floor if the FBI is ordered by President Donald Trump to conduct another background check on Kavanaugh in a limited period of time no longer than a week. The Committee then issued a statement saying it “will request that the administration instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental FBI background investigation with respect to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today.” And then President Donald Trump ordered the additional background investigation, issuing a statement saying, “I’ve ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.” Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have already staked out this position at the Sept. 27 hearing.…
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by CHQ Staff The past ten days of ritual defamation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh revealed the depth and sophistication of the Far-Left Democrats’ smear machine, but yesterday’s hearing revealed the truly bizarre world of Christine Blasey Ford, the high priestess of the ritual. In this bizarre world, Christine Blasey Ford cannot fly, due to the posttraumatic stress syndrome caused by the manhandling she allegedly received at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. Unless of course, the flight is to Tahiti, Hawaii, or the East Coast of the United States just a few weeks before her attorneys cited that alleged PTSD as the reason to delay her testimony for another week. In this bizarre world, Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor, educated at an elite high school and some of America’s top universities – who holds two masters degrees and a doctorate – cannot compose a letter that would garner better than a C at any public high school in America, and doesn’t know how to contact her Representative in Congress. In this bizarre world, the university professor speaks in a little girl’s voice, cannot remember or does not know elementary things about how she came to sit before…
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by Molly Prince Sen. Rand Paul called for an investigation Friday to determine and punish who published the personal information of three Republican senators during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexual assault. “Yesterday there was an attempt to incite people by publishing the personal information of Senators – including home addresses – endangering them & their families,” the Kentucky Republican tweeted. “This should be investigated & the perpetrators punished. There is too much hatred and violence in politics these days.” Yesterday there was an attempt to incite people by publishing the personal information of Senators – including home addresses- endangering them & their families. This should be investigated & the perpetrators punished. There is too much hatred and violence in politics these days. — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 28, 2018 Three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch, both of Utah — had their personal information, including their phone numbers and home addresses, posted on their respective Wikipedia pages shortly after each questioned Kavanaugh at Thursday’s hearing. The unknown person who published the…
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by Jeffery Rendall If the United States republic ultimately burns to ashes people will likely remember yesterday, September 27, 2018, as the beginning of the end. Or, in the alternative, if the political system somehow reforms itself citizens may look back fondly on that date as the reemergence of truth and due process. The country’s end of it all — or a possible new birth — were at stake as Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a “hearing” into Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her sometime in the summer of 1982. I use the term “hearing” loosely because what transpired was more like a cage match (in two parts) than a high-level exchange between professional adults. These people represent (some of) our states? Lord help us. The behavior of the minority Democrats during the first three hours (when Blasey Ford testified) was so disgraceful and compromised as to call into question the legitimacy of the entire government. Instead of probing Ford with inquiries regarding the enormous holes in her recollections the ten Democrat senators used the majority of their time to lavishly bathe Ford in tributes, complimenting the witness…
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Judge Brett Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford will present two different versions of the truth regarding Ford’s uncorroborated allegations Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. President Trump nominated Judge Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court in July, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on forwarding his nomination for confirmation to the full Senate on Friday. “In the summer of 1982, like most summers, I spent almost every day at the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland swimming and practicing diving,” Ford wrote in written testimony provided to PBS and other news outlets Wednesday night she intends to deliver when the Senate Judiciary Committee hears her testimony today, adding: In the summer of 1982, like most summers, I spent almost every day at the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland swimming and practicing diving. One evening that summer, after a day of swimming at the club, I attended a small gathering at a house in the Chevy Chase/Bethesda area. There were four boys I remember being there: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, P.J. Smyth, and one other boy whose name I cannot recall. I remember my friend Leland Ingham…
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by Fred Lucas The confirmation hearings for federal appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to become the next Supreme Court justice will begin on Sept. 4 and last three to four days, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced Friday. Grassley’s announcement comes as Senate Democrats sought to further stall the hearings, demanding more documents on Kavanaugh’s service in President George W. Bush’s White House and as a lawyer on independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. “As I said after his nomination, Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most respected jurists in the country and one of the most qualified nominees ever to be considered by the Senate for a seat on our highest court,” said Grassley in a statement. Kavanaugh has served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2006. President Donald Trump nominated him July 9 to fill the vacancy of the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Grassley continued: My team has already reviewed every page of the over 4,800 pages of judicial opinions Judge Kavanaugh wrote, over 6,400 pages of opinions he joined, more than 125,000 pages of records produced…
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by Kevin Daley Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senior Republicans that he will schedule Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote on a date just before the November elections if Democrats demand access to the full scope of records the judge produced in the George W. Bush administration. Democrats are leveraging the access dispute to slow Kavanaugh’s nomination, as it is one of the few mechanisms they have to delay progress on the appointment. Politico reports that McConnell believes scheduling a confirmation vote in immediate proximity to the midterm elections will exacerbate political pressure on embattled Democrats from red states to support Kavanaugh. “To me, it’s in their best interest to have that vote done for a lot of their red-state senators who are facing their voters,” GOP Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. Democrats want access to a massive body of work Kavanaugh generated during his time in the Bush White House. The judge entered the administration as associate White House counsel, then became staff secretary in 2006. In these capacities he advised senior officials on a range of legal issues and managed the president’s paper flow. He left the executive branch following his confirmation to the U.S. Court of…
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by Thomas Jipping Recent remarks by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., show the script that the left will be using to oppose President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee to fill the vacancy from the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. The most prominent point so far is that the Senate should wait until after the 2018 election to consider Trump’s nominee. Echoing Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Feinstein, speaking in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s June 28 business meeting, said following the traditional confirmation pattern would be hypocritical. Ranking member Feinstein, echoed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., claimed – as every Democrat and their left-wing allies will certainly do – Republicans set a “new standard” in 2016 that the Senate should never consider any Supreme Court nominee in any election year. If Republicans had taken that position in 2016, it certainly would have been new and Democrats might well benefit from it today. But that standard has never existed: not before, not during, and not after 2016. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] The Constitution gives the power to nominate and, subject to the Senate’s…
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