Tag Archives: Jeff Sessions

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Of course it is important and right that the Department of Justice assist in bringing to justice the murderer of Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, one of the far too many transgender people, and especially transgender people of color, targeted in the ongoing lethal epidemic of hate violence. But it is the height of cynicism for Attorney …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has dispatched an experienced federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with murdering a transgender high school student last year, a highly unusual move that officials said was personally initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In taking the step, Mr. Sessions, a staunch conservative, is sending a …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ), issued guidance directing federal agencies to respect religious freedom. As you may remember, President Trump issued an executive order on May 4 making clear that the administration will pursue policies that “protect and vigorously promote religious liberty ” and thus directing the DOJ to issue …

The Associated Press reports: In an order that undercuts federal protections for LGBT people, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a sweeping directive to agencies Friday to do as much as possible to accommodate those who claim their religious freedoms are being violated. The guidance, an attempt to deliver on President Donald Trump’s pledge to his evangelical supporters that he would …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Department of Justice has reversed course on whether federal law banning sex discrimination in the workplace provides protections for transgender employees, saying in a memo that it does not. The memo sent to U.S. Attorneys’ offices on Wednesday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 only prohibits discrimination on …

Vice News reports: Trump’s Justice Department appeared in federal court Tuesday to argue that employers should be able to fire people because they are gay. In a rare occasion, all 13 judges of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Zarda v. Altitude Express Tuesday. The case originated in 2010 when skydiving instructor Donald Zarda sued his …

The Hill reports: The Department of Justice announced Friday that it’s rolling back an Obama-era program created to help improve trust between police agencies and the communities they serve. The department said it’s making significant changes to an office that investigated and issued public reports about problems it found in individual police departments. DOJ said the changes to the program …

The New York Times reports: Shortly after learning in May that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate links between his campaign associates and Russia, President Trump berated Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an Oval Office meeting and said the attorney general should resign, according to current and former administration officials and others briefed on the matter. The president …

Raw Story reports: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is “in the process” of drafting subpoenas for the two FBI agents the Department of Justice blocked from testifying before the committee, ABC’s Ali Rogin reports. Grassley’s statement comes after CNN reported Wednesday the DOJ is refusing to cooperate with Senate investigators probing Donald Trump’s decision to …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: It may be one of the most important religious liberty cases in a century — and President Trump isn’t about to be on the wrong side of it. In the latest sign that this isn’t Barack Obama’s DOJ, the administration is going to bat for Jack Phillips, the Christian baker at …

Via press release from the ACLU: The Justice Department filed a brief today with the Supreme Court arguing that businesses that are open to the public have a constitutional right to discriminate against LGBT people. The brief was filed in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the case in which a Colorado bakery refused to serve a same-sex couple …

Via press release from House Speaker Paul Ryan: However well-intentioned, President Obama’s DACA program was a clear abuse of executive authority, an attempt to create law out of thin air. Just as the courts have already struck down similar Obama policy, this was never a viable long-term solution to this challenge. Congress writes laws, not the president, and ending this …

The New York Times reports: “The program known as DACA that was effectuated under the Obama administration is being rescinded,” Mr. Sessions told reporters, adding that “The policy was implemented unilaterally, to great controversy and legal concern.” Mr. Sessions called the Obama-era policy an “open-ended circumvention of immigration laws” and an unconstitutional use of executive authority. “The executive branch through …

USA Today reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to announce the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known as DACA, Tuesday. The Trump administration will reportedly end the Obama-era program, but kick it to lawmakers to attempt a legislative fix first, rather than immediately end it. DACA shields roughly 800,000 young immigrants from deportation. Critics quickly …

USA Today reports: The Trump administration is preparing to lift a controversial ban on the transfer of some surplus military equipment to police departments whose battlefield-style response to rioting in a St. Louis suburb three years ago prompted a halt to the program. The new plan, outlined in documents obtained by USA TODAY, would roll back an Obama administration executive …

Bloomberg reports: U.S. prosecutors prevailed in their request to seek information about subscribers to an anti-Trump website allegedly linked to rioting during the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. A judge in District of Columbia Superior Court on Thursday ordered DreamHost LLC, the host of the website disruptj20.org, to comply with a government warrant seeking information about the site’s subscribers. The …

The Washington Post reports: A Los Angeles-based tech company is resisting a federal demand for more than 1.3 million IP addresses to identify visitors to a website set up to coordinate protests on Inauguration Day — a request whose breadth the company says violates the Constitution. “What we have is a sweeping request for every single file we have” in …

The Associated Press reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions says “too much has been read into” President Donald Trump’s statement Saturday amid violence at a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, related to the removal of a Confederate monument. Sessions told NBC’s “Today” that Trump had “explicitly condemned” violence and that “he totally opposes” the values espoused by white supremacy organizations. Trump referenced …

NBC News reports: The Department of Justice said late Saturday it has opened a civil-rights investigation into a deadly car-ramming incident that witnesses said targeted counter-protesters at a white nationalist and alt-right rally in Virginia. “The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “When such actions arise from …

This isn’t surprising considering that Alabamians happily reelected Moore to the state Supreme Court after the first time he got booted from the bench: Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore leads the crowded Republican primary field in the state’s Senate race, according to a new poll. Moore has 30 percent support in the JMC Analytics and Polling survey. …