Writing a book. 1/6 beat is my domain+ OK, PB trial. Bylines: @lawcrimenews. @emptywheel. Former sr. staff writer @dailykos. Reporter @CourthouseNews, @27east.
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Oct 4, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD - Some observations I recorded while at the protest this afternoon:
- There were several federal employees (recognized by their badges) who had some very, very nasty things to say about people exercising their 1A.
- Protestors were very calm, very respectful but emotional
- The crowd was incredibly diverse. Every color, creed, orientation, age, from infants to the elderly, + the heat stopped no one
- Every time a rape survivor or assault survivor would get on a mic or bullhorn, and share their story, the crowd replied: "I believe you."
Oct 2, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD - It is time to head to @Scotus. On deck: Madison v. Alabama. Is it a violation of the Constitution to execute a man who can't remember his crime? Well into his 60s & w/dementia, Vernon Madison argues executing someone who doesn't understand why he is being punished...1/4
implicitly fails to serve the purposes of the death penalty. The execution would not deter future crimes nor would it punish him for his conduct. The state, Alabama, doubts his claims of incapacity, suggesting he knows when to decline certain meds etc. Also even if he doesn't...
Sep 28, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD I suppose I need to state my belief on this for the record because it will save me time. Folks, I want to believe Kavanaugh wont be confirmed because even if you dont #BelieveHer, the man is not fit for the bench. #sorrynotsorry (Evidenced by his own behavior yesterday)
But I have zero trust that the people in Congress who need to do the right thing, will.
I often see people shocked! at the injustice of it all. For me, I am just totally too close to the situation to be shocked. About any of it.
I operate from doubt most of the time tho I am...
Sep 27, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD - In October, I'll cover several arguments at @Scotus:
Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Fish and Wildlife Service, which challenges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designation of 1,544 acres of land in Louisiana as critical habit for the dusky gopher frog. 1/4 @CourthouseNews
Weyerhauser operates a logging business on the land and maintains the frog cannot live there without "radical change in land use."
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Sep 27, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD - Some reactions from Democratic Senators at a press conference this a.m. during the lunch break:
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “It is striking how many survivors of sexual assault are watching and choosing this moment to come forward with their accounts." 1/4 @CourthouseNews
Coons cont.: "It speaks to what a public service is being done here by having a measured and respectful hearing of Dr. Ford’s allegations.”
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Sep 25, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD - A group of attorneys general filed a comment with Interior Department rejecting Secy Zinke's proposed rollback of protections in the #EndangeredSpeciesAct. You can read their letter here: documentcloud.org/documents/4941… @CourthouseNews
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AGs from the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania plus states of California, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia signed off.
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Sep 25, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD - Later today, the House Committee on Rules votes on a resolution I have my eye on: H. Res. 1071—Recognizing that allowing illegal immigrants the right to vote devalues the franchise and diminishes the voting power of United States citizens. (1/3) @CourthouseNews
The bill is sponsored by House majority leader Kevin McCarthy who is gunning for Paul Ryan's job. If it is passed, the resolution effectively states that this res is the formal position of the House.
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Sep 18, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD - I'm familiar with the subj. of sexual assault in prisons. I spent 2yrs absorbed in it while editing, reading and writing technical assessment reports about assault in some of the nation's most violent prisons and jails. So today, during the hearing on migrant kids,
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when the question was posed: "Is it a federal crime if a child is sexually assaulted in a federal [immigration] facility?”
And the acting deputy assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice said he "didn't know," I was deeply concerned.
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Sep 18, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Edlow: DOJ welcomes legislation to come up with a more equitable solution.
Perez agrees, vetted units, more modernized functions at the agency are a priority. Albence agrees too, ICE has invested $$ into removal ops to dissuade travel.
Albence: If individuals know they'll spend life their life savings to try and get here & they know that they run risk of going through cartels to do, plus knowing that when they get here, there's no lawful right to be here...
Sep 18, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Sen @KamalaHarris now up. Quotes Albence as saying that "family residential centers" are like a summer camp and that he was comfortable with the kids treatment.
Harris: Do you stand by that? @CourthouseNews
Albence: The standards are safe or humane. Harris: Do you know children or have children you'd send there for summer camp? Albence: That question's not applicable. We've seen children playing, families sitting at computers in a well stocked library, a cafeteria that was spotless.
Sep 18, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Sen. Doug Jones: Immigrants with counsel are 5x more likely to win their cases, according to American Bar Association. Jones says this is a testament to who is crossing the border and why and we could be deporting people just because they don't have counsel.
There's no right to counsel guaranteed to them, Jones notes. Does their ability to get counsel factor in on their ability to stay in U.S.? Albence says they provide pro bono counsel on site at detention fac in Dilly, TX. Legal adv. is given in a private room + list of free srvcs
Sep 18, 2018 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD - On sponsorship for those kids who come into U.S.: Sen Lankford notes that a migrant child's sponsor in U.S. doesn't have to be here in U.S. legally. Albence confirms that, says ICE data shows close to 80% of those sponsors are here illegally.
Lankford notes, that hasn't always been so. 20 years ago, it wasn't. Migrant kids had to be placed with a U.S. citizen. Lankford asks Albence if this would be a reasonable standard to work from again?
Sep 18, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD -
It takes 1,229 days of waiting for adjudication in an alternative program (besides family prison) to pass before it becomes more expensive than detaining families. The cost benefit analysis shows its cheaper, Sen Gary Peters, D-Mich. says.
Has DHS reviewed the long term health consequences that detention has on kids? Albence says regulation writing process was extensive, can't speak to all parts reviewed but says "family residential centers are humane."
(First party to refer to them as residential centers today)
Sep 18, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD -
Sen. McCaskill: When people are monitored, the maj. show up?
Albence: Electronic monitoring is effective for ICE and some court hearings.
McCaskill: After asylum denied, majority are no longer monitored?
Albence: Many are not -
McCaskill says emphatically: Why!?
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She says: If we know monitoring gets them to court and they know they won't get asylum and they no longer show up, shouldn't we focus monitoring at this time?
Albence says families cut those bracelets.
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Sep 18, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD - Robert Perez: More than 1M ppl are screened thru CBP,; 6K lbs of narcotics seized every day, 21 criminals arrested every day, CBP identifies more than 1,600 people each day with suspected nat. sec. concerns. 1/4 @CourthouseNews
Many factors contribute to a person's decision to cross into U.S. but our nations immigration laws are enticing, he says; those families who cross know this and that explains the spike, Perez said.
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Sep 17, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD:
Lee Tyner, general counsel for Texas Christian Univ. said at DOJ's forum on free speech in higher ed:
"We must teach students to expect to be confronted with new and uncomfortable ideas that demand reflection."
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"The best remedy for bad/hateful ideas is more ideas," he said. "Some schools are re-imagining curriculum, addressing expectations with respect to expression," Tyner said, noting Purdue University is a leader on this front. ,
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Sep 13, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Thread - While at a hearing, I see AG Sessions is none too pleased with all these injunctions people keep filing against the federal government or its programs/regs/laws. Slamming "judicial activism" today, he released new guidelines. Those are here: justice.gov/opa/press-rele…
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In a statement, Sessions said: "Increasingly, we are seeing individual federal district judges go beyond the parties before the court to give injunctions or orders that block the entire federal government from enforcing a law or policy throughout the country...
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Sep 12, 2018 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Thread - Pruitt denies that he received improper gifts or income while he served as administrator at the @EPA.
Story on that here: courthousenews.com/former-epa-chi…
And if you want to take a walk down memory lane aka Pruitt's time at the EPA
How about this? courthousenews.com/epa-watchdog-f…
Sep 5, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD -
The response from the WH about the anon-Op Ed in NYT today.
“Nearly 62M ppl voted for President Donald J. Trump in '16, earning him 306 Electoral College votes – versus 232 for his opponent. None of them voted for a gutless, anonymous source to the failing NYT. "
"We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed. This is a new low for the so-called “paper of record,” and it should issue an apology...
Sep 5, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD -
Journalists, "with a high degree of velocity" call out a large amount of false information online, Dorsey says. But admits Twitter "doesn't do the best job" to help amplify those specific messages.
Sen Angus King says if the platforms could fine tune that method, it would be a "self-healing" tool against spread of misinformation.
Sep 5, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
THREAD
Sen Blunt asks Dorsey: from a biz & legal liability standpoint, what's the downside when it comes to implementing never-before-used policies?
Dorsey says there's a # of short term risks but the only way to thrive is to "increase the health of the digital public square."
"Since 2016, we've strengthened relationships with gov agencies; but we want more regular meetings with law enforcement." Twitter wants to understand the trends they're aware of in peer companies or more broadly. That way Twitter could "act faster."