Part III The Outside Game: Open Secrets and Vote Smart identify numerous groups that lobbied this bill in the hopes of it becoming a law. A number of these groups include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. These groups openly supported this bill, and wanted to be associated with it, so they lobbied. Types of lobbying in which the group Families Against Mandatory Minimums utilize are donating money to government officials through Political Action Committees in hopes of persuading them, holding local or federal protests with signs such as “Let The Punishment …show more content…
Some of these groups include the National Sheriffs’ Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Narcotic Officers’ Associations’ Coalition, and the National Association of Police Organizations. These groups on the opposition side tried to utilize facts in hopes of decreasing support for this bill. For example, the National Narcotic Officers’ Associations’ Coalition published an article on their website providing the recidivism rates of an eight year study in which it was discovered that 50% of those arrested for drug trafficking would be arrested for this crime a second time. This group believed that a law such as the Fair Sentencing Act would encourage drug abuse and not reduce recidivism in the long run. These groups opposed this law because of strong beliefs in justice and fear of drug crimes worsening. Many of them were concerned this would take us backwards in terms of how far our society has come with cocaine use, they believed this law would escalate cocaine use because individuals wouldn’t be fearing harsh sentencing charges. The individuals among these organizations have a predisposition to their ideologies which definitely affected their position on this bill, they’ve spent their entire lives trying to improve law enforcement and on the surface it seemed this bill …show more content…
In other words, there is one Congress to represent the people, and one Congress to carry out laws. In our bicameral system, the Senate is closely corresponded with carrying out laws, while the House of Representatives is corresponded with representing the constituents. The bipartisan bill of the Fair Sentencing Act is closely correlated with both aspects of the Two Congresses. It did receive cross party support, so senators and representatives that may have been against this bill may have supported it for the sake of keeping their constituents happy, this may have been the case with Ron Paul because he was hesitant to support it. Ron Paul may have been thinking of the next election, so he did what his constituents wanted despite his personal reluctance. Conversely, Lamar S. Smith claimed to personally oppose this bill, but we really do not know for sure if he only claimed to. It could be the case that he might have been extremely dedicated to his constituency and may have known that his voters would be outraged if this law were to pass, so he opposed it despite his own beliefs. He was either acting as a representative, a lawmaker, or both, depending on his actual views, and his constituents’ actual views. Richard Durbin, the sponsor of this bill claimed this law would be smart and fair and
Welcome to part two of our list of 15 things you didn 't know about Russell Westbook. He may play with ferocity out on the basketball court for the Oklahoma City Thunder, but as part two will demonstrate, Russell has a quiet side, too. Find out more about the star point guard below. Number Eight: Russell Westbrook is an Underwear Model
“the 1970s bill was considered by a single committee in each chamber. It came to the House floor as a draft and approved by the committee, and it was considered there under an open rule allowing all germane amendment. The Senate also considered
On August 13, 2013 Pete Yost, a journalist with the Associated Press, published an article titled “Attorney General Eric Holder to Push for Sentencing Reform” informing of Attorney General Eric Holder’s view on the current criminal justice system at the time. Holder believes that the nation’s view of harsher punishments has become less effective as “Mandatory minimum prison sentences” have come to be the norm. (Yost, 2013) A proposed strategy that has been generated would focus the criminal justice systems attention to the “low-level, non-violent drug offenders [and] elderly non-violent offenders”. (Yost, 2013)
One factor that can hurt a bill chance of passing is the fact that Congress is a partisan body and members of the minority party especially the House of Representatives have no change of their bill enacted
Democrats faced opposition from Latino representatives who viewed the bill as failing to address the needs of the Latino electorate, with some representatives withdrawing support for the bill (Sweeny, 2017). One area that has continued to polarise debate on immigration reforms is the DREAM Act where despite a bipartisanship approach in its creation, support in the house was split along party lines with the bill defeated in the Congress. The failure to enact far reaching immigration reforms has seen the DREAM Act continue to be an issue even in the Donal Trump presidency an indication of failed legislation due to
Russell supports drug testing for welfare participants. Unlike Larry, he does not believe that drug testing is criminalizing. Instead, he believes that it should be standard. One can consider him a libertarian, since he is in it secure the liberties of Americans. Russell is under the impression that all recipients of welfare benefits are bad.
Driven by the belief that space was bequeathed to them, the Native Americans feel justified in defending their land against the growing encroachment of the white man as the American landscape unfolds. Their motive is the premise that a higher authority has granted them the right to the space, and that the Great Spirit has created the landscape exclusively for them. Fueled by the formation of conflict over land, the Great Ottawa Chief, Pontiac, in his speech at Detroit, seeks to persuade the tribes, including the Ottawa, Huron, and Pottawatomi to agree to resistance. Invoking the words of the Delaware prophet, Neolin, Pontiac recounts the vision which he believes justifies resistance. Neolin urges the tribes to sever all relations to the customs
As details of a key compromise measure that did not meet the intended goals became evident, the same groups who had earlier supported the FSA, were now criticizing it. The new law only reduces, but does not eliminate, the sentencing disparity that appears to be directed towards those of the African American community. The criticisms are centered at too many of the low-level drug dealers are being sentenced and incarcerated by the federal criminal justice system (Reid 2012). During this time of accusations by former supporters, the bipartisan cooperation, who were key to the passage of the FSA, created an historic political event. To demonstrate their frustrations they used intense partisan wrangling for a large range of different political issues upon Capitol Hill, and dominated the debate and stymied the proceedings (Gertsman
While it would be comical to imagine 535 representatives verbally arguing their case day in, day out, this is not how Congress functions. Instead, Congress divides it’s members into committees. While the Senate and House have separate committees, they share similar purposes, such as dividing labor and specializing in certain fields. The House, being a body of 435 individuals, functions primarily because of these committees, as most debates and bill planning are within these local, specialized groups. For example, the Jurisdiction of the House’s Science, Space and Technology committee authorizes it’s members with complete control over the House’s actions regarding “all energy research, development, and demonstration, and projects therefor, and all federally owned or operated non-military energy laboratories; astronautical research and development, including resources, personnel, equipment, and facilities...”
In life some feel the need to prove something to others. That they are better, stronger, or even more intelligent. Whatever the case may be people will go through extreme measures to prove themselves. But who do we really need to prove anything to? Is it our parents?
They felt that there was a need for longer sentences and tougher laws to prevent "viscous monsters" from getting out of prison to commit more
In fact the data shown that half of the drug offenses of offenders involved crack cocaine, followed by marijuana offenses. The Bureau of Prisons has reviled that well over 70% of the recent prison growth is related to the mandatory minimum sentencing. As of today only 3 percent of federal cases ever go to trial. Many prosecutors use the threat of mandatory minimums to coerce guilty pleas and longer sentences to offenders, or use the small street dealer to build a case against the leaders of the criminal
With the year-round pressure pertaining to college applications on high school seniors follows the impending decision of choosing an appropriate college major. Generally, the decision-making process involves prioritizing one field of interest over another, however, due to globalization and constant innovation in technology determining a college major has increasingly become the modern day equivalent of the metaphorical line between life and death. Even so, the obvious choice would be the prestigious STEM fields over liberal arts due to the instant job opportunities which are seemingly ludicrous to a recent graduate. Nevertheless, liberal arts education should be encouraged to be pursued at higher education institutions in USA because it helps
Young is a formerly licensed trapper (Pacelle 2017). This is important to keep in mind because it can easily lead to bias in his intentions to have the bill passed as a motive for monetary gain due to possible bribery by hunting outfitters or other state officials. It is clear that Young is the sponsor for HJR 69 after proposal by the State of Alaska however, there is little to no documented evidence of specific individuals or groups who started the push for this legislation. It is suspicious that no one is claiming responsibility for it and thus further puts Young’s motivation into question. While not claiming responsibility, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game agrees with Young, giving him the state’s full support and stating that “to eliminate what we believe is the unlawful preemption of the traditional state-federal jurisdictional relationship for the management of fish and wildlife that was the [original] intent of Congress” (Obama Administration’s…2017).
The legislation thought that the crime rate would go down. (History