Tag: pat leahy
Key Senator Undecided On Hearing For Obama High Court Pick

Key Senator Undecided On Hearing For Obama High Court Pick

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican head of the Senate panel that weighs Supreme Court nominations said on Tuesday he will wait until President Barack Obama names his pick to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death before deciding whether to hold confirmation hearings.

Republicans have threatened not to act on any nominee put forward by the Democratic president for the Supreme Court seat. Obama’s nominee could alter the court’s balance of power. Before Scalia’s death, it had five conservatives and four liberals.

Republicans control the Senate, which the U.S. Constitution assigns responsibility for confirming a president’s nomination to the court.

“I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions” about confirmation hearings, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. “In other words, take it a step at a time.”

Senator Patrick Leahy, the committee’s top Democrat, prodded Republicans to act on whomever Obama nominates for a lifetime appointment to the court.

“The advice and consent role enshrined in our Constitution was not designed to allow a blanket prohibition of any potential nominee, but that is exactly where the Republican majority leader is trying to take us,” Leahy wrote in an opinion piece in USA Today, referring to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

McConnell said on Saturday the vacancy should not be filled until Obama’s successor takes office in January so voters can have a say on the selection when they cast ballots in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Obama was expected to face questions on the Supreme Court later on Tuesday during a news conference in Rancho Mirage, California at the close of a two-day meeting with leaders from Southeast Asia.

“This is a very serious position to fill and it should be … debated during the campaign and filled by either Hillary Clinton, Senator (Bernie) Sanders or whoever’s nominated by the Republicans,” Grassley added.

Scalia, 79, was found dead on Saturday at a Texas hunting resort.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced but National Public Radio reported that his body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court building on Friday and his funeral will be held on Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Scalia’s chair in the court’s ornate chamber has been draped with black wool crepe in accordance with court tradition following a justice’s death.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley, Richard Cowan and Doina Chiacu; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Photo: Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) walks on stage at an event for Republican presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) at the Ramada Hotel in Urbandale, IA, January 30, 2016. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

Senators Propose Sentencing Reform To Reduce Prison Overcrowding

Senators Propose Sentencing Reform To Reduce Prison Overcrowding

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. senators on Thursday proposed a bipartisan plan for reforming criminal justice, aiming to ditch harsh sentencing laws that lead to prison overcrowding and to limit solitary confinement for juveniles.

The legislative proposal would end the national “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” law, which mandates life sentences for people convicted of a violent felony after two or more previous convictions, including drug crimes.

The proposal would also give judges more leeway in sentencing low-level offenders, and improve prisoner rehabilitation programs. But under the measure, enhanced prison penalties could still be applied to offenders with prior convictions for serious violent offenses and serious drug felonies, a Senate fact sheet said.

The legislation was introduced by nine senators from both political parties, including Republican Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat.

A separate bill in the House of Representatives would also reduce use of mandatory sentences.

The outlook for passage of either measure was uncertain.

“The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country on earth,” Durbin said.

While mandatory minimum sentences were once seen as a strong deterrent, they have too often been unfair, and led to overcrowded prisons and tighter budgets, Durbin said.

The drum beat for reform has grown as U.S. crime rates have drastically declined over the past two decades. Lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders are increasingly seen as racially imbalanced and disproportionate to the crimes.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, also favors criminal justice reform. During the summer he toured a federal prison and vowed to work to address prison overcrowding.

More than 1.5 million Americans were in state or federal prisons at the end of 2013, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. African-Americans were 15 percent of the U.S. population at that time but accounted for about a third of its prisoners.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Grant McCool)

Photo: Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) (C) delivers remarks at a bi-partisan news conference on criminal justice reform, The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington October 1, 2015. Listening are Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) (L) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (R). REUTERS/Gary Cameron