Criminal justice reform is shaping up to be a major transpartisan issue this year, with influential members of both Republican and Democratic Parties recognizing that the current system is broken.
If the goal of the justice system is to protect the innocent, and to maximize peaceful and productive activity within society, it does not take a rocket scientist to observe the ways in which the status quo fails to achieve these goals. Read more here...
2. Capitol Hill Update, March 2, 2015 - by Josh Withrow
House & Senate/Schedule: Both House & Senate are in town all this week. The House will recess next week (March 9-13), while the Senate will stay in D.C. all the way through the Spring recess that starts March 30th.
House & Senate/Spending: The main event in town once again this week will be funding of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which Congress extended only through the end of this week. Read more here...
3. What FreedomWorks Saw at CPAC 2015
4. CPAC Panel on the Export-Import Bank - by Nate Russell
Last weekend, the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) met in Washington, DC to address the most important issues in America. Everybody who attended was well aware that free markets in America have been under assault by the federal government’s crony relationships with private corporations.
One institution that epitomizes this crony relationship is the Export-Import bank. Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner was on a panel at CPAC that specifically addressed this issue. He brought up the point that cronyism has falsely distorted the meaning of capitalism, from one of free-market competition to one of protecting the interests of rich corporations. Read more here...
5. CPAC Panel on Asset Forfeiture - by Michael Greibrok
The practice of asset forfeiture has been a hot topic in Washington D.C. lately, whether it has been Attorney General Eric Holder announcing the federal government will no longer take part in the equitable sharing program or the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigationscalling into question the entire practice of civil asset forfeiture. Because of the importance and timeliness of the issue, CPAC had a panel consisting of Pat Nolan, Derek Cohen and Darpana Sheth to discuss what is wrong with asset forfeiture and what we the people can do to fix it. Read more here...
6. Liberty Beats: Internet Freedom - by Sam Martin
7. Pro-Net Neutrality Groups Protest FCC Overreach - by Logan Albright
The FCC’s recent decision to reclassify the internet as a utility is ruffling some feathers, but not the ones you might expect. The Federal Communications Commission, acting under orders from the president, has been largely successful in representing its decision as a matter of Net Neutrality, of regulating the specific ways in which service providers can manage bandwidth.
While most conservatives oppose Net Neutrality itself, the changes the FCC is now making go much further - so far, in fact, that many supporters of Net Neutrality as a concept are upset at the Commission’s overreach. Read more here...
8. Judges to Congress: Let Us Issue the Punishments, Not You - by Julie Borowski
One of the problems in the criminal justice system is the existence of mandatory minimum sentences. On the federal level, these are laws imposed by Congress that require judges to sentence a guilty offender to a minimum amount of time behind bars. This one-size-fits-all approach is flawed because it does not allow judges to exercise discretion based on the individual circumstances of the case.
In fact, the American Bar Association has long stated “that mandatory minimum sentencing laws are incompatible with the requirements for just sentencing and we support their repeal by Congress.” Read more here...
Make freedom work,
Jackie Bodnar
Director of Communications, FreedomWorks
7. Pro-Net Neutrality Groups Protest FCC Overreach - by Logan Albright
The FCC’s recent decision to reclassify the internet as a utility is ruffling some feathers, but not the ones you might expect. The Federal Communications Commission, acting under orders from the president, has been largely successful in representing its decision as a matter of Net Neutrality, of regulating the specific ways in which service providers can manage bandwidth.
While most conservatives oppose Net Neutrality itself, the changes the FCC is now making go much further - so far, in fact, that many supporters of Net Neutrality as a concept are upset at the Commission’s overreach. Read more here...
8. Judges to Congress: Let Us Issue the Punishments, Not You - by Julie Borowski
One of the problems in the criminal justice system is the existence of mandatory minimum sentences. On the federal level, these are laws imposed by Congress that require judges to sentence a guilty offender to a minimum amount of time behind bars. This one-size-fits-all approach is flawed because it does not allow judges to exercise discretion based on the individual circumstances of the case.
In fact, the American Bar Association has long stated “that mandatory minimum sentencing laws are incompatible with the requirements for just sentencing and we support their repeal by Congress.” Read more here...
Make freedom work,
Jackie Bodnar
Director of Communications, FreedomWorks
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