June, 13 2017, 02:30pm EDT
ACLU Statement on Restrictions of Press Interviews in Capitol
Senate staff has started barring reporters from recording video or audio interviews in the halls of the Capitol without permission, reversing decades of common practice.
American Civil Liberties Union Political Director Faiz Shakir had this statement:
"Preventing the press from informing the public about the workings of their own government goes against the core values of our democracy. For decades, the Capitol building has been open for recorded interviews, which provide a critical window into the legislative process.
WASHINGTON
Senate staff has started barring reporters from recording video or audio interviews in the halls of the Capitol without permission, reversing decades of common practice.
American Civil Liberties Union Political Director Faiz Shakir had this statement:
"Preventing the press from informing the public about the workings of their own government goes against the core values of our democracy. For decades, the Capitol building has been open for recorded interviews, which provide a critical window into the legislative process.
"Closing the shutters now, while Congress is secretly considering a bill that would cause over 20 million people to lose health insurance, is utterly unreasonable and flies in the face of the First Amendment."
This statement is online here:
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-statement-restrictions-press-interviews-capitol
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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Biden Commutes 1,500 Sentences and Issues 39 Pardons—But Leaves 40 People on Death Row
"State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and President Biden has an opportunity and an obligation to save lives," Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley said earlier this week.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
But the president's sweeping use of his clemency power as his term nears its conclusion did not appear to extend to any of the 40 men currently on death row—some of whom have been there for decades.
According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
In a statement on Thursday, Biden said that he has "the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
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The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
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