Rolling Stone - Senate Moves Forward With Bipartisan Bill to Rein in Jeff Sessions

[TomCADem]

While Republicans try to justify tearing down Medicaid and the ACA on the grounds of State's rights, Jeff Sessions is trying to micromanage drug policy from the Nation's capitol.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/senate-moves-forward-with-bill-to-rein-in-jeff-sessions-w482927

Bluntly calling out Attorney General Jeff Sessions' hard-line stance on criminal justice as "wrong," a "mistake" and "aggressive," Senators Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, and Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, have pledged to fight for sentencing reform.

"We've been working on trying to get rid of some of the injustice of mandatory minimums and give judges more discretion," Paul said in a telephone press conference Wednesday. The Justice Safety Valve Act, introduced to the Senate by Paul, Leahy and Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley, would empower federal judges to give out sentences below the mandatory minimum in certain cases. The law could go a long way towards neutralizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions' memo, issued earlier this month, directing prosecutors to seek the toughest possible sentences, even in cases of non-violent drug offenders. The memo rolls back the criminal justice reforms that took place during the Obama administration.

At the time, Sessions defended the memo by citing President Trump's broadly-defined vow to protect the American public from threats both foreign and domestic. "This is a key part of President Trump's promise to keep America safe," Sessions said. "If you are a drug trafficker, we will not look the other way. We will not be willfully blind to your conduct."

Paul and Leahy pointed out that rather than keep Americans safe, the drug war Sessions seems eager to revive ties judges' hands and needlessly ruins lives, all while being very costly to taxpayers. "We know it doesn't work, now we're trying to get something done that does work," Paul said.

[Best_man23]

1. They should take this opportunity

To deschedule marijuana.

[JudyM]

5. +1

[bresue]

2. WOW! A RUBLICAN DISAGREEING WITH A PARTY MEMBER!!!

In addition, I have always felt that rehabilitated and former inmates should receive their voting rights or not have to pay taxes.

[Cha]

3. KICK

[sheshe2]

4. KnR

[Scurrilous]

6. K&R