Nominee's Background:
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Representative John Conyers, Jr., a Detroit Democrat, was re-elected to the 14th Congressional District in November 2006, to his 21 term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Having entered the House of Representatives in 1964, Mr. Conyers is the second most senior member in the House of Representatives. After serving as Chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations (now renamed Government Reform) from 1989 until 1994, Congressman Conyers was elected by his congressional colleagues to lead, as Chairman, the pivotal House Committee on the Judiciary.
In addition to its oversight of the Department of Justice (including the FBI) and the Federal Courts, the Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over copyright, constitutional, consumer protection, and civil rights issues. Congressman Conyers was also a member of the Judiciary Committee in its 1974 hearings on the Watergate impeachment scandal and played a prominent role in the recent impeachment process, giving him the distinction as the only Judiciary Committee Member to have served on both panels. Congressman Conyers is also one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and is considered the Dean of that group. Formed in 1969, the CBC was founded to strengthen African-American law makers ability to address the legislative concerns of Black and minority citizens. In Mr. Conyers' 40 plus years in Congress, some of his major accomplishments include: the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the Motor Voter Bill of 1993, the Martin Luther King Holiday Act of 1983, the Alcohol Warning Label Act of 1988, the Jazz Preservation Act of 1987, and was the driving force behind the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Most recently, he led efforts to investigate irregularities in the Ohio presidential election.
Nominating Speech:
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Progressive Criteria:
The Justice Department will: Work to make sure that law enforcement protects the rights and common interests of all citizens, fairly and equally;
Remember that the first law of the land is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights;
Prosecute corporations vigorously and energetically when they harm the interests of ordinary citizens;
Enforce antitrust laws and work to have them strengthened;
Reexamine the legal status and role of corporations in our society, emphasizing that "personhood" is reserved for humans, not corporations
Protect civil rights and affirmative action;
Protect government and corporate whistle-blowers;
Remember that the USA is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and run the FBI and Bureau of Prisons accordingly.
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