Judiciary
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), who was in the House Chamber when a riotous mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, today spoke on the House floor in favor of the bipartisan January 6 Commission modeled on the 9/11 Commission that reviewed the September, 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In his remarks from the floor, Congressman Cohen said in part:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today presided at a historic hearing entitled "Continuing Injustice: The Centennial of the Tulsa-Greenwood Race Massacre." The hearing featured three survivors of the May 31 – June 1, 1921 massacre that destroyed the Black Greenwood section of Tulsa, a prosperous community known as "the Black Wall Street." One survivor, 106-year-old Lessie Beddingfield Randle, told the panel: "I have waited so long for justice."
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today spoke from the House floor in support of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, intended to address violence aimed at Asian Americans during the pandemic and intended to improve the reporting and enforcement of all hate crimes more broadly.
The measure is expected to pass the House later today.
In his remarks, Congressman Cohen said in part:
WASHINGTON – Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09), Barbara Lee (CA-13) and Bobby L. Rush (IL-01) will hold a virtual forum on the FBI's notorious COINTELPRO program recently featured in the Academy Award-winning film "Judas and the Black Messiah," which dramatizes the FBI-orchestrated assassination of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in 1969. The forum will be on Monday, May 10, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, this evening wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, asking him to comply with a recent federal judge's order and release information about how his predecessor, William Barr, misled the federal courts and the American public about the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and provided misleading information to both Congress and the American public.
MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today urged Chairman Jerrold Nadler to join him and encourage Attorney General Merrick Garland to release information about former Attorney General William Barr's efforts to cover up the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and mislead Congress and the public about the contents of the Special Counsel's report and decision not to pursue criminal charges against former President Trump.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, today presided at a hearing on "Oversight of the Voting Rights Act: The Evolving Landscape of Voting Discrimination."
In his opening statement, Chairman Cohen said:
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, released this statement after a Minneapolis jury convicted former Officer Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd.
"The jury has spoken and justice has been served."
Congressman Cohen, the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, was a co-sponsor and voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which includes provisions for police accountability that he authored.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, today applauded the Judiciary Committee vote sending H.R. 40, legislation to create a commission to study reparations for African Americans, to the House floor. This historic development follows Chairman Cohen's presiding at a February 17 hearing on the measure first proposed more than 30 years ago by the late Congressman John Conyers of Michigan.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Judiciary Committees, has reintroduced the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Second Screening Act. The bill would permit passengers being screened at TSA checkpoints to opt for a second electronic screening, rather than an automatic physical pat-down, when they believe they have produced a false positive result because of inadvertent movement or mistakenly having a foreign object in a pocket.