Judiciary

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) decried the treatment of a 16-year-old Memphis girl who has not been convicted but was held 40 days at the adult West Tennessee State Penitentiary before her bail was posted by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a national human rights organization. The Congressman made the following statement:

WASHINGTON – President Trump finally made a call to James Shaw Jr., the hero who disarmed the April 22 Nashville Waffle House shooter, on Monday, a day after Steve Cohen (TN-09) chided Trump for not having done so in an MSNBC interview Sunday. The Congressman made the following statement:

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) went to the House floor this afternoon to commend recent acts of heroism by Southwest Airlines Pilot Tammie Jo Shults and Waffle House patron James Shaw Jr. whose courageous acts saved lives. See his remarks here.
"Malevolent actions and accidents give an opportunity for people to rise to heroic actions," Congressman Cohen said. "America is a country familiar with heroes."

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) praised the quick-wittedness of James Shaw Jr., a bystander who intervened in Sunday morning's deadly Waffle House shooting in Nashville. Congressman Cohen also commended Nashville Mayor David Briley for calling for comprehensive gun reform after the use of an assault-style rifle in the pre-dawn attack.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) went to the floor of the House today to praise the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray and to commend the professionalism and courage of Justice Department officials pursuing a criminal investigation of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen that appears irksome to President Trump. See the entire speech here.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, today joined Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler and Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism Homeland Security and Investigations Ranking Member Sheila Jackson-Lee and other members of the House Judiciary Committee in introducing the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, welcomed a Maryland federal judge's ruling today allowing a lawsuit alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution's emoluments clauses against President Trump to go forward.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today recalled the important role Linda Brown played in the unanimous landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that declared state laws creating separate schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. Brown died Sunday at 75.
Congressman Cohen made the following remarks:

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today welcomed rapidly increasing support for his discharge petition to force a vote on his bipartisan Special Counsel Integrity Act (H.R. 4669). Under House rules, if a majority of the House signs onto a discharge petition, the bill is automatically sent to the floor for a vote.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today filed a discharge petition to require House Speaker Paul Ryan to call for a floor vote on the Special Counsel Integrity Act (H.R. 4669), a bill he and Walter Jones (R-N.C.) introduced in December to create procedural protections for independent special prosecutors. The bill would prohibit a special prosecutor from being fired without appropriate cause, and allow a special prosecutor who has been removed to seek judicial review of such removal.