Judiciary
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today applauded New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order to ensure independent prosecution of police-related civilian deaths, and called on Congress to enact Police Training and Independent Review Act of 2015.
[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement about several recent fires at historically black churches in states across the South, including Tennessee:
“I am very concerned with the recent string of fires at black churches across the South. We must fully and quickly investigate them and bring any responsible parties to justice. Places of worship should be sacred, and those who seek to destroy them cannot be tolerated by our society.”
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, welcomed today’s Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission Supreme Court ruling that citizens have the right to determine how federal elections are conducted in their individual states.
Dear Friend,
I am writing you from Charleston, South Carolina, where I joined President Obama and Members of Congress today in paying my respects to the victims of the Charleston Church shooting. This week, we saw a number of changes in our country, the Supreme Court ruled that Memphians can keep the healthcare subsidies they receive through the Affordable Care Act and also ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry in all 50 states, and Governor Haslam called for the Confederate flag to be removed from Tennessee license plates.
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, issued the following statement reacting to the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v Hodges ruling that affirmed the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry and have their marriages recognized by states. This ruling also decides the Tanko v. Haslam case in which a Memphis couple, Thom Kostura and Ijpe DeKoe (an Army Reserve sergeant), married in New York and then relocated—on military orders—to Memphis.
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Two years to the day after a Supreme Court decision eviscerated civil rights protections enshrined in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) continued his efforts to fully restore those protections by cosponsoring the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, which was introduced by Congresswoman Terri Sewell (AL-07).
Dear Friend,
The senseless Emanuel AME Church murders are so horrific and so sad that they are hard to fathom. There are still some in America who are so full of hate that we must ask what put this young man on this path. Read my full statement on Wednesday’s shootings in Charleston here.
[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement on today’s ruling of the Supreme Court that states have the right to reject specialty license plate designs, like those including Confederate flags, that it does not wish to promote:
[WASHINGTON, DC] – The Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2015, which was introduced earlier this year by Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) and Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Lamar Smith (TX-21) to protect consumers from unfair taxes on digital goods, was approved by the House Judiciary Committee today on a voice vote and now awaits consideration by the full House. The legislation, H.R.