New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a plea filed by a Muslim woman who claimed the provision of Shariat law to the extent of not giving an equal share to a female compared to a male is “discriminatory” and violative of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
A bench of justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol was hearing the appeal against the Kerala High Court’s January 6 order filed by Bushara Ali, who claimed that it is her grievance that being a daughter, according to Shariat Law, she was only allotted half the shares as of her male counterparts.
The bench issued notice to the petitioner’s 11 siblings which include four sisters.
The plea, filed through advocate Bijo Mathew Joy, said Bushara is a decree holder in a partition suit whereby according to a preliminary decree dated January 19, 1995, she was allotted 7/152 shares of the scheduled property having 1.44 acres each.
Joy said that a status quo has also been ordered by the apex court.
The plea filed by Bushara said, “Petitioner is aggrieved by the final decree passed by the trial court wherein the petitioner was only allotted 4.82 cents of property marked as plot D of advocate commissioner’s plan.”
Bushara said her father died intestate leaving behind his wife, seven sons and five daughters.
She said in her plea, “It is the grievance of the petitioner that in spite of guarantee of the Constitution, Muslim women are subjected to discrimination. Even though the preliminary decree dated January 19, 1995 was not challenged and had become final, petitioner begs to submit that the partition of the property as per Shariat Law is discriminatory and same needs to be set aside. The Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, to the extent of not giving equal share to a female compared to a male is violative of Article 15 of the Constitution and therefore void as per Article 13 of Constitution.”
The petition said that a similar issue is pending consideration before the court.
Referring to the 2017 verdict in triple talaq case, she said the 1937 Act is a pre-constitutional legislation which would fall directly within Article 13(1) of Constitution.
Article 13(1) states “all laws in force in the territory of India immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this Part, shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void”.
Bushara said she raised the objections against the advocate commissioner’s report and plan dated 2022 before the trial court but it was dismissed and the advocate commissioner’s plan was accepted and based on that, the property having an extent of 4.82 cents was allotted to petitioner.
“The High Court in First Appeal, without even looking into the records and without considering my aforesaid objections to the Commission report erroneously dismissed the appeal,” she said.
Bushara sought interim order from the apex court restraining her siblings from alienating 80.44 cents of scheduled property as per advocate commissioner’s report dated July 25, 2022.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
But the new law has also attracted an armada of lobbyists repping a wide range of industries. Some may be making long-shot bids — lobbyists for Snap, for example, plan to ask Washington to subsidize plans to build chips for its augmented reality glasses. And filing a lobbying disclosure doesn’t necessarily mean a company will ask for money.
Still, the flood of filings illustrates the corporate free-for-all that ensues when Washington opens its checkbook — particularly early in the game, when just a few dollars in lobbying fees could reap serious rewards down the line.
“This is a low-risk, high-reward maneuver,” said Scott Lincicome, director of general economics at the libertarian Cato Institute. “It would almost be corporate malpractice to not go after that cash.”
Lincicome pointed to the broad array of organizations that can apply for the money under the CHIPS and Science Act — “literally anyone or anything that touches a semiconductor in some way is eligible,” he said.
Josh Teitelbaum, a lobbyist at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, said the lobbying frenzy is only natural: the ecosystem around the U.S. chip industry, he said, “is much broader than just the small handful of companies that do the actual fabrication.”
Teitelbaum is lobbying for CHIPS and Science dollars on behalf of Snap, which develops and manufactures glasses containing AR tech in addition to operating Snapchat, the popular social media app. According to Snap spokesperson Peter Boogard, the company wants to convince the Commerce Department to send subsidies so it can build stateside the “leading-edge semiconductor processing components” used in its AR products.
Teitelbaum suggested Snap isn’t the only unexpected company angling for a piece of CHIPS and Science money. “You could see some companies and industries weighing in that you might not necessarily expect to be there,” Teitelbaum said. “But all that is just an indication of how embedded chips are in our everyday lives.”
On top of the tens of billions in direct subsidies, the CHIPS and Science Act also earmarks roughly $200 billion in eventual funding for federal research agencies like the National Science Foundation. That money is another big draw for lobbyists — the vast majority still needs to be appropriated by Congress, and Lincicome said there is “probably going to be a lot of folks lobbying to ensure that the actual appropriation occurs.”
That’s true for the XR Association, a group representing the augmented and virtual reality industries which mounted a successful campaign to make “immersive technology” eligible for R&D funding under CHIPS and Science. The XR Association continued to lobby on the law in the final months of 2022 — and Miranda Lutz, the group’s director of public policy, said it’s now pressuring Capitol Hill to pour money into those programs.
“We’d obviously like to see full funding for NSF, [the National Institute of Standards and Technology] and some of the other agencies that would have oversight over money that could potentially flow into XR R&D,” Lutz said.
The big players
While Snap and the XR Association are open about their CHIPS and Science plans, that’s not the case for most organizations lobbying on the law.
The split funding opportunities — tens of billions of dollars in microchip subsidies along with hundreds of billions of dollars in science agency authorizations — not only give lobbyists two distinct funding flows to track. They also make it easier for companies lobbying on the law to conceal whether they’re more interested in direct subsidies or the benefits brought by boosted R&D budgets.
Despite their divergent business models, the five top U.S. tech companies — Meta, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple — all lobbied on CHIPS and Science implementation in the last three months of 2022.
Of the five, Meta was the only one that explicitly said it does not “have any plans to” ask Commerce for microchip subsidies. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company paid lobbyists to help it understand “the effect of the legislation on our device manufacturing.”
Kate Frischmann, a spokesperson for Microsoft — which paid two separate lobbying firms to work on CHIPS — said the company is merely “monitoring” its implementation (the law appropriated $1.5 billion for next-gen wireless tech, which is mentioned in one of Microsoft’s filings). Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the company backed CHIPS and Science ahead of its passage last summer, but declined to explain Google’s subsequent interest in the law’s implementation.
Spokespeople for Amazon and Amazon Web Services — both lobbied on CHIPS implementation in the final months of 2022 — declined to comment on the company’s strategy (Amazon’s filing mentions “issues related to STEM education, computer science education, and job training”). Apple spokespeople did not reply to multiple requests for comment on its interest in CHIPS implementation, but the company’s Q4 filing mentions “issues related to the domestic manufacturing of semiconductors” as well as “information related to Apple’s supply chain.”
Other big tech companies, including software firm Salesforce and networking giant Cisco Systems, lobbied Washington on CHIPS and Science at the end of last year. Salesforce spokesperson Allen Tsai said the company is focused on the law’s infrastructure, supply chain and workforce provisions. He also said Salesforce has “no plans to apply for the law’s subsidies.” A spokesperson for Cisco did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Casting Call
Big tech represents just a small slice of the companies and organizations who lobbied on CHIPS and Science’s implementation. Top defense contractors like Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics paid lobbyists to work on the law. So did HVAC companies like Carrier and Trane (chipmaking requires advanced filtration technology and climate-control systems, which could explain their interest).
The law’s implementation is a potential bonanza for a wide range of materials suppliers, including coal companies like CONSOL Energy and the American Coatings Association, which represents the paint and coatings industry. “When thinking about computer chip manufacturing, one doesn’t naturally think about massive slabs of high-grade aluminum,” reads one document submitted by aluminum supplier TST Inc. to the Commerce Department late last year. “Yet the two are inextricably connected.”
Massive labor unions, including the AFL-CIO and the Communications Workers of America, have lobbied on the law’s implementation. In a comment submitted to the Commerce Department last November, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers urged the administration to incorporate “strong labor standards” into the financial assistance given to companies.
In an apparent win for the unions, late last month the Commerce Department said it would prioritize construction projects that use project labor agreements.
A bevy of local government agencies and regional development groups, from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and the Port of Portland, all lobbied on CHIPS and Science implementation. So did some national governments — the Republic of Korea warned the Commerce Department late last year not to discriminate between U.S. and foreign-owned companies when distributing funds.
Top telecom firms like Dish Network and Lumen Technologies — likely attracted by the law’s support for advanced wireless tech — have weighed in. So have major health care companies like Baxter Healthcare, as well as biotech firms like Illumina and Novozymes.
Car companies were hit hard by the microchip shortage that began in the early months of the pandemic. Last Congress, they successfully lobbied for CHIPS and Science to include $2 billion in subsidies for the production of less-advanced “legacy” chips frequently found in automobiles. And disclosures show they were still at it after the bill’s passage — Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and Honda all lobbied on the law in the last quarter of 2022.
Then there are the universities. Higher ed has a huge financial stake in the CHIPS and Science Act, particularly when it comes to the hundreds of billions of dollars it authorizes for federal research agencies. From the University of California to MIT, Ohio State University, the University of Central Florida, Harvard, the State University of New York and (many) more, universities from across the country lobbied on the law’s implementation.
Even the crypto industry has gotten in on the action. Coinbase, the company behind one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, was among those lobbying on the law’s implementation at the end of last year. A Coinbase spokesperson said the company is most interested in a provision that requires the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to hire a cryptocurrency specialist, as well as one that directs the NSF to boost research into “distributed ledger technologies.”
There are also groups whose lobbying on CHIPS and Science defies easy explanation. AIPAC is chief among them — although filings show that Washington’s premier pro-Israel group lobbied on CHIPS and Science implementation late last year, the group did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Shipping giant FedEx, which lobbied on CHIPS and Science in the same time frame, also did not respond to multiple questions regarding its interest in the law.
A spokesperson for Audible, an online audiobook and podcast service owned by Amazon, said their Q4 lobbying on CHIPS and Science was done to ensure that the law’s discretionary spending “includes place-based criteria and funding for financing that can be directed to high growth startups interested in joining Newark’s innovation corridor” (Audible is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey).
Some lobbyists may have even been confused about the CHIPS and Science Act’s provisions. The law includes $2.5 billion for research into “advanced packaging,” which investigates how to best combine microchips into one device for maximum processing power.
That’s different from the kind of packaging that interests the Flexible Packaging Association, which represents companies that create actual packages out of materials like paper, plastic or aluminum foil and which paid a lobbyist to advocate on the law’s implementation at the end of 2022. When asked about the apparent discrepancy, FPA president and CEO Alison Keane said that while the group’s lobbyist “[does] track the act, it is not on the CHIPS side of things.”
It remains to be seen whether the flood of lobbying activity on CHIPS and Science ends with payouts for a wider range of companies than the core microchip and R&D firms. In a call with reporters late last month on the law’s implementation, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo called national security “the primary lens through which we will evaluate everything.” But Snap and Teitelbaum are so far unfazed.
“Broadly speaking, you don’t necessarily need to have a national security application in order to be eligible for this funding,” Teitelbaum said. And Lincicome highlighted the stipulations the Commerce Department recently attached to the money — including new childcare and labor requirements for firms that take more than $150 million in subsidies — to suggest the administration isn’t as serious about the national security angle as it suggests.
That would be good news for companies like Snap. And as it and a clutch of other firms make their play, Lincicome said it’s “inevitable that you’re going to have a connection between lobbying dollars and final disbursement of subsidy funds.”
“This is not corruption,” Lincicome said. “It’s just simply squeaky wheel.”
[ad_2]
#Washington #byte #CHIPS #law
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Islamabad: The two-day-long clash between former Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers with its chairman Imran Khan’s supporters and the law enforcers at the Zaman Park deepened the ongoing political and economic crisis of the country, reported The Nation.
Clashes broke out on Tuesday after the police stormed Khan’s residence to arrest him to execute a non-bailable arrest warrant issued by a local court of Islamabad in the Toshakhana case.
The high drama that continued for nearly 24 hours has only added more confusion and uncertainty about the present set-up and the fate of the general elections in the two provincial assemblies.
In the midst of a crippling economic crisis, the political polarization in the country has reached new heights. The policy confrontation between Imran Khan and the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement, a coalition of ruling parties, has now taken the shape of a vendetta, according to The Nation.
Meanwhile, Additional District and Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal announced the verdict reserved earlier redirecting the authorities concerned to arrest the former prime minister and present him before the court on March 18.
Scores of people, including police personnel and PTI workers, were injured in the process as the law enforcers fired teargas and party supporters resorted to throwing Molotov cocktails.
Legal proceedings against Khan began after he was ousted from office in a parliamentary vote early last year. Since then, he has held nationwide protest rallies demanding a snap election, during one of which he was shot and wounded, The Nation reported.
According to Geo News, the written verdict against Imran Khan’s plea said, “[…] it is concluded that the application is not justified by law as well as fact which is hereby rejected”.
Gew News reported that the verdict mentioned that the applicant has “prayed that in view of the undertaking given by him and the sureties offered by him to the satisfaction of this court, the order dated 13.03.2023 may kindly be recalled and suspend the warrant of arrest.”
“Keeping in view the law and order situation created by the applicant, he has lost some of the normal rights granted by procedural as well as substantive laws and he has to actually surrender before the court due to his defiance of the court process,” the verdict further read.
“Such eventuality is never appreciated by the court and it is regarded as willful default.”
Breaking it down: In a two-paragraph order, a three-judge panel of the appeals court denied the state’s request for a stay of the injunction from U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, who determined the anti-woke law is “positively dystopian.”
Florida’s Republican-led Legislature approved the legislation, FL HB 7 (22R), or the Individual Freedom Act, in 2022 to expand anti-discrimination laws to prohibit schools and companies from leveling guilt or blame to students and employees based on race or sex. Inspired by DeSantis, it takes aim at lessons over issues like “white privilege” by creating new protections for students and workers, including that a person should not be instructed to “feel guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin.
The law was challenged in several lawsuits, including one by FIRE and another by the ACLU, ACLU of Florida and Legal Defense Fund, both of which sued the state on behalf of students and educators. Despite the legal challenges, the DeSantis administration expects the policies to be found lawful.
“The Court did not rule on the merits of our appeal,” Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis, said in a statement. “The appeal is ongoing, and we remain confident that the law is constitutional.”
What’s next: There is no hearing currently scheduled in the case.
[ad_2]
#DeSantis #antiwoke #law #remains #blocked #Florida #colleges
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: Marriage is an institution that has to be regulated by certain laws enacted by parliament which reflects the will of the people, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Tuesday, days after the government opposed in the Supreme Court legal validation of same-sex marriage.
“The only issue with the government is marriage is an institution, it has sanctity and it must be backed by law which takes into account our traditions, our ethos, our heritage — There are so many things in our country,” he said at the Lokmat National Conclave here.
He said as a government, “we are not opposed to any kind of activities done by anybody as a citizen. As a citizen, as long as you follow the law of the land, you are free to do whatever you choose to do”.
A person of any sex can also choose to lead a particular life which is suitable to him or her, he observed.
“But when you talk about marriage, marriage is an institution. Marital institutions are guided by different specific laws … When it comes to institutions, it has to be regulated by certain laws. The law must be enacted by Parliament of India. Because Parliament of India reflects the will of the people,” he said.
Courts, Rijiju pointed out, can definitely interpret many things.
The courts can also go into certain issues which require some clarity in terms of correct interpretation, he said, adding that “we have no issue on that”.
India, the minister said, is not a country which emerged suddenly. It is an ancient country with rich cultural traditions and all customary practices.
“So, that is why our position is very clear on that,” he said in response to a question on the issue of same-sex marriage.
The Centre has opposed in the Supreme Court a batch of pleas seeking legal validation of same-sex marriage, saying it would cause complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws and accepted societal values.
Despite the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the petitioners cannot claim a fundamental right for same-sex marriage to be recognised under the laws of the country, it said.
In its affidavit, the Centre said the institution of marriage between two individuals of the same gender is neither recognised nor accepted in any uncodified personal laws or any codified statutory laws.
The state does not recognise non-heterosexual forms of marriages or unions or personal understandings of relationships between individuals in society but the same are not unlawful, it said.
On Monday, the Supreme Court referred the pleas seeking legal validation of same-sex marriages to a five-judge constitution bench for adjudication, saying the issue is of “seminal importance”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said the submissions on the issue involve an interplay between constitutional rights on the one hand and special legislative enactments, including the Special Marriage Act, on the other.
Ludhiana: The BJP on Sunday targeted the AAP government over the law and order situation, saying it has “failed” to take action against self-styled Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and his supporters in the recent Ajnala incident.
“Till today, no action has been taken by the Punjab government against the violators,” said BJP leader Kewal Singh Dhillon here while referring to the Ajnala incident.
Last month, radical preacher Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into the Ajnala police station on the outskirts of the Amritsar city, clashed with police for the release of one of Amritpal’s aide.
During the incident, six policemen, including a Superintendent of Police rank officer, suffered injuries.
BJP leader Dhillon further said, “The law and order is a state subject and responsibility of its maintenance cannot be shifted upon anyone else.”
He claimed that as a result of “deteriorating” law and order, industrialists of the state are feeling insecure and are contemplating to shift their businesses to other parts of the country.
Punjab BJP general secretary Jeewan Gupta accused the Bhagwant Mann government of not taking any step to boost industry in the state.
Geneva [Switzerland], March 9 (ANI): The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Wednesday (local time) said that the UK asylum bill would ‘undermine’ international law.
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman introduced an Illegal Migration Bill this week aimed at tackling people crossing the English Channel to reach the UK, which if passed “would amount to an asylum ban,” the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement.
The UK government has made stopping small boats arriving a top priority. Under the plans, those arriving via this route face detention and deportation. Those removed will be banned from returning.
Migrants who come to Britain illegally by boat “will be detained, removed” and “banned from re-entering” the country,” said the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Over 45,000 people illegally crossed the Channel in small boats last year.
“That is unfair to those who come here legally and unfair on the British people who play by the rules. Today’s Illegal Migration Bill introduces new laws to stop the boats,” said Sunak.
“The Illegal Migration Bill ensures that if you come to the UK illegally you can’t stay. People must know that coming here illegally will result in their detention and swift removal – once they do, they will not come, and the boats will stop,” he added.
But the UNHCR said Tuesday the bill would be a “clear breach” of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which defines refugees as those who are seeking refuge from persecution. It also gives them the right to not be sent back home into harm’s way, except under extreme circumstances.
“Most people fleeing war and persecution are simply unable to access the required passports and visas. There are no safe and ‘legal’ routes available to them. Denying them access to asylum on this basis undermines the very purpose for which the Refugee Convention was established,” added the statement from the agency.
As per the Illegal Migration Bill, people who come to the UK illegally cannot claim asylum, benefit from UK’s modern slavery protections, make spurious human rights claims and also cannot sytay in the country.
“Today we are introducing new laws that mean if you come to the UK illegally you will be banned from ever re-entering our country. This is how we will break the business model of the people smugglers; this is how we will take back control of our borders,” said Sunak.
“If you come to the UK illegally you will be stopped from making late claims and attempts to frustrate your removal. You will be removed in weeks, either to your own country if it is safe to do so, or to a safe third country like Rwanda,” added the UK PM.
An increasing number of refugees and migrants fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty risk the perilous crossing between Britain and France every year, inflaming a national debate on the issue of migrant crossings to the UK.
Tens of thousands of people travel in dinghies unfit for the voyage, and at the mercy of people smugglers, hoping to claim asylum or economic opportunities in the UK. In 2022, 45,755 people crossed the Channel in small boats, according to UK government data. More than 3,000 people have already made the crossing this year.
Last year, the UK government announced a scheme which would see asylum seekers deemed to have entered the UK illegally sent to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed.
The first planned deportation flight to Rwanda was blocked under the European Convention of Human Rights, a major point of contention in post-Brexit British politics.
However, the controversial policy was deemed lawful by the country’s High Court in December. (ANI)
Chandigarh: The Punjab government has told the high court that granting frequent parole to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two disciples, may lead to law and order problems in the state.
The Punjab government’s response to a Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) petition against giving parole to the dera chief is in contrast to the Haryana government’s reply to the petition.
Supporting parole for Ram Rahim Singh, the Haryana government had said in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that he does not fall under the definition of a hardcore prisoner and cannot be termed a serial killer. He has also been convicted in two murder cases.
The dera chief was granted 40-day parole on January 20.
The SGPC, an apex gurdwara body, had recently challenged the parole order in Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The Punjab government has cited the “mayhem” created by supporters of the Dera chief in Haryana’s Panchkula when he was convicted in the rape case in 2017 as a reason for its stand.
It also told the court that some sections of society may compare the frequent temporary parole to the dera chief to the cases of some people who have been in jail for a long time. Several Sikh bodies, including the SGPC, have been demanding the release of ‘Bandi Singhs’ (Sikh prisoners), which they claim are lodged in jails despite having completed their sentences.
“In the present case, respondent number-9 (the dera chief) has been granted parole a number of times in the last year. That information has been obtained from concerned quarters as per which the temporary release of respondent number 9 from custody is likely to create disturbance in the law and order situation in the state of Punjab,” Punjab ADGP (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla said in an affidavit filed in the court.
According to the Punjab government, granting frequent parole to Ram Rahim Singh has led to resentment in a particular religious community and has created a “festive and celebratory atmosphere” among the dera followers, which is highly resented by some sections of the society.
“That there is an apprehension of disturbance to law and order situation in the state of Punjab as persons opposed to the respondent no 9 may hold protests in the state of Punjab which may extend to activities like burning effigies/traffic jams/dharnas to express displeasure against the temporary release of respondent no -9,” the Punjab government told the court.
In 2021, the dera chief, along with four others, was also convicted for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a dera manager. The dera chief and three others were convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.
“I think that’s where most of the caucus is. Most of the caucus sees the mayor in a reasonable position as saying: 95 percent of this is really good, some of this is problematic. And we need to keep working on it,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said after the meeting.
Biden’s much-anticipated Thursday remarks end several weeks of mystery surrounding his handling of a politically perilous vote for his party. And it comes as the president moves to strengthen the ties with Hill Democrats that propelled him to the party’s nomination.
The president also told Senate Democrats during their meeting that he wants to see immigration reform on the floor, according to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and left several Democratic senators with the distinct impression that he’s running for reelection. In addition, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said that Biden addressed the debt ceiling by remarking that he’s waiting for Republicans to show him a budget.
Following their meeting, Schumer also told reporters that the president would support Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and J.D. Vance’s (R-Ohio) bill on railroad protections following the East Palestine train derailment in their state, along with tackling insulin prices for people under 65. The debt limit and budget, along with an “online protection tech bill for kids,” were also discussed, Schumer said.
“We had a great meeting,” Schumer said as he exited the meeting with Biden. “We talked about implementing the great accomplishments of the president of the last two years. We believe we can get a lot of good bipartisan stuff done in these two years. We are filled with unity, optimism, and optimism about 2024.”
But Biden’s most potent comments came on the GOP efforts to unravel the criminal code reform that the D.C. Council passed over Mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto. That citywide legislation would scrap some mandatory minimum sentences and change some criminal penalties. Senators cannot filibuster the rollback as a result of the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress special oversight over local Washington affairs.
After the meeting, Biden tweeted that he supports D.C. statehood and local autonomy but does not “support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections — such as lowering penalties for carjackings. If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did — I’ll sign it.”
Senate Democrats have squirmed for two-plus weeks over the vote, which Republicans plan to force to the floor as soon as next week and would be the first congressional override of local D.C. affairs since 1991. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) predicted that “there will be substantial bipartisan support for a resolution to reject the proposed changes.”
Besides the obvious implications of a vote on the potent political issue of crime, some Senate Democrats are plainly uncomfortable with congressional intervention in D.C.’s affairs.
“I’m disappointed. First of all, I hope the Senate would not pass it. But I think it’s pretty clear they will,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “And to me, the Congress should not substitute its judgment for the elected representatives of the people of the District of Columbia.”
Yet it appears that Democrats’ discomfort with the D.C. law — a near-rewrite of the capital’s criminal code — is carrying more weight than their natural inclination not to interfere.
“I guess [Biden] thinks it’s too far — a bridge too far, which it really is. I’m glad he said that,” Manchin said leaving the meeting, adding that he clapped loudly when Biden disclosed his view to his fellow Democrats.
House Republicans first teed up the bill in February, amid a highly public clash between D.C.’s council and its mayor over the sweeping crime bill. In the House, the GOP-led bill won support from 31 Democrats, many of them moderates who have already called for stronger action on nationwide rise in crime since the pandemic. One swing-seat Democrat who backed the bill, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), voted for it mere hours after she was assaulted in her D.C. apartment building.
Biden’s move to let Congress stop the criminal code changes in D.C. may aggravate locals, but will be a relief to many congressional Democrats who are weary of GOP attacks on them over progressive urban crime proposals. And it comes as prominent Democrats are talking less about Biden’s age or whether he should run again and more about working together heading into the 2024 election.
In the meeting on Thursday, Biden’s reelection campaign did not explicitly come up but it was mostly assumed he’s running again: “I didn’t hear negative vibes on that,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).
“The pieces are together. He’ll run again. And he’ll get full support from the caucus,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “It’s a good feel overall.”
But not everyone is feeling the love. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), an outspoken progressive who’s mostly pro-Biden, said he’s had a couple issues lately with the president. He cited the administration’s new effort to restrict asylum in certain migration cases — “that’s a bad policy,” he said — and then a lack of public follow-through on an environmental justice initiative.
And this week, Bowman said he was “hurt” by the Biden team’s handling of a Black History Month celebration at the White House, which he said was so crowded that several of his colleagues left early rather than try to fight for space.
“They had us packed in the room like sardines,” Bowman said of the White House event, comparing it to better-planned events that span multiple rooms, like the annual Christmas party. “That was, to me, very disrespectful. A slap in the face.”
For now, though, Bowman’s view is an outlier. And Biden got a warm welcome Wednesday night when he visited a group of House Democrats in Baltimore at their annual policy retreat.
Reflecting on their much-improved rapport with Biden since last year’s squabbling over his party-line agenda, many Democrats said there was little doubt he would glide to the nomination in 2024.
“If we, the elected officials, are not with him. I think he’s going to have a very difficult time winning reelection. I gotta tell you, I just don’t see people being against him,” said Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.).
“I look at everybody else who’s out there. I mean, he’s a little old. That’s true, he’s gotta address that. But other than his age, he’s the best guy we have in my opinion.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#Biden #wont #veto #GOP #effort #repeal #D.C #crime #law
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
