CONYERS Bill To Add More Judges To Detroit Bankruptcy Court Set To Become Law; Helps Residents Seekk Economic Relief

Conyers Bill Included as part of Legislation Providing Funds for Disaster Relief

Washington, D.C. –H.R. 2266, a $36.5 billion humanitarian aid package for victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate passed the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and is now set to become law. The bill includes an amended version of Congressman John Conyers’ (MI-13) legislation that will extend 14 temporary bankruptcy judgeships and establish four additional bankruptcy judgeships across the Nation.  The bill extends the temporary bankruptcy judgeship in the Eastern District of Michigan as well as authorizes an additional bankruptcy judgeship for that District, which serves the City of Detroit.  

According to the Judicial Conference, without extending the temporary judgeship and adding another judgeship for the Eastern District of Michigan, the District’s caseload would exceed by 40 percent of the caseload standard for a federal judicial district.  The legislation passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives on October 12^th, the U.S. Senate on October 24^th and now heads to the president’s desk for signature.

Congressman Conyers released the following statement:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“This legislation will ensure that citizens of Detroit, especially those facing economic distress, are able to obtain financial relief from a fully-staffed bankruptcy court.  While I would have preferred the original version of my legislation, which would have made these judgeships permanent, I am pleased that Congress took action.  

“H.R. 2266 also contains much needed economic aid to those who were harmed by recent hurricanes and wildfires and provides critical debt relief to the citizens of Puerto Rico by forgiving certain flood insurance obligations and loans owed by the Commonwealth.

“This aid package reflects how our Nation -- when called upon to address overwhelming devastation resulting from natural disaster and economic distress -- can come together to provide critical aid to those most in need.”

In addition to extending a temporary bankruptcy judgeship and adding an additional bankruptcy judge in Detroit, this legislation will expand temporary judgeships in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and Virginia. The legislation also adds additional bankruptcy judges in Delaware and Maryland.  The Judicial Conference of the United States has warned that without this legislation, the Nation’s bankruptcy courts would “face a serious and, in many cases, debilitating workload crisis if these temporary judgeships were to expire.” 

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In Wake of Federal Updates, Maryland Becomes First State to Issue Profiling Guidance

Surrounded by a national conversation about police brutality and law enforcement’s treatment of minorities, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh on August 25 issued guidance designed to ban discriminatory profiling by law enforcement on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender identity.

“Police do a dangerous, difficult job, and they do it well. But experience shows us that improper profiling by police does terrible damage,” Frosh said. “The memorandum we are issuing today is meant to put an end to profiling of all kinds, which will help repair the frayed relationships between police and many in the community by making mutual respect the norm in everyday police encounters.”

Maryland is now the first state to issue guidance since the U.S. Department of Justice issued its own updated profiling guidance in December 2014. Like Maryland’s, the federal guidance expanded the ban on profiling to include additional identity categories beyond just race and ethnicity – an expansion that Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference, said would “make law enforcement both more effective and reflective of our national commitment to fairness and diversity.”

That federal guidance, however, maintained troubling exceptions and loopholes, such as not applying to state and local law enforcement. That’s why – though it doesn’t create enforceable rights – it’s up to states to issue their own version of the federal guidelines.

The Leadership Conference and 80 other national, state, and local organizations in February 2015 sent a letter to President Obama expressing their concerns with the administration’s guidance, including the exception for state and local law enforcement.

“State and local law enforcement agencies like the NYPD, the Ferguson Police Department, and the Cleveland Police Department have encounters with community members every day that raise serious concerns about discriminatory policing,” the letter stated.

In April 2015, Sen. Ben Cardin, D. Md., and Rep. John Conyers, D. Mich., reintroduced the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA), which would prohibit profiling by federal, state, local, and Indian tribal law enforcement on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation – the same categories as the DOJ’s federal guidance. That legislation, which is stalled in both chambers of Congress, would apply to state and local agencies exempted by federal guidelines.

In Wake of Federal Updates, Maryland Becomes First State to Issue Profiling Guidance - See more at: http://www.civilrights.org/archives/2015/1535-maryland-profiling-guidance.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/#sthash.2ulTumcV.dpuf

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