Free Republic

For anyone who is paying attention, it’s beginning to look more and more like there won’t be any serious consequences for wrongdoing inside the FBI and DOJ. Yes, Attorney General Barr understands the critical nature of all this. The Durham investigation grinds on at glacial speed. They face a herd of musk ox. The insiders have formed a circle, horns out. Insiders are clearly signaling that they are far more interested in defending their institutions than in defending the truth. If there were any serious attempt to hold the bad apples accountable, we would have seen evidence of it long...

SACRAMENTO (AP) – California will consider legislation that would wipe the low-level criminal records of about 2 million people going back decades, part of a lawmaker’s second attempt to remove barriers to finding work or housing. The measure is part of a provision that was removed from a bill approved last year that would expunge records of certain arrests and crimes starting in 2021.Its author, Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, proposed the new bill on Monday with the backing of district attorneys from San Francisco and San Joaquin County. Officials said records like being arrested for domestic violence...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today sent a letter to members of Congress with an update on California’s implementation of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). In the letter, the Attorney General urged Congress to use federal legislation to build on rather than preempt the consumer rights and privacy protections made possible by the CCPA or other state law. Attorney General Becerra further emphasized that Congress should provide consumers with greater enforcement power and be a partner to the states in the work of protecting consumer privacy.“I invite Congress to look to the states as...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov LOS ANGELES – Pursuant to the authority granted under Assembly Bill 90 of 2017 (AB 90), California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced that the California Department of Justice (DOJ) will conduct an independent review of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) records and policies regarding the use of CalGang, a criminal intelligence database used by law enforcement agencies to share gang-related intelligence. This review comes as a result of reports that LAPD officers falsified field records used to identify possible gang members. LAPD has commenced its own internal investigation in response to the reports.“Transparency and accountability are...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced leading a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief blasting the Trump Administration for moving the goalposts on asylum eligibility. The amicus brief is in support of asylum-seekers who have already been trapped at the border for months, waiting to apply for protection due to the Administration’s unlawful policies. Now, they are being forced to challenge the Trump Administration’s decision to arbitrarily further change the rules and bar tens of thousands of people from asylum if they did not apply in a third country while en route to...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov SACRAMENTO – Attorney General Becerra today led a coalition of 20 states and D.C. in filing a reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in California v. Texas. In the brief, the attorneys general reiterate the harms this ACA Repeal Case is causing our healthcare system and Americans’ healthcare. The brief also opposes arguments by the Trump Administration and the Texas coalition that the case should be sent back to the district court, and urges the Supreme Court to take up the case to resolve uncertainty in the healthcare market.“Today, our coalition made clear that we...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.govSACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today filed two multistate comment letters in opposition to federal proposals that roll back critical anti-discrimination protections for patients and students. Both of these proposals stem from President Trump’s Executive Order that allows faith-based organizations to deny services. In the first proposal, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would eliminate transparency requirements for faith-based providers that help patients to understand their rights and access referrals to care from alternative providers. In the second, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is vastly expanding the definition used to claim a religious...

  Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, leading a coalition of 21 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief in support of a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion care in Preterm-Cleveland, et al. v. Himes. The case involves an Ohio law that criminalizes abortion before viability based on a woman’s reason for seeking abortion, running in direct conflict with the Supreme Court precedent set in Roe v. Wade. The amicus brief reaffirms the coalition’s previous support for Preterm-Cleveland and argues that the preliminary injunction issued by the Sixth Circuit Court should again be upheld by the en banc panel.“This year marks the 100th anniversary...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov California’s response letter makes clear state did not violate lawCalifornia submits FOIA request for OCR records to dispute claims and protect state interestsSACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and California Governor Gavin Newsom today sent a letter on behalf of the State of California responding to the January 24 Notice of Violation (Notice) issued by the Trump Administration’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The Notice alleged that California law, which requires health plans in the state to offer abortion coverage, violates the Weldon Amendment, a federal appropriations rider that is intended to restrict abortion. In their response, the state leaders defend California law...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the California Natural Resources Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency today filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration for failing to protect endangered fish species from federal water export operations.The lawsuit asserts that biological opinions prepared by federal agencies under the Endangered Species Act to direct water project operations lack safeguards for protected species and their habitat in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds, including the Bay-Delta. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit requests that the court declare the Trump...

Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general filing an amicus brief in support of the children who are plaintiffs in Flores v. Barr. The case, currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, involves the Trump Administration’s attempts to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which has governed the treatment of children in immigration custody since 1997. In the amicus brief, the coalition urges the court to uphold the permanent injunction issued by the district court, preventing the federal government from keeping children in prolonged and unnecessary detention.“Children...