Lawmakers Consider Bill to Classify Some Fatal Fentanyl Poisonings as First Degree Murder

Fentanyl pills

An Arizona bill would increase the criminal penalties for those convicted in a fentanyl-related death.

Senate Bill 1344, introduced by state Sen. Anthony Kern, would make certain fentanyl drug deaths classified as first-degree murder. This means someone could face life behind bars or the death penalty if they are found guilty, according to a state law. 

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ASU Theology Professor Warns University Uses ‘DEI Questions’ to ‘Screen’ Professors in Hiring Process

Arizona State University (ASU) theology professor Dr. Owen Anderson claimed the university now uses Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) questions to “screen” and exclude job applicants during the hiring process. Dr. Anderson revealed this information to The Arizona Sun Times when reached to discuss a recent hearing in the Arizona Legislature that examined freedom of expression at the taxpayer-funded institution.

Anderson, who is also a pastor at the Historic Christian Church of Phoenix, told The Sun Times ASU uses “DEI questions in hiring to screen candidates,” which Anderson said “means only candidates that agree with their left wing agenda are hired.”

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Arizona Lawmakers Hold First Committee Hearing Investigating Free Speech at State Public Universities

Republican lawmakers led the first legislative committee hearing on Tuesday to investigate the freedom of speech in Arizona’s public universities and to look into the events surrounding a program titled “Health, Wealth and Happiness,” presented by Arizona State University (ASU)‘s T.W. Lewis Center.

The formation of the committee follows officials at ASU allegedly firing university administrator and director of the T.W. Lewis Center, Ann Atkinson, for bringing conservative speakers Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk onto campus earlier this year for the “Health, Wealth and Happiness” program which focused on professional development and networking.

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Feinstein Asks Schumer for Temporary Replacement on Judiciary amid Long Absence, Calls to Resign

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced Wednesday that she intends to return to the Senate upon recovering from shingles, but she also asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to meanwhile appoint a temporary replacement for her on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Her absence from the committee, and her vote, has stalled the confirmation of President Biden judicial nominees – the biggest political concern among fellow Senate Democrats regarding her absence. 

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Commentary: Gender Ideology is Losing and the Equal Rights Amendment Should, Too

Medical professionals and the public are pushing back against radical gender ideologies that have claimed the minds, bodies, and lives of too many children. Those at war against biological sex are losing — but only if the ERA is defeated, too.

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee hosted its latest hearing on the Equal Rights Amendment. This time, to consider the merits of removing the amendments’ pesky expiration date.

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AG Merrick Garland Faces Republicans on Senate Judiciary Committee Over Weaponization of DOJ Against Parents, Catholics, and Pro-Life Activists

Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to face tough questions from Republican senators Wednesday regarding what many in the nation say has been the purposeful weaponization of the Department of Justice against parents of schoolchildren, Catholics who live their faith in the public square, and activists who fight for the vulnerable unborn.

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Democrats Celebrate 100 Federal Judicial Nominee Confirmations But Michael Delaney ‘Problematic’ for Biden and Schumer

The Democrat-controlled Senate is celebrating the confirmation of 100 of Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, approved by radical left-wing organizations, but Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing saw Biden nominee Michael Delaney struggling against an onslaught of confrontation over his move in 2015 to publicly release the name of a minor female victim of sexual assault while he represented her school.

By nominating representatives of these radical positions, Biden is “paying back the left-wing dark money groups who spent over a billion dollars to help elect him and Senate Democrats,” Carrie Severino, president of JCN, formerly known as Judicial Crisis Network, told Fox News Digital.

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New Bills Coming from Republican State Senators Seek to Give Greater Protection to Arizona Children and Victims of Abuse

Three new Senate Bills (SB) have been introduced between State Senators Sine Kerr (R-Buckeye) and Janae Shamp (R-Suprise), which aim to provide more protections to children and victims of abuse. Kayleigh Kozak, the Arizonan behind the state’s new “Kayleigh’s Law,” called on residents to support these bills’ passage.

“Prioritize protecting children, victims and our communities,” Kozak shared. “Attend the Arizona State Senate this Thursday, February 9th at 8 am in Senate Hearing Room 1. Sign up to speak or simply show up.

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Feds Raid the Home of Former Trump DOJ Official Who Wanted to Investigate Allegations of Voter Fraud

In a pre-dawn raid Wednesday, armed federal law enforcement agents searched the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump Justice Department official who has emerged as a central figure in the partisan House Select Committee’s investigation into the January 6 riot.

Clark’s name was expected to come up in the Jan. 6 Committee hearing on Thursday.

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Commentary: Make the Judiciary Great Again by Holding Senators Accountable

Following four days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in late March, the full Senate voted 53-47 last week to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as an associate justice of the Supreme Court—fulfilling Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to name a black woman to the high court. Three Republican senators joined their Democratic colleagues in voting to confirm Jackson—Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Maine’s Susan Collins, and Utah’s Mitt Romney.

Imagine a slightly different scenario: a Republican president nominates someone to serve on the Supreme Court and asks a 50-50 Senate to confirm that person. You can be absolutely sure that Democrats would force the vice president to break the tie to get that nominee on the bench. Remember when, in 2016, President Trump nominated Betsy Devos to be secretary of education   and Vice President Mike Pence had to break a tie, even without an evenly split Senate?

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40 Pro-Life Leaders Expose Biden Supreme Court Justice Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s ‘Pro-Abortion Extremism’

Ketanji Brown Jackson

A coalition of nearly 40 national pro-life leaders sent a letter to the chairs of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Monday specifying the radical pro-abortion record of Biden Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Led by the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), the coalition’s letter was addressed to the committee’s chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) as confirmation hearings began for Jackson, who was chosen by Biden following the announcement of his commitment to nominate a black woman to the nation’s highest court.

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Republicans Focus on Jackson’s Positions on Terrorists, Sex Offenders as Nomination Hearing Opens

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Republicans are stressing the need to closely review Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s record as the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin hearings on Monday for the first black woman nominated to the Supreme Court.

The GOP is already facing accusations of racism from outlets such as the Daily Kos, Slate and Vanity Fair for questioning whether Jackson should be confirmed.

Jackson has been criticized for her vehement defense of terrorism suspects as a public defender. She has also faced concerns over a paper she wrote in the 1990s criticizing “excessiveness” in punishments for sex offenders.

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Commentary: Election Overseer Found Democratic National Committee, Chalupa Broke Rules over Ukraine, Then Reversed Its Finding After January 6

Though ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was never charged with conspiring with Russia, he did go to jail for, among other things, failing to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. The Democratic National Committee operative who helped get him booted from the campaign should be investigated for the same violation, Republican Senators say.

Former DNC contractor and opposition researcher Alexandra “Ali” Chalupa not only worked closely with the Ukrainian Embassy and Clinton campaign, trading dirt on Manafort and Trump, but also Congress and the Obama White House, State Department and even the FBI. “At the center of the [Ukraine foreign influence] plan was Alexandra Chalupa,” GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asserted.

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Arizona Could Stop Cities from Seeking Union Labor Preferences Before Granting Permits

New legislation in Phoenix would keep cities from nudging private businesses and others into a union shop before giving permission to build.

Although explicitly requiring union labor is illegal in Arizona, an amendment to Senate Bill 1191 would block cities from limiting a zoning permit, zoning variance, rezoning application, general plan amendment or other permit or land use requirement to those who promise to use union labor or only use contractors paying union wages. If enacted, it also would ban public works projects from having similar requirements or disclosing union ties in a bid.

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Amazon and Facebook Spent More Money Than Ever Lobbying in 2021

Amazon and Facebook parent company Meta spent more money in 2021 lobbying lawmakers and officials than any year before, according to lobbying disclosure filings.

Amazon spent $20.3 million on lobbying while Meta spent $20.1 million in 2021, according to a review of lobbying disclosure filings by MarketWatch. The figures are record totals for both tech companies, who spent $18.9 million and $19.7 million on lobbying in 2020, respectively.

Google’s lobbying spend for 2021 clocked in at $11.5 million, while Microsoft spent $10.3 million and Apple spent $6.5 million, according to MarketWatch’s review.

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FBI Refuses to Explain Its Role in January 6

A top official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation repeatedly refused to disclose how many FBI agents and informants were involved in the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning, Jill Sanborn, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch, cited privileged protocols as to why she would not tell Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) the number of FBI assets that “actively participated” in the protest. “Sir, I’m sure you can appreciate that I can’t go into sources and methods,” Sanborn, who served as assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division when the protest erupted on January 6 and would have full knowledge of FBI undercover operations, told Cruz.

The Texas senator also demanded to know if FBI agents committed any violent crimes or incited any violent crimes on January 6. Sanborn again declined to answer. Presenting photos of Ray Epps, a man caught on video on both January 5 and 6, imploring people to “go into the Capitol” but has not been charged with any crime, Cruz asked Sanborn whether she knew Epps. “I’m aware of the individual, sir, I don’t have the specific background to him,” Sanborn replied.

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Justice Department Planning to Form Special Domestic Terrorism Unit

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is planning to form a special unit focused on the threat of domestic terrorism, a top official told lawmakers Tuesday.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen announced the creation of the new unit in his opening remarks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.

“I decided to establish a domestic terrorism unit to augment our existing approach,” Olsen said. “This group of dedicated attorneys will focus on the domestic terrorism threat, helping to ensure that these cases are handled properly and effectively coordinated across the Department of Justice and across the country.”

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Commentary: The Data Mining of America’s Kids Should Be a National Scandal

As U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland sat down for his first hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, denying a conflict of interest in his decision to investigate parents for “domestic terrorism,” there is a mother in the quiet suburb of Annandale, N.J., who found his answers lacking. And she has questions she wants asked at Garland’s hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee this Wednesday.

On a recent Saturday night, Caroline Licwinko, a mother of three, a law school student and the coach to her daughter’s cheerleading squad, sat in front of her laptop and tapped three words into an internet search engine: “Panorama. Survey. Results.”

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Attorney General Garland Grilled by GOP Senators over Department of Justice Memo Targeting Parents at School Meetings

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday faced a litany of hard-edged Senate questions about agreeing to allow federal law enforcement to investigate alleged incidents of outspoken parents at school board meetings.

Garland, in a memo, agreed to responded to a Sept. 29 letter from the National School Board Association to President Biden asking that the FBI, Justice Department and other federal agencies to investigate potential acts of domestic terrorism at the meetings. Parents across the nation have been voicing their concerns about the curricula being taught to their children, in addition to instances like the one currently playing out in northern Virginia, in which there was an apparent coverup of the sexual assault of a female student in a bathroom.

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Senate GOP Releases Post-Election Report on Trump-Justice Dept, Contradicting Findings from Dems

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday released their review of President Trump’s management of the Justice Department after the 2020 presidential election, concluding the former president’s fears about election fraud were based on “legitimate concerns” – one day after Democrats who lead the chamber said their findings show Trump tried to install a loyalist atop the agency to investigate unfounded fraud claims.

The GOP’s 140-page review, titled, “In their own words: A factual summary of testimony from senior Justice Department officials related to the events from December 14, 2020, to January 3, 2021” offers starkly different conclusions from those reached by chamber Democrats.

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Senate Judiciary Committee to Review Supreme Court’s ‘Abuse’ of Shadow Docket

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the Supreme Court’s use of the so-called “shadow docket” — a method of issuing brief late-night rulings on key cases like the Texas abortion law.

“The Supreme Court must operate with the highest regard for judicial integrity in order to earn the public’s trust,” Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, who is also the Senate majority whip, said in a statement. “This anti-choice law is a devastating blow to Americans’ constitutional rights — and the Court allowed it to see the light of day without public deliberation or transparency.”

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Stacey Abrams Spars with Republicans over Whether Georgia’s Elections Law Is Racist During Senate Hearing

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sparred with Stacey Abrams Tuesday during a hearing on Democrats’ voting rights bill and election reforms that Republicans have introduced in states across the country.

The hearing consisted of testimony from officials on opposite sides of the issue, including Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, Utah Republican Rep. Burgess Owens and Jan Jones, the Republican speaker pro tempore of the Georgia House, but most questions from lawmakers on both sides were directed towards Abrams. Democrats largely focused on GOP-led policies that they likened to those from the Jim Crow era, while Republicans blasted the comparison and said that the bills’ goals were to make it harder to cheat, not to vote.

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