Justice For All - Feb 2015

FreedomWorks recently announced the launch of the American Freedom Initiative (AFI), a collaboration headed by former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker. This project aims to help relieve injustices committed against Americans under the criminal justice system and the regulatory state. As part of this project, we will shine a spotlight on some of the individuals the AFI has identified under its National Pardon Project as being particularly hard hit by unjustly harsh criminal sentences for non-violent crimes.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to cosponsor the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act, S. 4074. Introduced by Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Angus King (I-Maine), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Mike Lee (R-Utah), the FAIR Act would reform federal civil asset forfeiture laws to increase the evidentiary standard needed to subject property to permanent seizure and restore the presumption of innocence in federal civil forfeiture proceedings.

On behalf of our activist community in Ohio, I urge you to support Senate Bill (SB) 3. This bill reforms Ohio’s sentencing laws for low-level, nonviolent offenses and focuses limited prison resources and severe, mandatory minimum sentences for high-level drug traffickers. FreedomWorks supports this approach. States like Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas have shown that a focus on recidivism reduction and drug treatment programs while reserving prison space for the worst offenders enhances public safety.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to co-sponsor the Reforming Qualified Immunity Act, S. 4036. Introduced by Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), the Reforming Qualified Immunity Act would restore the original intent of 42 U.S.C. 1983 and clarifies the judicial doctrine of qualified immunity created by the Supreme Court.

On behalf of our activist community in Georgia, I urge you to support Senate Bill (SB) 288. This crucial bill would allow individuals convicted of certain misdemeanor offenses to have their convictions restricted and sealed if they do not commit another offense for four years after serving their complete sentence.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to support the Count Crimes to Cut Act, H.R. 7270. Introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the Count Crimes to Cut Act would require the Department of Justice to produce a full inventory of federal criminal statutes and regulations carrying criminal penalties, require a list of the elements of each offense, the potential criminal penalty for each offense, the number of prosecutions brought each year for the 15 previous years for each offense, and the mens rea requirement for each offense.