Committee InfoDescriptionThe United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary was established in 1816 as one of the original ten standing committees of the Senate. This Committee is responsible for oversight of key activities of the executive branch, and is responsible for the initial stages of the confirmation process of all judicial nominations for the federal judiciary. The Committee also considered and passed multiple Constitutional amendments, such as the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Because of its legislative and oversight roles, the Committee on the Judiciary is one of the most significant committees in the Senate.Today, the Committee on the Judiciary is chaired by Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Middlesex, Vermont, who has served in the Senate since 1974. Senator Leahy has been Chairman since 2007 and had previously chaired the Judiciary Committee from June 2001 through January 2003. The Committee’s responsibilities include oversight of the Department of Justice and its agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. The Committee also considers judicial nominations, including Supreme Court nominations, appellate court nominations, and district court nominations. The Committee is also responsible for legislation and resolutions in the areas of bankruptcy, mutiny, espionage, and counterfeiting, civil liberties, holidays and celebrations, immigration and naturalization, national penitentiaries, patents, copyrights, and trademarks, and state and territorial boundary lines. Subcommittees of the Judiciary Committee include Administrative Oversight and the Courts, Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, The Constitution, Crime and Drugs, Human Rights and the Law, Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, and Terrorism and Homeland Security. Many of the bills heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee recently have since been signed into law. “The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” heard by the committee on June 25, 2009, was signed by Obama in October. The act expanded a 1969 hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.” In the Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Jeff Sessions, an opponent to the bill, added an amendment to allow hate crime murderers to receive the death penalty. “The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act,” also heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee this year, enhanced “criminal enforcement of federal fraud laws” regarding “financial institutions, mortgage fraud, and securities/commodities fraud.” The act was sponsored by Judiciary Committee chair Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont. It was signed into law May 20, 2009. The Senate Judiciary Committee received a lot of media attention this year during the hearing to consider Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. The hearing was held from July 13-16 and Sotomayor was approved by the committee on July 28. The vote was 13-6 and was completely along party lines, with the exception of Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, the only Republican in the committee to vote yes. Sotomayor was later confirmed by the full Senate on August 6. Since our Committee jurisdiction is so broad, there are numerous issues you could consider and ultimately introduce that go well beyond the scope of the current legislation and recent activity mentioned here. We encourage delegates to research both past and current issues and legislation on the committee’s web site, http://judiciary.senate.gov/, as well as on the Library of Congress web site for the most recent Committee bills, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas. -------------------- My name is Carly Deckelboim, and I am a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. I am majoring in Economics with a double-minor in Hispanic Studies and International Relations. I am from Longview, TX, and outside of class I enjoy performing community service, reading, and shopping. I am Business Director of Penn Model Congress and also serve as President of the Wharton Business Law Association. Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions or comments. The issues which we will be debating are extremely complicated and I hope this jurisdiction paper serves as a useful reference. My e-mail address is carlyad@sas.upenn.edu. I look forward to working with all of you and will you see you in February! Hey guys, I am Bryan Babat and I am a freshman in the College of Arts of Sciences. I am currently undecided about my major but my interests are Economics and Political Science. I am from New City, NY and went to Clarkstown North. I was in Model Congress all throughout high school and even came to PennMC a few times so I can most likely answer questions you have about the conference. Feel free to contact me if you are unsure about anything at bbabat@sas.upenn.edu. I look forward to meeting you all in February. Chairs
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Account LoginConference DatesMarch 31 - April 3, 2011 RegistrationRegistration is now closed. InformationClick here for more details about PENNMC 2011! Check us out on Facebook!
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