Many elected Mississippi Republicans who support criminal justice reform like @bricewigginsMS and @Sparks4Senate, as well as conservative advocates like @grantcallen, argued this year against the same sort of policies Hyde-Smith now sponsors. 1/
CHS's proposed "Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act"—in order to restore a code section ruled unconstitutional by Antonin Scalia—would impose 15-year mandatory minimum sentences for possession of a firearm by a felon with three significant prior convictions. 2/
Creating new mandatory minimum sentences is a one-size-fits-all approach—which is not a conservative approach—which strips courts of the power to consider unintended consequences and exigent circumstances that can make lengthy sentences inappropriate in particular cases. 3/
Moreover, CHS's proposed bill constitutes significant federal overreach into public safety—an area traditionally reserved to the states—with no explanation why the states cannot handle their own offenders by themselves. 4/
Next, CHS's proposed "Back the Blue Act"—which federalize criminal law regarding assaults against law enforcement officers, fire officers, and so on—contains similar flaws. 5/
The bill seems almost designed to produce disastrous unintended consequences via mandatory minimum sentences.

For example, the bill would impose a mandatory minimum 20-year sentence for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon.

Sounds good, right? Not so fast... 6/
Police officers around the country escort rowdy, drunk customers out of bars and restaurants every day—and a resisting-arrest citation can often result from that sort of circumstance—a misdemeanor. 7/
law.justia.com/codes/mississi…
But now imagine an elderly drunk customer has a steak knife when the officer wrests her out of her seat. The circumstance might post no real threat to the officer, and the state and local authorities might not even consider it worth charging the customer. 8/
Yet, the feds, for whatever reason they want to go after that woman, could decide to put that woman by obtaining a mandatory minimum 20-year sentence. 9/
To that end, the bill contains no explanation why the states cannot protect their own personnel or why the federal government should expand so significantly.

Both bills appear to be federal expansion for the sake of federal expansion. 🤷‍♂️ 10/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with MAKE THEM SPEAK ON THE FLOOR TO FILIBUSTER

MAKE THEM SPEAK ON THE FLOOR TO FILIBUSTER Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @jallen1985

15 May
THREAD: Below is a list of constitutional amendments that have been proposed in the #MSleg over the years to amend Mississippi's ballot initiative process in conformity with our four Congressional seats. 1/
HCR 43 (2002), introduced by former Rep./current Sen. @JoeyFillingane, was the first such bill. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2002/pdf/histo… 2/
Former Rep. John Mayo introduced HCR 58 (2003). billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2003/pdf/histo… 3/
Read 10 tweets
15 May
QUICKTHREAD: Three bills in the #MSleg would have preserved Mississippi's initiative process, and all three died. 1/
My favorite is @LeeYanceyMS's HC 3,* which would have changed the signature-collection framework to automatically adjust to the number of Congressional districts Mississippi has at any time.

*billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2021/pdf/histo… 2/
Speaker @PhilipGunnMS referred Yancey's bill to the MS House constitution committee, where it died.

I infer that @FredShanks, who chairs the committee, killed Yancey's bill by not bringing it to a vote before the committee. 3/
Read 7 tweets
15 May
Senator McDaniel made many, repeated appearances with the group supporting Initiative 74 (new flag vote).

McDaniel made so many appearances, in fact, that one might have thought that group was intended more to build a campaign apparatus for McDaniel than to pass an initiative...
So, anywho...it seems odd that McDaniel's had nothing to say about the court's decision yesterday chucking all pending initiatives.

All he's said is a vague reference to backroom deals and...is that a dog-whistle about violently overthrowing the government? Image
@ashtonpittman I hope y'all will be reaching out to McDaniel about his views on restoring the initiative process, considering his many...
fb.watch/5vPRXC_zPO/
Read 5 tweets
15 May
THREAD: The #MSleg should go further than enacting medical marijuana and putting a constitutional amendment to the voters to fix our 5-district ballot initiative framework.

It should also put all of the issues for which initiatives were filed or announced on the 2022 ballot. 1/
☑️ Recreational marijuana
☑️ Medicaid expansion
☑️ Early voting

The #MSleg should put questions on the 2022 ballot to determine whether MS voters support or oppose legalizing recreational marijuana, expanding Medicaid, and allowing early voting. 2/
These three ballot measures not have to be constitutional amendments—they can simply be non-binding referendums, the same way the #MSleg asked voters whether we approved the flag design adopted by the 2020 flag commission. 3/
Read 14 tweets
14 May
THREAD: The MS Supreme Court today invalidated Initiative 65 by stripping voters of our right to ballot initiatives, holding by a 6-3 vote that voters can only pursue ballot initiatives when MS has five or more Congressional districts.

Opinion: courts.ms.gov/Images%5COpini… 1/
The vote does not follow partisan/ideological lines, as MS's two liberal justices—Justice King voted to invalidate Initiative 65, whereas Justice Kitchens voted to uphold it.

Two of MS's seven conservative justices voted to uphold Initiative 65. 2/
Mississippi voters overwhelmingly adopted Initiative 65 in November to make medical marijuana legal in Mississippi. 3/
ballotpedia.org/Mississippi_Ba…
Read 14 tweets
14 May
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passed by a vote of 315-101. @CongPalazzo & @RepMichaelGuest both voted against the bill, and @RepTrentKelly did not vote at all.

clerk.house.gov/evs/2021/roll1…
A few weeks ago, the House passed a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act by a vote of 244-172. @CongPalazzo & @RepTrentKelly both voted against that bill, and @RepMichaelGuest did not vote on it at all.

clerk.house.gov/evs/2021/roll0…
Assuming no significant changes to Mississippi's Congressional map, Larry, Curly, & Moe—ahem, Palazzo, Kelly, & Guest—will NOT lose to a Democrat, but they CAN lose if more civilized Republicans run against them as independents.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(