McJob Minimum Wages Set to Increase in Many States in 2017

Wall Street Journal 

Minimum wages will increase in 19 states at the start of the year, a shift that will lift pay for millions of individuals and shed light on a long-running debate about whether mandated pay increases at the bottom do more harm or good for workers.

Racist Suspect NY Gov. Cuomo vetoes bill requiring state to pay for indigent defense

JURIST

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday vetoed a bill [Politico report] that would require the state to pay for indigent representation when counties were unable. The bill was passed six months ago with bipartisan support, though the lawsuit giving rise to the issue was settled approximately 2 years ago [NYCLU press release]. After weeks of negotiation [Politico news report] Cuomo vetoed the bill, with a spokesperson stating [NY Daily News report] that "[u]nfortunately, an agreement was unable to be reached and the Legislature was committed to a flawed bill that placed an $800 million burden on taxpayers — $600 million of which was unnecessary — with no way to pay for it and no plan to make one." Cuomo assured that it would be "revisited" in the upcoming legislation cycle.

This is not the first time that the rights of indigent defendants have suffered due to costs. Last January, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Louisiana filed a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] against the New Orleans Public Defenders Office and the Louisiana Public Defender Board due to the lack of available public defenders for individuals with no access to an attorney. The ACLU claimed that as a result of the lack of state funding for public defenders, individuals are forced to wait months in jail without counsel or accept bail and plea negotiations which can have irreparable effects on their case. This was not the first time the New Orleans County Public Defender's Office had struggled to adequately provide enough enough public defenders, who represent close to 80 percent of criminal defendants in New Orleans. Due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, 31 of the office's 39 public defenders were laid off and the annual budget was dropped from $2.5 million to $500,000. The financing system was accused of being unconstitutional because it relied heavily on surcharges from traffic tickets, which were abandoned since Hurricane Katrina, and forced poor people to pay for the system. Many cases involving public defenders were suspended [JURIST report] and a petition was granted to free a prisoner facing serious charges because the suspect lacked counsel. Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr. launched an investigation [JURIST report] in 2006 into the dire finances of the state's indigent defense system.

Britain closed schools in Kenya for being what they termed “training grounds for rebellion”. Children were then sent to prison camps.

Crimes of Britain

Many of Trump's Most Anti-Muslim Measures Are Based on Programs Established by the Obama Administration

Alternet

During the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Gorbah Hamed asked the candidates how they would help Muslims deal with “the consequences of being labeled…a threat to the country.” Trump decried Islamophobia as a “shame” but quickly moved on to accuse American Muslims of not reporting “radical Islamic terrorism” and President Obama and Hillary Clinton for not using the term. Clinton assured the questioner that Muslims are very much a part of the United States and that she wished for a country “where citizens like you and your family are just as welcome as anyone else.” Nonetheless, she insisted, American Muslims must be “our eyes and ears on our front lines.”

Clinton’s response, despite including platitudes about Muslims being a part of the country, exhibited a tendency among many national security-minded Democrats to ultimately stigmatize Muslims as a suspect community that must be constantly monitored. Where Trump was accusatory, suggesting against all evidence that American Muslims do not report suspicious behavior, Clinton was more polished and appeared warm and friendly, asking the community to become “part of our homeland security.”

Donald Trump’s penchant for Islamophobia has long been obvious, but Hillary Clinton’s comments were no accident either. Throughout her campaign, Clinton spoke of deputizing American Muslims as agents of the state, always on alert for the first signs of their family and friends’ terrorist proclivities. By peddling such narratives of American Muslims as a suspect community, the Clinton campaign was undoubtedly contributing to Islamophobia but it was also following the established practices of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.

During the past eight years, Democrats have echoed much of the Islamophobia now emanating from an incoming Trump administration through both rhetoric and policies. At times it is brazen, but mostly it is couched in an unmistakably liberal gloss of civility and delivered with a smile. As President-elect Trump appoints Islamophobes to his cabinet and prepares to directly target American Muslims, much of the precedents he will rely on have already been firmly established by the Obama administration and supported by the Democratic Party.

Muslim Registry

Perhaps the most recent example of Democratic support for Islamophobic policies emerged after the horrific shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando. House Democrats staged a sit-in to force a vote on gun control measures which would mandate the use of terrorist watch lists to prevent people from purchasing firearms. There are different estimates for just how many names exist on various terrorist watch lists. There are approximately 81,000 names on the No-Fly List (including a 7-month-old baby), 1.5 million names on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) list, and 800,000 names in the FBI’s database.

The vast majority of these names belong to Muslims who are never informed of their inclusion in these secret lists and find it a nearly impossible feat to have their names removed. Inclusion in the list, however, does not seem to require much of anything. According to a document obtained by The Intercept, these lists require “neither ‘concrete facts’ nor ‘irrefutable evidence’ to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist.” The American Civil Liberties Union has long condemned these lists as “a massive, virtually standardless government watchlisting scheme that ensnares innocent people and encourages racial and religious profiling.” None of this stopped liberal darling Elizabeth Warren from calling everyone on the lists “ISIS.”

Surveillance

Donald Trump’s explicit calls for a registry of Muslims may have been challenged by Democrats, but the lists maintained by the Obama administration have escaped any such scrutiny. American Muslim communities have also been subjected to FBI’s geo-mapping efforts, which included the development of maps “displaying the patterns of life in minority neighborhoods” and indicating “where people live, work, pray, eat and shop.” The Domain Management program was the “foundation for the FBI's counterterrorism dragnet” and allowed agents to “target specific communities to recruit informants.”

In addition to being FBI targets, American Muslims also have to deal with the “deep embedding of federal counter-terrorism and intelligence-gathering efforts” in their communities. Trump may have issued blunt calls for law enforcement patrolling of “Muslim neighborhoods” but local law enforcement agencies have already been using more “sophisticated if sometimes intrusive outreach and informant programs.” Community outreach efforts have often turned out to be nothing more than intelligence gathering operations. One program funded by the Department of Justice in 2009, for example, was aimed at promoting St. Paul Police Department’s “involvement with the Somali/Muslim community” in order to “prevent further radicalization of our youth.” Instead, the program was used by the police department to gather intelligence on the local Somali community.

The surveillance of American Muslim communities by local law enforcement agencies has been directly funded by the Obama administration. Hence, it is no surprise that the administration’s promise of a review of the “religious profiling and suspicionless surveillance of Muslims” by the NYPD’s Demographics Unit has remained unfulfilled. Undeterred by any federal oversight, the NYPD has seen little reason to alter its policies. A recent report by the NYPD Inspector General noted that the Department’s Intelligence Bureau “consistently broke court-imposed rules governing investigations involving political activity.” Over 95% of these investigations targeted Muslims. [MORE]

Standing Rock & Flint Prove Elite Media Ignores Environmental Crisis When it Disproportionately Affects People of Color

EcoWatch

In 2016, major environmental crises that disproportionately affect people of color—such as the Flint water crisis and the fight over the location of the Dakota Access Pipeline—were under-covered by the national media for long periods, despite being reported by local and state media early on. The national media's failure to spotlight these environmental issues as they arise effectively shuts the people in danger out of the national conversation, resulting in delayed political action and worsening conditions.

In early 2016, Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in the majority black city of Flint over the dangerous levels of lead in the drinking water—more than a year after concerns about the water were initially raised. While some local and state media aggressively covered the story from the beginning, national media outlets were almost universally late to the story and even when their coverage picked up, it was often relegated to a subplot of the presidential campaign.

One notable exception was MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who provided far more Flint coverage prior to Snyder's state of emergency declaration than every other network combined. Flint resident Connor Coyne explained that when national media did cover the story, they failed to provide the full context of the tragedy by ignoring the many elements that triggered it. In particular, national outlets did not highlight the role of state-appointed "emergency managers" who made arbitrary decisions based on budgetary concerns, including the catastrophic decision to draw Flint's water from the Flint River instead of Lake Huron (via the Detroit water system).

This crisis, despite media's waning attention, continues to affect Flint residents every day, meaning serious hardships for a population that's more than 50 percent black, with 40.1 percent living under the poverty line. Additionally, according to media reports, approximately 1,000 undocumented immigrants continued to drink poisoned water for considerably longer time than the rest of the population due in part to a lack of information about the crisis available in their language. Even after news broke, a lack of proper identification barred them from getting adequate filtration systems or bottled water.

At Standing Rock, North Dakota, like in Flint, an ongoing environmental crisis failed to get media attention until it began to escalate beyond the people of color it disproportionately affected. Since June, Native water protectors and their allies have protested against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil pipeline which would threaten to contaminate the Missouri River, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation's primary water source. Several tribes came together to demand that the pipeline be rejected, as it had been when the (mostly white) residents of Bismarck, North Dakota, raised similar concerns.

The tribes' calls for another route option for the pipeline went "criminally undercovered" by the national press until September, when security forces and protesters started clashing violently. CNN's Brian Stelter wondered whether election coverage had crowded out stories about Standing Rock, saying, "It received sort of on-and-off attention from the national media," and, oftentimes, coverage "seemed to fall off the national news media's radar." Coverage of this story was mostly driven by the social media accounts of activists on the ground, online outlets and public media, while cable news networks combined spent less than an hour in the week between Oct. 26, 2016 and Nov. 3, 2016 covering the escalating violence of law enforcement against the demonstrators. Amy Goodman, a veteran journalist who consistently covered the events at Standing Rock, even at the risk of going to prison, told Al Jazeera that the lack of coverage of the issues at Standing Rock went "in lockstep with a lack of coverage of climate change. Add to it a group of people who are marginalized by the corporate media, native Americans and you have a combination that vanishes them." [MORE]

Congressional Black Caucus Plans to Challenge Trump Appointments

Politico

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus say they’re bracing for the worst in Donald Trump, fearing a presidency that could set minorities back decades.

Leaders of the group told POLITICO they have already begun discussing strategies to deal with Trump and any policies they believe would disenfranchise African-Americans — from public school funding to low-income housing to voting restrictions. Though the president-elect’s supporters call the alarm unwarranted, black lawmakers say Trump’s campaign and his Cabinet picks more than justify their concern.

“The stakes are incredibly high and our community is counting on us as the last line of defense between Donald Trump and the worst of what America could offer,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said.

“This is not the normal incoming president,” added Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). “We had no plan for George Bush. I think Charlie Rangel and John Conyers would tell you they didn’t even have a plan for Richard Nixon. But this is not the norm.”

Incoming CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) is expected to outline his priorities for the new administration when he officially takes the reins of the caucus on Tuesday. Some members suggested challenging Trump on his home turf — Twitter — while others advocated nonviolent protests reminiscent of the civil rights movement.

“We speak for vulnerable people, we speak for the disenfranchised — and we take that seriously,” Richmond said. “And those appointments seem to be tone-deaf to sensitivity and to, I think, just common sense.”

Among the figures chosen to join Trump's inner circle whom lawmakers called unsettling are Jeff Sessions, the Alabama senator and prospective attorney general who was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 over allegations of racism; and Steve Bannon, Trump’s senior adviser who until joining the campaign led Breitbart, the far-right website that appeals to white nationalists. (Bannon does not require Senate confirmation.)

“The appointments should concern not just minorities but all Americans,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). “When you look at Sessions, I mean he doesn’t have the most stellar reputation for civil rights and voting rights. It’s rough.”

Since his nomination, Sessions and his allies have worked to revamp his reputation into that of a longtime civil rights champion.

It’s not just Sessions and Bannon who present concerns for black lawmakers. Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, is a school-choice advocate who has championed voucher programs, which Obama and other Democrats argue siphon money away from public schools.

And Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon and 2016 presidential candidate, has been tapped to lead the Housing and Urban Development Department, an area with which he has little, if any, pertinent experience.

“Ben Carson, DeVos, the education nominee, those just don’t fly in the face of good governing,” Richmond said. “And to the extent that they’re going to be there, we’re going to fight.” [MORE]

Noam Chomsky: US role in Haiti destruction

From 2010

Black Man's Family & BLM Want DC MPD To Release "Public Video" in Cop Shooting Death of Gerald Hall

NY Governor Pardons 101 New Yorkers Convicted as Minors

Wall Street Journal 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pardoned 101 New Yorkers who were convicted when they were 16 or 17 years old, in what state officials said was part of an effort to remove barriers to housing and employment for those who committed crimes in their youth.

The pardons by Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, went only to those convicted of nonviolent felonies or misdemeanors who have remained conviction-free for at least 10 years, officials said. The pardons are conditional, meaning they can be withdrawn if a person is convicted.

He also pardoned five people who had been convicted as adults and commuted the sentences of seven still in prison. 

Friday’s pardons are a notable departure from past years. In 2015, the governor pardoned three people and commuted the sentences of three others, and in 2014, he pardoned two. Alphonso David, the governor’s counsel, said those pardoned who committed crimes as young people had demonstrated they had been rehabilitated. “If you made a mistake at 16 or 17 you shouldn’t be affected by that mistake at 40 years old,” he said.

The state plans to continue issuing such pardons in the coming years, Mr. David said. State officials estimate 10,000 people fit the eligibility for such pardons. This year, about 260 applied, Mr. David said.

Ruthie Epstein, deputy advocacy director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, praised Friday’s pardons but said they are a stopgap measure for what she views as the state’s harsh sentencing laws. New York is one of only two states nationwide that treats 16- and 17-year-old offenders as adults, she said.

“It doesn’t rectify the underlying injustice that got them in prison in the first place,” Ms. Epstein said.

One of those whose sentence was commuted was Judith Clark, 67 years old, a political activist who was a member of the Weather Underground. She was convicted in 1983 for driving the getaway vehicle in a 1981 Brink’s armored car robbery, in Nanuet, N.Y., in which two police offers and a security guard were killed. Ms. Clark has served 35 years of a 75 years-to-life sentence, state officials said. Friday’s commutation makes her eligible to appear before the state parole board.

State officials said Ms. Clark had “made exceptional strides in self-development” while in prison. They said she had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, founded an HIV/AIDS education program and trained service dogs as part of the Puppies Behind Bars program.

Anthony Papa, who was pardoned Friday, was convicted of drug charges in 1985. While he has been out of prison since 1997, he said he views the pardon as a vindication. It also removes some barriers that come with a criminal record, he said.

“Every time I went for an apartment I was always terrified they would find out and throw me in the street,” said Mr. Papa, 62 years old, an author and artist who works at advocacy-group the Drug Policy Alliance.

No Privacy From Gov In Your Own Home. Arkansas Prosecutors Obtain Warrant for Defendant's Amazon Echo [Alexa] Recordings

Democracy Now

In Arkansas, prosecutors seeking evidence against a Bentonville man charged with murder have obtained a warrant to receive data from his Amazon Echo—a voice-activated device that is always listening and often recording. James Andrew Bates says he’s innocent of the murder of Victor Collins, who was found strangled in Bates’s hot tub. Prosecutors hope to search audio recordings on Bates’s Amazon Echo for clues. Lawyers for Amazon.com have refused to comply with the warrant, and technology experts say it’s unlikely the device was recording at the time of the murder. But the case has drawn national attention and alarmed civil liberties groups. Bates’s lawyer, Kimberly Weber, told USA Today, "I have a problem that a Christmas gift that is supposed to better your life can be used against you. It’s almost like a police state."

Trump Audio Exposes Him as a Clueless Idiot Planning his Presidential Voyage with Paper Boats

Dummy at the Washington Post with the editorial board. From March 23, 2016 

South Carolina Legislators Introduce Three Bills Targeting Police Stingray Use

TechDirt

It's really, really difficult to give the South Carolina legislature any credit whatsoever. In the past few years, it has offered up bills that:

- required journalists to register with the government before enjoy their First Amendment rights (to make a point about the Second Amendment)

- criminalized profanity in public forums (including the internet)

- criminalized the recording of criminal acts

- required computer sellers to install default porn blockers in devices (that could be removed for $20)

The track record of this state's legislature is less than stellar. Hell, it's less than passable. 1/5 would not re-elect.

But there are still a few legislators with good ideas trying to do good things within the confines of a state where adultery is still considered a criminal act. The Tenth Amendment Center briefly highlights three new bills targeting law enforcement Stingray device use, all with their own merits.

The first, brought by state rep J. Todd Rutherford, is the most extreme of the three.

The legislation would prohibit any state or local law enforcement agency in South Carolina from purchasing cell site simulators, commonly known as “stingrays.”

At this point, use of these devices by South Carolina law enforcement is unconfirmed. If, indeed, no agencies are in possession of IMSI catchers, this bill would maintain the status quo. If agencies are already in possession of the devices, the bill would require these agencies to discontinue use and... ask Harris Corp. for a refund, I guess. This wouldn't prevent state agencies from asking for federal assistance and borrowing their devices, but it's still the most restrictive Stingray-related legislation proposed yet.

As such, it will probably never become law. The other proposals have a much better chance of reaching the governor's desk. Rutherford's backup proposal would prevent agencies purchasing cell tower spoofers from entering into nondisclosure agreements with manufacturers.

The third bill being introduced should be pushed in concert with Rutherford's second bill. Rep. Cezar McKnight's proposal would prevent state law enforcement agencies from signing nondisclosure agreements with the FBI, which has been standard procedure since the modified military tech began making its way to police departments around the nation. This would help ensure any evidence obtained with these devices will be properly presented in court, rather than obscured behind parallel construction. Or it could, theoretically. The bill ties this to warrant usage, so nondisclosure agreements would be allowed if the agreement doesn't stipulate the devices should be deployed without securing a warrant first. This ties it to the DOJ's current Stingray guidelines, which is better than continuing to obscure device deployment behind pen register orders. [MORE]

Prosecutor Seeks Virtual Evidence from Amazon Alexa Device in Defendant's Home

NY Times

In a move that promises to raise new questions about electronic privacy, detectives investigating a murder in Arkansas are seeking access to audio that may have been recorded on an Amazon Echo electronic personal assistant.

So far, the online retail giant has resisted demands by the police and prosecutors in Bentonville, Ark., for the information. Without addressing the specifics of the case, Amazon said in a statement that, as a matter of course, it “objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands.”

The tug of war over access to the audio, which was reported by the website theinformation, began when the police started to investigate the death of Victor Collins, who was found on Nov. 22, 2015, in a hot tub at the home of James Bates, according to court records. Investigators discovered signs of a struggle, including spots of blood, broken bottles and pieces of the spa that were on the ground.

Detective Cpl. Josh Woodhams of the Bentonville Police Department wrote in an affidavit that he found an Amazon Echo on the home’s kitchen counter. The voice-activated device has seven microphones, and is equipped with sensors to hear users from any direction up to about 20 feet. Among other things, it can play music, make to-do lists, stream podcasts and provide real-time news and information.

In February, Mr. Bates was charged with murder, and as part of the investigation, the police sought from Amazon “electronic data in the form of audio recordings, transcribed words, text records and other data” captured by the Echo.

The request has raised concern among some right-to-privacy supporters.

Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in an email that there should be a “clear legal standard that governs law enforcement access” to machines that make up what has become known as the internet of things. The reference is to the constellation of devices — such as cameras, cellphones and appliances — connected to the internet.

But Lynn Terwoerds, the executive director of the Executive Women’s Forum, which founded and sponsors the Voice Privacy Alliance, said in an email that the request for the information was built on a faulty premise.

She said the Echo is always listening for a “wake word” — Alexa, Amazon or another customizable term — and records only what is said after it has been activated. She said it has 60 seconds of recorded sound in its storage. “What this ‘always listening’ means is that the device is not eavesdropping and interpreting everything you’re saying,” Ms. Terwoerds wrote.

Once it detects the wake word, according to Amazon, the Echo starts streaming audio to the cloud, where it is secured until the customer permanently deletes it.

The case raises “serious privacy concerns with this kind of nonspecific warrant,” Ms. Terwoerds said, adding, “We have to fight against the myth of Echo listening in on our every word and sending that data to Amazon — it’s simply untrue.”

Jon Simpson, the police chief in Bentonville, which, by car, is about three hours northwest of Little Rock, referred questions to Nathan Smith, the prosecuting attorney in Benton County. In an email, Mr. Smith said Amazon had yet to fully comply with two requests, although he said it had provided “some very limited subscriber information.”

The company said in a statement that it would not “release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.” Mr. Smith said that officers had followed the proper procedure in seeking a search warrant from a judge based on probable cause, and that he hoped Amazon would comply and that no further steps would be necessary.

While many right-to-privacy supporters have expressed interest in the request, Mr. Smith said the case was “ really about seeking justice for the victim.” He added that it was the responsibility of the police to seek the data to determine its relevance to the investigation. A lawyer for Mr. Bates did not respond to an email and a phone call seeking comment.

The Arkansas case is reminiscent of an episode in which the federal government sought to legally compel Apple to unlock an iPhone used by a gunman in a shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., last year that killed 14 people. The case became contentious as Apple refused to assist the authorities, prompting a debate about whether privacy or security was more important. Federal officials said in March that they found a way to unlock the phone without help from Apple.

The lack of clear-cut legislation over who is legally entitled to the data from such devices means these kinds of cases will continue to surface, Mark A. Testoni, the president and chief executive of SAP National Security Services, which helps agencies track those suspected of terrorism through open source data, said in an interview.

“It’s such a massive gray area,” he said.

Brother Polight Says LAPD Falsely Arrested Him & Snatched his Phone

From [HERE] Brother Polight's attorney released the above video and the following statement;

A serious incident of POLICE BRUTALITY, SEXUAL ASSAULT, MISCONDUCT AND RACIAL PROFILING occurred Wednesday December 21, 2016 at the 24-hour Western Union 6565 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028 at about 10:30pm.

VICTIMS: Noted activist and national teacher, and celebrity consultant and Beverly Hills resident Michael Noak, Jr. (aka Brother Polight) and his associate Ms. Vyktoria Lamore. The victims are African-American and the officers were White.

WHAT HAPPENED: Vyktoria Lamore drove Mr. Michael Noak to the Western Union on Hollywood Boulevard in a 2002 white Ford Explorer when she pulled up to the Western Union at about 10:30pm.

Ms.  Lamore parked on the corner directly in front of the check cashing location. Polight (Michael Noak, Jr.) left the truck to go into the Western Union. Three minutes elapsed while Noak was in Western Union. While Lamore waited outside, a police car pulled up behind her. The LAPD started screaming for her to get out of the car and they had their guns drawn. They then screamed at her saying “get out the car, show us your hands.” Ms. Lamore got out of the car. The male police officers physically rushed, accosted and groped her and dragged her body from the street to the sidewalk. Noak sensing that something was not right and came out of the Western Union to witness Ms. Lamore being accosted and seized by law enforcement. Noak hung up the phone and began to record the incident. Lamore was slammed to the wall and was cuffed and arrested without reason.

Then Noak’s phone was seized and he was violently slammed to the wall. Guns were put to his head during this process. Noak’s (Polight) phone was illegally seized. After some time the officers uncuffed and released the pair. The officers explained that they had wrongly believed the pair were a pimp and a prostitute. Both pair had to seek and receive emergency room treatment. Astoundingly they were harassed by the LAPD at the hospital in an effort to make the whole matter disappear.

Obama Signs ‘Emmett Till Bill’ To Reopen Civil Rights Cold Cases

Breaking News For Black America

According to PBS, President Obama recently signed a bill that would give the FBI the chance to reopen more cold cases from the Civil Rights Era.

The legislation, titled the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes bill, was initially introduced by activist Alvin Sykes in 2005. He named the proposed bill after Till because he vowed to his mother, Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley, he would fight to reopen the case. The Department of Justice did reopen the case in 2004; it was closed three years later after a jury decided not to indict Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused Till of whistling at her. Two years after the case was reopened, the FBI started to look into over 100 civil rights cases. In 2008, the bill was placed into law.

The upgraded legislation, which President Obama signed on December 16, will now get rid of the limitations on cases that occurred prior to 1970 and will allow ongoing investigations conducted by the FBI surrounding civil rights cases. This will create an avenue for cases that occurred during the height of the Jim Crow Era to be reopened. Under the revised bill, dubbed Till Bill 2, groups including Emory University’s Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project and the Cold Case Justice Initiative at Syracuse University would receive funding to help solve civil rights cases.

Many politicians believe the updated law will allow more cases to be opened and solved. Senators Claire McCaskill and Richard Burr backed the bill at the Senate level. In the House, it was reviewed by Rep. John Conyers, Rep. John Lewis, and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner.