reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBondi said she would tell U.S. attorneys\u2019 offices to use state law instead of federal law to go after people whose death sentences had been reduced. She said this would only happen \u201cwhere appropriate and legally permissible\u201d and \u201cafter consultation with the families of the victims and other interested parties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Capital Case Section shall assist the United States Attorney\u2019s Offices in implementing this directive,\u201d Bondi\u2019s letter stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThird, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is directed to ensure that the conditions of confinement for each of the 37 commuted murderers are consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In late December, Biden took 37 people off of federal death row and changed their sentences to life in prison without the chance of release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden only left three mass killers on death row: Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who set off the bombs at the Boston Marathon; and Robert Bowers, who shot up the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bondi made headlines last week when the Justice Department issued a letter stating that it has determined many removal restrictions for administrative law judges to be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision follows growing frustration within the Trump administration over judicial roadblocks to its executive actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the letter, acting U.S. Solicitor General Sarah Harris informed President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that the Justice Department \u201chas concluded that the multiple layers of removal restrictions for administrative law judges\u201d violate the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter means the administration \u201cwill no longer defend\u201d the removal restrictions in court or litigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For reference, Harris cited a 2010 decision from the Supreme Court, which said that granting \u201cmultilayer protection from removal\u201d to executive officers \u201cis contrary to Article II\u2019s vesting of the executive power in the President.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Justice also argues that the federal law limiting the dismissal of administrative law judges to cases of \u201cgood cause\u201d violates Article II of the Constitution. That federal statute limits \u201cthe President\u2019s ability to remove principal executive officers, who are in turn restricted in their ability to remove inferior executive officers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the federal government employs administrative law judges to oversee laws and regulations across various sectors, including banking, antitrust, immigration, and interstate commerce. These judges differ from Article III federal judges, who preside over federal courts and hold positions explicitly recognized by the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that federal agencies lack the broad regulatory authority they have long asserted, as noted in a Reuters report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne such ruling found that the Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s use of in-house administrative law judges to adjudicate enforcement actions was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chad Mizelle, chief of staff for Attorney General Pam Bondi, shared a copy of the letter on X and told The New York Times<\/em> that the administration is taking the necessary steps to challenge the \u201cunelected and constitutionally unaccountable\u201d administrative law judges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIn accordance with Supreme Court precedent, the department is restoring constitutional accountability so that executive branch officials answer to the president and to the people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mizelle said that the administrative law judges have \u201cexercised immense power for far too long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of several killers on death row. Now, U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":770,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions\/770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}