Judge blocks Trump’s police commission meetings and says law requires ‘fairly balanced membership’

[Geee]

American Military News

 

A federal judge in Washington D.C. has ordered a halt to a law-enforcement review panel created at President Donald Trump’s direction, after ruling the panel broke federal requirements that the panel meet openly and be comprised with “fairly balanced” membership.

 

U.S. District Judge John Bates, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a decision on Thursday the 18-member panel, known as the “Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice” violated a federal rule that federal advisory committees must be “fairly balanced” in their composition and that their meetings be open to the public. Bates ruled the commission cannot continue with its work until it addresses those requirements.

Judge Bates criticized the commission for its current composition of only current and former law enforcement officers.

In his decision, Judge Bates wrote, “The Court is hard pressed to think of a starker example of non-compliance with [Federal Advisory Committee Act]’s fair balance requirement than a commission charged with examining broad issues of policing in today’s America that is composed entirely of past and present law enforcement officials.”

Judge Bates, an appointee of President George W. Bush, criticized the commission, which he noted included no civil rights groups such as the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund (LDF), which brought the lawsuit against the commission in April.