President Gerald Ford appearing at a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing regarding his pardon of Richard Nixon (October 17, 1974).

The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, administrative agencies and Federal law enforcement entities. The Judiciary Committee is also the committee responsible for impeachments of federal officials. Because of the legal nature of its oversight, committee members usually have a legal background, but this is not required.

In the 112th Congress, the chairman of the committee is Republican Lamar Smith of Texas, and the ranking minority member is Democrat John Conyers of Michigan.

History[link]

The committee was created on June 6, 1813 for the purpose of considering legislation related to the judicial system. This committee approved articles of impeachment against three Presidents: Andrew Johnson (1868), Richard Nixon (1974), and Bill Clinton (1998).

Members, 112th Congress[link]

Source:

• Resolutions electing Republican members (H.Res. 6, H.Res. 37)
• Resolutions electing Democratic members (H.Res. 7, H.Res. 39)

Subcommittees[link]

Source:a "Chairman Smith Announces Subcommittee Chairmen". January 7, 2011. http://judiciary.house.gov/news/2011/jan/110107_subcommittee_chairmen.html. Retrieved 2011-01-07. 

Committee Task Forces[link]

United States House Judiciary Antitrust Task Force: 108th Congress[link]

Chairman: Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI); Ranking member: John Conyers (D-MI)

The Antitrust Task Force during the 108th Congress existed from March 26, 2003, to September 26, 2003. All Judiciary Committee Members also served as members of the Task Force,^[1] and conducted hearings and investigations into consolidation of the Bell Telephone Companies.^[2]

United States House Judiciary Antitrust Task Force: 110th Congress[link]

Chairman: John Conyers (D-MI); Ranking member: Steve Chabot (R-OH)

The Antitrust Task Force during the 110th Congress was established February 28, 2007, as a temporary subcommittee to examine the pending merger between XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.^[3] The task force operated like any other subcommittee, except that it only has a six-month term. House Rules limit each full committee to just five subcommittees, and any task force, special subcommittee, or other subunit of a standing committee that is established for a cumulative period longer than six months in a Congress counts against that total.^[4] A longer term for the task force would cause the Judiciary Committee to exceed this limit.

Judicial Task force on Judicial Impeachment: 110th and 111th Congresses[link]

Chairman: Adam Schiff (D-CA);^[5] Ranking member: Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)^[5]

Established in September 2008,^[6] the Judicial Task force on Judicial Impeachment was to look into charges against District Judge Thomas Porteous.^[6] The investigation was not completed by the end of the 110th Congress, and it was reestablished after the 111th Congress convened in January 2009.^[7] The responsibilities of the Task Force were expanded to include the case of Judge Samuel B. Kent,^[8] leading to hearings^[9] and his subsequent impeachment by the full House of Representatives.^[10] The Task force finally voted to impeach Porteous on January 21, 2010.

Projects[link]

• Administrative Law, Process and Procedure Project (2005–2006)

Hearings[link]

• The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials (hearing) (2007)
• Equal Justice for Our Military Act of 2009, HR 569 (111th Congress) (2009). Congress holds a hearing to consider granting members of the U.S. Armed Forces access to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Chairmen since 1813[link]

See also[link]

• List of United States House committees
• United States congressional committee
• United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

References[link]

External links[link]

• Committee on the Judiciary website
• Congressional Directory including lists of past memberships
• House Document No. 109-153, A History of the Committee on the Judiciary 1813–2006

Judiciary Committee may refer to:

• United States House Committee on the Judiciary, a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives
• United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Trey Gowdy
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 4th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Bob Inglis
Solicitor for South Carolina's 7th Judicial Circuit
In office 2000–2011
Succeeded by	Holman Gossett
Personal details
Born	Harold Watson Gowdy III (1964-08-22) August 22, 1964 (age 47) Greenville, South Carolina
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Terri Dillard Gowdy
Children	Watson and Abigail
Residence	Spartanburg, South Carolina
Alma mater	Baylor University University of South Carolina School of Law
Profession	Attorney
Religion	Baptist
Website	treygowdy.com

Harold Watson "Trey" Gowdy III (born August 22, 1964) is the U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 4th congressional district. He is a member of the Republican Party. Before his election to Congress, he was the solicitor (district attorney) for the state's Seventh Judicial Circuit, comprising Spartanburg and Cherokee counties.

Early life and education[link]

He was born in 1964 in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of Novalene (née Evans) and Dr. Harold Watson "Hal" Gowdy, Jr.^[1][2] Trey graduated from Spartanburg High School in 1982. He earned a B.A. in history from Baylor University in 1986 and a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1989.

Judicial career[link]

Following law school, he clerked for the late John P. Gardner on the South Carolina Court of Appeals and United States District Court Judge Ross Anderson. He then went into private practice before becoming a federal prosecutor in April 1994. He was awarded the Postal Inspector’s Award for the successful prosecution of J. Mark Allen, one of “America’s Most Wanted” suspects.

In February 2000, he left the United States Attorney’s Office to run for 7th Circuit Solicitor. He defeated incumbent Solicitor Holman Gossett^[3] in the Republican primary. No other party even put up a candidate, ensuring his election in November. He was reelected in 2004 and 2008, both times completely unopposed. During his tenure, he appeared on “Forensic Files” twice, as well as Dateline NBC and SCETV.^[4]

When the state faced a budget crunch that forced many employees to go on unpaid furloughs, Gowdy funneled part of his campaign account into the solicitor's budget so his staff could keep working.^[5]

U.S. House of Representatives[link]

Elections[link]

2010

In the summer of 2009, Gowdy announced that he would challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman Bob Inglis in the Republican primary for South Carolina's 4th congressional district. Inglis, who got a 93% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, angered the conservative wing of the Republican party by supporting cap and trade as a result of his belief that global warming is man made.^[6] He drew five Republican challengers, and Gowdy was one of them. In the June 2010 primary, Gowdy ranked first getting 39% of the vote, short of the 50% majority threshold to win outright and avoid a run-off. Inglis obtained just 27% of the vote. Jim Lee got 14%, State Senator David Thomas got 13% of the vote, and Christina Fawcett ranked last with 7% of the vote.^[7][8]

In the run-off election, Gowdy defeated Inglis 70%-30%.^[9] The 4th is so heavily Republican that it was widely presumed Gowdy had assured himself of a seat in Congress.^[10] Gowdy defeated Democratic nominee Paul Corden 63%-29%.^[11]

2012

Gowdy is running for re-election to a second term in the newly redrawn South Carolina's 4th congressional district. No one has filed to run against him so far. Gowdy was slightly disappointed because a large part of Spartanburg County, his home county, was eliminated out of his district. But he was overall satisfied because more Republicans were put into the district. Roll Call rated his district as Safe Republican in 2012.^[12]

Tenure[link]

Gowdy considers himself to be a staunch conservative. During his short tenure in congress, Gowdy has been in a feud with Republican U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner and in early 2012 he stopped going to House Republican Conference meetings. Gowdy commented on Boehner's leadership, saying "there's no use to having the majority if you are going to be hamstrung by your perception of political vicissitudes."^[13]

In December 2011, he told Congressional Quarterly that “I just think when you’re dealing with the Constitution you should have as much clarity as you can."^[5][14] In August 2011 during the 2011 United States debt ceiling crisis, Gowdy said Boehner "has done the best job he can negotiating with himself, which is what he's been doing for the past six months. But you've got to vote the conscience of your constituents."^[15] In March 2012, Gowdy said “It’s a numbers thing. I don’t criticize Boehner for it. He can move to the right and try to pass it out of the House, or you can move to the center and try to pass it (in the U.S. Senate).”^[16] In 2012, he was awarded by the conservative Club for Growth as a Defender of Economic Freedom. It's awarded to the members of congress who have the year's highest ranking. Gowdy scored 97 out of 100. He was one of only 34 congressmen given the award.^[17]

Gowdy considers himself "pro-life plus", meaning that he believes "in the sanctity of life" and that "the strategy should be broader than waiting for the Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade."^[18]

Trey Gowdy signed the Contract From America, which aims to "Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care".^[19][20]

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Education and the Workforce
  • Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law (Vice Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and the National Archives (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs

Personal life[link]

Gowdy and his wife Terri have two children: Watson and Abigail. Terri Dillard Gowdy is a teacher's aide in Spartanburg School District 7. Gowdy has three sisters, 4 nieces, and 4 nephews.^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Congressman Trey Gowdy official U.S. House site
• Trey Gowdy for Congress official campaign site
• Profile at Spartanburg County Government site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs

Robert William "Bob" Goodlatte ( /ˈɡʊdlæt/; born September 22, 1952) is the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 6th congressional district, serving since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district is based in Roanoke and also includes Lynchburg, Harrisonburg and Staunton.

Early life, education, and early career[link]

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Goodlatte received a B.A. in political science from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1974. He also holds a Juris Doctor from Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia, which he earned in 1977. Goodlatte was an attorney in private practice in his early professional career before becoming a staff aide for 6th District U.S. Congressman M. Caldwell Butler from 1977 to 1979.

U.S. House of Representatives[link]

Elections[link]

Bob Goodlatte received the Republican nomination at the Republican District convention after Democrat Jim Olin, opted not to run for reelection in 1992. In the 1992 November general election, Goodlatte defeated Democrat Stephen Musselwhite, who had defeated Olin's preferred choice at the district Democratic convention, with 60% of the vote. Goodlatte has been reelected ten times, often running unopposed by Democratic challengers. He has never faced a Republican primary challenge. His most substantive opposition was in 1996, with Democrat Jeff Grey, and again in 1998, with Democratic Roanoke mayor David Bowers who challenged him. In an overwhelmingly conservative district, Goodlatte turned back these challenges, with 67% and 69% of the vote, respectively. In 2008, he was challenged by Democrat Sam Rasoul of Roanoke. This time, Goodlatte garnered 62% of the vote.

In 2011, Republican and constitutional conservative Karen Kwiatkowski of Mount Jackson, Virginia, announced that she would Goodlatte in the Republican primary set for June 12, 2012. Kwiatkowski has been endorsed by the former chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, free market economist Peter Schiff, and historian Thomas Woods among others. This will be Bob Goodlatte's first contested Republican primary.

Tenure[link]

Agriculture

Goodlatte was a supporter and advocate of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) that would have required all farmers all over the country to register their farms with the federal government, and participate in mandatory RFID tagging and 24 hour near real time reporting to the federal government.

Congressman Bob Goodlatte (left) honoring a Korean War veteran in 2009.

Before his appointment as Ranking Republican of the House Agriculture Committee at the start of the 110th Congress, Goodlatte served as Chairman of the full Committee. He was elected to serve as Chairman of the full House Agriculture Committee in January 2003 at the start of the 108th Congress. He served as Chairman of the Committee throughout the 108th and 109th Congresses, convening 132 Full and Subcommittee hearings and guiding 38 bills under the Committee’s jurisdiction to the President’s desk to be signed into law. He has served on the House Agriculture Committee since first being elected to Congress in November 1992. Before becoming Chairman of the full Committee, Goodlatte served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Department, Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry. An active subcommittee chairman, he held fourteen hearings in the 107th Congress alone. The hearings covered a wide range of issues including implementation of the national fire plan, domestic nutrition programs, invasive species, and civil rights programs at the USDA. He served as a conferee on the 2002 Farm Bill. He took a leadership role on issues such as welfare reform and forestry policy, working with his colleagues on the Agriculture and Resources Committees to introduce George W. Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative.

Federal budget

Bob Goodlatte has voted seven times to increase the U.S. debt ceiling and has voted to pass budgets from Democrat as well as Republican administrations. His first vote to increase the debt ceiling was in March 1996, raising it from $4.9 trillion to $5.5 trillion and most recently in August 2011, raising it from $14.8 trillion to $16.4 trillion.^[1]One of Representative Goodlatte's top legislative initiatives was his Constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget so that Congress would be forced to control spending. However, conservative Republican Representatives Paul Ryan, Justin Amash, David Dreier and Louie Gohmert voted against the amendment because it failed to control government spending and raised taxes on Americans. Representative Ryan released a statement after the vote: "I’m concerned that this version will lead to a much bigger government fueled by more taxes. Spending is the problem, yet this version of the Balanced Budget Amendment makes it more likely taxes will be raised, government will grow, and economic freedom will be diminished. Without a limit on government spending, I cannot support this Amendment.”

Tax Increase

One of Bob Goodlatte's solutions to balancing the budget is increasing taxes as offered in his "weak" or "clean" Balanced Budget Amendment. Americans for Tax Reform, Club for Growth and 30 other organizations representing millions of American taxpayers asked their members to oppose it.^[2]When asked if his Balanced Budget Amendment would break his pledge with Grover Norquist's, Americans for Tax Reform, Goodlatte responded that a small tax increase now might prevent a larger tax increase in January 2013.^[3]

Internet

Goodlatte is an original sponsor and creator of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261^[4][5] The bill establishes a system for shutting down websites that the Justice Department determines to be dedicated to copyright infringement. The DoJ or the copyright owner would be able to commence a legal action against any site they deem to have "only limited purpose or use other than infringement," and the DoJ would be authorized to demand that search engines, social networking sites and domain name services block access to the targeted site. SOPA's critics charge that the bill has a serious impact on domestic website owners and operators who have violated no laws; authorizes the Attorney General to prevent search engines and Internet Services Providers from delivering websites to customers; undermines the current Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which already provides copyright holders with immediate recourse when they discover online infringement; violates the first amendment; establishes Internet firewalls; hurts the tech industry's ability to create and sustain jobs; changes the architecture of the Internet and hinders online users from sharing information.^[6] Conservatives criticize the bill for increasing government regulation, increasing the cost of doing business and intervening in free markets.

Goodlatte is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online gambling. In 2006, he sponsored H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.^[7] In September 2006, working with then Iowa Congressman Jim Leach, Goodlatte was a major House supporter of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The Act was passed at midnight the day Congress adjourned before the 2006 elections. Prior to it being added to the bill, the gambling provisions had not been debated by any Congressional committee.^[8] The bill was made sure to exclude online horse racing gambling. They claimed moral reasons for pushing for a ban on Internet gambling, but critics charge that it was due to campaign contributions from the horse racing industry.^[9]

Goodlatte sat on the 105th United States Congress and introduced NET Act on July 25, 1997, which removed the requirement of financial gain for criminal prosecution of copyright infringement.^[10] NET Act was passed only after the House suspended the rules.^[11]

Technology

Goodlatte is the Co-Chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Internet Caucus, Chairman of the House Republican High-Technology Working Group, and Co-Chairman of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. He has been named a cyber champion by the Business Software Alliance, ranked as one of the top high-tech lawmakers in the House of Representatives, and has a 100% lifetime rating on the Information Technology Industry Council’s Congressional High-Tech scorecard. He has also been named the most Internet-friendly Member of the House of Representatives by Yahoo! Internet Life and has been named Legislator of the Year by the Information Technology Industry Council.

Goodlatte has been a leader in Congress on a number of Internet and high-tech issues including encryption, piracy prevention, anti-counterfeiting, online service provider copyright liability, high speed data access, privacy, digital signatures, Internet tax moratorium, copyright term extension, H-1B visas, patent reform, cyber-squatting, Y2K litigation, class action reform, spam and spyware prevention and providing local television networks to rural areas on satellite systems.

Presidential proof of citizenship

On May 5, 2009, Goodlatte signed on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 1503, a bill to require future presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship by submitting copies of their birth certificate. The bill has been described as a response to the theories which claim that U.S. President Barack Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen.^[12]

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Agriculture (Vice Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry
  • Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security

Caucus memberships[link]

• Congressional Caucus on Adoption
• Congressional Fire Services Caucus
• Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus
• Congressional Internet Caucus (Co-Chair)
• International Conservation Caucus

Electoral history[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Congressman Bob Goodlatte official U.S. House site
• Bob Goodlatte for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs