Federal judge puts cuffs on Trump policing panel

A federal district judge stopped the work of President Donald Trump’s law enforcement panel for breaking an open meeting law requiring public notice when holding closed meetings. The judge’s main objection to the panel centered on its composition. While the law on advisory committees stipulates balance in their make-up, Trump’s panel only included law enforcement officials and excluded voices from the black community suffering the most from poor policing practices. (Politico, October 1, 2020, by Josh Gerstein)

The NAACP filed the lawsuit to challenge the work of the panel, but some of the panel participants also criticized the closed and exclusive process as indicating the panel was coming to a predetermined conclusion. (Reuters, October 1, 2020, by Sarah N. Lynch)

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