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Tribal advocates keep up legal pressure for fair political maps; 12-member jury sworn in for Trump's historic criminal trial; the importance of healthcare decision planning; and a debt dilemma: poll shows how many people wrestle with college costs.

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Civil rights activists say a court ruling could end the right to protest in three southern states, a federal judge lets January 6th lawsuits proceed against former President Trump, and police arrest dozens at a Columbia University Gaza protest.

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Rural Wyoming needs more vocational teachers to sustain its workforce pipeline, Ohio environmental advocates fear harm from a proposal to open 40-thousand forest acres to fracking and rural communities build bike trail systems to promote nature, boost the economy.

Attorneys Ask White House for Protocol on Law Enforcement Independence

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Thursday, March 16, 2017   

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – As it stands, there is no protocol from the White House on how it will keep from interfering in law enforcement matters – and a group of attorneys is calling on it to do so.

Less than two months into the new administration, Ian Bassin, executive director of the legal watchdog group United to Protect Democracy, says there have been three reported instances of the White House appearing interfere with federal law enforcement.

He says the Trump administration needs to make public its plans to avoid even the appearance of inappropriate political interference.

"These rules are incredibly important to protecting the health of our democracy,” he stresses. “They are hallmarks of the difference between healthy democracies around the world and more authoritarian forms of government."

The group is made up of former Obama administration U.S. attorneys who helped craft rules of conduct, and Bassin says since Watergate both parties have abided by guidelines when it comes to contacts with federal enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI.

Bassin says there's no law preventing someone from the White House from speaking to the FBI, for example, about a current investigation that's under way. But he adds that's something normally left up to the White House Counsel's Office.

He says there have been extensive studies about democratic decline around the world.

"It's not always unlawful activity by an executive that really undermines the democracy,” he points out. “It's the slow unraveling of oftentimes legal activities, and it's incredibly important that we pay attention."

Bassin says the U.S. should be setting an example of what a healthy democracy should look like, and says it's hard for this country to do that if we aren't abiding by our own guidelines.

Bassin maintains it lowers the standards and hurts the democratic movement around the world. He says the American people need to know that the Trump administration will abide by rules protecting the independence of federal law enforcement.




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