Important and interesting doings in the House

While most legal eagles have been watching the Senate Judiciary Committee with an eagle eye during all the SCOTUS nominee developments, lately there has been a lot of important and interesting sentencing-related developments over in the House.  Specifically, as detailed at this official website, the House's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security has been busy with habeas reform, prisoner re-entry issues, and methamphetamine legislation.

Helpfully, the Sentencing Project has an this informative report on the subcommittee's work on methamphetamine legislation and prisoner re-entry issues.  I find quite encouraging the prisoner re-entry news, which centers around consideration of a sensible bill known as The Second Chances Act (details here).  Also quite encouraging is the latest news on the meth front from this FAMM report: "By a vote of 31-0, the House Judiciary Committee on November 9, 2005 approved an amended version of H.R. 3889, the Methamphetamine Epidemic Elimination Act, that, among other things, removed the worst mandatory minimum provisions from the bill."

Developments on the habeas front seem to be less encouraging, as the House Thursday will have a another hearing on the Streamlined Procedures Act, which could significantly limit habeas appeals in federal courts.  As previously discussed here and here, the Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform has created this detailed webpage about the legislation.