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    Washington Letter August 2014

     

    Disability

    Disabilities treaty clears major hurdle toward ratification

    The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is ready for a full Senate vote when Congress returns from its August recess. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee cleared the CRPD for the full Senate July 22 by a 12-6 vote. The committee’s action, according to the ABA, sends “a clear message to the world of U.S. support for the human rights principles of the treaty as well as our role as a world leader for the rights of people with disabilities.

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    Prosecution

    Retroactivity okayed for reduced drug sentencing guidelines

    In action strongly supported by the ABA, the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) unanimously approved an amendment last month to apply reduced sentencing guidelines retroactively to people who are currently serving time for certain nonviolent drug offenses. The commission added retroactivity to a sentencing reduction amendment approved last April and sent to Congress as part of the 2014 amendments to the drug sentencing guidelines.

    Ethics

    Conference of Chief Justices adopts resolution supporting ABA’s Voluntary Guidance for lawyers to combat money laundering

    The Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) adopted a resolution at its annual meeting in July supporting the ABA’s Voluntary Good Practices Guidance for Lawyers to Detect and Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Voluntary Guidance), which was developed by the ABA Task Force on Gatekeeper Regulation and the Profession and several other ABA and other legal entities before being approved by the ABA House of Delegates in 2010.