Of the 1,078 expungement-only cases initiated from 2015 through 2018, the brokerage firms did not oppose the individual broker's expungement request in 1,055 cases — more than 98% of the time.
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A pardon, though, in some cases, leads to eventual expungement.
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The expungement provisions, which Murphy says will set New Jersey apart from any other state with legal weed, waive any fee for expungement processing and permit clearing of records for possession up to 5 pounds.
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Meanwhile, the PIABA Foundation also recommends that FINRA halt all expungement proceedings right away as well as the filing of new cases and establish an investor advocate who would be present in every expungement proceeding.
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The move toward expungement and shielding has broad support in Maryland.
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In Utah, an automatic expungement bill is awaiting the governor's signature.
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Given the large potential benefits of expungement, why wouldn't someone apply?
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Now imagine this danger — the expungement of free will — were imminent.
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Confirmation is a vindication of sorts but certainly is not an expungement.
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Up to 770,153 Illinois residents may qualify for expungement, according to ABC News.
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After expungement of a criminal record, wages increase by 25 percent on average.
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In October 153 a change in Maryland law made more cases eligible for expungement.
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But another likely reason is that expungement recipients aren't high risk to begin with.
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Between 2009 and 2014, 31 states and Washington, DC, established or expanded expungement laws.
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The relatively small revenue stream provided by the expungement fee has complicated legislative reform.
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Successful completion of the two-year program can result in expungement of the case.
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However, the logistics of expungement in Illinois are not entirely so simple for everybody.
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According to the Marijuana Policy Project, around 770,000 cannabis-related cases are eligible for expungement.
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Again, if you meet the requirements for automatic expungement, you'll have a much easier go.
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Y.) Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, comprehensive legislation to end federal marijuana criminalization.
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If so, the program automatically transfers the information from Case Search to the expungement form.
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And official expungement doesn't necessarily expunge the records held by companies that do background checks.
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Free expungement clinics help the more desperate scrub their criminal records, while companies like EraseMugshots.
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In short, there are tons of barriers even when expungement is woven into marijuana legalization.
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Here how it works: The broker seeking expungement files a $1 claim against the brokerage.
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ICE does not have to honor an expungement ... the arrest and conviction can trigger deportation action.
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At least 36 states have laws allowing expungement, but they tend to be narrow in scope.
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But this week, we released the results of the first major empirical study of expungement laws.
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Michigan, where our data came from, has an expungement law that exemplifies the traditional nonautomatic approach.
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It is unfortunate that only about 6 percent of eligible individuals actually apply for an expungement.
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It checks for eligible convictions, fills out forms and sends them to the court for expungement.
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There are fees associated with expungement—as there are in most states—and the process requires legal assistance, which is why the Minority Cannabis Business Association, in partnership with the cannabis company Marley Natural, held its first-ever expungement clinic in Portland, which helped 30 clients.
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I think there's good reason we expunge juvenile records, and would raise the expungement age to 21.
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Vacatur and expungement are examples of the legal system working to fix this and rectify prior injustice.
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For many years, debates about expungement laws have been missing something critical: hard data about their effects.
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But even then, there's simply no reason to believe that expungement would increase those baseline crime risks.
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As part of that movement, NDICA has set up monthly mobile expungement clinics in low-income communities.
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NDICA founder Bonita Money told VICE that even with Illinois's automatic expungement policy there are complicating factors.
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Now, her record has been approved for expungement — as soon as she can pay the $25 fee.
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We need to rewrite the sealing law from scratch and work toward bringing true expungement to this state.
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The change appeared to permit felons, and not just low-level offenders, to qualify for expungement, he said.
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The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019 passed by a count of 85033-10. Rep.
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The policy upshot of our research is clear: Obtaining an expungement should be made as simple as possible.
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And some big weed companies, including Canopy Growth, which recently sponsored National Expungement Week, are getting on board.
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Advocates are eyeing the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, which is set to be examined Wednesday.
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For those whose records carried convictions involving 30-500 grams, a slightly more arduous expungement application is needed.
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His 2014 drug conviction was expunged from his record, although immigration officers don't have to honor that expungement.
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To get it done, advocates are focused on three policy areas: Record expungement, community reinvestment, and equal market access.
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After attending an expungement fair last year, Turner said he got his flagrant felony charge dropped to misdemeanor possession.
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Certain provisions in the bill also establish an "expedited expungement process" for individuals convicted of low-level marijuana offenses.
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Under earlier versions of the bill, the expungement provision covered people convicted of possession roughly 2 ounces of marijuana.
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These developments follow on the heels of the first major automatic expungement law, which passed in Pennsylvania last summer.
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We interviewed expungement lawyers and advocates for people with records, whose insights pointed to a clear set of explanations.
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The New Jersey bill is powerful because it combines expungement, or the clearing of a criminal record, with automation.
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While most charges can be expunged, many individuals do not apply simply because they do not know expungement exists.
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But in Washington, D.C., expungement week events included résumé writing workshops, job training, and other career re-entry services.
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"These are being done to limit the number of eyes that are looking at these expungement requests," Doss said.
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According to the Marijuana Policy Project, more than 750,000 cannabis-related cases will be eligible for expungement under this measure.
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Some have adopted record-sealing and expungement or banned the criminal history box on applications for jobs in state government.
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Using a new and advanced technology, Code for America set out to revolutionize the record expungement process, starting in California.
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The cases would then be sent to the governor for pardon before going to the state attorney general for expungement.
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Like most states, Michigan requires a waiting period before expungement (five years after a person's last interaction with law enforcement).
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This means even people who are unaware they're eligeable or who have yet to initiate the expungement process will be cleared.
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In addition to federal decriminalization, the bill would require federal courts to expunge prior convictions and allow offenders to request expungement.
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He also agreed to never seek expungement of the charge, the legal process of having a criminal record erased or sealed.
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Expungement, or clearing your record, for a weed crime in Oregon is possible, but it takes a great deal of work.
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But expungement is rarely automatic, and many defendants do not realize that it requires filing paperwork and paying an additional fee.
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We worked hard to get the expungement for juveniles, and I'm worried that that's not in the House provision right now.
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Record expungement aims to redress disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates, which have long been one of prohibition's most tangible and enduring consequences.
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It follows the introduction of expungement laws in September, which allow men convicted of homosexual sex to have their records wiped clean.
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The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, enabling states to set their own policies.
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Additionally, we urge federal and state governments to enact automatic record-clearing given the significant cost and time involved in record expungement.
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Even if the charges are dropped, the arrest stays on their record, unless they find a lawyer to file an expungement petition.
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Before she became eligible for expungement, three fast-food restaurants, she said, had rejected her for jobs because of her teenage behavior.
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The Chicago clinic took place during 2019's National Expungement Week when similar events hit more than 30 cities around the country.
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They're looking at ways to routinize and ease the expungement process of criminal records, so people aren't permanently damaged by their criminal histories.
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"Lots of people are not aware of the reduction and expungement provisions, and think (Proposition 64) only applies to new cases," Boire said.
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That law does nothing to wipe old records, but at least allows for future expungement, from 2021, for arrests and less serious crimes.
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Oftentimes those who do know they're eligible for expungement have to engage in an elaborate multi-step process to clear their own records.
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Most people don't know they can get an expungement, or don't know how to do it, and don't have lawyers to advise them.
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In what he thinks amounts to new understanding and atonement, Bloomberg's criminal justice platform includes federal decriminalization and expungement for marijuana possession offences.
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"There would be no way that I would support legalization of marijuana without expungement," said the head of the Legislative Black Caucus Foundation.
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But with automation, more individuals could access expungement, and taxpayers could avoid paying for a process we have already decided that individuals deserve.
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The expungement proposed in the bill would apply to people who have already been convicted of marijuana offenses and are serving prison time.
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However, in August 2018, nearly eight months after legalization, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1793 to streamline and clarify the steps for expungement.
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That went into effect about a year ago, and basically made expungement automatic for some who had previously been found guilty of marijuana possession.
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This week and next week, I'll look at expungement and sealing, processes which erase or block from view eligible parts of a criminal record.
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Our analysis produced some good news and some bad news — but all of the findings strongly support efforts to expand the availability of expungement.
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At a fundraising event in February, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland raised $55,000 in private donations to cover the cost of expungement for indigent applicants.
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The state legislature voted in 2016 to erase records of the least serious felonies, but only after a costly and sometimes arduous expungement process.
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Ever since Mr. Murphy had announced his support for legalizing marijuana as a candidate two years ago, expungement had been central to the debate.
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The PIABA Foundation study is based on the group's research of nearly 2000,21 "expungement-only" arbitration cases processed by FINRA from 2015 through 2018.
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Second, we should pass an expungement law that allows one-time, low-level criminal offenses to automatically drop off someone's record after 10 years.
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Andrew M. Cuomo, also a Democrat, was still considered a step forward for those pushing for lessening drug penalties, particularly the expungement of records.
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People with past convictions, or who are incarcerated or on parole, would be eligible for a clean slate, and they could request expungement online.
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New Jersey, for instance, passed an expungement bill with relative ease, even though it has failed repeatedly to have weed legalized through the state legislature.
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The bill calls for the resentencing and expungement of past and pending convictions and aims to rebuild communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
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The questionnaire can also screen clients: If you answer "yes" to whether you have misdemeanor convictions on an expungement form, more detailed questions come up.
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These range from tweaks to allow for scientific research to comprehensive approaches that end federal prohibition and provide resources for the expungement of criminal records.
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Access to vacatur and expungement for trafficking survivors has been a bipartisan priority and embraced by all stakeholders, including prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies.
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Prosecutors have come to rely on the advocacy of partner organizations to identify survivors, meticulously document their experiences, and bring vacatur motions or expungement petitions.
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Ideally, states should follow the approach of Pennsylvania and the new California and Utah bills, and make expungement automatic once the legal requirements are met.
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Our results suggest that expungement is a powerful tool for improving outcomes for people with records, without risk (and possibly with benefits) to public safety.
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The prospect of revenue is exactly why Tennessee lawmakers were persuaded to pass felony expungement legislation in 2012, said State Representative Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat.
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But as the push to legalize marijuana by the end of the year enters a critical final month, some legislators are embracing the expungement campaign.
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She asked that her last name not be used to avoid undoing what she hopes will come with an expungement: better employment and educational prospects.
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Those measures include a streamlining of the expungement process for people with criminal records and equity programs to help criminalized people get into legal weed.
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In Illinois, which started permitting recreational cannabis sales in January, Governor J.B. Pritzker was credited with creating the most progressive and comprehensive expungement procedures to date.
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District Attorney George Gascón's office used an advanced open-source computer algorithm to identify cases that were eligible for expungement, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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In late February, an especially ambitious bill was introduced in the California Legislature, allowing automatic expungement of misdemeanors and minor felonies after completion of a sentence.
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Automatic expungement places the burden not on you but on the government—and was therefore the portion of the bill most heralded by cannabis-reform advocates.
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Ross, who is currently pursuing his own weed retail license, has been working with NDICA to encourage people to take advantage of expungement and equity policies.
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He repeated his calls for the legalization of marijuana, expungement of the criminal records of those convicted for marijuana possession and an end to cash bail.
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The United States is seeing a wave of criminal justice reforms, ranging from sentencing to policies dealing with incarcerated women to automated expungement for nonviolent offenders.
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State officials estimate there are 116,000 convictions for possession up to 30 grams not associated with a violent offense eligible for expungement through the pardon process.
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Reasonable and accessible expungement processes offer them the possibility that their old crimes won't haunt them forever, and give them a clear incentive to model upstanding behavior.
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Why it matters: This comes more than two years after California legalized recreational marijuana, clearing the way for expungement or re-sentencing for those with marijuana-related convictions.
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The most powerful potential lever is the expungement of criminal convictions, which seals them from public view, removes them from databases, and neutralizes most of their legal effects.
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The low rate of applications for expungement is consistent with broader findings about the difficulties that poor and middle-class Americans face in dealing with the legal system.
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Recreational marijuana became legal in California this year, and the law allowed those with prior low-level offenses to petition for expungement, a process that can be costly.
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Arrested three times for alleged crimes that included domestic assault, he successfully requested an expungement of all the charges from his criminal record when none resulted in convictions.
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Juhi Aggarwal of the community law division at Metropolitan Public Defender was among the handful of attorneys helping people start the journey to expungement at the Portland clinic.
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So it was refreshing to catch up with Rogen and Goldberg as they were promoting National Expungement Week, which Houseplant and Canopy are sponsoring from September 21-28.
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The plan also would establish an expungement procedure for individuals convicted of possessing, manufacturing or distributing less than 25 grams of marijuana who have completed their sentence or probation.
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Enter Code for America's "Clear My Record" algorithm, which searches through criminal databases to find which cases contain codes for charges eligible for expungement or reduction under Prop 64.
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Digital court records made it easy for anyone to retrieve individual criminal histories, and the expungement process made it difficult for deserving former offenders to have their records sealed.
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The law also does so automatically, meaning individuals will no longer have to be aware that they are eligible and take steps to petition a court for an expungement.
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NDICA runs expungement clinics twice a month in Los Angeles and works with the probation office there on job training and internships both in the cannabis industry and elsewhere.
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She explained how complex the process of applying for expungement is, and said the clinic represented only "the very first step" of what can take months—or even years.
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At the Portland clinic, Aggarwal and other lawyers helped determine if people's records were eligible for expungement, filled out paperwork for motions and fee waivers, and inked fingerprint cards.
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The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or the MORE Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, decriminalizing the drug and allowing states to write their own policies.
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Once marijuana is legal, I think one of the biggest issues that we could certainly use assistance from state governors on is the issue of expungement of past criminal convictions.
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The move comes less than three years after California fully legalized recreational marijuana in the state, opening the door for expungement and re-sentencing for people with marijuana-related convictions.
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District attorneys are choosing not to charge certain low-level offenses; lawmakers are eliminating cash bail; cities are working to streamline the expungement of criminal records and voiding outstanding warrants.
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By a vote of more than two to one, members of the United States House Judiciary Committee passed legislation, House Bill 85033: The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act.
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And it's one of the reasons that we're so supportive of trying to set these laws back on the right path and why expungement to us specifically is very important.
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I have introduced, along with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, one of the most comprehensive marijuana reform bills ever introduced in the US Congress.
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The bill says tax revenue would go into a fund for "development, regulations, and enforcement of cannabis activities," including paying for expungement costs, with the balance going to the general fund.
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He called for the abolition of the death penalty, the right to vote for ex-felons, and "steps toward expungement and reversal of ridiculously long sentences" for drug crimes like possession.
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California's 2016 ballot initiative to legalize the production, distribution, and use of marijuana for recreational purposes set up a system providing for the reclassification and/or expungement of marijuana-related offenses.
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In many cases, removing the harmful marks from criminal records is possible, but the journey towards record expungement is an extremely stressful one filled with lengthy paperwork and costly legal assistance.
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When California passed Proposition 47 in 2014, making people with certain felony convictions eligible to reduce or dismiss their charges, record expungement seemed hopeful for many people with low-level misdemeanors.
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"I would say that this is the largest piece of expungement in a criminal-justice reform aspect in the country — I would probably say in the world," she told the paper.
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This finding is especially encouraging because some skeptics have argued that expungement can't work in the age of Google — that the criminal-record genie can't be put back in the bottle.
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We will continue to encourage applicants to come forward, but I agree with the writers that expungement — in our case, for misdemeanor marijuana possession — should be automatic and enacted through legislation.
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The goal of the expungement effort is to address convictions that are hampering people who have stayed clean and out of trouble after their conviction, such as a recovered heroin addict.
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"When marijuana law reform comes up now, social justice and expungement has to be taken on," said Sam Kamin, a professor of marijuana law and policy at the University of Denver.
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When Illinois passed a 2019 law legalizing recreational pot, it was paired with an automatic expungement policy for anyone who had been arrested for carrying less than 30 grams of marijuana.
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Goldberg: People can get into trouble at the border still but the people who need expungement have gotten into issues and it is fucking up their lives and they need help.
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California, the largest legal market in the U.S., earlier this month became the first state with a law mandating expungement of criminal convictions for marijuana-related offenses that no are longer illegal.
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According to attorney Richard Glen Boire of the California-based RGB Law Group, a firm that specializes in Prop 64 expungement and sentence reduction cases, how these cases progress can vary wildly.
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Beyond bail, with sentencing, judges have to understand the impact that drug convictions have as permanent stains on people's lives because expungement rights (to wipe clean a record) are generally not available.
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"This legislation will clear the cannabis-related records of nonviolent offenders through an efficient combination of automatic expungement, of gubernatorial pardon and individual court action," Pritzker said at a bill-signing event.
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In Room B2, an Expungement Help Desk, operated by a local nonprofit in space lent by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, offers information and assistance with paperwork but not explicit legal advice.
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Therefore, following the passage of HR 28500, members of the House Judiciary Committee should begin debating more comprehensive reform legislation, in particular, HR 6900, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act.
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Biden would not legalize weed as president, but he called for expungement of all past convictions for pot use as part of a criminal justice reform plan released by his presidential campaign Tuesday.
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Ultimately the client was allowed to plead guilty to criminal mischief, the lowest class of misdemeanor, which carried no possible jail time and was eligible for expungement from his record, Mr. Willey said.
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Last fall, working with the Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services and the courts, my office created the first program in New York State for the expungement of misdemeanor convictions for marijuana possession.
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The state was also seeking to make the expungement process easier by allowing it to be done online, eliminating the requirement to do it in person, which can be time-consuming and expensive.
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She estimated that about 60 percent of the people she helped apply for expungement in Chicago never finished filing their paperwork—in part because they can't afford to pay the court fees needed.
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Keenly aware that red states like Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky have made aggressive changes to their justice systems, including sentencing reforms and felony expungement laws, Kushner has showed the president these success stories.
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From June 17 to 19, hundreds will gather in Atlanta to learn about expungement and form a "strategic legislative agenda at local, state and national levels" to address mass incarceration, Auburn Seminary's website reads.
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Rashad James, a Maryland Legal Aid attorney, told reporters at a press conference Wednesday that he attended an expungement hearing on behalf of his client at the Harford County District Court earlier this month.
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A similar fund run by Just City, which eventually paid for Bill's expungement, has underwritten 70 applicants since its launch three years ago—a modest gain, said Josh Spickler, the Just City executive director.
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As a backstop, the database will be reviewed every four years for profiles that are at least four years old -- providing an out for profiles that hadn't met the expungement criteria in previous reviews.
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"Trying to make sure that expungement is done statewide really ensures that they are at the forefront of this effort," said Dianna Houenou, the policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
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That's because when Oregon legalized recreational marijuana in 2015, the state failed to do something that legalization advocates have said would help level the playing field for people with marijuana arrest records: enact automatic expungement.
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Lawmakers said during hearings that while 5 pounds sounds like a lot, it's necessary to allow for an expedited expungement process because the statute covering possession for small amounts of cannabis goes up to 5 pounds.
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After reading and determining if a record is eligible for expungement, the program auto-fills the required paperwork and submits information needed to have the charges reduced (in PDF format) as a motion to the courts.
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While a gun permit may be discretionary, a decent job or money for an education are crucial, and for many people once convicted of a crime, Tennessee's high fee has put expungement out of the reach.
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The new app will be able to message multiple public agencies and services (including a client's attorney and social worker) and learn about local opportunities, such as free or reduced transportation to court and expungement clinics.
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Attorney Julian Friedman, senior counsel in the New York office of law firm Ballard Spahr — who says he has represented individual brokers in expungement cases but none seeking just $1 — said the requests can be appropriate.
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And in New Jersey, the proposal's sponsors have discussed changing the current bill, including removing an expungement provision that would have cleared convictions for people who were caught in possession of up to five pounds of marijuana.
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In California alone, officials have already reviewed and vacated tens of thousands of cannabis records, while similar policies in Illinois and New York are expected to result in the automatic expungement of over a million criminal records.
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Kamala Harris (Calif.) have introduced similar federal legislation that would address criminal justice reforms and social equity through marijuana legalization proposals known as the Marijuana Justice Act and the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, respectively. Sen.
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Even in states where similar relief legislation exists, the battle for expungement can be difficult and traumatizing, and survivors continue to be coerced into testifying against their traffickers even when their lives are at risk by doing so.
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New Jersey also pursued one of the country's most liberal expungement programs by offering a clean slate for those who had been convicted of possessing up to five pounds of marijuana, an amount higher than any other state.
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This week's mass expungement represents an indictment of the summons system itself — and a recognition that far too many people were brought into contact with the justice system for petty offenses that in no way jeopardized public safety.
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The move is meant to make it easier for people who would otherwise have to retain an attorney to file expungement paperwork for convictions that can scuttle employment and housing opportunities and have disproportionately affected African-Americans, he said.
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The big picture: The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act focuses on criminal and social justice reforms, removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and introducing a 5% tax to go toward grants for minorities and low-income communities.
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In Oregon, which legalized recreational marijuana by ballot initiative in 2014, the law did not have an explicit expungement provision—but it did allow people with marijuana-related crimes to qualify for licensure to own a legal marijuana business.
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But the most effective legal response to correct the injustice of past convictions is vacatur or expungement, laws that provide survivors a way to clear their record of charges they were convicted of that were a result of trafficking.
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In the rest of the country, Dreamers may have to find their own lawyer, go to court, pay fees, and petition for expungement if they don't want a childhood mistake to count against them on the path to citizenship.
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" Houseplant, which said its main focus is to educate the consumer on cannabis, also said it intends to contribute to the "expungement of criminal records and the employment of those unjustly targeted and incarcerated worldwide for non-violent cannabis crimes.
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In fact, trans people didn't even have explicit protection under federal human rights legislation until this year… And, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that earlier today in this House we tabled the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act.
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Kentucky has the most restrictive felon disenfranchisement law in the country, yet its practice became just a tad less severe a few years ago after the state passed a bill that allows eligible felons to seek an expungement of their records.
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" The statement went on, "As president, he would fight to put an end to mandatory minimums, private prisons and cash bail, and he would support automatic expungement for marijuana offenses because he believes no one should be in jail for marijuana.
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Many prosecutors, especially in rural areas, remain skeptical of any action to show mercy for a person's past, and some judges engage in measured resistance, holding hearings more to complain about an expungement law than to weigh an application's merits.
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"The key is you protect the public, and protecting the public means a whole lot of options," said Andrew J. Fogle, the deputy prosecutor Mr. Curry assigned to handle expungement petitions, including one for an arrest in the late 1950s.
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If you were arrested, but not convicted, of possessing 30 grams or less of cannabis, you qualify for automatic expungement—which requires you to do very little other than wait around for the Illinois State Police to comb through department files.
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"The disparity is real, it's a problem, and that's part of the reason I'm proposing that we legalize marijuana outright, and when we do, we have a process of expungement and looking back to the harm that drug policy have caused," Buttigieg said.
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At a time of debate over the removal of Confederate monuments and amid charges that some protestors want to "erase history," Longstreet's near-expungement raises questions about whose history is being scrubbed away and why that history was created in the first place.
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The organization is also helping to bring a landmark legal case to court, in which three women—all of whom were coerced into sex as children—are asking for the expungement of a lifetime of criminal records relating to the solicitation of sex.
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To the Editor: Re "After Jail Time, a Clean Slate" (Op-Ed, March 21): As J.J. Prescott and Sonja B. Starr advocate, it is high time to institute automatic expungement of records for minor criminal acts once the formal sentence has been served.
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Professor Lageson interviewed 27 people at Minnesota expungement clinics over two years beginning in 2014 and found that people whose mug shots were easily available online had been fired and rejected from jobs — or afraid to even apply in the first place.
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With hurdles such as this, it's no surprise that a recent study published in Harvard Law Review, "Expungement of Criminal Records: An Empirical Study," found only 6.5 percent of Michiganders eligible for set-asides receive them within five years of becoming eligible.
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For nearly all of his adult life, Ivan, said, his felony has held him back—which is why he rented a car and drove nearly two hours to Portland from Eugene to attend a January expungement clinic hosted by the Oregon Cannabis Association.
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The jump comes after the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 85033-10 to pass the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, marking the first time in history that a congressional committee has voted in approval of the legalization of marijuana.
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The proposal, introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler over the summer, aims to rebuild communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs and would allow the re-sentencing and expungement of certain past and pending marijuana-related convictions related to marijuana use.
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States with laws that now allow residents to expunge or reduce their cannabis records include Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Virginia, Rhode Island, and California, which is leading the charge with a policy of automatic expungement (putting the onus on the state instead of citizens).
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The process is free, a big deal in itself as attorneys can charge up to $3,000 for the same service, according to Pamela Johnson, a public information officer at the LA County Public Defender's Office, which has been participating in about eight expungement clinics a month.
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A district attorney in rural Louisiana leads information sessions about expungements for some felony convictions after a 10-year waiting period; a Vermont prosecutor recently held a record-clearing clinic; and the authorities near Fort Bragg, N.C., attracted about 500 people to an expungement event last year.
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The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019, or MORE Act,would would require federal courts to expunge previous convictions for marijuana offenses, What's next: The bill, which proposes to remove marijuana from a list of federally controlled substances, will now go to the full House.
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Specifically, it would appropriate a portion of the federal taxes collected from the legal industry to pay for the expungement of past records and to partially fund reentry services, job training, and community improvements in jurisdictions most that have been most disproportionately impacted by the cannabis prohibition.
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Then, in 2015, the legislature passed a law allowing anyone with a marijuana conviction to apply for expungement if the act for which they were convicted—like possession, growing marijuana, or growing in excess of what was deemed allowable for medical use—is no longer considered a crime.
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Bolstered by a renewed focus, from the Trump administration on down, on helping people with criminal histories participate in society successfully, at least 20 states have created or broadened expungement and sealing laws since the beginning of 2017, according to the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, a nonprofit group.
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Congressional committee votes to remove marijuana from Controlled Substances Act In November, members of the House Judiciary Committee decided 85033 to 10 in favor of The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act — which federally deschedules marijuana, thus enabling states to set their cannabis regulatory policies free from federal intervention.
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Another bill in the lawmakers' slate of legislation, the Responsibly Addressing the Marijuana Policy Gap Act, sets parameters for expungement of certain cannabis-related crimes, allows weed-related businesses operating in states where cannabis is legalized to use banks, and aims to ensure pot users have access to federal assistance programs, among other provisions.
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In addition to decriminalizing marijuana by removing it from the list of controlled substances and enabling states to set their own policies, the Harris-Nadler "Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act" would prohibit the denial of federal public benefits, including housing, due to marijuana use and mandate it would have no impact under immigration laws.
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"Because we're doing all the work on the front-end and there's no litigation involved, what happens is we provide the court with a clean list of the people who qualify and all the court has to do is basically go through the [administrative] process of finalizing the expungement or the reduction in sentence," he explains.
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The Drug Policy Alliance is lobbying for a bill that includes the automatic and retroactive expungement of criminal records for possession, making permits for cannabis shops affordable so that the market is accessible to lower-income entrepreneurs, and a commitment that a portion of the revenue from marijuana sales be used to provide education and job training for people of color.
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And after two years of enacting bipartisan-supported policies that included a ban the box executive order, a felony expungement bill, and a broad reentry package, Kentucky is poised to become the first state in the nation to pass a "Dignity" bill, which bans the shackling of pregnant women, improves conditions for all incarcerated women, and expands treatment for women suffering from addiction.
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Seeking a fresh start In addition to a declaration of innocence and $1.1 million ($65,000 for each year of his imprisonment), Jones seeks an order of expungement of the arrests and convictions related to his case, a waiver of tuition and fees for a college education, education assistance for his two daughters, health care benefits, counseling, the destruction of any biological samples associated with his case and compensation for attorney's fees.
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The biggest hurdle will be getting the records in a form that can be quickly processed by a machine, the Tribune wrote:Code for America's program will sift through state and county data to identify which records are eligible for the expungement, then complete paperwork for prosecutors to submit to judges, who can formally throw out the convictions.... The county hopes to begin the automated process as soon as possible, even ahead of Jan.
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Barbara LeeBarbara Jean LeeHouse to hold markup Wednesday on marijuana decriminalization bill US must lead the charge on global reproductive rights — not stand in the way Congress should lift the ban on medical cannabis access for military veterans MORE (Calif.) and Earl BlumenauerEarl BlumenauerHillicon Valley: Progressives oppose funding bill over surveillance authority | Senators call for 5G security coordinator | Facebook gets questions over location tracking | Louisiana hit by ransomware attack Progressives oppose spending stopgap measure over surveillance authority extension House to hold markup Wednesday on marijuana decriminalization bill MORE (Ore.), on Tuesday to highlight the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. Sen.
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