a2 eZ re the washington post.thursday, february 20 , 2020
ariZonaU.S. j udge sides with
migrants over facilitiesA U.S. judge in Arizona sided
Wednesday with migrants who
have long complained a boutinhumane and u nsanitary
conditions in some U.S. B order
Patrol facilities in the state.
The ruling came w eeks after
the c onclusion of a seven-day trial
in w hich attorneys f or m igrants
who sued i n 2015 a rgued that the
agency holds immigrants in
extremely cold, overcrowded,
unsanitary and inhumane
conditions.
The order makes permanent a
preliminary injunction that U.S.
District Judge David C. Bury
issued i n 2016 r equiring t he
Tucson S ector t o provide clean
mats a nd t hin blankets to
migrants held for longer than 1 2
hours and t o allow t hem t o clean
themselves.
It a lso b ars the agency from
holding m igrants m ore than 4 8
hours if they’ve been fully
processed, w hich is common
when other agencies involved in
taking the m igrants, such a s
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, d on’t h ave the
capacity t o pick them up in a
reasonable amount of time.
Bury is a lso b anning the use of
bathrooms f or sleeping, which
came to light d uring the trial this
year, when video was shown of a
man trying to reach a bathroom
but f ailing to because m igrants
were sleeping i n them.
— A ssociated PressteXasMan convicted in
killing of police officerA Te xas man w as convicted
Wednesday of capital murder forthe 2 018 killings of a Dallas-area
police officer a nd another man.
Brandon McCall, 2 8, faces
death or life in prison w ithout
parole w hen h e is sentenced for
shooting his friend, Rene Gamez
II, a nd Richardson police officer
David Sherrard i n what police
described as an ambush. Defense
attorneys acknowledged that
McCall shot t he m en but s aid the
killings were unintentional.
A Collin County jury returned
the g uilty verdict after about two
hours of deliberations and will
begin hearing testimony Monday
in the punishment phase of
McCall’s t rial. McCall was accused
of shooting Gamez, 3 0, i n an
apartment complex in the suburb
north of Dallas and t hen s hooting
Sherrard i n the c hest as he
entered the apartment after
responding to reports of gunfire.
The officer, a 3 7-year-old m arried
father of two daughters, later died
at a h ospital.
— A ssociated PressKentUcKyState agency ordered to
pay over license plateThe Kentucky Transportation
Cabinet, the state agency
maintaining h ighways and
regulating transportation i ssues,
has t o pay more t han $150,0 00 i n
legal fees for a m an who won a
lawsuit allowing him to put “IM
GOD” o n his license plate.
A judge ruled t his week t hat
the a gency must pay $150,715.5 0
in attorneys’ fees and an
additional $491.24 for court costs,news outlets reported.
The ruling came i n a case filed
by Ben Hart, a self-identified
atheist, who set o ut t o get the
Kentucky plate in 2016. T he
transportation agency denied the
request on the basis i t violated
anti-discrimination g uidelines.
A federal judge r uled in
November t hat “vanity plates” a re
private speech p rotected b y the
First A mendment and that t he
state had v iolated Hart’s rights by
denying h im the p late.
Attorneys for the state agency
fought the costs, calling them
excessive. T he f ees will go t o a
team of l awyers, including s ome
with the American Civil Liberties
Union of Kentucky a nd the
Freedom From Religion
Foundation, b oth of which h elped
Hart c hallenge the state’s
decision.
— A ssociated Press2 teens held in fatal library fire:
Two 13-year-old boys have b een
arrested o n suspicion of s tarting a
blaze at a public library in central
California that left a f irefighter
dead and a nother m issing,
officials s aid. Porterville Police
Chief Eric Kroutil said
Wednesday that the t eenagers,
who were a llegedly seen running
from the l ibrary shortly a fter the
blaze started, w ere a rrested
Tuesday. S taff c alled 911 w hen
they noticed flames i n the
children’s s ection o f the library, in
Porterville, 50 miles north of
Bakersfield, c ity librarian V ikki
Cervantes t old the Visalia Times-
Delta.
— A ssociated PressdigestFox11 News KttV-tV /associated Press
An aerial view of the Hollywood Hills home, right, where rapper Pop Smoke, 20, was shot and killed
before dawn Wednesday. Los Angeles police have not announced any arrests. His label, Republic Records,
said it is devastated by the loss. Public listings show the home, a rental, is owned by Edwin Arroyave and
wife Te ddi Mellencamp, daughter of singer John Mellencamp, the Associated Press says.Happening todayFor the latest updates all day, visit washingtonpost.com.all day | president trump attends a Hope for Prisoners graduation
ceremony in Las Vegas, then travels to colorado springs for an evening
campaign rally. For developments, visit washingtonpost.com/politics.
all day | secretary of state Mike pompeo meets with leaders in Muscat,
oman. Visit washingtonpost.com/world for details.
8:30 a.m. | the Labor department issues jobless claims for the week
ended Feb. 15, which are expected to come in at 211, 000 , up from
205, 000 the previous week. For developments, visit washingtonpost.com/
business.
10 a.m. | Former trump campaign aide roger stone is expected to be
sentenced by U.s. district Judge amy Berman Jackson of the district of
columbia. Visit washingtonpost.com/politics for details.
7 p.m. | the Washington capitals host the Montreal canadiens at
capital one arena. Follow the game at postsports.com.
8 p.m. | cnn holds hour-long town halls with two democratic presidential
candidates: former vice president Joe Biden and sen. elizabeth warren
(Mass.). For developments, visit washingtonpost.com/politics.
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[email protected].1995, had finished up a three-
year run as Republican chairman
of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee.
A few other original Blue Dogs
also switched parties, and it was
not until the 2006 midterm
elections — when Democrats
successfully recruited a crop of
candidates who appealed to
those rural and exurban regions
— that both the coalition and the
broader caucus swept back into
power, allowing House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to make
history as the first woman ever to
wield that chamber’s gavel.
By 2010, their numbers soared
to 54, but the group was set up
for another big fall, getting
wiped out in those midterms and
seeing their ranks dropped to a
fraction of that record high.
By 2015, just 15 House
Democrats joined the coalition, a
low mark that left the Blue Dogs
without any real bark or bite.
B ut in 2016, following a
shooting massacre at a gay
nightclub in Orlando, Murphy
jumped into a House race in
Florida.
Rescued by the U.S. Navy as an
infant Vietnamese boat refugee,
Murphy, 41, defeated a 24-year
incumbent and then easily won
reelection in 2018, providing the
portrait for the new era of Blue
Dogs: younger, more diverse,
socially liberal while still fiscally
conservative.
There are five women among
the Blue Dogs, including four
who won GOP districts in 2018.
As he gathered current staff
and Blue Dog alumni to celebrate
last Thursday, Tanner told the
secret of how he made the
annual retreat a success: no
policy or issue agenda items, just
socializing.
[email protected]president Joe Biden.
After the 1994 elections swept
Republicans into the House
majority for the first time in 40
years, making huge gains in
defeating rural Democrats, some
of those remaining felt as if they
needed a new home.
Ta nner, who retired in 2010,
put together a group of more
than 20 Democrats who survived
the previous election and wanted
to find some middle ground,
particularly after Republicans
successfully lampooned the
Clinton administration’s health-
care proposal as big government.
They were even willing to
work with Republicans on their
proposals to balance the annual
federal budget.
“If you don’t get control of
your budget, whether you’re a
nation, a country, a business, or a
family, you lose control of your
destiny. T his is a great disservice
to future generations who can’t
vote and make decisions. So I
thought we needed to work
toward balance,” t hen-Rep. Glen
Browder (D-Ala.) told a
biographer, transcripts of which
were included in a detailed
Medium post that is a
retrospective on the coalition.
About two-thirds of the
original group hailed from the
South, and only two were
women.
Founded on Feb. 14, 1995, they
chose the name after a painting
of a blue dog with yellow eyes
hanging in the offices of Rep.
W.J. “Billy” T auzin, then a
Democrat from Louisiana who
hosted their early meetings.
What that group did not
realize was that it would be
another 12 years before
Democrats regained the
majority. By that point, Ta uzin,
after switching parties later inMurphy (D-Fla.), the current co-
chairman of the Blue Dogs, said
in a House floor speech last
week.
Their focus on fiscal matters,
however, comes at a fairly stark
moment in national politics.
After spending the Obama White
House years howling about the
federal debt, Republicans have
largely abandoned fiscal
restraint both in terms of tax and
spending policies, with the debt
soaring by more than $3 trillion
in President Trump’s three years
in office.
Democrats running for
president often critique Trump
and Republicans for rank
hypocrisy on the issue, but none
has any real plan to tackle the
debt. In fact, while they all
generally would push to repeal
the 2017 tax cuts, those
presidential candidates then
would use those funds on
expansive federal programs, such
as the Medicare-for-all proposal
touted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-
Vt.).
This makes the Blue Dogs,
while strong again in numbers
and clout, feel almost as isolated
now on a key policy as they were
when Ta nner madly scrambled to
find staff and strategists to
attend their first retreat.
“Most importantly, Blue Dogs
remain focused on our founding
principles of fiscal
responsibility,” said Murphy, who
has endorsed former New York
mayor Mike Bloomberg in the
2020 race.
Clearly the coalition is quite
concerned that Sanders, the self-
described democratic socialist, at
the top of the ticket would put
many of their seats in peril. So
far, among those who have
endorsed, the Blue Dogs heavily
favor Bloomberg and former viceWhen he
organized the first
retreat of the Blue
Dog Coalition in
1995, then-Rep.
John Ta nner reserved 50 rooms
at a resort on Maryland’s Eastern
Shore.
As the event drew closer, the
Te nnessee Democrat learned that
he had booked only 23 rooms,
setting the coalition of fiscally
moderate House Democrats off
to a potentially very rocky start.
On Friday, though, the Blue
Dogs celebrated their 25th
birthday, a quarter-century run
of bonding over what it is like to
represent the most conservative
terrain inside the House
Democratic caucus. Their ranks
have ebbed and flowed over the
years, a movement that could
usually be seen as tracking
whether the Democrats were
holding the majority.
If their weekly meetings had
several dozen lawmakers, that
meant things were going well for
House Democrats. When
attendance dropped into the low
teens, as it did five years ago, that
meant Democrats were out in the
political wilderness searching for
a path to relevance.
Now flush with 25 members —
including nine freshmen, eight of
whom flipped GOP districts in
2018 — this coalition feels as if it
is once again thriving. They look
a lot younger and more diverse
than the original 23 members,
with a geographic focus that is
shifting into the suburban
districts that were once
Republican strongholds.
“While the makeup and size of
our coalition has changed over
the years, our focus on fiscal
responsibility and a strong
national security has never
wavered,” Rep. StephanieOn 25th birthday, Blue Dogs stand alone
@PKCapitol
Paul Kane