What Legal Changes Can We Expect from VP-Elect Kamala Harris?
As President Trump’s term in office ends, it is only natural to look forward and predict what can be expected from a Biden-Harris administration. Kamala Harris has achieved many firsts in her career, including being elected Vice-President-Elect. As she has never been in office, it may be useful to reflect on her record as a Attorney General to anticipate her plans, focussing particularly on three key issues: healthcare, criminal justice and the police.
Healthcare
Harris initially supported Medicare for all, tweeting in August 2017 that she would ‘cosponsor’ the Bill because ‘it’s just the right thing to do’ [1]. Later on, she indicated that her vision of Medicare differs from Senator Bernie Sanders in an article for Medium, writing that she would ‘allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans’ but force insurers to adhere to the ‘price and quality’ set by Medicare [2]. This appears to align with Biden’s plan to make the Affordable Care Act public in order to resemble Medicare and to give Americans a choice between private and public healthcare options [3].
Criminal Justice
During her time in the District Attorney’s office, Harris increased conviction rates to ‘the highest they’ve been in fifteen years’ [4] in her own words and Mercury News reported that she oversaw 1,900 cannabis-related convictions in San Francisco during her tenure [5]. She later campaigned for the legalisation of marijuana during her Presidential run and stood by this commitment during a town hall meeting after she accepted the VP ticket. Though she pushed for convictions and imprisonment on many occasions, she did implement ‘Back on Track’, a program to rehabilitate offenders [6]. She came under fire recently for pioneering an anti-truancy law passed in 2012 that allowed parents to be charged if their children missed school. She later spoke of her regret that the law had been used to criminalize parents rather than encourage school attendance [7]. Her OpenJustice initiative allowed the public to access crime statistics and was conversely praised by both ‘police groups as well as activists’ [8].
Police
Harris has supported the use of police body cameras, and when she was Attorney General California became the ‘first statewide agency to adopt a body camera plan’ [9]. Since being elected as a senator, she has tweeted about her support for a ‘pilot body camera program’ for officers [10].
Conclusion
In her different positions within government, her ideas and policies are partly consistent and partly contradictory. Whether this is evidence of her mindset evolving or merely appeasing progressives in the Democratic Party remains to be seen.
Kamala Harris (2017) <https://twitter.com/kamalaharris/status/903038663457689605?lang=en>
accessed 19 November 2020
Kamala Harris, ‘My Plan for Medicare For All’ (2019) <https://medium.com/@KamalaHarris/my-plan-for-medicare-for-all-7730370dd421> accessed 19 November 2020
<https://joebiden.com/healthcare/> accessed 19 November 2020
NBC News, ‘Examining Kamala Harris’ Criminal Justice Record’ (2020) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWFciDJ1iDg&t=188s> accessed 21 November 2020
Casey Tolan, ‘How Kamala Harris Prosecuted Marijuana Cases in San Francisco’ (2020) <https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/09/11/kamala-harris-prosecuting-marijuana-cases/> accessed 19 November 2020
US Department of Justice, BJA Fact Sheet (2008) <https://bja.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh186/files/Publications/BackonTrackFS.pdf> accessed 21 November 2020
Gene Demby, ‘The Story Behind Kamala Harris' Truancy Program’ (2020) <https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/10/17/924766186/the-story-behind-kamala-harriss-truancy-program?t=1606860626139> accessed 21 November 2020