Carrie Johnson
Carrie Johnson is a justice correspondent for the Washington Desk.
She covers a wide variety of stories about justice issues, law enforcement, and legal affairs for NPR's flagship programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as the newscasts and NPR.org.
Johnson has chronicled major challenges to the landmark voting rights law, a botched law enforcement operation targeting gun traffickers along the Southwest border, and the Obama administration's deadly drone program for suspected terrorists overseas.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2010, Johnson worked at the Washington Post for 10 years, where she closely observed the FBI, the Justice Department, and criminal trials of the former leaders of Enron, HealthSouth, and Tyco. Earlier in her career, she wrote about courts for the weekly publication Legal Times.
Her work has been honored with awards from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the Society for Professional Journalists, SABEW, and the National Juvenile Defender Center. She has been a finalist for the Loeb Award for financial journalism and for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for team coverage of the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas.
Johnson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Benedictine University in Illinois.
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Lawmakers have been critical of how the FBI mishandled the investigation of Larry Nassar. Several prominent gymnasts abused by Nassar are testifying about the case to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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A for-profit detention center in Kansas that's been plagued with violence may be trying to do an end run against a presidential executive order by moving to house immigrant detainees. -
The ACLU and federal public defenders are warning a private prison company may be trying to avoid President Biden's executive order that bans new contracts with most for-profit detention facilities.
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The Justice Department is suing Texas over its strict abortion ban, saying it conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Texas law clashes with Supreme Court precedent and could be a model for how states could put other constitutional rights in jeopardy.
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FBI data show a 6% increase in the number of hate crimes in 2020. But that doesn't tell the full story, as state and local jurisdictions don't have to report those offenses to the federal government.
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The most effective civil rights legislation in U.S. history has been upended by two recent Supreme Court decisions. States are moving to pass new voting restrictions nationwide.
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Relatively few people in federal prison have been approved for compassionate release during the pandemic. Lawmakers are trying to make that option a reality for more sick and elderly people.
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The Justice Department will be probing the Phoenix police's use of force and their treatment of the city's homeless.
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The Justice Department said the Treasury Department "must furnish" the Trump tax materials to House lawmakers. But it's far from clear that the information will become public.
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The moves are part of the Biden administration's push to demonstrate it is on guard amid new voting restrictions proposed and enacted by Republican-led states.
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The Justice Department is considering whether the federal officials who spoke at a Trump rally ahead of the insurrection were acting within the scope of their jobs that day.
