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Caregivers Union Says Orange County Colluded With Freedom Foundation

This spring the Supreme Court is likely to deal the U.S. labor movement a crushing blow if, as expected, it rules in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees who choose not to join unions no longer have to pay service fees for union representation. For the political right, the case is a dream come true because weakened unions would mean a weaker Democratic Party, which relies on organized labor for campaign money and boots on the ground to get out the vote. If plaintiff Mark Janus prevails, deep-pocketed conservative groups—funded by the likes of the Koch brothers— have announced they’ll wage war for the hearts and minds of public employees in an attempt to separate them from their unions. The fight is already on in Orange County, where the right-to-work group Freedom Foundation, based in Washington state, scored a win last January in a battle over orientations for new in-home health care aides.

Louisiana Residents Arrested For Delivering Judge’s Orders To Stop Bayou Bridge Construction

(St. James) Twenty Water Protectors brought construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline to a halt this morning in St. James Parish, an area where the pipeline company is currently under a judge’s orders to stop construction. Bayou Bridge LLC has defied Judge Alvin Turner’s order to halt construction, not only continuing construction in the fragile coastal zone but accelerating it. Water Protectors intervened today to enforce the law that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources is failing to enforce. Two women were arrested at the site. “St. James residents haven’t been listened to,” said Alicia Cooke, a Water Protector with 350 New Orleans who was arrested in this morning’s civil disobedience. “We’ve been fighting this pipeline on every level through every legal means for over a year. I’m not sure how many more ways Louisianans can say we don’t want this or need this. Our bodies are on the line, because that’s all we have left.” A video of the morning’s events is available here.

Judge Finds J20 Prosecutors Failed To Disclose Exculpatory Evidence, Mulls Sanctions

The prosecution in the J20 case was dealt another major setback today as Chief Judge Robert Morin found that they failed to disclose to the defense parts of an undercover video containing clearly exculpatory evidence. An edited version of the video was part of the prosecution’s case-in-chief during the first J20 trial and was expected to be so in an upcoming trial. Now, with the prosecution facing sanctions, there are questions as to whether they will be allowed to show the video at all. Yesterday, attorneys for a group of J20 defendants slated to go on trial in June filed a motion alleging the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence. Under what is commonly known as the Brady Rule, it is a violation of a defendant’s constitutional right to due process for the prosecution to be aware of such evidence and not turn it over to the defense.

Second Trump Inauguration Protest Trial Begins

Washington, DC – The second trial of protesters mass-arrested at an ‘antifascist, anti-capitalist’ march during President Trump’s inauguration on January 20 (J20), 2017 has begun in DC Superior Court. After two days of jury selection, the jury was empaneled Tuesday afternoon, and opening arguments began around 10:30 AM on Wednesday, May 16. In her opening statements, Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff relied on the same rhetorical devices she used in the first trial, giving dramatic descriptions of property damage and invoking the image of a mass of protesters in a “sea of black.” As in the first trial, she introduced a series of large map boards indicating where property damage took place along the route of the protest march, a piece of evidence that also figured heavily in the previous trial.

Federal Appeals Court Nullifies Key Permit For Atlantic Coast Pipeline

A federal appeals court on Tuesday invalidated a key U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review of the Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a decision environmental lawyers who argued the case say should halt construction of the contentious natural gas project. Dominion vowed to continue to press forward on the project, asserting Tuesday night that the ruling covers only portions of the proposed route for the 600-mile pipeline. A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with pipeline opponents, who argued that the federal review known as an incidental take statement — meant to set limits on killing threatened or endangered species during construction and operation — was so vague as to be unenforceable.

Victory! Fourth Circuit Rules That Border Officials Can’t Subject Electronic Devices To Suspicionless Forensic Searches

Back in 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Riley v California, holding that border guards do not have unlimited authority to search our personal electronic devices when we cross the border, requiring individualized criminal suspicion before a search can take place. Now, in U.S. v. Kolsuz, the first appellate ruling since Riley, the Fourth Circuit appeals court has held that it is unconstitutional for US border officials to subject visitors devices to forensic searches without individualized suspicion of criminal wrongdoing. The Fourth Circuit didn't rule out the possibility that manual searches were also unconstitutional, but did not rule on the matter, and the ruling also suggests that warrants may be needed before border guards can undertake forensic searches of electronic devices.

Update NoDAPL Water Protector Court Cases

Of the 831 state arrests from Standing Rock, 578 have concluded so far. A large majority of those, (337), were won through dismissal or acquittal at trial. This is a huge success for Water Protectors and for the many attorneys and legal workers who have been working steadily for over a year and half and are continuing those efforts unabated. However these numbers are also clear evidence that these arrests should never have occurred in the first place. Below is some information about the most common ways that cases can be resolved if they are not dismissed and the Water Protector chooses not to take it to trial, as well as an update on the trials that are scheduled to happen throughout the spring. Everyone with pending criminal charges has an absolute right to fight their charges all the way through trial.

Mumia Seeks To Show Top State Judge Doubled As Prosecutor And Jurist Reviewing His Appeals

Following a brief hearing in Philadelphia on Monday, Court of Common Pleas Judge Leon Tucker, learning that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office had thus far failed find and turn over, in response to his earlier order, any documents showing a role by former District Attorney Ron Castille regarding the department’s handling of an appeal by then death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, adjourned the hearing until Aug. 30. The judge acted to give Abu-Jamal’s attorneys time to depose a former DA employee about a still unlocated memo apparently composed by her for then DA Castile concerning Abu-Jamal’s case. Later, an attorney from the DA’s office stood outside on the sidewalk amidst a scrum of TV cameras and said, “We haven’t found any evidence so far that Judge Castille played any role as DA in Abu-Jamal’s appeal of his conviction. It was just a run-of-the-mill appeals process.”

WA Court Dismisses Seven-Year Lawsuit Over Boycott Of Israeli Goods

March 9, 2018, Olympia, WA – Today, a Washington State court ended a seven-year litigation battle against former volunteer board members of the Olympia Food Co-op over their decision to boycott Israeli goods. The lawsuit was first filed in 2011 by five co-op members seeking to block the co-op’s boycott and to collect monetary damages against the board members. Two of the five members pulled out of the case, and none of the defendants originally named in the case remains a board member of the co-op. The court granted the motion for summary judgment from the former board members, who were represented by Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel, finding the plaintiffs had no standing to bring a case because they failed to show the co-op was injured.

State Appeals Court Rules Valve Turners Can Proceed With Necessity Defense For Pipeline Protest

In a victory for activists who shut down a tar sands pipeline as part of a multi-state protest in 2016, a Minnesota appeals court has ruled that the "valve turners" can present a defense that their action was necessary because of the threat that fossil fuel production poses to the planet. On Monday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision (pdf) upholding a district judge's October ruling that Annette Klapstein, Emily Nesbitt Johnston, Steven Liptay, and Benjamin Joldersma can present a "necessity defense" for participating in the #ShutItDown action, which temporarily disabled all tar sands pipelines crossing the U.S.-Canada border. State prosecuters had challenged last year's ruling, claiming that such a defense would jeopardize the likelihood of a successful prosecution and "unnecessarily confuse the jury."

Chevron Case – New Hearing In Canada

On the 17th and 18th of April it will take place a new hearing which will face the Ecuadorian people against the oil company Chevron in Canada. Guillermo Grefa, member of the Kichwa indigenous community of Rumipamba (Orellana) and Jaime Vargas, president of the CONAIE (Ecuadorian Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities) will participate on behalf of the 30.000 affected people, organized in the Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT). They will be supported by the lawyer Julio Prieto. The Court of Appelas of Ontario will be the setting in which the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, through the lawyer Alan Leczner, will demonstrate that Chevron Canada is wholly owned by Chevron Corporation, which would allow the indigenous and peasant people of Ecuador to enforce the judgement of more than 9.5 billion dollars, issued by the Courts of Justice in Ecuador.

Charlottesville: Anti-Racist Activist Corey Long’s Trial Delayed

Charlottesville organisers pledge support of African Americans on trial for 'self-defence' at white nationalist rally. The trial of Corey Long, an African American man who was allegedly shot at by a white nationalist during last August's "Unite the Right" Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia has been granted a continuance. Community organisers gathered outside the courtroom on Tuesday morning wearing all black in support of Long, whose lawyers asked for the continuance. Organisers told Al Jazeera they believe the trial will take place in June. Long has been charged with misdemeanour assault and disorderly conduct related to his use of a "flamethrower" at the rally. Long's lawyers asked for the delay after being offered a plea deal, which they did not accept, activists said. Organisers feel Long was unjustly charged after white nationalists present during the August 12 rally told law enforcement they were assaulted.

US Judge Tosses Saudi Arabia’s Motion To Dismiss 9/11 Complicity Lawsuits

US District Judge George B. Daniels in Manhattan has dismissed the motion filed by Saudi Arabia to end long-running litigation over what those affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks claim is Riyadh’s complicity in the tragedy. The allegations put forward by the victims’ relatives and those who were injured in the attack “narrowly articulate a reasonable basis for this Court to assume jurisdiction under JASTA (The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act) over Plaintiffs’ claims against Saudi Arabia,” Daniels stated in the court opinion. Taking this into account, “this Court will exercise its discretion to allow Plaintiffs limited jurisdictional discovery,” it added before announcing the Saudi Arabian motion dismissed. JASTA, passed by Congress in 2016, overriding then-US President Barack Obama’s veto...

Whistleblower Wins: No US Appeal of Lauri Love Ruling

The High Court has today (20 March 2018) decided not to grant certification on a point raised by the CPS in relation to the last month’s ruling preventing extradition of British-Finnish computer scientist Lauri Love to the United States. As a result, the appeal ruling of 5 February 2018 stands in full. Lauri Love, who has diagnoses of Asperger syndrome, severe antibiotic-resistant eczema and major depression, had been facing indictments from three separate US federal court districts on allegations of his participation in online protest. If extradited, he faced a maximum sentence of 99 years imprisonment. The CPS had previously conceded that, on the basis of the High Court’s ruling, there was no prospect of Lauri Love being extradited to the US.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline Can’t Enter Some Private Properties

As the Atlantic Coast Pipeline doubles down on slashing trees on hundreds of private properties in North Carolina, a federal judge has taken the unusual step of barring the energy consortium from clearing trees on two rural homesteads. U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle said the interstate pipeline developer must first pay the two landowners before its chainsaw crews can enter their properties. The ruling comes as the planned 600-mile natural gas project, which is already more than a year behind schedule, is running up against deadlines that could add months to the construction timeline. Led by Charlotte's Duke Energy and Richmond's Dominion Energy, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline plans to bring vast supplies of natural gas to North Carolina from fracking operations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
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