Courts

Activists Who Crawled Into Fracked Gas Pipeline Found Guilty In Narrow Ruling, Granted Unconditional Release

January 9, 2019 Staff, Erikmcgregor.com Resist! Activists, Courts, Fracking, Pipelines

Cortlandt, New York – On January 8, 2019, Cortlandt Town Justice Kimberly Ragazzo found three New Yorkers — Rebecca Berlin, David Publow, and Janet González — guilty of trespass, rejecting the climate necessity defense; the three shut down construction of the Spectra Energy (now Enbridge) high-pressure, high-volume, fracked-gas, “Algonquin” Incremental Market (AIM) pipeline. Justice Ragazzo highlighted the strict, objective standard of New York’s necessity defense and focused her verdict on the narrow grounds that the defendants had not exhausted all legal remedies, specifically citing the defendants failure to file as ‘intervenors’ with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Wet’suwet’en Stand Unwavering As Judge Expands Coastal GasLink Injunction

January 1, 2019 By Unist’ot’en Camp, Earthfirstjournal.org Resist! Canada, Courts, Indigenous Peoples

The Wet’suwet’en people have never signed treaties with Canada or sold their lands, a fact confirmed by Canada’s Supreme Court in 1997 in a landmark case known as Delgamuukw. When TransCanada attempted to deliver a Canadian court injunction against the Unist’ot’en checkpoint, they were stopped by a second checkpoint on the route, on Gitdumt’en Territory.

Major Court Victory For Mumia

December 28, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance Resist! Courts, Free Mumia, Mumia Abu-Jamal

There was a major court victory for Mumia Abu-Jamal, on December 27, 2018. In a ruling on an appeals petition for Mumia Common Pleas Court, Judge Leon Tucker found that former Justice Ronald Castille should have recused himself because of statements he made as a prosecutor about police killers that suggested a potential bias. The Philadelphia judge re-instated Mumia's post-conviction appellate rights, more than 35 years after he convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Danny Faulkner in Center City.

Federal Judge To IDOC: Get Your Unconstitutional Shit Together

December 28, 2018 The Uptown People's Law Center, Beachwoodreporter.com Educate! Courts, Illinois, mental health, Prisons

A federal court has ordered the State of Illinois to address its "failure to . . . meet the constitutional requirements with respect to the mental health needs of" its approximately 12,000 prisoners with mental illness. This case reached a settlement agreement in 2016, but the Illinois Department of Corrections failed to live up to the agreement, and constitutional violations continued, according to the plaintiffs' lead counsel, Harold Hirshman, senior counsel for Dentons. In October, the court issued a 50-page decision finding that IDOC has been deliberately indifferent to prisoners' mental health, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Report: Oregon’s Public Defense System ‘Is Not Constitutional’

December 16, 2018 By Conrad Wilson, OPB Educate! Courts, Justice, Legal System

State public defense systems are supposed to provide effective counsel for indigent clients — a requirement of the U.S. Constitution. But a draft report obtained by OPB concludes that Oregon’s system is so bureaucratic and structurally flawed that it can’t guarantee clients are getting the defense they’re owed.

Judge Halts Further Fracking Off Coast Of Southern California Until A Full Review Is Complete

November 14, 2018 Ashley Curtin, Nationofchange.org Resist! California, Courts, Fracking

"A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop issuing permits for offshore fracking in federal waters off the California coast." A federal judge puts a halt to the Trump administration’s push to expand oil off the cost of Southern California until a full review is completed. U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez of Los Angeles ruled that a review assessing the impact of fracking on endangered species and coastal resources must be done first. “We just won a crucial victory in our lawsuit to stop offshore fracking!” the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) said in a tweet. “A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop issuing permits for offshore fracking in federal waters off the California coast.”

Judge Blocks Keystone XL Pipeline, Says Climate Impact Can’t Be Ignored

November 10, 2018 Phil McKenna, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Climate Change, Courts, KXL pipeline

A federal judge in Montana on Thursday blocked all further work on the Keystone XL pipeline, saying the Trump administration had failed to justify its decision to reverse a prior decision by the Obama administration and to approve the tar sands oil delivery project. It was a striking victory for environmental advocates who have spent over a decade fighting the project to carry tar sands oil from Canada to markets in the United States and had turned the KXL line into a litmus test for climate action. Environmental advocates, landowners along the pipeline's route and indigenous rights groups hailed the ruling.

Federal Judge Won’t Block Voter ID Law That Strips Native Americans Of Their Voting Rights

November 3, 2018 Alexandra Jacobo, Nationofchange.org Educate! Courts, Elections, Electoral Politics, Indigenous Peoples, North Dakota, Revisionism, Voting

A federal judge in North Dakota has denied an emergency motion that sought to seek relief for Native Americans against a state voter ID law that will make it so that “hundreds, perhaps thousands of Native Americans” will not be able to vote in next week’s elections. Although U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland expressed that there is a “great cause for concern” in regards to the law, he ruled against the motion because it would cause more confusion and chaos so close to the election. “The federal courts are unanimous in their judgment that it is highly important to preserve the status quo when elections are fast approaching,” Judge Hovland wrote.

Decision To Uphold Verdict Against Monsanto Sends Bayer Stock Into Tailspin

October 26, 2018 Katherine Paul, Organicconsumers.org Resist! Courts, Monsanto, Roundup

When the judge in the Monsanto Roundup trial signaled she might overturn the jury’s verdict, we expected the worst. In the end, Judge Suzanne Bolanos slashed the amount of money the jury said Monsanto should pay its victim, Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, from $289 million to $78 million. That may not sound like much of a win, but there was good news in her decision: The jury’s guilty verdict was upheld. What Monsanto really wanted was for Bolanos to throw out the jury’s unanimous decision that Monsanto’s wildly profitable flagship weedkiller caused Johnson’s cancer, and that Monsanto knew all along that Roundup is a carcinogen. That didn’t happen.

Court: Non-Unanimous Jury Verdict Unconstitutional Based On Racism

October 23, 2018 Kevin Gosztola and Brian Sonenstein, Shadowproof.com Create! Courts, Louisiana, Racism

A district court in Louisiana ruled the state’s use of non-unanimous juries is unconstitutional and violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. The court found the “non-unanimous jury verdict scheme in Louisiana was motivated by invidious racial discrimination.” “All cases that are currently pending trial and all cases on direct review must now be adjudicated subject ot a unanimous jury requirement,” the court ordered. However, prior cases and convictions may not be challenged. According to the state’s constitution and a section of the state’s criminal code, cases involving capital punishment require a unanimous decision by jurors.

A Judge Is Considering Letting Monsanto Off The Hook In Historic Roundup Case

October 18, 2018 Alexandra Jacobo, Nationofchange.org Educate! Courts, Monsanto

A judge in San Francisco last week announced that she is considering overturning the historic verdict that would lead to Monsanto being held accountable for manufacturing dangerous cancer-causing weedkillers. Although San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos hasn’t formally ruled on a decision, she did conduct a two-hour hearing to consider the BigAg company’s demand to toss out the entire jury verdict, which called for Monsanto to pay $289 million in damages. The hearing was scheduled after Bolanos wrote a tentative ruling stating her intention to strike down the punitive damages and schedule a new trial. In August a jury found that Monsanto knew, or should have known, its best-selling weedkiller, Roundup...

Judge Tosses Case Against Pipeline Valve Turners

October 10, 2018 By Jordan Shearer, Bemidjipioneer.com Resist! Courts, Minnesota, Pipelines

BAGLEY -- The environmental movement chose a small Minnesota town as the battleground for its latest fight. A judge in Clearwater County dismissed the case Tuesday against three people who were charged with damaging a pipeline in 2016. And while they have made their point, they all traveled a long way to do it. Among the seven people sitting in front of the judge, only two were from Minnesota, and only one was from Clearwater County. The defendants, who have referred to themselves as “valve turners,” shut off the valves of two Enbridge Energy Co. pipelines near Leonard, Minn., in October 2016 as a way to protest the oil industry’s contribution to climate change.

Murderous Chicago Cop Found Guilty: Now An Even Bigger Test

October 9, 2018 Andy Thayer, Counterpunch.org Resist! Chicago, Courts, Police, police brutality

For the first time in this city’s notorious history of violent policing, an on-duty officer finally has been found guilty of the murder. That the killer cop, Jason Van Dyke, was white, and his victim, Laquan McDonald, a troubled black youth, made the victory even more momentous. It was the hardest-fought victory won in this city in recent decades and required the joint efforts of dedicated community organizers, independent journalists, “street heat” by thousands of ordinary Chicagoans, and attorneys working the state’s freedom of information law to pull it off. First domino to fall was the bull-headed Police Superintendent, Garry McCarthy, notorious from his hyping of “terrorism” threats during Chicago’s hosting of the 2012 NATO conference.

California Judge Blocks Trump Administration Effort To End Protections For Some Immigrants

October 5, 2018 Robert Jablon and Sudhin Thanawala, AP.org Resist! California, Courts, Immigrants, Trump Administration

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from ending protections that allowed immigrants from four countries to live and work legally in the United States, saying the move would cause “irreparable harm and great hardship.” U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco granted a request for a preliminary injunction against the administration’s decision to discontinue temporary protected status for people from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador. The judge said there is evidence that “President Trump harbors an animus against non-white, non-European aliens which influenced his ... decision to end the TPS designation.”

An International Court Is Investigating The U.S. And U.K’s Mass Expulsion Of Indigenous Islanders

September 25, 2018 By Patricia Miguel and Ana Marrugo, Fpif.org Educate! Courts, Indigenous Peoples, International Law, United Kingdom (UK), US Imperialism

Can you imagine being forced out of your home, your land, shipped to an unknown territory with no job and none of your belongings except the clothes on your back? That is the story of the Chagossian people. They are the little-known victims of two colonial powers, the UK and the United States, whose governments manipulated diplomatic rules and colluded to remove the Chagossians from their Indian Ocean homeland to create a major U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The two governments have gotten away with this injustice for the past 50 years despite the Chagossians’ valiant efforts to return home.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources