Law

Formerly Homeless Man Threatens Lawsuit Over St. Louis Stadium

April 10, 2015 Travis Waldron, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Capitalism, Law, Participatory Democracy, Sports

A St. Louis resident who was formerly homeless and wants to see the city devote more money to social services and homelessness this week threatened a lawsuit against the city of St. Louis if it moves ahead with a plan to fund a new NFL stadium without giving the public a say in the process. The man, William White, is a St. Louis resident and city taxpayer, according to a letter from his lawyers to the city of St. Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported the letter, written by St. Louis University law professor John Ammann and three SLU law students, on Tuesday. Though specific plans are unclear, the city of St. Louis and state of Missouri could use as much as $400 million in public funds to help build a new stadium for the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, whose owner Stan Kroenke has also explored the possibility of moving the team back to Los Angeles, where the franchise played from 1946 to 1994.

Mass. Leads On Protecting Rights For Domestic Workers

April 10, 2015 The Editorial Board, www.bostonglobe.com Organize! Law, Massachusetts, Worker Rights and Jobs

LAST SUMMER, Massachusetts became the fourth state in the nation to enact a bill of rights for domestic workers, establishing labor standards and granting basic protections to nannies, housekeepers, and other in-home caregivers. The law, which went into effect on April 1, is broader in scope than similar laws in California, New York, and Hawaii. As other states consider cracking down on what essentially is an unregulated underground economy, Massachusetts’ leadership, by empowering domestic workers, stands out and deserves praise. The new law is the result of four years of organizing work by the Massachusetts Coalition of Domestic Workers, which campaigned on behalf of the estimated 65,000 domestic workers in the state.

Trade Tribunals Favor Foreign Trans-National Corporations

April 10, 2015 Ben Lilliston, www.iatp.org Educate! Capitalism, Corporatism, Environment, Law, NAFTA

We have entered a new era of corporate rights—where, in their quest to access natural resources around the world, multinational firms now routinely ride roughshod over governments and communities. Two trade tribunal rulings issued last month explain how. Digby Neck, on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, is a popular whale-watching area. After hearing community concerns about the environmental impact of a proposal to expand a basalt quarry, a Canadian government review panel denied approval of the project. The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador requires oil companies drilling offshore to invest a portion of their profits into local research and development projects.

Tracking Calls Failed To Prevent 9/11, US Tracked Billions Before Event

April 10, 2015 Brad Heath, www.wtsp.com Educate! Law, Privacy, Surveillance

The U.S. government started keeping secret records of Americans' international telephone calls nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, harvesting billions of calls in a program that provided a blueprint for the far broader National Security Agency surveillance that followed. For more than two decades, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries linked to drug trafficking, current and former officials involved with the operation said. The targeted countries changed over time but included Canada, Mexico and most of Central and South America. Federal investigators used the call records to track drug cartels' distribution networks in the USA, allowing agents to detect previously unknown trafficking rings and money handlers.

Fracking Activist Alma Hasse Files $1.5 Million Lawsuit

April 10, 2015 Blair Koch, www.environews.tv Resist! Environment, Fracking, Law

Idaho fracking activist Alma Hasse is seeking $1.5 million in damages from Payette County after being arrested at a public hearing and held in the county jail for eight days in October of 2104. On April 6, 2015, Hasse, represented by Nicholas Warden, associate attorney with the Boise-based Fisher Rainey Hudson law firm, filed a Notice Of Tort Claim with Idaho Secretary of State Lawrence Denny and Payette County. Her claims include several losses of freedoms and liberties guaranteed by the Constitutions of Idaho and the Constitution of the United States, as well as mental anguish and distress, personal humiliation, impairment of reputation, loss of companionship and pain and suffering.

Former CIA Station Officer To Face Charges Over Drone Strike

April 9, 2015 Jon Boone, www.theguardian.com Resist! CIA, Drones, Law, Pakistan

The former head of the CIA in Pakistan should be tried for murder and waging war against the country, a high court judge ruled on Tuesday. Criminal charges against Jonathan Banks, the former CIA station chief in Islamabad, were ordered in relation to a December 2009 attack by a US drone which reportedly killed at least three people. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad high court also ruled charges should be brought against John A Rizzo, formerly the top CIA lawyer who gave the legal green light for drone strikes. Banks’s name was first dragged into the public domain in 2010 when a tribesman called Karim Khan began legal action against the supposedly undercover spy chiefover an attack by an unmanned aircraft on his home in North Waziristan which he said killed his brother and son.

National Lawyers Guild: Immediate Medical Attention For Mumia

April 9, 2015 National Lawyers Guild, www.nlg.org Resist! Human Rights, Law, Mass Incarceration, Mumia Abu-Jamal

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to give NLG Jailhouse Lawyer Vice President Mumia Abu-Jamal immediate independent and specialized health care, including his choice of medical specialists. On March 30, Mr. Abu-Jamal collapsed in the prison infirmary at SCI Mahanoy from diabetic shock before being hospitalized in the ICU at Schuylkill Medical Center. Despite his serious condition, he was transferred back to the prison just two days later. Although he had sought care for classic warning signs of the disease over the previous three months, including extreme weight loss and severe eczema, the prison infirmary had failed to diagnose him with type 2 diabetes which, with proper medical attention, could have potentially prevented Mr. Abu-Jamal’s current illness.

Germany On Verge Of Virtually Banning Fracking

April 8, 2015 Caroline Copley, www.reuters.com Educate! Fracking, Germany, Law

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet signed off on a draft law on Wednesday that imposes an effective ban on the controversial technique of fracking for shale gas. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves blasting chemicals and water into rock formations to release trapped gas. Opposition is strong in densely populated Germany due to concerns about the risk of contaminating drinking water. Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said the new law would set Germany's strictest conditions for fracking. "Protecting health and drinking water are top priorities. For this reason, we want to restrict fracking as far as possible," Hendricks told a news conference. The new law, which now goes to parliament for approval, will impose an outright ban on fracking for shale gas in the next few years and only allow scientific test drilling under strict conditions to assess the risks and environmental impact.

On the Lam With Bank Robber Enric Duran

April 8, 2015 Nathan Schneider, www.vice.com Create! Banking, Law, Surveillance

Being underground is not a condition Enric Duran always takes literally, but one night in late January he went from basement to basement. At a hackerspace under a tiny library just south of Paris, he met a group of activists from across France and then traveled with them by bus and Métro to another meeting place, in an old palace on the north end of the city. On the ground floor it felt like an art gallery, with white walls and sensitive acoustics, but the basement below was like a cave, full of costumes and scientific instruments and exposed masonry. There, Duran arranged chairs in a circle for the dozen or so people who'd made the journey. As they were settling in and discussing which language they'd speak, a woman from upstairs, attending an event about open licenses, peeked in through the doorway.

Erie County Sheriff Records Reveal Invasive Use Of “Stingray” Tech

April 8, 2015 NYCLU, www.nyclu.org Educate! Law, New York (NY), Surveillance, Wars and Militarism

The New York Civil Liberties Union released today records it received from the Erie County Sheriff’s Office on its use of ”stingrays,” devices that can track and record New Yorkers’ locations via their cell phones. The records showed that of the 47 times the Sheriff’s Office used stingrays in the past four years, it apparently only once obtained a court order, contradicting the sheriff’s own remarks. Stingrays can collect information on all cell phones in a given area as well as precisely track particular phones, locating people within their own home, at a doctor’s office, at a political protest or in a church.

Occupy Pensacola Sues For Right To Camp In Protest

April 7, 2015 Pensacola Today, www.pensacolatoday.com Resist! Law, Occupy, Pensacola

On April 3, Occupy Pensacola appealed the recent ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in the case of Occupy Pensacola vs. The City of Pensacola. Vinson ruled on March 13 in favor of the city in the case, which has it roots in the fall of 2011. Local protesters modeling their efforts after the Occupy Wall Street movement conducted marches and pitched tents in in Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza, later relocating to the north lawn of City Hall. As the protest swelled to more than 60 tents and approximately 200 people, health and safety issues began to emerge and the city insisted the protestors obtain permits. After Occupy Pensacola participants refused to obtain the proper permits, city officials ordered demonstrators to remove their tents and to comply with park regulations.

Arizona School Officials Protest Ed Cuts, Protests Made Illegal

April 6, 2015 Maggie's Farm, www.dailykos.com Resist! Arizona, Education, Freedom of Expression, Law

Some of the most vocal critics of Ducey's education policy have been school board members, district superintendents and teachers, which does not please the governor. Early on, when his budget was being debated, 233 superintendents signed and sent a letter to the legislature asking them to stop their boneheaded budget slashing. After Ducey's draconian budget passed, Dr. Michael Cowan, superintendent of Mesa School District, the largest in the state, sent an email to teachers and parents that was critical of the governor's plan. Ducey's response was swift: his "dark money" backers (Koch of course), with the governor's knowledge, organized a robocall campaign to smear Dr. Cowan. The message to school employees was clear: shut up or we'll shut you up. Well, they did not shut up.

Backlash To Anti-Gay Laws Not A Movement, But The Result Of One

April 6, 2015 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org Educate! discrimination, Indiana, Law, LGBTQ

There was a showdown this week in Indiana and it had nothing to do with the Final Four — well, almost. Last Friday, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law Senate Bill 101, also known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. While most of the bill’s language consisted of relatively benign legal protections for religious groups, it also would have safeguarded small businesses and corporations alike in refusing business to customers based on their sexual orientation — providing a claim, as well, in lawsuits brought by private citizens. The bill’s definition of religious freedom was so broad as to allow individuals to declare a religion of one and use it as legal grounding in court. A similar law, HB1228, was passed on Tuesday in Arkansas, and drew similar — if less acute — ire.

Building A Fusion Politics-Based Movement

April 4, 2015 Harry Targ, www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com Organize! Indiana, Law, LGBTQ, Politics

All of a sudden Indiana has been thrust onto the national stage. Governor Mike Pence in a closed meeting signed the newly minted Restoration of Freedom of Religion Act (RFRA) passed by the state legislature. Despite efforts of Pence and supporters to deny that the new law allows state government support for discrimination, especially based on sexual orientation, the supporters of the law, its language, and the track record of the legislators and the governor all point to the real motivation of the law: to authorize the right to limit public accommodations to groups of Hoosiers. The outrage from well-meaning people in the state and across the country is justified and should be encouraged. The exuberance of the protests--rallies, petitions, economic boycotts--is a cause for hope for those who are concerned about deepening economic, political, racist, sexist, and environmental threats to the country and its states.

Indiana Religious Freedom Law Rewrite A Victory Over Discrimination

April 4, 2015 Zack Ford, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Faith, Indiana, Law, LGBTQ

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) and state Republican leaders have been playing damage control this week, claiming that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is not a law that enables anti-LGBT discrimination. Meanwhile, however, the conservatives who advocated for the bill have been spurning this attempted walkback, asserting in the process that the goal was ensuring discrimination all along. At the forefront of the conservative reaction is Micah Clark, who serves as executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana and who stood right behind Pence as he signed the bill. Speaking Monday to Tim Wildmon, head of the national American Family Association, Clark explained that conservatives should oppose any effort to clarify that the law does not legalize discrimination. “That could totally destroy this bill,” he explained.

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