Law

Mexico Court Says Criminalising Abortion Unconstitutional

September 8, 2021 Aljazeera. Create! Abortion, Law, Mexico, Women's Rights

Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to penalise abortion, a major victory for women’s health and reproductive rights that comes amid a “green wave” of abortion decriminalisation in Latin America. The Mexican court’s decision on Tuesday follows moves to decriminalise abortion at the state level, although most of the country still has tough laws in place against women terminating their pregnancy early. “This is a historic step for the rights of women,” said Supreme Court Justice Luis Maria Aguilar. The court unanimously annulled several provisions of a law from Coahuila – a state on the border with the US state of Texas – that had made abortion a criminal act, and its decision will immediately only affect the northern border state.

A Rare And Vital Win For The Future Of Our Planet

September 8, 2021 Good Law Project. Resist! climate crisis, Environment, Law, United Kingdom (UK)

We’ve won. Government has today announced its new policy for the future of energy production in the UK following our legal challenge last year. We are pleased to say that the proposed new policy is better for our planet, for our children and for our grandchildren. Coal and oil-fired generation are out. Gas is being phased out. Fewer fossil fuel projects will now be rubber-stamped. It’s not perfect yet. And we know more can and must be done. For example, there is scope for Government to be pushed yet further on the timetable for phasing out gas in the public consultation. But in terms of using the law as a tool for social change, this is a win of real substance. Thanks to the support of hundreds of you, we’ve proven Government can be made to take the right steps to tackle the impending climate catastrophe and protect our children’s futures. It’s never too late.

Shadow Docket Supreme Court Decisions Could Affect Millions

September 4, 2021 Gary Fields, Associated Press. Educate! Abortion Rights, Immigration, Law, Supreme Court

Traditionally, the process of getting an opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court takes months and those rulings are often narrowly tailored. Emergency orders, especially during the court’s summer break, revolve around specific issues, like individual death penalty cases. Since Aug. 24, that truncated process known as the shadow docket has moved at astronomical speed, producing decisions related to immigration, COVID-19 and evictions and, most recently, abortion.

Ag-Gag Law Suppressing Whistleblowers Is Defeated

August 24, 2021 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Kansas, Law, Whistleblowers

Laws intended to suppress journalism, whistleblowing, and speech on the food and agriculture industry continue to experience defeats in the United States court system. Known as “ag-gag” laws, the Tenth Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled [PDF] against the ag-gag law in Kansas, which became the first state to pass such a law in 1990. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled [PDF] on August 9 that a coalition of organizations proved they could be targeted by the ag-gag law in Arkansas and may proceed with their lawsuit. It also ruled [PDF] on August 10 that Iowa’s 2012 ag-gag law was partly unconstitutional. In all three states, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) was one of the plaintiffs challenging the manner in which these laws threaten freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

North Carolina: More Felony Offenders Can Now Vote

August 24, 2021 Gary D. Robertson, Associated Press. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Law, North Carolina, Voting

Raleigh, NC — Tens of thousands of North Carolina residents convicted of felonies but whose current punishments don’t include prison time can register to vote and cast ballots, a judicial panel declared Monday. Several civil rights groups and ex-offenders who sued legislative leaders and state officials in 2019 argue the current 1973 law is unconstitutional by denying the right vote to people who have completed their active sentences or received no such sentence, such as people on probation. They said the rules disproportionately affect Black residents and originated from an era of white supremacy in the 19th century. In a brief hearing following a trial last week challenging the state’s voting restrictions upon felons, Superior Court Judge Lisa Bell said two judges on the three-judge panel have agreed they would issue a formal order soon allowing more felony offenders to register.

How Laws Keep Indigenous People From Protecting Sacred Spaces

August 22, 2021 Debra Utacia Krol, USA Today. Educate! Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Law, Sacred sites

Phoenix – Tourists speeding toward Grand Canyon National Park rarely notice the rocky protuberance that juts above the flat expanse of Arizona's Coconino Plateau. But to the Havasu 'Baaja, known to the world as the Havasupai Tribe or "People of the Blue-Green Water," the isolated hill forms the center of their lands and spiritual life. Red Butte (Wii'I Gdwiisa or "Clenched Fist Mountain") is the abdomen of Mother Earth. Mat Taav Tiivjunmdva, a meadow about 3 miles north of the distinctive mountain close to the Canyon's South Rim, is her navel. But Red Butte and Mat Taav Tiivjunmdva are part of the Kaibab National Forest and do not lie within the trust land borders of the Havasupai, who were evicted from Grand Canyon National Park in 1919.

Court Rules California Gig Worker Initiative Is Unconstitutional

August 21, 2021 Jeong Park, The Sacramento Bee. Resist! Law, Lyft, Uber, Worker Rights and Jobs

A California judge on Friday ruled that a 2020 ballot measure exempting rideshare and food delivery drivers from a state labor law is unconstitutional because it infringes on the Legislature’s power to set workplace standards. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch wrote Proposition 22 is unconstitutional because “it limits the power of a future Legislature to define app-based drivers as workers subject to workers’ compensation law.” That makes the entire ballot measure unenforceable, Roesch said. Roesch further wrote that a provision in the initiative that prevents the Legislature from granting collective-bargaining rights to drivers is unconstitutional because it “appears only to protect the economic interests of the network companies in having a divided, ununionized workforce.”

In Florida, Protesting Can Cost You Your Right To Vote

August 14, 2021 Sierra Lyons, Scalawag Magazine. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Florida, Law, Voting Rights

Delilah Pierre first got involved with the Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC) in 2019, during a campaign to stop the capital city from building a new police headquarters in the same shopping center as the only grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Today, as Vice President of the grassroots organization, she has her sights set on taking down larger forces: A state law that levels felony and misdemeanor charges against protesters like her, and prevents them from posting bail until their first court appearance. Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida House Bill 1, the Combating Public Disorder Act—also known as the "anti-riot" bill—into law in April, following Senate approval along party lines.

It’s Not Enough To Restore Eviction Protections

August 6, 2021 Morgan Artyukhina, Sputnik News. Create! Biden administration, Evictions, Housing, Law

With a new wave of COVID-19 cases rapidly increasing in the US, this victory, while for the moment averting disaster for millions of poor Americans, is ephemeral at best. If we are to truly protect Americans from a tsunami of evictions caused by pandemic-related lockdowns, US President Joe Biden must also cancel the rents. The White House initially waffled on the issue of extending the moratorium, having been told by Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a late June ruling that he would oppose any further extension of the ban if done by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), providing a crucial fifth vote to strike down the order. However, with Congress heading into a seven-week summer recess having never attempted to pass such a law, activists and local residents joined Rep. Cori Bush’s (D-MO) occupation-style protest outside the Capitol building to demand the ban be extended past July 31.

New Yorkers Say They’ve Been Ignored In Stop-And-Frisk Fight

August 1, 2021 Michael R. Sisak, Associated Press. Resist! Law, New York City (NYC), Police, Stop and Frisk

Eight years after a judge ruled New York City police violated the constitution by stopping, questioning and frisking mostly Black and Hispanic people on the street en masse, people in communities most affected by such tactics say they've been shut out of the legal process to end them. Lawyers for plaintiffs in two landmark stop-and-frisk lawsuits said in court papers Thursday that community stakeholders have had “very little contact” in the last three years with the court-appointed monitor overseeing reforms and that reports he's issued don't reflect their experiences.

Culture War In The Classroom

July 23, 2021 Leo Casey, Dissent Magazine Strategize! Critical Race Theory, Education, Law

The American right’s latest culture war offensive is an all-out assault on “critical race theory” (CRT). Like other right-wing campaigns, the attack on CRT is taking place on two fronts—one battle to define the term negatively in popular discourse, and another to enact laws and executive orders that severely restrict how racism is addressed in public schools and post-secondary public institutions. The two fronts work in tandem, feeding off each other; consequently, they must be addressed together.

How A Proposed Secrecy Law Would Recast Journalism As Spying

July 21, 2021 Duncan Campbell and Duncan Campbell, The Guardian. Educate! Censorship, Law, Media

Nearly 50 years ago one of us was arrested under the Official Secrets Act for working on a story for Time Out magazine, where the other one of us was the news editor. This led to the so-called ABC case, named after fellow reporter Crispin Aubrey, a brave ex-soldier whistleblower called John Berry, and the aforesaid Campbell. A lengthy Old Bailey trial followed in 1978 and, with it, a major discrediting of the use of the act against the press.

Lawsuit Filed By Indigenous Water Protectors Against Sheriff

July 17, 2021 The Center for Protest Law and Litigation. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Law, Line 3 Pipeline, Pipelines

Indigenous environmental protectors opposing the expansion of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, Tara Houska and Winona LaDuke, represented by the Center for Protest Law and Litigation, a project of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, and EarthRights International, today filed for a restraining order against Hubbard County, Sheriff Cory Aukes and the local land commissioner in northern Minnesota. The Hubbard County Sheriff has unlawfully blockaded access to a camp serving as a convergence space and home for Indigenous-led organizing, decolonization and treaty rights trainings, and religious activities by water protectors seeking to defend the untouched wetlands and the treaty territory of Anishinaabe people.

Oregon Bill Bans Police From Lying To Youth During Interrogations

July 17, 2021 Innocence Project. Organize! Law, Police, Police abuse, Youth

Portland, OR – On Wednesday, Governor Kate Brown signed legislation into law prohibiting law enforcement officers from using deception while interrogating people under the age of 18. The law bans commonly used deceptive interrogation tactics, including false promises of leniency and false claims about the existence of incriminating evidence. Both of these tactics have long been identified as significantly increasing the risk of false confessions, which have played a role in about 30% of all wrongful convictions overturned by DNA. False confessions are also the most frequent contributing factor in wrongful conviction cases involving homicides. And recent studies suggest that children under 18 are between two and three times more likely to falsely confess than adults.

Organizers Calling To Close Loophole That Enables Prison Slavery

July 12, 2021 Tamar Sarai Davis, Port Side Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Law, Prisons, Worker Rights

While the 13th Amendment abolished chattel slavery, an often ignored clause still allows for slavery and involuntary servitude as “punishment for a crime.” This “slavery clause” is now the target of #EndTheException, a new campaign launched this year on Juneteenth weekend. #EndTheException is pushing for the passage of the Abolition Amendment, a joint resolution cosponsored by Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Nikema Williams, which would strike the slavery clause from the 13th Amendment making it so that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may be imposed as a punishment for a crime.” On Saturday, June 19, as communities across the country celebrated Juneteenth—a long celebrated holiday by Black Americans, particularly Black Texans—Merkley and Williams joined advocates from groups including WorthRises, LatinoJustice PRLDF, JustLeadershipUSA, and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition for an online discussion about the #EndTheException campaign and to explain how the promise of freedom has yet to be unfulfilled.

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