Law

Torture’s Time For Accountability

December 22, 2014 Ray McGovern, www.consortiumnews.com Educate! Law, Torture

Of course, the common thread between assassinations and torture is Official Washington’s disdain for international law at least as it pertains to the “exceptional” U.S. government. I suppose it might have been even more ironic if President Obama, who has overseen an actual targeted assassination program for six years, would have voiced concern about a movie making light of a made-up assassination plot. The irony that I saw was in Obama’s “tough-guy” advice just after he had been so intimidated by the real-life CIA that he could not muster the courage to fire those who managed and carried out a quite-unfunny policy of torture on an industrial scale – much less try to find some way to hold senior officials of the Bush/Cheney administration accountable.

McDonald’s Just Got Hit With Multiple Labor Law Violations

December 22, 2014 Michael Wasser, www.jwj.org Organize! Fast Food, Labor Rights, Law

Today, the National Labor Relations Board’s chief prosecutor, General Counsel Richard Griffin, jointly charged McDonald’s and several of its franchisees with multiple violations of federal labor law. According to the NLRB’s press release, the agency will pursue 13 complaints involving 78 charges of alleged wrongdoing, while 71 cases remain under investigation. The General Counsel’s decision to treat McDonald’s (the parent corporation) and its franchisees as joint employers means that McDonald’s workers will finally have an opportunity to hold their real boss accountable. That’s a big deal. We know McDonald’s sets rigorous operating standards for its franchisees, from menus, to uniforms, to employment practices. And we know that they monitor and enforce those standards at the corporate level.

A (Very) Brief History Of The New York Frack Ban Movement

December 22, 2014 Chip Northrup, www.cetology.org Educate! Fracking, Law, New York (NY), Oil & Gas

Armed with propaganda manufactured by the gas industry and its paid frackademics – the frackers got the upper hand in Albany. Their lobbyists first re-wrote the state’s compulsory integration law, essentially privatizing the power of condemnation for the frackers in 2005, which was adopted on a unanimous vote of both houses. The same gas lobbyists subsequently co-wrote proposed changes to the state’s SGEIS to make the regulations as “frack friendly” as possible. When it looked like New York was on a fast track to get fracked, oil and gas companies started leasing land and drilling test wells. This was at a time when gas was spiking at $10 mcf, so the speculative frenzy to tie up land was high. That was their first big miscalculation – they assumed that New York was going to be a walkover.

Farmworker Defeats US Mining Company

December 20, 2014 Telesur TV, www.telesurtv.net Resist! Land Rights, Law, Peru

Maxima Acuña, a farmworker from Cajamarca, has won a legal case against the U.S. based Newmont Mining Corporation. Newmont is known in Peru by the name of its operations in the area, Yanacocha. The company sued Maxima for alleged land invasion in an attempt to expel her and her family from her property. Yanacocha wanted her land in order to pursue their massive gold mining project, known as Conga. Nevertheless, the Appeals Court of Justice of Cajamarca ruled in favor of Maxima, thus absolving her from the lawsuit. Maxima built her home in 1994 on property she had purchased in front of the Blue Lagoon of Celendin. In 2011, Yanacocha attempted to buy the land, but Maxima did not give in. The company is interested in her land because it is strategically located in front of the lake. The lake’s water is necessary for the mining operations.

Why We Need To Fix St. Louis County

December 20, 2014 Radley Balko, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Economic Justice, Law, Racial Justice, St. Louis

Occupancy permits are just one of the myriad ways in which these municipalities can sap funds from poor people. Basically, if you live in St. Louis County, you’re required to get one for your residents. It doesn’t matter if you rent or own. The police can then periodically make compliance checks (although generally they conduct these checks after they’ve been called to a residence for another reason, like a noise complaint or domestic dispute). If there are more people in your place than your permit allows, they can fine you and each person in your home. Attorneys I spoke to say the regulation can end up being a way to enforce antiquated local laws against unmarried cohabitation, and judging by comments you sometimes hear in courtrooms or from local officials, a way for police and prosecutors to essentially fine people for having premarital sex.

A Lawyer’s Guide To Fighting Corporate Personhood

December 20, 2014 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com Strategize! Corporate Personhood, Corporatism, Law

The title says it all: Corporations Are Not People. And Jeff Clements is in a position to know. During his tenure at the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, Clements was involved in a number of cases that saw corporations eager to gain all the rights of a person without holding the responsibility of a person. This is the cornerstone of Clements's book: common sense blended with first-hand experience and pointed research. It's a simple comment on what has become a complex issue. Still, the logic remains simple and straightforward: corporations aren't people just as imaginary corporate characters are not people. The fact that there is even a debate on the question shows the pervasive and insidious effect of corporate power on our daily lives.

New Brunswick’s Fracking Ban Coming Into Force

December 19, 2014 Kevin Bissett, www.huffingtonpost.ca Educate! Canada, Energy, Fracking, Law

The New Brunswick government is introducing a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing that the premier says won't be lifted until five conditions are met. Those conditions include a process to consult with First Nations, a plan for wastewater disposal and credible information about the impacts fracking has on health, water and the environment, Brian Gallant said Thursday. "We have been clear from Day One that we will impose a moratorium until risks to the environment, health and water are understood," Gallant told a news conference in Fredericton. "We believe these conditions to be very reasonable."

Fracked Gas Cars Snuck Into Defense Authorization

December 19, 2014 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Environment, Fracking, Law

DeSmogBlog recently revealed how Big Oil's lobbyists snuck expedited permitting for hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) on public lands into theNational Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2015, which passed in theU.S. House and Senate and now awaits President Barack Obama's signature. A follow-up probe reveals that the public lands giveaway was not the only sweetheart deal the industry got out of the pork barrel bill. TheNDAA also included a provision that opened the floodgates for natural gas vehicles (NGVs) in the U.S.—cars that would largely be fueled by gas obtained via fracking. The provision was initially introduced in February by U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a climate science denier, as the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Development Act.

Court Rules Walmart Must Pay Workers $188 Million

December 17, 2014 Alison Grisworld, www.slate.com Organize! Labor Rights, Law, Walmart

A week after a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that a Walmart manager in California could not legally threaten to "shoot the union," a Pennsylvania court handed down another decision against the mega-retailer. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Walmart must pony up $188 million to employees whom it failed to compensate properly during breaks and total hours worked. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a 2007 judgment in favor of the workers. It affects roughly 187,000 people who were employed at Walmart between 1998 and 2006. On Tuesday, Walmart said it might appeal the court's decision. "We disagree with the decision, and continue to believe that these claims should not be bundled together into a class-action lawsuit," the company said in a statement on Monday.

Time To Break Up The Big Banks

December 16, 2014 Simon Johnson, www.baselinescenario.com Organize! Capitalism, Elizabeth Warren, Finance and the Economy, Law

Citigroup is a very large bank that has amassed a huge amount of political power. Its current and former executives consistently push laws and regulations in the direction of allowing Citi and other megabanks to take on more risk, particularly in the form of complex highly leveraged bets. Taking these risks allows the executives and traders to get a lot of upside compensation in the form of bonuses when things go well – while the downside losses, when they materialize, become the taxpayer’s problem. On Wednesday, a provision — drafted by Citigroup — to repeal part of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms (Section 716) was added by House Republicans to their spending bill. On Thursday, Citigroup led the charge to persuade enough Democrats to vote for that bill. The repeal of Section 716 stayed in the spending bill only because Wall Street brought so much pressure and influence to bear.

Torture Turned US Government Into A Criminal Enterprise

December 16, 2014 Rebecca Gordon, www.tomdispatch.com Educate! CIA, Congress, Human Rights, Law, Torture

So now we can finally consider the partial release of the long-awaited report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the gruesome CIA interrogation methods used during the Bush administration’s “Global War on Terror.” But here’s one important thing to keep in mind: this report addresses only the past practices of a single agency. Its narrow focus encourages us to believe that, whatever the CIA may have once done, that whole sorry torture chapter is now behind us. In other words, the moment we get to read it, it’s already time to turn the page. So be shocked, be disgusted, be appalled, but don’t be fooled. The Senate torture report, so many years and obstacles in the making, should only be the starting point for a discussion, not the final word on U.S. torture. Here’s why.

Supreme Court Has Become The Corporate Court, Not For People

December 16, 2014 Joan Biskupic, Janet Roberts and John Shiffman, www.reuters.com Educate! Corporatism, Law, SCOTUS

A Reuters examination of nine years of cases shows that 66 of the 17,000 lawyers who petitioned the Supreme Court succeeded at getting their clients’ appeals heard at a remarkable rate. Their appeals were at least six times more likely to be accepted by the court than were all others filed by private lawyers during that period. They are the elite of the elite: Although they account for far less than 1 percent of lawyers who filed appeals to the Supreme Court, these attorneys were involved in 43 percent of the cases the high court chose to decide from 2004 through 2012. The Reuters examination of the Supreme Court’s docket, the most comprehensive ever, suggests that the justices essentially have added a new criterion to whether the court takes an appeal – one that goes beyond the merits of a case and extends to the merits of the lawyer who is bringing it. The results: a decided advantage for corporate America, and a growing insularity at the court.

System For Prosecuting Cops Is Broken

December 16, 2014 Josh Voorhees, www.slate.com Create! Ferguson, Law, Polce Brutality

So, the system is broken. How exactly should we fix it? A number of promising options have already been floated, most notably proposals either to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate police-involved killings or to shift that responsibility to the state attorney general. Both would put some much-needed distance between the officer being investigated and the officials doing the investigating. But neither would address the core problem of a system that is tasked with coming to a conclusion about guilt and responsibility, but not with figuring out what actually happened. Our legal system is designed to absorb complex stories and spit out oversimplified verdicts: indictment or no indictment, guilty or not guilty.

Canadian Court Allows Woman To Sue Over Fracked Water Pollution

December 15, 2014 John Cotter, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Fracking, Law

Alberta will not appeal a court ruling that says a woman can sue the province over hydraulic fracturing that she alleges has so badly contaminated her well that the water can be set on fire. Jessica Ernst began legal action against Alberta's energy regulator and Calgary-based energy company Encana (TSX:ECA) in 2007, and amended her statement of claim in 2011 to include Alberta Environment. Last month, Chief Justice Neil Wittmann of Court of Queen's Bench dismissed the government's application to strike it from the lawsuit. An Alberta Justice spokeswoman gave no reason for the government's decision not to appeal.

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