Law

The Clean Power Checkerboard

September 12, 2015 Gar Alperovitz, www.truth-out.org Strategize! Climate Change, Environment, Law

By Gar Alperovitz in Truth Out - Following the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2014 affirming the Environmental Protection Agency's right to reduce carbon pollution, President Obama has introduced a major program in the lead-up to the Paris climate talks at the end of this year that seeks to significantly reduce carbon emissions from US power plants, targeting a 32 percent drop from 2005 levels by 2030. This is a substantial executive action in a hostile legislative context, although many climate activists rightly demand far more ambitious targets. What few have noticed is that the implementation phase of the Clean Power Plan is where things could start to get very interesting as there are almost certainly going to be very important opportunities for powerful local organizing.

Mother Refuses Gag Order About Son Killed By Police, Rejects $900,000

September 12, 2015 Matt Ferner, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality

By Matt Ferner in The Huffington Post - The mother of Darrien Hunt, a 22-year-old black man who was shot and killed by Utah police last year, rejected an offer to settle her lawsuit against the city and two police officers involved. Had she accepted the settlement, she would have been barred from speaking publicly about the incident. "To me it was a gag order [that said], 'Here's hush money, don't ever say Darrien's name again,'" Susan Hunt, mother of Darrien, told Utah's KSL news about turning down the $900,000 settlement the city offered in response to her wrongful death lawsuit. "My biggest concern is for the truth to be told," Susan said. The suit alleges that the police used excessive force and violated Darrien's constitutional rights when they confronted him and shot him to death while he was wearing a costume and carrying a metal samurai-style sword, one that his family says was rounded and not an actual weapon.

No Health Insurance Mega Mergers – Healthcare Is A Right!

September 11, 2015 Health Care NOW!, www.change.org Petitions and Online Actions Health Care, Human Rights, Law, Public Health

By Health Care NOW! - The country's five largest for-profit health insurers are trying to merge into three mega corporations, creating an oligopoly that will drive up premiums for patients and employers, cut payments to doctors, and pocket the difference as profits. The health insurance industry is a national embarrassment that is costing patients their income and sometimes their lives. High deductibles and limited networks are becoming the norm, making healthcare inaccessible even for the insured. Tell Attorney General Loretta Lynch to block the health insurance mergers, since healthcare is a right and shouldn't be controlled by "too big to fail" insurance profiteers. All of the powers that make single-payer healthcare so effective - the ability to negotiate low prices for drugs and medical devices, and set fair rates for providers - are deadly in the hands of for-profit insurers, who pocket savings instead of passing them along to patients, and squeeze providers until the quality of care plummets.

$95K Settlement For OWS Whose Breast Was Grabbed By NYPD

September 10, 2015 Christopher Robbins, www.gothamist.com Resist! Law, Occupy Wall Street, Police, Sexual Harassment

By Christopher Robbins in Gothamist - An Occupy Wall Street protester who had her breast grabbed by an NYPD sergeant has won a $95,000 settlement from the city after arguing that "the police department demonstrated a pattern of sexual misconduct against female OWS activists." Cressa Perloff was arrested on March 17th, 2012, while she stood on the sidewalk during a demonstration to commemorate the six-month anniversary of OWS. In a statement, Perloff's attorney, Rebecca Heinegg, says that video from that date shows that NYPD Sergeant Joseph Catapano "grabbed her breast purposefully, dragged her into the street by her breast and hair, and arrested her." Catapano claimed that Perloff, who had never been arrested before, was trying to steal his badge, though he later admitted that this was untrue.

Is The Failed War On Drugs Finally Coming To An End?

September 8, 2015 Keri Blakinger and Jeff Stein, www.salon.com Resist! Law, Politics, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism

By Keri Blakinger and Jeff Stein in Salon - Every so often, a fringe political movement wins mainstream acceptance so quickly that its codification in law — once at hand — feels both obviously correct and long overdue. The most recent example, of course, is gay marriage. In just one decade, American support for same-sex unions jumped from 36 percent in 2005 to 57 percent in 2015. By the time of the landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, gay marriage had moved from a pipe dream to common sense. Another idea now stands poised to follow a similar trajectory: The War on Drugs has created suffering on an unimaginable scale, with no discernible benefit. “If this were a war fought for four decades by any other generals with this outcome, we’d have run up the white flag years ago,” David Simon, creator of The Wire, told Salon in a phone interview.

Small Texas Town Banned Fracking, Then Oil Industry Stepped In

September 8, 2015 Adam Briggle, www.salon.com Resist! Fracking, Law, Oil & Gas, Texas

By Adam Briggle in Salon - It was 6:30 a.m. on June 1 in Denton, Texas, and we had come to defend our fracking ban. Last November, Denton citizens voted in a landslide to ban hydraulic fracturing (an oil and gas well stimulation technique that can be invasive and toxic). The ban was our last option after years of trying to accommodate an industry that refused to compromise. In January 2013, we passed rules to keep fracking away from residential areas. But in September of that year, they kept on fracking less than 200 feet from homes. Gas well operators and industry representatives claimed they didn’t have to follow local rules, because they held more than 11,000 acres of Denton territory that were grandfathered under old laws written long before the impacts of fracking were understood. Without the ban, we feared our local regulations would be trampled again and again. It would be spell mass neighborhood industrialization across our town.

New Research Documents Growth Of Extreme Poverty

September 5, 2015 Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Peter Edelman, and LaDonna Pavetti, www.talkpoverty.org Educate! Finance and the Economy, Law, Poverty

By Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Peter Edelman, and LaDonna Pavetti in Talk Poverty - A new book by two of our nation’s foremost poverty researchers, Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, reveals the desperate circumstances that hundreds of thousands of children and their parents increasingly face: living with virtually no cash income in an economy that requires it to meet nearly every human need. In $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, Edin and Shaefer trace this disturbing trend to the 1996 welfare law, which has gradually but inexorably gutted the cash assistance safety net for families with children. Attention to this often neglected side of our nation’s extreme economic inequality is especially timely as policymakers from both parties consider reauthorizing the 1996 welfare law. As the book vividly shows, we are long overdue to take a different path — one that upholds our nation’s values, including our responsibility to protect and empower the most vulnerable by eliminating extreme poverty.

Defiant Kentucky Clerk Taken Into Federal Custody

September 4, 2015 Tierney Sneed and Katherine Krueger, www.talkingpointsmemo.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Kentucky, Law

By Tierney Sneed and Katherine Krueger in Talking Points Memo - Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue gay marriage licenses, has been found in contempt of court and taken into federal custody. According to AP, U.S. District Judge David Bunning said Thursday that Davis would be held in jail until she complied with the previous court orders to begin granting the marriage licenses. “The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order,” Judge Bunning said, according to the New York Times. “If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.” She was not in handcuffs when she was led into custody, AP reported, and said "thank you" before a U.S. marshal escorted her out of the court room.

Guatemalan Congress Votes To Allow Investigation Of President

September 2, 2015 Associated Press, www.theguardian.com Resist! Congress, Corruption, Guatemala, Impunity, Law

By Associated Press in The Guardian - Guatemalan civilians who support the ousting of President Otto Pérez Molina have formed a wall of bodies to let lawmakers into Congress, protecting them from presidential loyalists trying to prevent a vote on withdrawing the leader’s immunity from prosecution in a corruption scandal. Dozens of Pérez Molina backers had blocked access to the capitol since the morning in an attempt to delay the proceedings, which are similar to impeachment and could lead to criminal charges. The interior department vice-minister Elmer Sosa also arrived with riot police to “guarantee the safety of protesters and congress”, and lawmakers were finally able to go inside. “It was impressive that the people themselves came and created a human chain and a path so we could enter,” said opposition legislator Leonel Lira.

82 Orgs Ask DOJ To Address Illegality Of ‘Muslim-Free Zone’

September 2, 2015 CAIR, www.cair.com Resist! Criminal Justice, discrimination, Faith, Human Rights, Islamophobia, Law

By CAIR - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, announced today that a coalition of 82 civil liberties, human rights, immigrant rights, faith, and cultural organizations (see list of signatories below) sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to investigate the growing phenomena of so-called “Muslim-free zone” businesses nationwide. The coalition, which includes prominent national organizations such as the ACLU, NAACP and the YWCA USA, requested that the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s Housing and Civil Enforcement Section conduct a full federal investigation into all businesses that have declared themselves as “Muslim-Free Zones” and “bring civil enforcement proceedings against business owners who have violated the law.”

As Freddie Gray Case Begins, Feds Probe Past Police Killings

September 1, 2015 A. Dwight Pettit and Stephen Janis, www.therealnews.com Resist! Baltimore, Law, police brutality

By A. Dwight Pettit and Stephen Janis in The Real News - A. DWIGHT PETTTIT: When the Justice Department came in they couldn't shut me up. I followed them out the door. STEPHEN JANIS, TRNN: In a city with the second-highest number of police per capita no one has had a more acute front row seat on the consequences of Baltimore's penchant for law enforcement than A. Dwight Pettit. The veteran civil rights attorney has been the city's top litigator of police brutality lawsuits for decades, which is why he's paying close attention to the upcoming pre-trial legal maneuvers in the case against six Baltimore officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Gray died in a police van shortly after he was arrested in April, and Pettit says several key motions could play a critical role in the final verdict.

Hong Kong Charges Occupy Central Leaders W/ Offenses

August 29, 2015 Wen Yuqing and Xin Lin, www.facebook.com Resist! China, Hong Kong, Law, Occupy Central

By Wen Yuqing and Xin Lin in Radio Free Asia - The face of last year's pro-democracy Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong, Joshua Wong, hit out on Thursday after being charged by police for his role in the mass protests for universal suffrage in the former British colony. Wong, 18, who could face a jail term of up to five years, slammed the charges of "illegal assembly" and "inciting others to take part in an illegal assembly" as politically motivated. The charges relate to a protest on Sept. 26 during which some Umbrella Movement protesters climbed into Civic Square, part of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government complex. Writing on his Facebook page, Wong said that the freedom of association, among a number of traditional freedoms that Beijing promised to uphold after the 1997 handover to Chinese rule, has been severely limited in the city in recent years.

Suit Filed Over FBI Impersonation Of Journalists

August 29, 2015 Report Committee, www.rcfp.org Resist! FBI, Journalism, Law, Media

By Report Committee - The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and The Associated Press are asking the U.S. district court in Washington, D.C. to require the Justice Department and the FBI to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and release records regarding the FBI's practice of impersonating members of the news media. The lawsuit argues that AP and the Reporters Committee “are statutorily entitled to disclosure of these records, which they seek so that they may inform the public about the nature and extent of the FBI’s impersonation of journalists and news organizations. Defendants have improperly withheld the records requested by Plaintiffs in violation of the law and in opposition to the public’s strong interest in obtaining information regarding a law enforcement practice that undermines both the credibility and independence of the news media.”

Support Rev. Pinkney, Send Letters To Court Of Appeals NOW!

August 28, 2015 Black Autonomy Network Community Organization, www.bhbanco.org Petitions and Online Actions Criminal Justice, Law, Michigan

By Black Autonomy Network Community Organization - On August 4th, a 3-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals in District III (Grand Rapids) issued a 2-1 decision denying Rev. Edward Pinkney bond pending appeal. This outrageous decision by two of the judges keeps Rev. Pinkney locked behind bars for even longer than the 8 months he's already served. The entire appeals process could take many months more. The ACLU of Michigan wrote in a brief supporting bond pending appeal that the trial court conviction against Rev. Pinkney is “almost certain” to be reversed on appeal. That means he's “paying a debt to society” he doesn't owe. We know that the Berrien County trial court is a corrupt and racist institution.

New Ferguson Judge Finally Doing Something About Abusive Court

August 25, 2015 Ryan J. Reilly, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Criminal Justice, Ferguson, Law, police brutality

By Ryan J. Reilly in The Huffington Post - Ferguson Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin issued an order on Monday that attempts to address some of the damage caused by St. Louis County's practice of issuing arrest warrants and harsh penalties for minor violations, a revenue-driven approach the Department of Justice criticized in a March report. The judge's order withdrew all arrest warrants issued before this year, and reinstated drivers licenses that were suspended only because of a missed court date or failure to pay a fine. The move comes a year after after the death of Michael Brown helped call attention to theabusive practices of municipal courts around St. Louis County that undermined relationships between police and communities in the region.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources