Law

ALEC Watchdog: Jane Carter Trying To Rewrite The Constitution

August 12, 2015 Bill Raden, www.capitalandmain.com Educate! ALEC, Constitution, Corruption, Law, Lobby

By Bill Raden in Capital and Main - As lobbyists and state legislators gathered at San Diego’s Grand Hyatt resort last week for the three-day annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the delegates seemed to barely glance at the several dozen exhibitor tables that made up a sort of carnival sideshow of right-wing groups outside the hotel’s second-floor warren of meeting rooms. Convention attendees had more pressing concerns. Namely, turning this year’s corporate wish list into the infamous boilerplate bills known as “model laws” that would aspire to undermine things like health and environmental standards, worker rights, campaign-spending limits and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) across the 50 states. Many of the exhibitor booths were occupied by familiar ALEC friends, such as the collection of extreme-right think tanks known as the State Policy Network, which churns out studies designed to grease the model laws’ passage out of statehouse committees.

Court Of Appeals Keeps Eric Garner Grand Jury Secret

August 3, 2015 Edward McAllister, www.reuters.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Eric Garner, Law, New York City (NYC), NYPD, police brutality

By Edward McAllister in Reuters - A New York state court on Wednesday declined to release details of a grand jury investigation that led to a police officer being cleared of wrongdoing in the death of Eric Garner after his chokehold arrest in Staten Island in July last year. Lawyers for civil rights groups and New York's public advocate office in June called for the release of the grand jury minutes including transcripts of testimony, exhibits and details of certain grand jurors to better understand the decision not to charge officer Daniel Pantaleo for Garner's death. Garner was black and Pantaleo is white, and the case caused widespread protests last year. The lawyers did not establish a compelling reason for disclosure of the minutes, the appellate division of New York State's Supreme Court said on Wednesday.

A Day Of Tears: Report From The “sHell No!” Action

August 1, 2015 Kollibri terre Sonnenblume, www.macskamoksha.com Resist! Arctic drilling, Law, Oil & Gas, sHell No

By Kollibri terre Sonnenblume in MacsKamoksha - As has been well-documented, Royal Dutch Shell has plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, despite their knowledge that such extraction will exacerbate Climate Change. President Obama has given these plans his blessing, as could be expected of a politician beholden to the extraction industries. In order to commit such an ecocidal act, Shell has to transport many different resources to the area by ship, and activists have attempted to slow the process by blocking, if only temporarily, a couple of these key transports. In Seattle, kayakers delayed the departure of a Shell oil rig in June. In Portland, the Fennica, a Shell ship carrying a key piece that is required on site before drilling can legally begin, docked for repairs about five days ago, giving local activists scant time to put together a response.

Free Press Blasts Industry Court Filings Against Net Neutrality

August 1, 2015 Free Press, www.freepress.net Resist! Law, Net Neutrality, Telecommunications

By Free Press - Phone and cable companies and their lobbying groups filed an initial series of legal briefs on Thursday as part of their legal challenge against the Federal Communications Commission's Feb. 26 Net Neutrality order. After the FCC properly decided to reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act, various industry groups filed 10 different lawsuits to prevent the agency from enforcing the open Internet protections. The court ordered those challengers to join together and file a total of three separate briefs today (rather than allowing all 10 petitioners to file separately). In June the same federal court rejected efforts by the broadband industry to delay the Net Neutrality rules from going into effect.

FERC Gets Earful: Scores Turn Up The Heat On Pipeline Regulations

August 1, 2015 Richie Davis, www.recorder.com Resist! Environment, FERC, Law, Oil Pipeline, Protest

By Richie Davis in The Recorder - Federal regulators got an earful Wednesday night from nearly 600 people at an environmental scoping hearing on Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct project. The region’s entire state legislative delegation, Congressman James McGovern and many others of the dozens of people who signed up late in the afternoon to speak in a nearly packed Greenfield Middle School auditorium buzzing with fans called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to postpone the scoping process that will guide the planned environmental impact statement on TGP’s proposed project for which the company plans to file an application in October and have in service in the fall of 2018.

Why I Will Be Fasting For No New Permits

July 31, 2015 Greg Yost, www.beyondextremeenergy.org Resist! Energy, Environment, FERC, Law

By Greg Yost in Beyond Extreme Energy - The trouble with FERC is that it is staffed and run through a revolving door with the industry it’s supposed to regulate. FERC is essentially unable to resist giving the gas industry anything it wants. This means billions of dollars are being spent on new infrastructure which will lock in fossil fuel dependence for another generation. At the precise time we need to be using our limited financial resources to transition to a new kind of economy based on clean energy, the gas and oil companies want us ratepayers to underwrite their efforts to squeeze the last remaining profits from their dirty and outdated businesses. So that’s why Beyond Extreme Energy is organizing a water-only Fast For No New Permits in front of FERC from September 8th–25th. Participants will gather in DC where some will fast for the entire period while others will join it as they are able. The fast coincides with Pope Francis’ visit to the United States and his address to the Congress and the United Nations.

After 2 Yrs, White House Responds To Snowden Petition

July 29, 2015 Dan Froomkin, www.firstlook.org Educate! Law, Obama, Snowden

By Dan Froomkin in The Intercept - The White House on Tuesday ended two years of ignoring a hugely popular whitehouse.gov petition calling for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to be “immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon,” saying thanks for signing, but no. “We live in a dangerous world,” Lisa Monaco, President Obama’s adviser on homeland security and terrorism, said in a statement. More than 167,000 people signed the petition, which surpassed the 100,000 signatures that the White House’s “We the People” website said would garner a guaranteed response on June 24, 2013. In Tuesday’s response, the White House acknowledged that “This is an issue that many Americans feel strongly about.” Monaco then explained her position: “Instead of constructively addressing these issues, Mr. Snowden’s dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it.”

How The Criminalization Of The Queer Community Affects Us All

July 29, 2015 Andrew Extein, www.centerforsexualjustice.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Public Health, Queer, Sexual Violence

By Andrew Extein in Center For Sexual Justice - Sexual minorities, including queer and LGBT people, face many obstacles when navigating the criminal justice system. One especially difficult challenge is the treatment of sex within the legal system. Sex crimes and sex laws have had far-reaching repercussions, and queer people often find themselves targeted. There is a long, well-documented history of law enforcement entrapping queer people in prostitution busts and gay cruising stings. HIV status is increasingly criminalized nationwide. Trans* folk are harassed and singled out by law enforcement. Queer people are more likely to be targeted for civil commitment. Current sex laws ignore the needs and realities of queer youth, while seeking to criminalize their unique experiences. In jails and prisons, queer people, especially youth, are extremely vulnerable, often the focus of sexual and physical abuse by inmates, guards, and staff.

3x More Donations For Anti-GMO Legislators From Agribusiness

July 28, 2015 Alex Lazar, www.opensecrets.org Educate! Congress, Corruption, GMOs, Law, Monsanto, Politics

By Alex Lazar in Open Secrets - Thursday’s House passage of a bill that would keep states from requiring genetically modified foods to be labeled was a big — and not at all close — win for agribusiness and food and beverage interests. The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, known to its critics as the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, sailed through by a vote of 275 to 150. While the bulk of its support came from the GOP and most of its opponents hailed from Democratic districts, the vote didn’t break cleanly along party lines. Among its 107 sponsors were 92 Republicans and 15 Democrats. But a more telling predictor of where lawmakers came down was the amount of support they’d received from interests with a stake in the legislation.

Activists Face ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Charge In Freeing 5,740 Mink

July 28, 2015 Associated Press, www.AP.org Resist! Animal Rights, Criminal Justice, Law, Terrorism

Two animal rights activists have been charged with terrorizing the fur industry during cross-country road trips in which they released about 5,740 mink from farms and vandalized the homes and businesses of industry members, the FBI said on Friday. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Joseph Brian Buddenberg, 31, and Nicole Juanita Kissane, 28, both of Oakland, California, and federal prosecutors charged them with conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. A federal grand jury indictment unsealed on Friday said the two caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages during 40,000 miles of cross-country trips over the summer and into the fall of 2013. “Whatever your feelings about the fur industry, there are legal ways to make your opinions known,” US attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement.

Lawsuit Accuses 22 Banks Of Manipulating US Treasury Auctions

July 27, 2015 Reuters, www.facebook.com Educate! Banking, Corruption, Finance and the Economy, Law

By Reuters - Twenty-two financial companies that have served as primary dealers of U.S. Treasury securities were sued in federal court on Thursday, in what was described as the first nationwide class action alleging a conspiracy to manipulate Treasury auctions that harmed both investors and borrowers. The State-Boston Retirement System, the pension fund for Boston public employees, accused Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit,Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC,JPMorgan Chase, UBS, and 14 other defendants of illegally trying to profit on the sale of Treasury bills, notes and bonds at investors' expense. According to the pension fund's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, the banks used chat rooms, instant messages and other means to swap confidential customer information and coordinate trading strategies in the roughly $12.5 trillion Treasury market.

Republicans Are Trying To Defund Net Neutrality. Will It Work?

July 25, 2015 Brian Fung, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Congress, FCC, Law, Net Neutrality

By Brian Fung in The Washington Post - It's no secret that many Republicans hate the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules, which went into effect this June and regulate Internet providers like legacy telephone companies. Some now want to use Congress' power of the purse to roll those regulations back. If it works, Congress could forbid the FCC from using its budget to enforce net neutrality and give Internet providers a come-from-behind victory. This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill that contains an amendment singling out the FCC and net neutrality. Notably, the rider would prohibit the FCC from using its most powerful regulatory tool to police Internet providers — Title II of the Communications Act.

House Votes For Monsanto’s Right To Deceive Consumers

July 25, 2015 Katherine Paul, www.organicconsumers.org Educate! Food and Agriculture, GMOs, Law, Monsanto

By Katherine Paul in Organic Consumers - Today, 275 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of H.R. 1599, the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act. By voting for the DARK Act, these politicians voted against truth and transparency, against science, against the more than century-old right of states to legislate on matters relating to food safety and labeling. They voted against the 90-percent of Americans who are in favor of mandatory labeling of GMOs. They voted against the producers of non-GMO foods. They voted against you. Now that the DARK Act has been approved by the House, we’ll have to stop it in the Senate. We have to move fast—because Monsanto is desperate to pass a bill that preempts mandatory GMO labeling laws at the state and federal levels, before Vermont’s GMO labeling law takes effect next year.

Drunk Executives Poured Beer On Native American Children’s Heads

July 24, 2015 Carimah Townes, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Indigenous People, Law, Racism

At the start of the year, a group of 57 Native Americans students from the Lakota tribe were taken to a minor league hockey match in Rapid City, South Dakota to celebrate their academic achievements. But what started as a field trip to reward the students quickly turned into a nightmare, when a group of drunk men in an executive suite dumped beer on their heads and yelled “go back to the Rez!” Seven months later, only one of the perpetrators faces criminal charges. His trial begins today, and if found guilty he will be convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $500 — avoiding hate crime charges, a jury, and jail time. In January, a group of third through eighth grade students from the American Horse School were watching the local hockey team, the Rapid City Rush, before several adults started asking them questions about where they are from.

UK High Court Rules Surveillance Law Unconstitutional

July 24, 2015 Marianne Franklin, www.theconversation.com Resist! Europe, Law, Surveillance, United Kingdom (UK)

By Marianne Franklin in The Conversation - Controversial surveillance legislation hustled through parliament last summer has been ruled unlawful by the UK High Court, which argued that the vague terms and descriptions of powers in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (DRIPA) renders the act incompatible with human rights under European law. In a 44-page ruling, Lord Justice David Bean and Mr Justice Andrew Collins criticised the lack of clarity and detail in spelling out the terms and conditions under which communications data can be intercepted by police and intelligence agencies, declaring the act “incompatible with the British public’s right to respect for private life and communications and to protection of personal data under Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights”.

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