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Legal System

Swiss Seniors Are Suing Over Climate Change’s Threat To Their Health

August 11, 2023 Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine. , , ,
A group of senior women from Switzerland are suing their government over its climate change inaction, alleging the country’s climate policies violate their human rights and health. KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, a Greenpeace-backed group of 2,400 women ages 64 and older, filed a lawsuit that was heard in Europe’s top human rights court in March. Now, with the court’s decision pending, the recent extreme temperatures in Europe have called attention to the activists’ claims once again, reports the New York Times’ Isabella Kwai. Last summer, for example, a heat wave killed 61,000 people across the continent.

Repairing America’s Trauma Epidemic By Confronting Sexual Violence

August 6, 2023 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. , , ,
The pervasiveness of trauma in American society is intimately linked to the ubiquity of sexual violence in our culture, and ultimately, the politics that buttresses this reality. In the second installment of a two-part discussion, acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Judith Herman returns to The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on the political implications revealed by her medical expertise: the need to confront the violence of our present system by reconstructing society itself. Dr. Judith Lewis Herman is a psychiatrist who studies trauma and developed the diagnosis for complex PTSD. She is the author of several books, including her most recent, Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice.

As Petition Deadline Looms, Stop Cop City Wins More Time And Volunteers

August 6, 2023 Katherine Demby, Prism. , , ,
On Thursday, July 27, a federal judge ruled in favor of four DeKalb County residents who sued the city of Atlanta earlier this month, arguing that they should be allowed to collect petition signatures because they live so close to the proposed facility. Under current rules, all petition signers and signature witnesses must be registered to vote in the city of Atlanta. The preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Court Judge Mark Howard Cohen not only bars the city of Atlanta from banning non-resident signature collectors but also extends the signature collection period, giving organizers until Sept. 25 to collect all signatures.

Post-Conviction Review Could Correct Three-Strike Law Injustices

August 4, 2023 Raymond Williams, Scheer Post. , , , ,
Earlier this year, Washington lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow for post-conviction review for incarcerated people serving long sentences for crimes they were convicted of while under the age of 25. Washington’s Senate Bill 5451, locally known as the Emerging Adults Bill, would extend an already existing parole law that offers review for those convicted of crimes committed while under the age of 18. Many recent studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex—the area of the brain responsible for decision-making and impulse control—continues to develop in most human beings past age 18.

Take Action: Drop The Charges Against The Uhuru Three!

July 28, 2023 Popular Resistance. , , ,
Below is a solidarity statement from the US Peace Council. The USPC and Popular Resistance recently joined the Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition. You can show your support by signing the petition above, asking any organization you are involved in to join the coalition and mobilizing for the November 4 Black is Back March on the White House in Washington, DC to demand the charges against the Uhuru 3 are dropped. For more information, listen to this recent Clearing the FOG interview with Chairman Omali Yeshitela, one of the Uhuru 3. He provides important background on the FBI raids and subsequent indictments against them.

Colorado-Based Water Protector Faces Trial, Shares Wisdom

July 27, 2023 Carolyn Elerding, The Real News Network. , , , , ,
When Mylene Vialard followed her 21-year-old daughter across the US to join the thousands of the resistance by Water Protectors led by Indigenous women at Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, her aim was clear: to help make change, not just for the Indigenous people whose treaty rights, lifeways, and bodies have been violated, but for everyone. What she didn’t know was how much the experience would change her. That was two years ago. Today, up to 760,000 barrels of tar sands oil (bitumen), a particularly resource-intensive and harmful form of crude petroleum, gush from Alberta to Wisconsin through the completed pipeline, and the Boulder-based activist is one of several activists around the US who face felony charges in northern Minnesota’s Aitkin County. Vialard’s trial is the week of August 28.

How Suing The US Government Can Empower The Climate Movement

July 22, 2023 Alessandra Bergamin, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
In 2015, 21 young Americans, more than half of whom are Black, Indigenous and people of color, began the process of suing the U.S. government. The constitutional climate lawsuit, known as Juliana v. United States, asserts that by creating a national energy system that causes climate change, the executive branch has “violated the youngest generation’s rights to life, liberty and property as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.” In the eight years since the case was filed — spanning the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden — the U.S. Department of Justice has issued numerous motions to delay the case or have it outright dismissed.

Next Steps In The Fight For Debt Relief

July 17, 2023 Rebekah Barber, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
The student loan pause offered a safety raft to millions of Americans who are drowning in debt. The Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decision to block student debt relief will devastate these borrowers, many of whom finally experienced what it was like to have money to set aside for the chance to purchase homes, start families and live without constantly worrying about debt. After having this taste of freedom, Americans are ready to organize to protect what the Biden administration promised them. Among the groups leading the charge — and continuing to push the Biden administration to exercise all options for bringing about the promised debt relief — is the Debt Collective.

The ‘Disinformation Industry’ Lands In Court

July 16, 2023 Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
What kind of a week was last week in the theater of war wherein battles rage over illegal censorship, illegal attacks on freedom of speech, illegal government infringements on our constitutional rights, and, amid it all, the complicity of our most powerful media in these illegalities? For a brief while it looked as though it was a very fine week. On July 4, an excellent day for this, a district court in Louisiana ruled that the White House and a long list of other federal agencies are barred from all contacts with social media companies if the intent is to intimidate or otherwise coerce Twitter, Google, Facebook, and other such platforms into deleting, suppressing, or in any way obscuring content protected as free speech, to paraphrase a key passage in the ruling.

Reform Caucus Rises, Sues For Elections In Amazon Labor Union

July 11, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
One year after the landmark union victory at the Amazon warehouse JFK8 on Staten Island, New York, the brightly colored posters that once adorned the glass at the iconic bus stop in front of the plant are gone. This was the bus stop from which Chris Smalls, Derrick Palmer, Connor Spence, Gerald Bryson, Jordan Flowers, and others launched an insurrection that won an unprecedented union authorization election at the 8,000-worker warehouse. The posters have been replaced by a torn letter dated January 17, 2023, asking the company’s lawyers to begin bargaining and recognize the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) as the exclusive bargaining agent.

Federal Court Stops Construction Of Mountain Valley Pipeline

July 11, 2023 Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times. , , ,
Late Monday afternoon, a three-judge panel of 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of construction while it considers arguments that Congress violated the separation of powers doctrine when it passed a law expediting completion of the controversial project. The brief order came from Chief Judge Roger Gregory and Judges Stephanie Thacker and James Wynn. The same three judges have set aside nearly a dozen permits issued to Mountain Valley over the past five years. The case involved a challenge, filed by The Wilderness Society, of a provision in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which suspended the federal debt ceiling to avoid a government default.

Law That Fast-Tracks Mountain Valley Pipeline Challenged

July 8, 2023 Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times. , , ,
In asserting its power over that of the courts, Congress violated the separation of powers doctrine when it parachuted in to save the Mountain Valley Pipeline. That is what environmental groups contend in written arguments filed with a federal appeals court. Proving it, however, may be another matter. “It’s a very tricky legal question,” said Evan Zoldan, a professor at the University of Toledo’s law school who has read the legal briefs in a case that raises a fundamental question: Did Congress breach the U.S. Constitution when it passed a law that fast-tracks completion of the controversial pipeline?

Limited Funds Stunts Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit

July 7, 2023 Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot. , ,
Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) has received nearly 1,000 applications of wrongful incarceration to review but with only a couple paid staff and four grants in two years, impacted families complain about lengthy waits while the CRU say they lack capacity and funding. Created to prevent, identify, and remedy wrongful convictions, the state’s first-ever CRU began accepting applications in August 2021 — after the first quarter of 2023, it had completed only one official investigation. Seeking transparency on the unit as time continues to pass, advocates and families of many wrongfully incarcerated people languishing in Minnesota prisons have publicly confronted the CRU, complaining of inaction.

US Court Victory Against Online Censorship

July 5, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , , , , , ,
A judge in Louisiana has barred the F.B.I. and other government agencies from asking social media companies to suppress free speech, reports Joe Lauria. A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction against a number of government agencies preventing them from talking to social media firms for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ruled that the agencies couldn’t identify specific social media posts to be taken down or ask for reports about the social media company’s efforts to do so.

Rights Of Nature, Self-Owning Land, And Other Hacks On Western Law

July 2, 2023 David Bollier. , , ,
The idea that the Ganges River in India or the Amazon Basin in Brazil should have "legal personhood" – and thus be able to defend its interests in court – was considered zany only ten or fifteen years ago, at least in Europe and North America. Now this once-fringe legal concept is going mainstream. Legislatures or courts in twelve countries have recognized the "rights of nature" at the state, local, and/or national levels in a dozen nations. In the United States alone, some three dozen communities –from Pittsburgh and Toledo to Orange County, Florida (population 1.5 million people) – have enacted such laws, often with overwhelming public support.
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