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Workers Fighting Union-Busting Have A New Legal Tool

April 25, 2023 Sam Knight, Truthout. , , ,
A company accused of lying about retirement benefits to stop workers from organizing can be sued in a class-action lawsuit, a federal judge ruled. The decision came on April 7 after the defendant, the California-based grocery retailer Save Mart Supermarkets, asked the judge to dismiss the case, which experts are calling a creative use of labor law against union-busting. The suit hinges on promises made by managers about retirement benefits to undercut the appeal of union membership to employees, a common tactic in campaigns against labor organizing. A ruling against Save Mart could haunt companies that have used similar tactics for decades.

Indictment Of African People’s Socialist Party Is A Racist Assault On The Black Liberation Movement

April 19, 2023 Coordinating Committee, Black Alliance for Peace. , , ,
The unsealed indictment states that on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, a federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, levied charges of “conspiring to covertly sow discord in U.S. society, spread Russian propaganda and interfere illegally in U.S. elections.” While no evidence of conspiracy, propagandizing, or interference has been presented, the APSP and its members have the right, as all U.S. citizens do, to freely criticize U.S. domestic and foreign policy.  Not since the Palmer Raids of the early 20th century, nor since the indictment of W.E.B DuBois in 1951, or the confiscation of Paul Robeson’s U.S. passport during the anti-communist “McCarthyist” era, has there been such a hysterical response to African people asserting their rights and freedom of speech in the United States.

Supreme Court Liberals Help Turn Judges Into Prosecutors

April 16, 2023 Eve Ottenberg, CounterPunch.org. , , ,
So the truth is out: the three so-called liberals on the supreme court are phonies. More precisely, they, like most of their conservative brethren, are corporate hacks. We learned this a couple of weeks ago, when the high court ruled against Steven Donziger, a climate-activist attorney, long persecuted and then literally prosecuted by Chevron. In a pro-corporate decision about as subtle as a heart attack, seven of the nine justices declined to hear Donziger’s appeal of a criminal contempt decision involving his representation of Indigenous Ecuadorians against Chevron. Two far-right justices dissented.

Court Case Could Change The Future Of Mining In British Columbia

April 16, 2023 Francesca Fionda, The Narwhal. , , ,
Imagine finding someone you’ve never met digging through your backyard, looking for gold. You tell them it’s your property, but they don’t leave. Instead, they tell you they’re allowed to be there because they’ve made a mineral claim on your land — and they’re right. B.C.’s current system, governed by the Mineral Tenure Act, allows almost anyone to make an online mineral claim to explore an area for minerals and have rights over what they find. They don’t have to consult or alert First Nations or private property owners if the claim is on their land.  The Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nation are fighting to change that.   The two First Nations start presenting their case against how the province gives out mineral titles on their land Monday at the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

HUD Excludes People With Convictions From Public Housing

April 15, 2023 Roshan Abraham, Next City. , , ,
The housing crisis is particularly acute for the 79 million Americans with a criminal record: People with convictions are nearly 10 times more likely to experience homelessness compared to the general public. While federally subsidized housing could provide support to these individuals, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contributes to the problem by permitting each public housing authority (PHA) wide leeway to discriminate against people with convictions. But some advocates have successfully gotten their local PHAs to change course: A 2016 policy change in New Orleans has been able to open up public housing for people with convictions by providing a clearer rubric for PHAs to use during screenings and appointing a board to review applications.

‘Bombshell’ 1989 Shell Memo Features In New Court Filing

April 14, 2023 Matthew Green, Desmog. , , ,
In October 1989, Shell researchers wrote a confidential report warning that climate-fuelled migration could swamp borders in the United States, Soviet Union, Europe, and Australia. “Conflict would abound,” the document said. “Civilisation could prove a fragile thing.” A group of climate disinformation researchers and nonprofits filed the brief on April 7 in support of a 2020  lawsuit brought by the District of Columbia, part of a wave of litigation by at least 20 U.S. states and cities seeking to hold the oil industry to account for climate damages. The 50-page brief cites academic studies and media reports to show how the oil industry was warned about the risks posed by a build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels in the late 1950s.

Montana Judge Cancels Gas Power Plant Permit Over Climate Concern

April 12, 2023 Olivia Rosane, Ecowatch. , , , ,
Climate concerns motivated a Montana judge to cancel the air quality permit for a controversial natural gas power plant. The 175-megawatt NorthWestern Energy plant would have emitted more than 23 million tons of greenhouse gases over its 30-year or more lifespan — the equivalent of adding 167,327 new cars to the roads each year — something that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) did not fully consider when it issued the permit, Montana 13th Judicial District Court Judge Michael Moses ruled Thursday. “DEQ’s failure to analyze this issue violated the clear and unambiguous language of MEPA [the Montana Environmental Policy Act],” Moses wrote.

Ohio: Groups Sue To Block New Law Allowing Fracking In State Parks

April 11, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, Ecowatch. , , ,
Environmental and community groups in Ohio have filed a preliminary injunction to stop the leasing of public lands — including state parks — to the oil and gas industry. Ohio HB 507, which redefines methane gas as “green energy” and requires state parks to lease their lands for fracking, went into effect on April 7. Originally an agricultural bill with its focus on poultry, the law was quickly expanded to include granting petrochemical, agricultural and fracking rights to industry. The groups oppose the law on a constitutional basis, in addition to their objection to the obligatory leasing of public lands for fracking, a press release from Earthjustice and the Sierra Club said.

Anti-Protest Laws Are Not About Safety, But About Silencing Dissent

April 10, 2023 Ashley K. Shelton, Truthout. , , ,
At least 42 people who have protested the building of an 85-acre, $90 million police training facility in Atlanta, Georgia, have been charged with domestic terrorism. While demonstrators always fear being criminalized for exercising their constitutional right to stage protests, being charged with domestic terrorism has a particularly chilling effect. The move to charge protesters with domestic terrorism comes months after one protester, Manuel Paez Terán (who went by the name Tortuguita), was killed by police. Across the United States, we are seeing a rise in laws that seek to squelch and criminalize protests.

Cuba Wins Lawsuit Against Vulture Fund In London Court

April 6, 2023 Al Mayadeen, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
In a hearing held on Tuesday at the High Court of England and Wales, Judge Sara Cockerill notified the lawyers for the parties of the judgment corresponding to the lawsuit filed by the vulture fund CRF 1 Limited against the Republic of Cuba and the Banco Nacional de Cuba (BNC). The ruling accepted the standpoint sustained by the Cuban side during the process and dismissed CRF’s claim against the Cuban state. According to the court ruling, the wrongdoings by BNC officials, subject first to a criminal investigation and then a court ruling, were reasonable grounds for the Cuban government to deny its consent to pay the debt in favor of CRF.

Mumia Abu-jamal’s Appeal Is Denied

April 4, 2023 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Despite an international, high profile campaign for his release, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal was denied by Philadelphia Judge Lucretia Clemons on Friday, March 31. Abu-Jamal has spent over 40 years in prison, convicted of killing a police officer after being politically persecuted for his work as a journalist and Black liberation fighter. The movement for his release has spanned decades and has grown to international levels, with high-profile figures such as NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim counted among his supporters. As Angela Davis wrote in an open letter in February, on December 16, a judge ruled that over over 200 boxes of materials must be handed to Abu-Jamal’s defense after previously-unseen exculpatory evidence was mysteriously discovered in 2018.

Montana Repeals State Energy Policy As Climate Trial Nears

April 4, 2023 Dana Drugmand, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
Montana has repealed its 30-year-old energy policy – including a 2011 amendment that prioritized fossil-fuel development. The move comes as a June trial date approaches for a youth-led climate lawsuit against the state. In the lawsuit, Held v. State of Montana, sixteen Montana children and teenagers say that by actively promoting a fossil-fuel based energy system that is dangerous to the climate, state officials are violating the “right to a clean and healthful environment” for present and future generations under the state Constitution. It is the first constitutional climate case to go to trial in the United States.

Does Climate Inaction Violate Human Rights?

April 3, 2023 Olivia Rosane, Ecowatch. , , ,
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) heard its first ever cases Wednesday related to the climate crisis.  The plaintiffs argue that the governments of Switzerland and France violated their human rights by not doing enough to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, which are primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The hearings mark a “pivotal moment” for the legal fight for more ambitious climate action, Center for International Environmental Law human rights and climate campaign manager Sébastien Duyck told Climate Home News. “They have the potential to set an influential legal precedent that would further confirm that states must take more adequate action against climate change as a matter of their human rights obligations,” said Duyck.

Judge Clemons Denies A New Trial For Mumia Abu Jamal

April 2, 2023 Noelle Hanrahan, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Today at 4:08 pm, March 31, 2023, Common Pleas court Judge Lucretia Clemons denied Mumia Abu-Jamal’s request for a new trial. This is simply devastating news. After 43 years in prison, Mumia Abu-Jamal has exhausted nearly all of his avenues for relief. Make no mistake: Justice required that Mumia Abu-Jamal be given a new trial. The enemy now is time. At 68 years old Mumia is suffering from cardiac disease and has had a double bypass, and nearly died from lack of treatment for acute Hepatitis C. If you put thick blinders on that block out all reality and rely on procedural minutia for cover, honestly, it is still impossible to avoid the scorchingly blatant racism of trial Judge Albert Sabo, Assistant District Attorney Joseph McGill, Mayor and former police chief Frank Rizzo, District Attorney during Mumia’s trial Ed Rendell, and Ron Castille, DA and former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice.

Venezuelan Opposition Mismanagement Strikes Blow To Citgo

March 31, 2023 José Luis Granados Ceja, Venezuelanalysis. , , ,
A US judge ruled Friday that four companies had the right to seize shares of CITGO, the US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), after they convinced the court that it was the "alter ego" of the so-called “interim government” of Venezuela. CITGO, considered Venezuela’s most prized foreign asset, is on the brink of being broken up and seized by creditors pending changes to the sanctions regime imposed by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The potential seizure of shares stem from awards worth billions against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in international arbitration courts.
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