Legislation

Most Panhandling Laws Are Unconstitutional Since There’s No Freedom From Speech

March 14, 2018 By Joseph W. Mead, Theconversation.com Educate! Freedom of Speech, Legislation

Thousands of U.S. cities restrict panhandling in some way. These ordinances limit face-to-face soliciting, including interactions that occur on sidewalks and alongside roads, whether they are verbal or involve holding a sign. According to a growing string of court decisions, however, laws that outlaw panhandling are themselves illegal. In light of rulings that found these restrictions to violate the freedom of speech, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver and dozens of other cities have repealed laws restricting panhandling in public places since 2015. As a professor of law and urban studies, I study how local ordinances can harm the poor, particularly people experiencing homelessness. I volunteer with the American Civil Liberties Union and other nonprofits to help fight for more equitable local policies.

Protest Senator Kennedy’s Net Neutrality-Destroying Bill

March 10, 2018 Staff, PopularResistance.org Resist! FCC, Internet, Legislation, Net Neutrality

Politico is now reporting that Senator Kennedy says he is still considering supporting the CRA. If he truly cares about the open Internet, he should publicly state his support for the CRA and withdraw this legislation that would undermine net neutrality. Today Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana betrayed his constituents, Louisiana small businesses, and millions of Internet users by introducing a widely-criticized piece of net neutrality legislation for consideration in the Senate. The bill is a companion to legislation proposed by Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), one of the most notorious anti-Internet lawmakers in Congress, who has taken more than $600,000 from the telecom lobby and is widely perceived as a shill for the industry.

States Mull “Sanctuary” Status For Marijuana Businesses

March 8, 2018 By Becky Bohrer, AP.org Create! Legislation, Marijuana, Marijuana Legalization

JUNEAU, Alaska — Taking a cue from the fight over immigration, some states that have legalized marijuana are considering providing so-called sanctuary status for licensed pot businesses, hoping to protect the fledgling industry from a shift in federal enforcement policy. Just hours after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Jan. 4 that federal prosecutors would be free to crack down on marijuana operations as they see fit, Jesse Arreguin, the mayor in Berkeley, California, summoned city councilman Ben Bartlett to his office with a novel idea. Berkeley was already the first city in the nation to formally declare itself a sanctuary city on immigration, barring city officials from cooperating with federal authorities. Why not do the same thing with marijuana? Last month, it did. “We knew we had to do something,” Bartlett said. “This is a new engine of a healthy economy.”

West Virginia Gas Companies Wined And Dined Lawmakers Before Scoring Favorable Fracking Legislation

March 7, 2018 By Alex Kotch, Desmogblog.com Educate! Fracking, Gas, Legislation, Lobbying, West Virginia

A country club luncheon. A $130 steak dinner. A whiskey tasting. Dinner at an historic neo-Georgian mansion. These are just a few examples of the many occasions last year when oil and gas lobbyists wined and dined West Virginia state lawmakers on key committees that craft fossil fuel legislation. Lobbyists representing industry players including natural gas giant EQT, Antero Resources, TransCanada, and multiple oil and gas trade associations wooed state lawmakers with thousands of dollars’ worth of food and drink throughout 2017, according to lobbying records obtained by DeSmog. In early 2018, just months after some of these fancy gatherings took place, most oil and gas companies got something they wanted: A “co-tenancy” bill, HB 4268, that allows these companies to drill for natural gas on private land with the consent of only 75 percent of the landowners.

Voter Suppression Law Goes On Trial

March 6, 2018 Sam Levine, Huffingtonpost.com Resist! Electoral Politics, Legislation, Voting

In 2013, Donna Bucci, a woman in her 50′s living in Wichita, Kansas, went to renew her driver’s license. Bucci had been Kansas resident for a few years, and decided to use her trip to the DMV as an opportunity to register to vote while she was there. Bucci didn’t need to prove she was a citizen to renew her license (Kansas says an expiring license is good enough). But shortly after she registered, she received a phone call and a letter in the mail saying her voter registration was still pending because she hadn’t proved she was a citizen. Bucci, who was born in Maryland, didn’t have a copy of her birth certificate or any of the other documents, like a passport, to prove she was a citizen. She was working a minimum wage job at a correctional facility at the time and couldn’t afford the $20 to get her birth certificate from Maryland. Because she couldn’t prove she was a citizen, Kansas kicked her off the voting rolls.

Gun Laws Since Sandy Hook Have Favored The Gun Lobby

March 5, 2018 By Matt Vasilogambros, Pewtrusts.org Educate! Gun Control, Guns, Legislation, Reform

In the two weeks since the Florida school massacre, state lawmakers around the country have introduced bills to ban bump stocks, ban assault weapons, and expand background checks — and also to arm teachers, lighten penalties for carrying without a permit, and waive handgun permit fees. If history foretells, the gun-rights bills will have a better chance at success. In the years since Sandy Hook, when 26 were slain in 2012, states have enacted nearly 600 new gun laws, according to data compiled separately by the National Rifle Association and the Giffords Law Center to Reduce Gun Violence. Nearly two-thirds of those were backed by the NRA. It is “indisputably true” that there have been far more new laws that loosen gun restrictions than tighten them, said Michael Hammond, the legislative counsel at Gun Owners of America, a Virginia-based “no compromise” gun lobbying organization.

Anti-BDS Bills Expected To Feature Prominently At AIPAC

March 5, 2018 Dalia Hatuqa, Aljazeera.com Educate! AIPAC, BDS, Legislation

Washington, DC - Israel supporters in the US are gearing up for AIPAC's much-vaunted annual policy conference, with measures to counter the widening campaign to boycott Israel and its West Bank settlements expected to feature prominently in the powerful lobbying group's agenda. This includes legislation that several Republican and Democratic Congress members have sponsored to curb the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure Israel into ending its occupation of Arab and Palestinian land. AIPAC set the stage for its conference, which runs from Sunday through Tuesday and features leaders of both parties, by sending out an "action alert" to rally support for two anti-boycott bills in the House and Senate. "Israel has long been targeted by the pernicious Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Disability Activists Crash Congress To Stop Bill Undermining Their Civil Rights

February 17, 2018 By Mike Ludwig, Truthout.org Resist! Activists, Congress, Disability Rights, Legislation

Anita Cameron remembers the Capitol Crawl like it was yesterday. It was the spring of 1990, and Congress was dragging its feet toward a vote on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark piece of legislation protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities. To call attention to the bill and the accessibility challenges that people with disabilities face on a daily basis, Cameron and dozens of other activists left their wheelchairs and walkers at the steps of the Capitol building and crawled their way to the top before filling the rotunda with their chanting voices. Cameron and more than 100 others were arrested that day. The protest had an impact: President George H. W. Bush signed the ADA into law a few months later. However, the ADA has not been a magic bullet and is now under threat.

ADAPT Condemns The Passing Of HR 620 Bill In The House

February 16, 2018 Staff, Adapt.org Educate! Disability Rights, House, Legislation

Today, 59 million Americans with disabilities witnessed the U.S House of Representatives torpedo their civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. HR620 was passed, and civil rights of disabled and older Americans went down in defeat. Over 27 years after passage of the world’s first comprehensive civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability the business-backed House of “the people” chose “profits over people.” The House decided that the burden of getting justice for discrimination against people with disabilities lies with the victim. Where is the justice in that? Even though more than 500 disability organizations sent letters to Congress opposing the bill, the Representatives who voted for the bill decided that the people with disabilities are second class citizens whose rights do not matter.

As Trump Unfurls Infrastructure Plan, Iowa Bill Seeks To Criminalize Pipeline Protests

February 2, 2018 By Steve Horn, Desmogblog.com Resist! Infrastructure, Iowa, Legislation, Pipelines, Protests, Trump Administration

The Iowa Senate has advanced a bill which critics say could lead to the criminalization of pipeline protests, which are being cast as “terrorist activities.” Dakota Access pipeline owner Energy Transfer Partners and other companies have lobbied for the bill, Senate Study Bill 3062, which opens up the possibility of prison time and a hefty fine for those who commit “sabotage” of critical infrastructure, such as oil and gas pipelines. This bill, carrying a criminal punishment of up to 25 years in prison and $100,000 in fines, resembles the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, a “model” bill recently passed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). That ALECbill, intended as a template for state and federal legislation, was based on Oklahoma's HB 1123...

Corporate Powers Are Stealing Online Identities, Posting Fake Comments To Push For Consumer Law Repeals

January 16, 2018 By Steven Rosenfeld, Alternet.org Educate! Consumerism, Corporations, Hacking, Legislation

Forget Russian fake news for a moment. Another extremely consequential privacy-breaching, identity-theft hack is undermining our democracy and almost certainly being perpetuated by corporate America. A pattern of cyber deception is appearing across the federal government in the nooks and crannies of the process where White House directives or Congress’ laws are turned into the rules Americans must abide by—or in the Trump era, are repealed. Hundreds of thousands of comments, purportedly made by Americans, have come in over the electronic transom to at least five different federal agencies calling for an end to Obama-era consumer protections and other regulations that impede profits, a series of investigative reports by the Wall Street Journal found. Except, the people who supposedly sent these comments never did.

Sessions Reverses DOJ Policy, Allows Marijuana Prosecutions In Legal States

January 5, 2018 Sadie Gurman, Apnews.com Educate! Criminalization, DOJ, Jeff Sessions, Legislation, Marijuana, Marijuana Legalization

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration threw the burgeoning movement to legalize marijuana into uncertainty Thursday as it lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules collide with federal drug law. Sessions’ action, just three days after a legalization law went into effect in California, threatened the future of the young industry, created confusion in states where the drug is legal and outraged both marijuana advocates and some members of Congress, including Sessions’ fellow Republicans. Many conservatives are wary of what they see as federal intrusion in areas they believe must be left to the states.

Snubbing FCC, States Are Writing Their Own Net Neutrality Laws

January 3, 2018 Sean Captain, Fastcompany.com Create! FCC, Internet, Legislation, Net Neutrality

For those who either hoped or feared that a December 14 vote by the FCC to scrap net neutrality regulations would settle the matter, it must feel like extra innings of a long hard-fought game. Along with the expected flood of lawsuits by activist groups fighting to preserve net neutrality, states have also taken up the cause. “We all agree that in an ideal world it should be handled at the federal level,” says California state senator Scott Wiener. “But if the federal government’s going to abdicate, then we need to take action, and I’m glad that a number of states are looking at this.” Along with pursuing lawsuits over irregularities in the FCC process (like millions of fake citizen comments being submitted), several states are crafting their own net neutrality laws, which they will start debating as new legislative sessions commence this month.

Community Members Defy El Cajon Ordinance Against Feeding Homeless

December 1, 2017 Bella Ross, thedailyaztec.com Resist! Community, Homelessness, Legislation, Texas

By Bella Ross for The Daily Aztec - “We call it ‘Break the Ban,’” said Mark Lane, a 1989 San Diego State alumnus and the primary organizer of the event. On Oct. 27, the city of El Cajon passed an ordinance prohibiting “food-sharing” events in public spaces, including city parks. Lane said members of anywhere between 30 and 40 organizations came out with the goal of standing against the ordinance. “The goal, number one, is to get them to overturn the ban because it’s a discriminatory ban and it’s a ridiculous ban,” Lane said. According to a news release from the city, the ban on food sharing was in response to the growing Hepatitis A outbreak — an outbreak that is concentrated among the homeless population. “With the trolley system, the homeless population is pretty transient, so it flows throughout the entire city area,” El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells said. “People that were homeless in San Diego today might be homeless in El Cajon tomorrow.” The mayor said there have been a concerning number of Hepatitis A cases in El Cajon. “All we’re saying is, if you have a feeding program that’s going on in the parks, we’d rather you did that in a kitchen and not in the parks because the people that feed people in the parks don’t have food handlers permits and they’re putting boxes of food on the ground.,” Wells said.

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