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Category: Legal System

  • RICO Charges Dismissed Against 61 Cop City Activists

    In 2023, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr brought RICO charges against 61 opponents of the “Cop City” training facility, alleging the protest movement was akin to an organized crime syndicate. Under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, prosecutors need merely to show the existence of a criminal enterprise under which any member is liable to be charged as an accessory to the group’s overall crimes.

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  • Jair Bolsonaro Found Guilty By Brazilian Supreme Court

    On the afternoon of Thursday, September 11, Supreme Court Minister Cármen Lúcia cast the vote to cement the majority decision to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro and seven other allies accused of coup plot.

    In her vote, the minister stated that “Jair Messias Bolsonaro committed the crimes with which he is charged as the leader of a criminal organization. He was not swept up into the insurgency. He is the instigator, he is the leader of an organization that promoted all forms of coordination aligned with the goal of maintaining or seizing power.”

    She continued: “There is clear evidence that the group led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro and composed of key figures in the government developed and implemented a progressive and systematic plan to attack democratic institutions with the aim of undermining the legitimate alternation of power in the 2022 elections and undermining the free exercise of other constitutional powers, especially the judiciary.”

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  • US Court Prohibits Attacks On Journalists Covering ICE Protests

    A United States court concluded that border patrol and other federal agents “unleashed crowd control weapons indiscriminately and with surprising savagery,” targeting journalists who were covering protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles.

    U.S. District Judge Hernán Vera issued an injunction against federal agents to prevent them from “dispersing, threatening, or assaulting any person whom they know or reasonably should know” is a journalist. (Vera extended the injunction to cover legal observers, too.)

    On June 18, 2025, three journalists—Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, Ryanne Mena, and Lexis Olivier-Ray of L.A. Taco—sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

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  • Federal Judge Said Trump Can’t Be National Police Chief

    Donald Trump appears fixated on “creating a national police force with the President as its chief,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote, holding that Trump’s deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles to enforce the immigration laws was illegal. Trump has already sent troops to Washington, D.C., and has also set his sights on Oakland, San Francisco, Chicago, and Baltimore.

    Trump will appeal the ruling. The appellate courts will determine whether he will be allowed to use the military as his personal police force, notwithstanding the clear command of the Posse Comitatus Act.

    In his 52-page decision, Breyer ruled that defendants Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Department of Defense “willfully” violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a 1878 law that prohibits the use of the military to enforce domestic laws.

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  • Artificial Intelligence On Trial

    Two cases alleging harms caused by artificial intelligence are emerging this week that are cases that involve children’s particular vulnerabilities—vulnerabilities artificial intelligence is designed to exploit. In North Carolina v. Tiktok the state has filed a complaint against Tiktok for the harm caused to children by creating addictions to scrolling through the app’s features, including functions of suggesting to the child they are missing things when they are away from the app, increasing their usage.

    Meanwhile, a case filed in state court in California, San Francisco district, Raine v. OpenAI, LLC, is the first wrongful death case against an artificial intelligence app. The suicide death of a 17-year old due to the line of encouragement he received from OpenAI is alleged to have directly led to his death.

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  • Judge Blocks Deportation Of Kilmar Abrego Garcia To Uganda, For Now

    A federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s latest attempt to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a court scheduling hearing on August 25, the same day Abrego Garcia was rearrested during a check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The judge has ordered that the longtime Maryland resident be detained within the continental United States as a lawsuit challenging his detention and removal moves forward this week. The judge suggested previous protective orders would be extended if the administration attempts a deportation in the meantime.

    The temporary order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis came only hours after Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Abrego García was being processed for deportation to Uganda, a nation with a dismal human rights record, and to which the Salvadoran national has no ties.

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  • Cop City Defendant Has Domestic Terrorism Charge Dropped

    Atlanta, GA – Jamie Marsicano, one of dozens of defendants embroiled in the sprawling legal backlash brought against opponents of “Cop City,” had a state-level Domestic Terrorism charge dropped in DeKalb County on Thursday. The dismissal represents the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the state as it moves forward with its expansive effort to prosecute those who mobilized to stop Cop City, a massive police training compound south of metro Atlanta in the South River Forest.

    More than 29 months after Jamie was arrested and charged under Georgia’s domestic terrorism statute for their participation in the movement against Cop City, the state hadn’t brought an indictment against the North Carolina resident, leaving them in limbo as they waited for a decision from the court regarding their charge and potential trial.

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  • A Landmark Complaint Vs Pro-Israel Group Silencing Dissent

    In February 2023, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital quietly removed a display of artwork from one of its corridors.

    The artwork, a collection of decorated plates, had been designed by schoolchildren in Gaza. It depicted symbols of peace and the desire for an independent Palestinian state.

    The plates had been on the walls of the hospital for over a decade, but a strongly worded letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) ensured they were promptly taken down.

    UKLFI director Caroline Turner was quick to claim victory. “We are pleased that the hospital has responded positively to its patients’ complaints,” she declared.

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  • Union-Busting In The Guise Of ‘National Security’

    In a ruling the American Federation of Government Employees [AFGE] denounced as “a setback for fundamental rights in America,” a federal appeals court in California on August 1 lifted an injunction preventing the Trump regime from terminating collective-bargaining rights for an estimated two-thirds of the federal workforce.

    The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the argument by six federal workers unions against Trump’s March 27 executive order nullifying their contracts—that it was retaliation for their exercising their right to dispute policies such as massive layoffs—was irrelevant, because “the President would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct.” 

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  • General Mills Sued For Racial Discrimination And Retaliation

    Minneapolis, MN — As corporations across the United States gleefully regress back to their racist roots with the second Trump term, a fired worker in Minnesota is fighting back. General Mills, headquartered in a western Minneapolis suburb, is facing a lawsuit filed by a Black worker who claims he was fired as retaliation for speaking out against racist Black History Month literature that General Mills passed to employees.

    L. Lee Tyus Jr. was a packing technician at General Mills for five plus years before being fired in March 2025, according to the complaint (pdf). A month before his firing, General Mills distributed tabletop flyers titled “Fun Facts About Black History” that featured information on the Tulsa Race Massacre and the Black Codes.

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  • Badar Khan Suri, Georgetown Researcher Abducted by ICE, Speaks Out

    Dr. Badar Khan Suri was returning home from a campus iftar on March 17 when masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents jumped out of an unmarked car and detained him outside his home. He had not been charged with any crime.

    Suri is an interdisciplinary scholar focusing on religion, violence, and peace, especially in the Middle East and South Asia, and works as a researcher at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Over the course of two months, ICE held him in detention centers throughout the South. Since his release on May 14, he has been challenging his warrantless arrest and detention in federal court, bringing claims under the First and Fifth Amendments.

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  • UK High Court Grants Palestine Action Judicial Review Over Proscription

    A High Court Judge has ruled in favour of Palestine Action and granted the direct action group a judicial review to oppose the UK government’s ban on the pro-Palestine group.

    Justice Martin Chamberlain ruled on Wednesday that he would grant Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, a judicial review after hearing submissions from her lawyer and the government.

    The judge also dismissed an additional attempt to temporarily lift the suspension of the group and set the judicial review to take place in November 2025 over three days.

    The ruling marks a setback for the government, which has faced criticism over its handling of the proscription and concerns that the ban on Palestine Action could be used to stifle criticism of Israel.

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  • Colombia’s Courts Finds Álvaro Uribe Guilty After 13-Year Judicial Process

    On Monday, Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia, 44th judge of the Bogotá criminal court, found former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez guilty of witness bribery and procedural fraud.

    The verdict concludes a 13-year judicial process fraught with political tensions, complex evidence, and heated debate over the independence of Colombia’s judiciary.

    At the hearing’s start, Heredia sent a forceful message to the country: “The wait is over. We want to tell Colombia that justice has arrived.”

    The judge called this one of the most significant moments in recent judicial history.

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  • Apache Women Ask Courts To Halt Land Swap For Oak Flat

    A group of Apache women asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to halt a disputed land exchange at the center of a long battle over plans to build a huge copper mine at Oak Flat.

    It’s the fourth lawsuit that seeks to stop the U.S. Forest Service from signing over title to the site, held sacred by Apache peoples and culturally significant by other tribes, to Resolution Copper in exchange for other plots of environmentally sensitive land in Arizona.

    The four women, who all have spiritual and cultural connections to the 2,200-acre campground in Tonto National Forest about 60 miles east of Phoenix, filed their suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia July 24.

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  • Abrego Garcia Wins Bail, Can’t Be Detained Again Without Notice

    A judge has ordered the release of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia from federal custody after he was unlawfully deported by the Trump administration to an infamous megaprison in his native El Salvador.

    After the White House baselessly alleged for months that Abrego Garcia was a dangerous MS-13 gang member — with President Donald Trump going so far as to present a clearly doctored photograph of Abrego Garcia’s hand tattooed with those letters and numbers — a number of legal challenges eventually forced the administration to return him to the United States.

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  • Climate Lawsuit Against Oil Giant Eni Can Move Forward

    This week, Italy’s highest court ruled that a climate lawsuit brought by Greenpeace Italy and advocacy group ReCommon against Eni can move forward.

    In the decision, released on Monday, the court rejected Italian oil and gas company Eni’s motions to dismiss the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, and ordered that the case be heard on its merits by the Court of Rome.

    “This decision means that the lawsuit is legitimate, that the plaintiffs have the right to bring it, and that the Italian judge has a duty to rule on it,” Alessandro Gariglio, lawyer for Greenpeace Italy, said in an interview with DeSmog.

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  • Climate Lawsuit Against Oil Giant Eni Can Move Forward

    This week, Italy’s highest court ruled that a climate lawsuit brought by Greenpeace Italy and advocacy group ReCommon against Eni can move forward.

    In the decision, released on Monday, the court rejected Italian oil and gas company Eni’s motions to dismiss the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, and ordered that the case be heard on its merits by the Court of Rome.

    “This decision means that the lawsuit is legitimate, that the plaintiffs have the right to bring it, and that the Italian judge has a duty to rule on it,” Alessandro Gariglio, lawyer for Greenpeace Italy, said in an interview with DeSmog.

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  • New Youth-Led Lawsuit Is Challenging Trump’s Fossil Fuel Orders

    This summer, kids are taking the climate crisis to the courts. The 22 plaintiffs of Lighthiser v. Trump, a lawsuit filed in May, range from 7 to 25 years old. They are challenging three of President Donald Trump’s most controversial executive orders to “unleash” fossil fuels and revoke renewable energy initiatives. The orders roll back critical investments in sustainable technologies and climate science, declare a “National Energy Emergency” to increase fossil fuel use, and prop up the coal, oil and gas industries through deregulation.

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  • Cop City Rico Trials Begin In Atlanta, First Case Declared A Mistrial

    Atlanta, GA — The first trial in the ‘Cop City’ RICO case began the morning of July 7 in Fulton County Superior Court, with defendant Ayla King returning to court for the first time since January 2024. However, proceedings quickly came to a halt following Judge Kevin Farmer’s declaration of a mistrial and the defense’s decision to appeal the mistrial. King’s case is being heard separately from the other 60 defendants after filing for a speedy trial on Oct. 30, 2023.

    King is one of 61 people indicted by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr in August 2023 on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) charges for their protest against “Cop City.”

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  • 20 States Sue Trump Administration For Slashing FEMA Disaster Program

    A group of 20 states sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over the shutting down of a multibillion-dollar grant program with the purpose of strengthening natural disaster preparation and mitigation.

    The lawsuit filed in a Boston federal court contends that the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) unlawfully eliminated its Building Resilient Infrastructures and Communities (BRIC) program, overriding Congress.

    The states said in the complaint that the shutdown’s impacts have been “devastating,” reported The Hill.

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  • Minnesota Supreme Court Rules On Unicorn Riot DAPL Subpoena

    St Paul, MN — Unicorn Riot’s long legal battle in Minnesota to protect newsgathering materials from attorneys working for Energy Transfer reached yet another phase: The Minnesota Supreme Court released its ruling Wednesday about the subpoena in Hennepin County that has attempted to probe our organization. The court rejected Energy Transfer’s attempt to compel the release of newsgathering materials and reporter communications; it also ruled that a judge could order a complex document called a privilege log to be created.

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  • Inside Your Union, You Have Due Process Rights

    Suppose you run for local union office on a reform slate, and nearly win… but then the incumbent leaders trump up charges against you. You’re sure your only crime is challenging them, but they brand your organizing “dual unionism” or “conduct unbecoming a member.”

    They hold a trial, find you guilty, and suspend your membership. Do you have any recourse?

    Most unions have an internal discipline process—a way to expel, suspend, or fine members for breaking the union’s rules. Most members have a legal right to due process, and protections against improper discipline, under a 1959 federal law called the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.

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  • A ‘Draconian’ United Kingdom Government

    When we restarted at 2 p.m., Raza Husain noted that the secretary of state had submitted no argument as to why the proscription had to enter into force immediately.

    He continued that the statutory instrument proscribing Palestine Action was not to be viewed as having the same authority as primary legislation, and had undergone a very truncated parliamentary procedure. Amendment had not been possible.

    It was more properly characterised as an executive instrument subject to parliamentary veto.

    Judge Chamberlain agreed, and noted it had also included the Maniac Murder Cult and it had not been possible for Parliament to separate the groups.

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  • UK Attempt To Name Non-Violent Group As ‘Terrorist’ Is Challenged In Court

    I headed to the Royal Courts of Justice in London on July 4 for the hearing brought by Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, on an application for relief from the government’s proscription order against the group as a terrorist organisation.

    Huda had applied for judicial review of the legality of this order. There is to be a hearing on whether a judicial review will be granted in the week beginning July 21.

    What the July 4 hearing was about, was whether the proscription should be suspended until that hearing on whether permission will be given for judicial review.

    This is called interim relief.

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  • Dozens Arrested In London Protests Against Ban On Palestine Action

    British police have arrested 46 pro-Palestine demonstrators during a protest in Parliament Square, marking the second consecutive weekend of unrest over the government’s decision to outlaw the activist group Palestine Action.

    According to IRNA, the Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrests on Saturday, citing prior warnings that publicly supporting the banned group could be deemed a criminal offense under UK law. Last weekend’s demonstration led to 29 arrests, and authorities said they had cautioned participants about the legal implications.

    The banned organization, Palestine Action, has gained prominence for its direct actions targeting arms companies linked to “Israel”—especially those involved in the ongoing war in Gaza, which rights advocates have described as genocidal.

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  • Mahmoud Khalil Sues Trump Administration For $20 Million

    Pro-Palestinian student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil on Thursday began the process of suing U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for $20 million in damages for the harm he suffered as a result of the government’s “politically motivated plan to unlawfully arrest, detain, and deport” him.

    “This is the first step towards accountability,” Khalil said in a statement. “Nothing can restore the 104 days stolen from me. The trauma, the separation from my wife, the birth of my first child that I was forced to miss. But let’s be clear, the same government that targeted me for speaking out is using taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

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  • August 26 Trial Date Set For Alejandro Orellana, Call For Actions

    A trial date of August 26 was set for immigrant rights activist Alejandro Orellana at his July 3 court appearance in front of a room packed with supporters. Orellana was arrested by the FBI on June 12 for protesting against ICE in Los Angeles. He faces up to 5 years in prison for two bogus federal charges: conspiracy to commit civil disorder and aiding and abetting civil disorder.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is calling for a national day of protests on the first day of Orellana’s trial, August 26th, to demand that the charges be dropped. To everyone who believes in the right to free speech, to protest ICE, and to say no to deportations, we urge you to organize a local protest on that day at the nearest federal courthouse.

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  • ICE Wants To Work In Secret

    Interested in what Immigration and Customs Enforcement is up to? Step right up to read ICE’s many press releases touting their accomplishments, watch Dr. Phil’s ICE ride-alongs on his new TV network, and, of course, follow ICE on social platform X.

    Just don’t expect to read independent reporting about ICE activity — at least not if government officials get their way. Journalists and members of the public who report on ICE are increasingly under attack by officials who would prefer to silence them so government propaganda can fill the information void.

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  • Court Ruling Raises Serious Questions Over Government Accountability

    Judgment in Al-Haq’s historic long-running claim against the U.K. government for its continued licensing of F-35 parts into the global supply reaching Israel. The Court has not upheld Al-Haq’s claim.

    Today, the UK High Court delivered judgment in Al-Haq’s claim against the U.K. government for its continued licensing of F-35 parts into the global supply chain. The court stated that it could not find any legal flaws in the government’s decision-making and that certain parts of the challenge were non-justiciable, meaning that they are not matters for the Courts. Leaving the question, who is the UK government accountable to in matters of international law?

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  • Palestine Action To Take Labour To Court Over Planned Terrorist Ban

    The High Court has granted an urgent hearing for Palestine Action’s legal challenge to threatened proscription.

    In a hearing which concluded on the morning of Monday 30 June at the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Justice Chamberlain granted the application for an urgent hearing and set the date for Friday 4 July at 10:30am to consider permission for a judicial review of the Home Secretary’s decision to make an order to add direct action group Palestine Action to the list of proscribed organisations under Schedule 2 of the Terrorism Act 2000, alongside ISIS and Al Qaeda.

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