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Category: Legal System

  • 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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  • Alabama Voters Banned Prison Slavery But Prisoners Say It Hasn’t Stopped

    In 2022, Alabama became one of the first states in the nation to ban slavery without exception. A constitutional amendment, passed overwhelmingly by voters, removed language that had long allowed involuntary servitude to continue in state prisons — a holdover from the 13th Amendment’s infamous “exception clause.” The 13th Amendment, though widely celebrated at the time for abolishing most forms of slavery, still allows for involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime, and has remained the legal backbone for the vast system of prison labor in the U.S., where incarcerated people can be compelled to work under threat of punishment.

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  • Mahmoud Khalil To Be Freed From Detention

    June 20, 2025, Newark, NY– A federal court today granted bail to Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student and lawful permanent resident targeted for deportation by the Trump administration because of his Palestinian rights advocacy. He will be able to return to New York to be with his wife and newborn son while his case proceeds. 

    “After more than three months, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,” said Dr. Noor Abdalla, Mahmoud Khalil’s wife.

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  • Mahmoud Khalil Still Detained Despite Court Ruling It Unconstitutional

    Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained in a remote ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, since March, was hoping to be released last Friday after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled there was no legitimate basis for his continued detention.

    The judge ruled that Mahmoud Khalil’s months-long detention by the Trump administration on the grounds that Khalil’s campus activism in support of Palestinian rights posed a danger to “U.S. foreign policy” had chilled Khalil’s ability to express himself and was presumptively unconstitutional.

    But in a letter to the judge Friday, the government justified not releasing Khalil based on false allegations that he committed fraud on his 2024 green card application by not disclosing his previous employment with organizations including a UN agency that helps Palestinians.

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  • US Military Members Have The Right To Refuse Illegal Orders

    On June 7, 2025, the Trump administration overstepped the state government and federalized the national guard in California. They were deployed to Los Angeles to suppress protests against the rampant raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In an unprecedented move, the administration also ordered marines to Los Angeles to join the guard. Clearing the FOG speaks with attorney James Branum of the Military Law Task Force, a branch of the National Lawyers Guild, about the history and legality of domestic troop deployments, the dangers of escalation and violations of civil rights, and what rights members of the military have to refuse to participate. Branum outlines the resources available to military members who want more information or need legal support.

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  • Government Misses Appeal Deadline But Refuses To Release Mahmoud Khalil

    U.S. government prosecutors told New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz that they would not be releasing detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil today, despite Judge Farbriarz’s determination on Wednesday that detaining Khalil on the basis of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that he poses a risk to U.S. foreign policy was likely unconstitutional.

    The judge gave the Trump administration until today to appeal that finding. Instead, the government said that a second accusation against Khalil, that he misrepresented himself on his visa application, was sufficient ground to keep him in detention. Stunningly, Farbiarz has now sided with the Trump administration.

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  • Legal Actions Target Airbnb Listings In Illegal Israeli Settlements

    Did you know that there are currently over 300 properties listed for rent on Airbnb that are situated in Israel’s illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as Palestinian refugee properties that were taken during the Nakba?

    In November 2018, Airbnb promised to “act responsibly” and remove all listings in the illegal settlements, but just a few months later, in April 2019, it shamefully reversed the decision.

    Even following the ruling by the International Court of Justice in July 2024, that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and that all States must prevent trade or investment that support the occupation – Airbnb’s listings in the settlements continue.

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  • San Carlos Apache Tribe Welcomes Federal Court Ruling On Oak Flat

    San Carlos Apache Reservation, Ariz. —The San Carlos Apache Tribe welcomes Friday’s federal court ruling preventing the Trump Administration from trading sacred Oak Flat to Chinese-backed Resolution Copper Mining no sooner than 60 days after the government releases an environmental report expected to be published later this month.

    The Trump Administration had indicated that it intended to trade 2,422 acres of Tonto National Forest 70 miles east of Phoenix that includes Oak Flat to Resolution Copper immediately upon publication of the mine’s updated environmental report.

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  • AES To Establish A Sahelian Criminal And Human Rights Court

    Advancing towards the harmonization of laws and judicial system in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), its member countries – Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger – have decided to establish the Sahelian Criminal and Human Rights Court (CPS-DH). 

    As the three countries jointly intensify the fight against the Islamist terror groups that have ravaged the Sahel for over a decade – since they were unleashed by NATO’s destruction of Libya – combating impunity for human rights violations will be a key task of this court. 

    It will also have the authority to judge cases of terrorism and its financing, and the most serious offenses such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, Agence d’Information d’Afrique Centrale (ADIAC) reported earlier this week.

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  • Supporters Rally Behind Political Prisoners Who Stopped White Supremacist Attack

    An upcoming clemency hearing will determine the near-term fate of Christopher “Naeem” Trotter, a political prisoner who has been held captive for over 40 years as punishment for a spontaneous act of community self-defense inside prison walls.

    On February 1, 1985, Trotter and another incarcerated man — John “Balagoon” Cole — led a rebellion within the prison now known as Pendleton Correctional Facility to protect a fellow prisoner, Lincoln “Lokmar” Love, who was being attacked with nightsticks by Indiana Department of Corrections prison guards. Trotter and Cole are now known as the “Pendleton 2,” and people nationwide have rallied in their defense.

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  • The French Resistance To Israel’s Genocide In Palestine

    French dock workers in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, are blocking the shipment of military equipment bound for Israel, protesting the Israeli military’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, France 24 reported on 6 June.

    The action, led by members of the CGT trade union, halted the loading of 19 pallets of bullet links—metal components used to enable rapid machine gun fire—onto a cargo vessel on Thursday.

    Christophe Claret, a union representative, confirmed that the shipment was identified and set aside after workers were notified of its contents.

    “Once dockers refuse to load a shipment, no one else can do it for them,” Claret told AFP. The remaining cargo for the vessel was loaded as scheduled.

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  • Criminalizing Homelessness Doesn’t Work; Housing People Does

    In the largest eviction of a homeless encampment in recent history, around 100 unhoused people were recently forced to vacate Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest — or else face a $5,000 fine and up to one year in jail.

    The forest was the last hope for the encampment’s residents, many of whom were living in broken down RVs and cars. Shelters in nearby Bend — where the average home price is nearly $800,000 — are at capacity, and rent is increasingly unaffordable.

    “There’s nowhere for us to go,” Chris Dake, an encampment resident who worked as a cashier and injured his knee, told the New York Times.

    The post Criminalizing Homelessness Doesn’t Work; Housing People Does appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Immigrant Rights Activists Push Back Against Arrests At Immigration Courts

    After Carmen, a mother of five US citizen daughters, was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents in front of her husband at San Antonio Immigration Court for an immigration hearing, Texas immigrant rights activists sprung into action.

    170 immigrant rights activists gathered on June 3 for a press conference outside of San Antonio Immigration Court. Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration attorney in Texas, stepped up to the podium, alongside a family of three – Eduardo and his daughters Olivia and Jocelyn. Carmen, Eduardo’s wife and the mother to five daughters who are US citizens, was arrested by ICE along with others outside a San Antonio Immigration Courthouse last week. 

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  • Afro-Indigenous Man To Receive Nearly $7 Million For Wrongful Conviction

    Milwaukee, Wisconsin — On May 13, the Milwaukee Common Council approved a $6.96 million settlement for the wrongful conviction of an Afro-Indigenous man who spent 18 years in prison.

    Danny Wilber, an Oneida Nation of Wisconsin citizen, was convicted for first-degree intentional murder in Milwaukee County for an incident that occurred in Jan. 2004. The wrongful conviction settlement is the second largest in Milwaukee’s history, and is the result of a federal lawsuit against the City of Milwaukee and nine former Milwaukee police officers alleged to have violated Wilber’s constitutional rights.

    “The Milwaukee Police Department knew Danny Wilber was innocent—and they framed him anyway,” said Lacey Kinnart, Wilber’s partner for more than a decade, in an interview with the LRI Native News Desk.

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  • UK Prosecutors Collaborate With Israel To Persecute Activists

    UK prosecutors are colluding with Israeli embassy officials to classify protesters resisting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as terrorists and to imprison them on heavily politicized grounds, an investigation by The Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg showed.

    “Documents released by the British government reveal that London has been coordinating with Israeli officials to prosecute protestors associated with activist group Palestine Action for disrupting the operations of Elbit Systems, which manufactures deadly weapons being used in the genocide in Gaza,” Klarenberg wrote.

    The documents suggest that Israel has successfully lobbied the UK to abandon well-established legal standards in order to charge activists resisting Israel’s genocide under harsh counter-terror laws.

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  • Australian Whistleblower David McBride’s Appeals Rejected

    Canberra, Australia – A three-judge panel at the Supreme Court in Australia’s capital Wednesday spent less than one minute dismissing all appeals by David McBride, sending the government whistleblower back to prison where he is serving a six-year sentence for exposing his country’s war crimes in Afghanistan.

    McBride appeared only briefly in court and waved to his lawyer, family and the few supporters who were able to make it into the courtroom. After the judges pronounced their decision, he was whisked off back to his Canberra jail cell, leaving his ex-wife in tears.  

    His attorney and a few supporters were left stunned and ashen-faced as they reeled from the ruling.

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  • UK Court Orders Police Return Devices To Journalist Asa Winstanley

    A British court has ruled that UK police must hand back electronic devices seized from The Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley in October 2024, in what lawyers have described as a “resounding victory for press freedom.”

    All seven seized items were handed back on Tuesday, Winstanley confirmed in a statement.

    The recorder of London, Mark Lucraft, London’s highest circuit judge, on 13 May ruled that a search warrant used by London’s Metropolitan Police to seize seven items from Winstanley’s home was unlawfully issued.

    “I am very troubled by the way in which the search warrant was drafted, approved and granted where items were to be seized from a journalist,” Judge Lucraft wrote in his ruling.

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  • Harvard Sues White House Over Foreign Student Ban

    Harvard University announced on 23 May that it is suing the White House for what it called “clear retaliation” against the school for “exercising its First Amendment rights” after the government barred international student enrollment.

    US President Donald Trump has sought to punish colleges and universities where student protests against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza have taken place.

    International students are a large source of income for many US colleges and universities.

    On Thursday, Trump blocked Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, requested that Harvard’s international student records be provided within 72 hours, and said those currently enrolled should transfer to another school or leave the country.

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  • Charging The US Government With Genocide Before The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights

    We stand here today, as Americans who are fed up with the way the United States government has spent our tax dollars. While several programs across housing, education, and healthcare are gutted, our politicians think the better use of that money should be going towards killing children, massacring families, and leveling churches, schools and hospitals. Instead of taking care of our veterans, we are sending more of our soldiers to fight a population of civilians, putting them in the crosshairs of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, and giving them a lifetime of PTSD that our government will refuse to treat.

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  • From Permanent Precarity To Permanent Power

    In Florida, the carceral system coerces workers with records into low-wage, precarious jobs by tying their freedom to employment. Background checks bar them from stable work, leaving only the jobs others avoid, quit, or fight to change. At the same time, probation agreements make employment and the payment of court fines and fees a condition of release. Workers with records are destabilized by an economic system that withholds continuity, protections and dignity by design.

    No other institution — not schools, employers or prisons — invests in the leadership potential of workers with records.

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  • Federal Judge Orders Release Of Palestinian Student Mohsen Mahdawi

    Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi is free on bail after a federal judge in Vermont ordered his release.

    It’s the first order mandating the release of a student detained by the Trump administration. The New York Times called his release “a defeat” for the administration’s “widening crackdown against student protesters.”

    “The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” said Judge Geoffrey Crawford at an April 30 hearing. “Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released.”

    Crawford also compared Trump’s crackdown to the Red Scare and said that period of history wasn’t one that people should be proud of.

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  • Iraqi MP Files Lawsuit Against Syrian President Over ‘Terrorist’ Past

    Iraqi Member of Parliament Alaa al-Haidari has filed a lawsuit with the Iraqi Public Prosecution against the new Syrian President, Ahmad al-Sharaa, Shafaq News reported on 29 April.

    In a video statement from the Supreme Judicial Council building, Haidari said, “I filed the complaint against the terrorist Julani, known as Ahmad al-Sharaa,” who “was part of ISIS organizations in Iraqi territory.”

    This comes as the Syrian President received an official invitation from Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on 27 April to attend the Arab League Summit scheduled to be held next month in the capital, Baghdad.

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  • FBI Arrests Judge Who Blocked ICE From Detaining Immigrant

    On Friday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that the FBI had arrested a state judge in Wisconsin, allegedly over her efforts to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents out of her courtroom while she was adjudicating a case involving an immigrant they were targeting.

    Patel bragged about the arrest on social media, then deleted the post, which claimed there was evidence of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan “obstructing an immigration arrest operation” on April 18.

    “We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be,” Patel wrote.

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  • Apache Stronghold Makes Emergency Appeal To Save Oak Flat

    A coalition of Western Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies asked a federal court late yesterday to stop the U.S. government from handing over their sacred site at Oak Flat to a multinational mining giant as early as June 16, 2025. In Apache Stronghold v. United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year refused to stop the federal government from transferring Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a Chinese-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive mining crater, ending Apache religious practices forever. The emergency appeal comes after the government announced last week it will forge ahead with the transfer even though the case is currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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  • Pennsylvania Supreme Court Denies Mumia Abu Jamal’s Appeal

    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – On March 26, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal permission to appeal a September 2024 Pennsylvania Superior Court denial of his latest petition to reverse his 1982 conviction. The Supreme Court ruling ends Mumia’s state court challenge at this time.

    Mumia’s sixth petition was based on credible new evidence of prosecutorial misconduct — including Brady violations based on incentives given to the state’s key witnesses Cynthia White and Robert Chobert to give false testimony.

    The new evidence, found buried in storage boxes in a remote area of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office and turned over to Mumia’s lawyers in December 2021 also included evidence of racial bias in jury selection, a Batson violation.

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  • If Fear Is The Goal, Then Solidarity Is The Antidote

    Many of us are angsting these days about the mounting repression coming from the White House. 

    In my community, many are worried about rumors of possible executive orders targeting climate and other nonprofit groups. The concern is well-founded. As Bloomberg reports, these executive orders — expected on Earth Day — would try to strip some groups of their tax exempt status, similar to the threats the president has made to Harvard.

    I’m now thinking about the many teachers, students, nonprofit staff, lawyers, university staff and faculty and beyond who are worried, concerned and uncertain about what is coming.

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  • Tallahassee Demands Release Of US Citizen Illegally Detained By ICE

    Tallahassee, FL – On Thursday, April 16, about 75 community members rallied at the Leon County Jail to demand the immediate release of Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a U.S. citizen illegally detained by ICE. The emergency mobilization was called by the Tallahassee Immigrant Rights Alliance (TIRA).

    Lopez-Gomez, who lives in Georgia and works in Tallahassee, was detained by Florida Highway Patrol during a traffic stop after crossing state lines Wednesday morning. Despite presenting his U.S. birth certificate to the court, ICE formally requested that Lopez-Gomez be held in jail for pickup and processing, superseding Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans’s assessment that the birth certificate was in fact legitimate.

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  • Failing To Rise To The Constitutional Crisis

    As the Trump administration openly defies court orders to return a man wrongfully deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, some American outlets are underplaying the significance of this constitutional crisis.

    In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court “declined to block a lower court’s order to ‘facilitate’ bringing back Kilmar Ábrego García,” a Salvadoran who had legal protections in the United States and was wrongfully sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT (BBC, 4/11/25).

    The White House is not complying (Democracy Docket, 4/14/25). “The federal courts have no authority to direct the executive branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” Trump’s Justice Department insists (CNN, 4/15/25). Fox News (4/16/25) said of Attorney General Pam Bondi: “Bondi Defiant, Says Ábrego García Will Stay in El Salvador ‘End of the Story.’”

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  • Chevron Ordered To Pay More Than $740 Million To Restore Coast

    Pointe a la Hache, LA. — Oil company Chevron must pay $744.6 million to restore damage it caused to southeast Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, a jury ruled on Friday following a landmark trial more than a decade in the making.

    The case was the first of dozens of pending lawsuits to reach trial in Louisiana against the world’s leading oil companies for their role in accelerating land loss along the state’s rapidly disappearing coast. The verdict – which Chevron says it will appeal – could set a precedent leaving other oil and gas firms on the hook for billions of dollars in damages tied to land loss and environmental degradation.

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