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Category: Legal System

  • Columbia Students Sue University For Attacks On Pro-Palestine Activism

    Three students from Columbia University filed a lawsuit on Monday morning against the school administration for their suspensions related to their pro-Palestine activism on campus. Among the claims in the complaint, the students state that the university violated its own policies during the disciplinary process, that the university targeted the students for their views, and that it violated New York’s landlord tenant laws when it evicted the students from university housing.

    “The university just pulled out all the roadblocks and threw out its rule book in an attempt to punish and silence the plaintiffs however they could,” James Carlson, an attorney representing the students, told Drop Site News.

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  • Louisiana Issues Arrest Warrant For New York Doctor Over Abortion Pill

    A grand jury in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has indicted and issued arrest warrants for a New York physician who prescribed abortion pills to a pregnant minor in Louisiana, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.

    The case directly targets the most common abortion method in the U.S. and challenges protections for out-of-state providers in Democratic-led states.

    In addition to physician Margaret Carpenter and her company, Nightingale Medical, PC, the grand jury unanimously issued an indictment and an arrest warrant for the minor’s mother.

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  • Over 1000 People Block The Strand Outside Hearing For Just Stop Oil

    Over a thousand people have taken part in a peaceful demonstration blocking the road outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Inside, the appeal against the draconian sentences given to 16 Just Stop Oil supporters last year is continuing. The mass appeal concerns 16 supporters with combined sentences of 41 years handed down between July and September 2024. [1] [2]

    All 16 Just Stop Oil supporters were jailed in the months following the publication of a report to the government written by ‘Lord Walney’, a paid lobbyist for the oil and arms industry that called for groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action to be banned in a similar way to terrorist organisations.

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  • Toolkit For The Movement: Guides For Community Defense

    Recent years have seen our community and movement partners on the frontlines wracked by COVID-19, ongoing systemic anti-Black racism, accelerating climate disasters, and growing authoritarian repression, which have all disproportionately harmed those we work alongside: those who survive at the margins and those whose existence and resistance threatens the intolerable status quo. 

    Toolkit for the Movement is a collection of resources to support and protect our communities. This includes information on what to do if an agent knocks at your door, FOIA basics for activists, and more.

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  • Despite Pardons, Many Formerly Incarcerated Black People Still Face Uncertainty

    Michelle West waited 32 years.

    Convicted in 1994 of nonviolent drug offenses, she was ordered to federal prison for two life sentences , plus an additional 50 years.

    On Sunday, former President Joe Biden commuted her sentence, meaning she will walk away from a low-security correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut , this week as a free woman.

    Kemba Smith Pradia waited 24 years .

    She had been out of federal prison since 2000, after former President Bill Clinton commuted her 294-month sentence. But it took another 24 years, until Biden’s final full day in office, for her federal drug conviction to be cleared from her permanent record.

    The post Despite Pardons, Many Formerly Incarcerated Black People Still Face Uncertainty appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Trump Attempts To Freeze Federal Spending

    Last night, at the behest of President Donald Trump, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a sweeping freeze on the flow of congressionally approved federal funding.

    The decision has had a deeply harmful and chaotic effect already and is an unlawful overreach of executive power that ignores Congress’ constitutionally mandated control of federal spending and undermines the checks and balances that have, for hundreds of years, maintained democracy in the United States.

    Several states have already legally challenged the guidance.

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  • Pentagon Directive To Expand Access To Military Courts Falls Short

    More than two years after ProPublica sued the Navy over its failure to provide public access to military courts, the Department of Defense has for the first time directed U.S. military branches to give advance public notice of preliminary hearings, a crucial milestone in criminal cases.

    These “Article 32” hearings end with a recommendation about whether the case should move forward, be dismissed or end in a nonjudicial punishment.

    DOD General Counsel Caroline Krass issued the guidance earlier this year, directing the secretaries of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Homeland Security (which oversees the Coast Guard) to post upcoming preliminary hearings, provide access to certain court records and publish results of military trials — known as courts-martial — on a public website.

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  • Court Strikes Down Federal Rule That Would Have Allowed ‘Bomb Trains’

    A federal court today struck down a 2020 rule that would have allowed trains to travel the country filled with an unprecedented amount of explosive liquefied natural gas (LNG).

    The liquefied natural gas from just one rail tank car — without even considering a whole train — could be enough to destroy a city.

    “We’re pleased that the court saw the danger this rule posed to our nation’s communities,” said Earthjustice attorney Bradley Marshall. “As we pointed out, it would only take 22 tank cars to hold the equivalent energy of the Hiroshima bomb.”

    The federal effort to cut critical safeguards for liquefied natural gas started on April 10, 2019, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to initiate rulemaking to allow liquefied natural gas transport by rail.

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  • Trump, Allies Sued Over DOGE Plans In Union-Backed Lawsuits

    The largest federal employee union and a national teachers union are among the first to file lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump‘s planned government efficiency organization effort.

    The groups seek to rein in the Department of Government Efficiency, an effort to cut government spending that will be led by billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk. DOGE will advise Trump on spending cuts and regulatory reform.

    Leading up to his inauguration, Trump promised to fire federal workers who don’t report to the office and drastically reshape the civilian public workforce of 2 million people.

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  • Landmark Agreement Boosts Native Ecosystems On Point Reyes

    A historic agreement has just been struck to settle a decades-long land-use conflict over the future of cattle and wildlife on Point Reyes National Seashore. Under the deal, most of the beef and dairy ranches on Point Reyes National Seashore will depart, and former ranch lands will be managed as a Scenic Landscape Zone according to a new General Management Plan approved by the National Park Service. Tule elk will have the freedom to roam unmolested throughout Point Reyes National Seashore, opportunities for public recreation will improve, and the land will have the opportunity to return to native coastal grassland.

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  • Court Of Appeals Hears Arguments Against Line 5 Tunnel Project

    Attorneys representing Native American tribes and environmental organizations brought their case Tuesday before a three-judge panel in the Michigan Court of Appeals to challenge a 2023 permit from the Michigan Public Service Commission — one of three needed for Enbridge to proceed with its controversial Line 5 tunnel project.

    Enbridge’s Line 5 is a 645-mile pipeline stretching from Northwest Wisconsin through Michigan into Sarnia, Ontario, carrying 540,000 barrels of light crude oil, light synthetic crude and natural gas liquids daily through the Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

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  • Sixth Circuit Rules Against Net Neutrality; EFF Will Continue To Fight

    Last week, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the FCC, rejecting its authority to classify broadband as a Title II “telecommunications service.” In doing so, the court removed net neutrality protections for all Americans and took away the FCC’s ability to meaningfully regulate internet service providers.

    This ruling fundamentally gets wrong the reality of internet service we all live with every day. Nearly 80% of Americans view broadband access to be as important as water and electricity. It is no longer an extra, non-necessary “information service,” as it was seen 40 years ago, but it is a vital medium of communication in everyday life.

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  • After 23 Years, Prisoners Remain In Guantanamo Without Charges

    January 11 marked the twenty-third anniversary of the opening of the US military prison on occupied land in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Clearing the FOG speaks with Andy Worthington, an investigative journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files. Worthington explains that the United States opened the prison in Guantanamo to avoid legal restrictions. He describes the connections between Guantanamo and the CIA ‘black sites’ where prisoners were tortured and who the men are that were recently released as well as who remains. There are calls for Joe Biden to release all of the men and end the scandal of the prison at Guantanamo Bay before he leaves office.

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  • US Transfers 11 Detainees Out Of Guantanamo Bay Prison

    The United States sent 11 Yemeni detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Oman, the Pentagon said on Monday, leaving 15 people at the infamous detention centre.

    The transfer was initially slated for October 2023 but the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza delayed the transfer, according to an admission from US officials in May last year.

    “The United States appreciates the willingness of the government of Oman and other partners to support ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the US military said in a statement.

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  • Asheville Blade Journalists Sue Over Illegal Arrests

    A news co-op in North Carolina and two journalists convicted of trespassing offenses filed a federal lawsuit alleging that their constitutional rights were violated by Asheville Police Department officers.

    In December 2021, residents in the Asheville community gathered at Aston Park for five evenings to urge the City of Asheville to leave people without any shelter alone in the park after it closed at 10 p.m. They took a stand on Christmas, refusing to disperse. Police responded by sweeping the encampment and arresting six people.

    Two of the people arrested were reporters for the Asheville Blade—Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit.

    The post Asheville Blade Journalists Sue Over Illegal Arrests appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Kenya’s High Court Delivers Blow To Neoliberal University Funding Model

    The Kenya High Court delivered a landmark ruling on December 20, 2024, that declared the new funding model for higher education unconstitutional. The case, brought before the court by the Kenya Human Rights Commission and other organizations including the National Student Caucus, challenged the legality and fairness of the new model launched last year.

    In his ruling, Justice Mwita declared the new university funding model unconstitutional for several reasons. The high court noted that it violates Section 53 of the Universities Act by introducing policies that conflict with the law.

    The post Kenya’s High Court Delivers Blow To Neoliberal University Funding Model appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Taxpayers Suing Congressmembers For Funding Genocide Speak Out

    On December 19, more than 500 federal taxpayers from 10 northern California counties filed an unprecedented class-action lawsuit against their congressional representatives. Seth Donnelly et. al. v. Mike Thompson, and Jared Huffman charges that the defendants — two Democratic congressmembers — illegally abused their tax and spend authority on April 20, 2024, when they voted for the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which authorized $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel.

    The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, alleges that Thompson and Huffman violated the U.S. Constitution, the Genocide Convention and several U.S. laws.

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  • Journalist Could Face Prison For Refusing To Give Passwords To Police

    It is an unprecedented case. And it risks triggering an unprecedented threat to journalism. The UK police have repeatedly tried to obtain the passwords to the phones of the British independent journalist, Richard Medhurst, the first reporter arrested in London under Section 12: his analyses and comments on Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza – which Amnesty International has characterised as genocide – have been interpreted by the police as support for organisations banned from the UK, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

    The son of two UN peacekeepers, Medhurst was arrested last August at London’s Heathrow Airport

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  • The ‘Ghost’ Of Guantanamo Is Freed

    In welcome news, the Pentagon has announced that it has repatriated from Guantánamo Ridah Al-Yazidi, 59, a Tunisian prisoner held without charge or trial since the very first day of the prison’s operations nearly 23 years ago, on January 11, 2002.

    Although almost completely unknown to the outside world, because of the mainstream media’s persistent lack of interest in investigating the mundane lawlessness of so much of the prison’s operations, Al-Yazidi’s case is one of the most outstanding cases of casual injustice at Guantánamo.

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  • Luigi Mangione And The Dangers Of Terrorism Charges

    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unveiled new charges on Dec. 17 against Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

    While Mangione already faced second-degree murder and weapons charges, the unsealed indictment reveals an escalation: New York prosecutors have charged Mangione with first-degree murder “in furtherance of terrorism.”

    Bragg’s choice to invoke the big “T” word came as a surprise; it’s not often associated with a single, targeted killing. In fact, prosecutors are charging Mangione using a state law hatched after the 9/11 attacks “to combat the evils of terrorism.”

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  • Palestine Action Activists Acquitted Over Preventing Genocide

    Two Palestine Action activists have been acquitted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage charges in a trial at Leicester Crown Court for an action against a Leicester drone factory complicit in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. The trial commenced on 2 December, concluding yesterday.

    The activists were arrested less than a month into the Genocide, on 18 October 2023, after a dynamic action which shut down the UAV Tactical Systems factory operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company The action took place less than 12 hours after at least 500 wounded, starving, and displaced Palestinians were massacred at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in a targeted missile strike.

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  • The Biden Administration Fails To Win Imprisonment Of The Uhuru 3

    Members of the Uhuru Movement, Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess, and Jesse Nevel – the “Uhuru 3” – were sentenced to three years probation and community service after being convicted in September 2024 of supposedly conspiring with the Russian government to interfere in U.S. elections. The Black Alliance for Peace recognizes that this sentence is confirmation that the charges against Uhuru members by the Biden Administration Justice Department were baseless. While any sentence handed down from imperialist courts for actions that are supposed to be legally protected are, in themselves, illegitimate, the refusal of the judge to incarcerate the Uhuru 3 is a victory in the fight against a repressive US regime, regardless of which wing of the finance capital bird leads it.

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  • Who’s Funding ‘Newspaper’ Mailed To Potential Jurors In Greenpeace’s Trial?

    In early September, fossil fuel executive and Donald Trump megadonor Kelcy Warren quietly made a large donation to a political action committee few people have ever heard of. Warren is CEO of Energy Transfer, the company behind the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline, which in 2016 faced thousands of protesters including members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other opponents.

    The timing is potentially significant because Warren made his $5 million donation to the super PAC called Turnout for America while his company pushed forward with a lawsuit against the nonprofit Greenpeace related to the Standing Rock protests.

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  • University Of Rochester Students Face Seven Years In Jail

    Last month four students at the University of Rochester were charged with second-degree criminal mischief for their connection to “Wanted” posters that were put up around campus.

    The posters accused a small number of faculty members of enabling genocide and supporting the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. Not all the faculty members identified are Jewish, but the university immediately sent out emails tagging the action as antisemitic. Pro-Israel campus groups condemned the posters, including the school’s Hillel chapter which claimed they “disproportionately singled out Jewish faculty and staff and used language that spreads harmful, antisemitic ideas about Jewish people.”

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  • Louisiana Hair Braiders Say Regulatory Overreach Is Destroying Their Business

    Natural hair braider Ashley N’Dakpri knows her knots. She practiced as a child on friends and family, attended beauty school in the Ivory Coast, and has 20 years of professional experience in the United States. Yet that’s not enough in Louisiana. The Louisiana Board of Cosmetology requires braiders to spend a year or more in a state-licensed school, whether they need the training or not.

    Source

  • Grand Rapids Officer Released On Bail After Indictment For Killing Patrick Lyoya

    Patrick Lyoya, 26, an African immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was shot in the back of the head by patrolman Christopher Schurr on April 4.

    This act of police violence was met with widespread shock and mass demonstrations demanding that Schurr be terminated from the Grand Rapids police department and charged with murder.

    There was an announcement made on June 15 saying that Schurr had been fired from the Grand Rapid Police Department. This came less than a week after his indictment on second degree murder charges in the death of Lyoya.

    Despite the national attention focusing on the killing of Lyoya, it would take more than two months for Schurr to be indicted for second degree murder.

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  • Three Animal Rights Advocates Face Trial Over 2019 Hog Farm Occupation

    Abbotsford, B.C., Canada – It’s been three years since two hundred animal rights advocates descended on the Excelsior Hog Farm on April 28, 2019 “to expose the reality of what is happening to the victims of the ‘meat’ industry and to challenge the current mindset within our society,” according to the activist group Meat The Victims. Over a year later, a total of four activists were facing multiple charges, however today, three of them stand trial at the end of June 2022.

    During the farm action, approximately 50 of the activists got inside the building where they witnessed deceased pigs in a dumpster, pigs laying on the ground unable to get up because of injuries, and “row upon row of pregnant pigs crammed inside metal crates the size of their own bodies, unable to even turn around or move for months on end.”

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  • Eighth Circuit Court Of Appeals Claims Terrorism Enhancement Is ‘Harmless’

    St. Paul, MN – The 8th Circuit Court of Appeal upheld Jessica Reznicek’s 8 year prison sentence. In their decision the three Trump-appointed judges refused to address whether the use of a terrorism enhancement was appropriate saying, “Reznicek argues that the enhancement should not have applied because her actions were directed at a private company, rather than the government. Even if that is right, any error was harmless.” Reznicek’s supporters worry that If the decision stands, the judicial branch will continue applying terrorism enhancements to activists, while claiming that a drastically increased sentence from being labled a terrorists by the U.S. govenment is harmless. 

    In July 2021 Judge Rebecca Ebinger applied a terrorism enhancement to Reznicek’s case that automatically increased her sentencing guidelines range from 37-46 months to 210-240 months.

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  • New Surveillance Transparency Report Documents An Urgent Need For Change

    The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) has released its Annual Statistical Transparency Report disclosing the use of national security surveillance laws for the year 2021—and to no one’s surprise it documents the wide-ranging overreach of intelligence agencies and the continued misuse of surveillance authorities to spy on millions of Americans. Specifically, the report chronicles how Section 702, an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), that authorizes the U.S. government to engage in mass surveillance of foreign targets’ communications, is still being abused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to spy on Americans without a warrant.

    Specifically, the report reveals that between December 2020 and November 2021, the FBI queried the data of potentially more than 3,000,000 “U.S. persons” without a warrant.

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  • Detroit Organizations Demand Justice Department Act On Police Misconduct

    CPTA begins the memorandum by stating that: “The Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability (CPTA) requests a federal investigation of a pattern of killings and excessive force by the Detroit Police Department (DPD) and an institutional culture within the department that promotes violence and racial discrimination within the Department and against members of the community. The mission of CPTA is to expose police misconduct in all its forms and thereby demand police transparency and accountability as well as garner community support for this effort. The Coalition was formed after the killing of Hakim Littleton in July 2020 by the Detroit Police Department officers.

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