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Category: Legal System

  • 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.

    The post The French Resistance To Israel’s Genocide In Palestine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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. 

    The post Immigrant Rights Activists Push Back Against Arrests At Immigration Courts appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post Australian Whistleblower David McBride’s Appeals Rejected appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post Harvard Sues White House Over Foreign Student Ban appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post Charging The US Government With Genocide Before The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post From Permanent Precarity To Permanent Power appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post Iraqi MP Files Lawsuit Against Syrian President Over ‘Terrorist’ Past appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post FBI Arrests Judge Who Blocked ICE From Detaining Immigrant appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post Apache Stronghold Makes Emergency Appeal To Save Oak Flat appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post If Fear Is The Goal, Then Solidarity Is The Antidote appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post Tallahassee Demands Release Of US Citizen Illegally Detained By ICE appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.’”

    The post Failing To Rise To The Constitutional Crisis appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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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.

    The post Chevron Ordered To Pay More Than $740 Million To Restore Coast appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Mahmoud Khalil’s Immigration Status Will Be Determined Friday

    Mahmoud Khalil’s immigration hearings began in Louisiana on April 8. Supporters who tried to observe the proceedings virtually were not allowed in.

    ABC News reported that during this hearing, Judge Jamee Comans determined that the Trump administration has 24 hours to provide evidence of allegations they’ve made to justify Khalil’s deportation. The administration has made bogus claims that Khalil poses a threat to national security. Once Khalil’s team has reviewed and responded to whatever information the Trump administration provides, Comans will decide at another hearing this Friday if Khalil can stay in the United States.

    The post Mahmoud Khalil’s Immigration Status Will Be Determined Friday appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • The Degradation of Big Law

    By intimidating and disarming potential sources of legal resistance, Trump weakens one of the last institutional barriers standing between his administration and unbridled executive power.

    This post was originally published on Dissent Magazine.

  • Momodou Taal, Who Sued Trump, Voluntarily Leaves The Country

    Momodou Taal, a pro-Palestinian activist and international Ph.D student, announced his decision to leave the country on Monday — ending a weeks-long struggle with the federal government that began when he sued the Trump administration.

    Soon after Taal announced his decision on X and Instagram, his lawyers withdrew his lawsuit in federal court.

    Taal first made national news when he, alongside Sriram Parasurama, a Ph.D. student in plant sciences, and Prof. Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, literatures in English, sued the Trump administration for allegedly violating their First and Fifth Amendment rights.

    The post Momodou Taal, Who Sued Trump, Voluntarily Leaves The Country appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Respect For The Law Is The Strongest Weapon Against Fascism

    The well-prepared, abundantly funded Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025’s implementation overwhelms all that has come before. The ill-prepared, leaderless Democrats and opposition are stymied to stop it. No March on Washington like the 1963 March for civil and political rights or the 1967 March against the Vietnam War will slow down the Trump steamroll. Neither the high price of eggs nor Wall Street jitters have had any effect.

    What to do? Could courts be the deciding factor to halt the United States slide towards fascism?

    Rules are essential to any organized society.

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  • Judges Weigh Appeal By Whistleblower Who Exposed Cover-Up Of War Crimes

    A three-judge panel in the Australian capital is weighing an appeal by whistleblower David McBride that could determine if a soldier’s duty is to serve the public or only his superior officers even if it means covering up evidence of his nation’s war crimes.

    The judges are also considering the question of whether Australian soldiers owe their allegiance to the British crown or to the people of Australia.

    The three Court of Appeal judges have been deliberating for four weeks to determine if the trial judge erred in not permitting McBride a public interest defense.

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  • Chaos Under Heaven: South Korea’s Deepening Political Debacle

    Morse Tan, a high-ranking former US State Dept. official, recently let the cat out of the bag on the US ruling elite position on South Korea’s Martial Law.  He declared that “Yoon declared Martial Law to preserve South Korea’s Democracy”.  Having previously labeled South Korea a model democracy, this is a No-Scotsman-move taken to absurdity.  

    Now Tan is not a current US government official, but he is an indicator of what the US national security state is thinking, in particular, what its neocon wing is thinking.  Tan also recently claimed that “the impeachment against Yoon is an insurrection” led by opposition party leader Lee Jae Myung “who wants to turn the country over to the Chinese communists”. 

    The post Chaos Under Heaven: South Korea’s Deepening Political Debacle appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Chaos Under Heaven: South Korea’s Deepening Political Debacle

    Morse Tan, a high-ranking former US State Dept. official, recently let the cat out of the bag on the US ruling elite position on South Korea’s Martial Law.  He declared that “Yoon declared Martial Law to preserve South Korea’s Democracy”.  Having previously labeled South Korea a model democracy, this is a No-Scotsman-move taken to absurdity.  

    Now Tan is not a current US government official, but he is an indicator of what the US national security state is thinking, in particular, what its neocon wing is thinking.  Tan also recently claimed that “the impeachment against Yoon is an insurrection” led by opposition party leader Lee Jae Myung “who wants to turn the country over to the Chinese communists”. 

    The post Chaos Under Heaven: South Korea’s Deepening Political Debacle appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Will Trump Send US Citizens To El Salvador?

    Donald Trump is in a position to do almost anything he wants. He was the clear favorite of republican voters and won the popular vote and majorities in congress. Not content to be satisfied with what he says is a mandate, Trump has upped the ante and departed from the traditional definitions of power in Washington. He has legislative control, but he is making an end run around it with executive orders and defiance of the courts. At a moment of radical political change which includes firing thousands of federal workers and claiming that programs supported by most people are no longer needed, the democrats provide only the thinnest veneer of opposition when the public want them to step up.

    The post Will Trump Send US Citizens To El Salvador? appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • AFGE Wins! Judge Orders Trump To Rehire Fired Probationary Employees

    In a major victory for AFGE, allies, and federal workers, a judge in California ordered the Trump administration to reinstate probationary employees fired at six agencies, saying the firing “is based on a lie” and that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) didn’t have the authority to order it. The administration’s request for an emergency administrative stay has also been denied by the 9th Circuit.

    This lawsuit was brought by AFGE and our allies.

    Another judge in Maryland also ordered the administration to temporarily halt its planned reductions in force (RIFs) at 18 agencies, including the Department of Education that announced it would fire half of its staff.

    The post AFGE Wins! Judge Orders Trump To Rehire Fired Probationary Employees appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • AFGE Wins! Judge Orders Trump To Rehire Fired Probationary Employees

    In a major victory for AFGE, allies, and federal workers, a judge in California ordered the Trump administration to reinstate probationary employees fired at six agencies, saying the firing “is based on a lie” and that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) didn’t have the authority to order it. The administration’s request for an emergency administrative stay has also been denied by the 9th Circuit.

    This lawsuit was brought by AFGE and our allies.

    Another judge in Maryland also ordered the administration to temporarily halt its planned reductions in force (RIFs) at 18 agencies, including the Department of Education that announced it would fire half of its staff.

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