Category: Legal System

  • 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.

    The post Taxpayers Suing Congressmembers For Funding Genocide Speak Out appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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

    The post Journalist Could Face Prison For Refusing To Give Passwords To Police appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.

    The post The ‘Ghost’ Of Guantanamo Is Freed appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.”

    The post Luigi Mangione And The Dangers Of Terrorism Charges appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.

    The post Palestine Action Activists Acquitted Over Preventing Genocide appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.

    The post The Biden Administration Fails To Win Imprisonment Of The Uhuru 3 appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.

    The post Who’s Funding ‘Newspaper’ Mailed To Potential Jurors In Greenpeace’s Trial? appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.”

    The post University Of Rochester Students Face Seven Years In Jail appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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

  • 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.

    The post Grand Rapids Officer Released On Bail After Indictment For Killing Patrick Lyoya appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.”

    The post Three Animal Rights Advocates Face Trial Over 2019 Hog Farm Occupation appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.

    The post Eighth Circuit Court Of Appeals Claims Terrorism Enhancement Is ‘Harmless’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.

    The post New Surveillance Transparency Report Documents An Urgent Need For Change appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 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.

    The post Detroit Organizations Demand Justice Department Act On Police Misconduct appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • 29 years ago, in 1993, Steven Donziger, a New York lawyer, visited Ecuador and saw communities who lived their lives with their bare feet and hands permanently covered in oil sludge and other pollutants, whose agriculture was ruined and who suffered high levels of mortality and birth defects. He started a class action against Texaco in the United States, representing over 30,000 local people. Texaco, confident that they had control of Ecuador, requested the US court to rule that jurisdiction lay in Ecuador. It also set about obtaining the agreement from the Government of Ecuador to cancel any liability. In 2002 the New York court finally agreed with Texaco (now Chevron) that is had no jurisdiction and the case moved to Ecuador, much to Chevron’s delight.

    The post Steven Donziger: A Tale For Our Times appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • St. Paul, MN – In a defining moment for the climate justice movement and for all civil rights, the court will decide whether or not to uphold a “domestic terrorist enhancement” that an Iowa court applied to Reznicek’s prison sentence. Reznicek argues that the terrorism enhancement was both illegally and unjustly applied. 

    The appeal is supported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),  National Lawyers Guild, Water Protectors Legal Collective, and the Climate Defense Project. “If Jessica Reznicek’s acts can be punished as terrorism,” says an amicus brief filed by CCR, “the United States will have moved so far past the international consensus as to be operating in a completely different realm.”

    The post Lawyers Argue Jessica Reznicek’s Actions Do Not Constitute Terrorism appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • On April 28, 2022, in DeWitt, NY night court, Judge David Gideon presiding, pro se defendants Mark Scibilia-Carver and Tom Joyce of the Ithaca Catholic Worker and the Upstate Drone Action Coalition, had their 2019 violation charges for blocking, with several others, the main entrance of Hancock drone base, home of the 174th Attack Wing of the NYS Air National Guard. dismissed “in the interests of justice.”

    According to Sujata Gibson, stand-by counsel and Cornell Law School faculty, the dismissal “was significant, not just to this movement but to our collective conversation about the role of non-violent peaceful action in our democracy.” Gibson continued, “It was an honor to witness the thought that Judge Gideon put into his decision and deeply moving to hear the words of those who put themselves on the line to bring attention to these issues.”

    The post Drone Resisters’ Charges Dismissed ‘In The Interest Of Justice’ appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab’s case took a dramatic turn as his legal defense team denounced the US government’s flagrant failure to respect long-standing diplomatic immunity conventions. Saab’s lawyer, David Rivkin, called the US government’s arguments before the 11th Circuit Court in Miami “utterly dangerous.” “The implication,” he added is that “because you are a disfavored regime, because you’re Venezuela under Maduro…we’re going to treat you as somehow you lost the Westphalian entitlement to sovereignty.” And with that, Rivkin pretty much summed up the US imperial view of the world.

    At issue at the April 6 hearing was Saab’s claim to diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomat Relations.

    The post US’s Flaunting Of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged In Court appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • In a world where the US believes it makes the rules and the rest of humanity must follow its orders – what President Biden euphemistically calls the “rules-based order” – Washington has now even appropriated the prerogative to tell other countries who they may appoint as their ambassadors. As a consequence, Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab is fighting for his freedom before the 11th District Circuit Court in Miami.

    US economic war against Venezuela

    Alex Saab was appointed a special envoy with diplomatic credentials by the Venezuelan government on April 9, 2018. The businessman had worked on the government’s food assistance (CLAP) and public housing programs. More importantly, he was assisting the government in trying to circumvent sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the US; sanctions intended to punish the people so that they would be motivated to overthrow their democratically elected government.

    The post Illegally Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Faces US Court On April 6 appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • More than 100 environmental and human rights groups on Tuesday sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden urging him to pardon Steven Donziger, the attorney under house arrest for refusing to hand over privileged client information in a high-profile environmental case.

    In the letter, the groups decry the prosecution of Donziger—who has been jailed in his home and federal prison since 2019—as “retaliation for his work in defense of the rights of Indigenous peoples in Ecuador who were victims of Chevron Corporation’s oil dumping.”

    Donziger represented tens of thousands of Ecuadorian farmers and Indigenous people in a class-action lawsuit against Chevron that resulted in a multibillion-dollar judgment—which the fossil fuel giant has never paid—for its subsidiary Texaco’s dumping of more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into rivers and pits in the Amazon rainforest.

    The post 100+ Groups Urge Biden To Pardon Steven Donziger appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Young Montanans and their lawyers announced Monday that the first children’s climate trial in U.S. history is set to begin a year from now in Helena, Montana.

    The historic trial in the constitutional climate lawsuit Held v. State of Montana is scheduled for February 6 through February 17, 2023 at the First Judicial District Court.

    “Going to trial means a chance for me and my fellow plaintiffs to have our climate injuries recognized and a solution realized,” said Grace, one of the 16 plaintiffs, in a statement.

    “It means our voices are actually being heard by the courts, the government, the people who serve to protect us as citizens, and Montana’s youth,” she added.

    The post Montana Plaintiffs Announce First Children’s Climate Trial In US History appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Ever since Nestle applied for the permit to increase pumping at the White Pine Springs well (PW 101)in Evart for its bottling operation in Stanwood in 2016, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation has been contesting this outrageous water grab. We have argued in public forums, educated across the state about the injustices this grab represents to the people and ecosystems of Michigan, and worked with organizations and citizens who submitted thousands of comments opposing the more than 200,000 gallons a day increase. Failure of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to deny this increase has left two former trout streams badly damaged. We have had a few victories along the way, but without strict enforcement by EGLE, the damage will continue.

    The post Court Allows Nestle/Blue Triton To Dodge Justice appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • This executive summary presents an overview of key findings of a international group of legal scholars and practitioners who conducted impartial monitoring of the case of United States v. Steven Donziger, No. 19-CR-561 (LAP); 11-CIV-691 (LAK). This summary sets a brief background, the principle findings of the monitoring group and the Panel’s recommendations. The summary contains no footnotes; references to relevant sections of the fully-footnoted report are provided.

    The Panel has determined that the conduct of judges and prosecutors in Steven Donziger’s case has led to numerous and serious violations of his rights with respect to liberty, arbitrary detention and fair trials under international human rights law, in particular Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States in 1992.

    The post Trial Monitors Condemn Judges For Attacks On Donziger appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Workers essentially have two sources of potential power vis-à-vis their employers: a union or the implicit threat that they can quit and take another job. During the last year, employers have been forced to compete for workers in a way that has not happened since the end of the 1990s. Workers gained leverage because the American Rescue Plan Act has generated a strong recovery from the COVID-19 downturn with substantial demand for workers at the same time that millions of workers are out of the labor force due to health and safety concerns or pandemic-related care responsibilities. As a result of this increased leverage, workers have seen strong wage growth and have been able to quit jobs in record numbers and take jobs that are better for them.

    The post Latest Data On Unionization Is A Wake-Up Call To Lawmakers appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • In the summer of 2020, the people of the United States witnessed the largest anti-racist struggle in the country’s history after a video of the brutal murder of George Floyd by officer Derek Chauvin went viral. While Floyd’s murder was the catalyst, the first year of the pandemic was marked by increased police and vigilante violence. Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot in a botched “citizen’s arrest” by vigilantes and Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead while asleep by police, were among the most egregious cases.

    In the year 2021, it was the turn of the US government, particularly its judicial system, to respond to the protests of 2020. Historic trials of the killers of unarmed Black people and protestors were set to answer an important question: how would the system respond to the outcry of millions against racist violence?

    The post After Largest Anti-Racist Uprising, Historic Trials Provide Important Lessons appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos is a Cuban truck driver who was sentenced for 110 years in prison because of a vehicle accident on the I-70 in Denver in 2019. The brakes of the semi-truck failed and he crashed into traffic, causing a 28-car pile up, killing four people, and injuring several others. The accident occurred because the company Aguilar-Mederos worked for at the time did not properly maintain their equipment and permitted a driver to use a truck with faulty brakes. 

    “I ask God too many times why them and not me? Why did I survive that accident?” Aguilera-Mederos said to the court. “I am not a murderer. I am not a killer. When I look at my charges, we are talking about a murderer, which is not me.

    The post #NoTrucksToColorado appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • California prisoner, Talib Williams, is bringing a class action lawsuit on his behalf as well as other Black incarcerated people who were targeted by a July 20, 2020 raid at Soledad, California’s Correctional Training Facility (CTF).  The suit seeks a reprieve from the state-sponsored terror that is their norm. Injunctive and declaratory relief, among other remedies, are necessary to stop the violence, change CDCR policy, and compensate the prisoners for the degradation they have suffered.

    The raid took place against the backdrop of nationwide Black-led uprisings that occurred after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.  It was part of a white supremacist backlash against the demands for justice for Black people across the country.

    The post Prisoners Sue Prison System Following Targeted Raid Against Black People appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell which began this week in Manhattan will not hold to account the powerful and wealthy men who are also complicit in the sexual assaults of girls as young as twelve Maxwell allegedly procured for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

    Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard Larry Summers, Stephen Pinker, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, the J.P Morgan banker Jes Staley, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barack, real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, former Maine senator George Mitchell, Harvey Weinstein and many others who were at least present and most likely participated in Epstein’s perpetual Bacchanalia, are not in court.

    The post Chris Hedges: American Satyricon appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • The poet Dwayne Betts for a long time hid the fact that he had been incarcerated from the ages of 16 to 24 for a carjacking. Betts, a lawyer who was sworn into the Connecticut bar two years ago, is finishing up his PhD at Yale University, where he also earned his law degree. He currently works as a public defender. In his book ‘A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison,’ and in his poems, including his third book of poems ‘Felon,’ he grapples with the degradation, humiliation, and trauma of prison life. Betts, like Virgil in Dante’s ‘Inferno,’ leads his readers into the dark and frightening labyrinth of the American prison system, where, as he writes, “Black men go to become Lazarus.” Confronting evil has a cost.

    The post On Contact: Prison appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • I am finally able to write directly from inside the belly of the beast: the federal prison in Danbury, CT. I am now on day 23 of my incarceration, and the experience has been nothing short of mind-blowing. I am living with another person in a 54 sq ft cell; next door is a 37-year-old man, one of the kindest people I have ever met. He was sentenced to a 35-year term for gang violence when he was 19. Three people in my unit of 80 or so men are lifers and have over 30 years in the system.

    The length of the sentences for various crimes is astounding. We are unique as a country for the extraordinarily punitive nature of our criminal justice system. And it sickens me to see it from the inside. All of us here are simply raw material for a business built largely on money and politics that has virtually nothing to do with rehabilitation (although there are staff here working miracles against all odds to help inmates adjust to the outside).

    The post Steven Donziger’s First Letter From Prison appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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