Since the Massachusetts chapter formed the Litigation Committee in the spring of 2011, we have actively pursued cases that promote social, political, and economic justice on the local level. The project has won great victories, effecting change in areas ranging from prisoners’ rights in Essex County to Boston police practices around tenants in foreclosed properties.

This year’s RNC and DNC presented a demanding set of circumstances for NLG protest support efforts. Both conventions were held in cities with no NLG chapter and with few or no NLG members. Drawing on the expertise, time, and passion of members across the country, as well as a phenomenal group of new student members from Charlotte Law School, Mass Defense Coordinator Abi Hassen and a team of volunteers provided Legal Observers® at every major protest and 24-hour legal support hotlines in both Tampa and

Charlotte.

Tampa

NLG law students are active at over 100 law schools across the country. Below are some recent and ongoing student chapter projects.

Villanova University

Villanova NLG kicked off the semester with an introductory meeting hosted by Philadelphia Chapter Chair Steve Gotzler. The chapter signed up many new students at the Villanova activites fair with the help of Earl Grey tea and raspberry cream cheese cupcakes. The chapter currently has two major projects.

Army surveillance, like Army regimentation, is at war with the principles of the First Amendment. . . There can be no influence more paralyzing of that objective than Army surveillance. When an intelligence officer looks over every nonconformist’s shoulder in the library, or walks invisibly by his side in a picket line, or infiltrates his club, the America once extolled as the voice of liberty heard around the world no longer is cast in the image which Jefferson and Madison designed . . .