Note: The NLG National Office, in collaboration with NLG Review, is publishing a 4-part blog series exploring questions around policing in the United States. Guild members are sharing pieces analyzing the policing of social movements, the role of police in maintaining current power dynamics, and alternatives to policing from community power to defunding to abolition. The goal […]
Category Archives: NLG Blog
NOTE: The views expressed in the NLG Blog are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the NLG as a whole.
The Policing Question: Protection vs. Service in 2020
Note: The NLG National Office, in collaboration with NLG Review, will be publishing a 4-part blog series exploring questions around policing in the United States. Guild members will be sharing pieces analyzing the policing of social movements, the role of police in maintaining current power dynamics, and alternatives to policing from community power to defunding to abolition. The goal […]
McCarthyism 2020: A Second Generation NLG Member and Red-Baiting in Texas
Mike Siegel is a civil rights lawyer, long-time National Lawyers Guild member, and candidate for the U.S. House from Austin, Texas. He is also, according to his opponent Rep. Michael McCaul, “the most radical liberal running for Congress in America.” After Siegel won the Democratic nomination for the Texas 10th Congressional District on July 14, […]
Disability Justice and Abolition
By Katie Tastrom, Disability Justice Committee Co-Chair “When we say abolish police. We also mean the cop in your head and your heart.” —Tourmaline As co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild Disability Justice Committee (NLG DJC), I spend a lot of time thinking about the way disability justice can be used to support social movements. […]
Statement of Support for Legal Observers Targeted and Brutalized by Police
The Mass Defense Committee (MDC) Steering Committee and NLG National Office have been concerned about an increasing number of reports of police targeting Legal Observers (LOs) in a variety of ways, either with chemical or projectile weapons, physical force and brutality, or arrest and/or questioning. We strongly condemn these actions against any LO and against any participant in […]
May Day 2020 and the State of Protests During the Pandemic
By Tyler Crawford, Director of Mass Defense On the first May Day 130 years ago, the world’s largest cities brimmed with cries for an eight hour work day. The first May Day, dedicated to the 1887 Chicago Haymarket Affair, took place on its anniversary on May 1st, 1890. Since then, May Day, also known as […]
NLG Students Produce Report on Massachusetts Campus Police
by Chase Childress, Christine Farolan (NUSL NLG), and Alex Stein (NLG Chicago) Ahead of the annual NLG Week Against Mass Incarceration, NLG members from Northeastern Law and Chicago NLG have produced a report on private campus police forces using the Northeastern University Police Department as a case study. We encourage all NLG student chapters to […]
NLG Students Stand Up For Reproductive Justice
By David Gespass, NLG Past President In 2019, a wave of anti-choice bills swept through state legislatures as anti-abortion politicians moved to restrict access to abortion across the country. After passing an organizational resolution opposing the criminalization of people’s reproductive lives in 2019, Guild members have organized to write and submit amicus briefs in states […]
The Attack on Climate Justice Movements
By Traci Yoder, NLG Director of Research and Education NOTE: In 2018, NLG membership voted to expand our mission statement of “human rights over property interests” to include the rights of ecosystems. This update reflects the Guild’s historical support for environmental justice, and our ongoing dedication to challenging the repression environmental movements experience from both […]
What American Drug Culture Reveals about Race in the US
We are publishing this piece as part of the NLG annual student Week Against Mass Incarceration. In 2019, we are highlighting the connections between the exponential increase of incarcerated people and the 40-year War on Drugs. By Lisa Drapkin, NLG Director of Membership The cultural narrative around drug use in the US is constantly shifting, […]