By Traci Yoder, NLG Director of Research and Education Since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, tense standoffs between groups at different ends of the political spectrum have become increasingly common. From demonstrations at universities against hate-mongering speakers and conflicts over the removal of Confederate monuments to clashes sparked by so-called “free speech” […]
Category Archives: Blog
To Fight against US Imperialism, We Must Protect Whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning
By David Gespass, NLG past president and Military Law Task Force steering committee member On May 17, 2017, Chelsea Manning walked out of Fort Leavenworth thanks to the commutation of her sentence by outgoing President Barack Obama. The seven years she spent in confinement were far less than the 35 she was sentenced to, but […]
Victory for NLG NYC Members in Civil Rights Case Challenging NYPD Use of LRAD Sound Cannons Against Protesters
US District Court: NYPD Long Range Acoustic Device (“LRAD”) Uses Against Black Lives Matter Protesters, Journalists, and Bystanders May Have Been Excessive Force, NYC LRAD Training May Be Deficient WHAT: Press conference with several Plaintiffs and Counsel WHEN: 6/1/2017 at 12:30pm WHERE: US District Court – SDNY – 500 Pearl St., NY, NY 10007 – […]
Free Speech on Campus: A Critical Analysis
By Traci Yoder, NLG Director of Research and Education Last weekend, while Vice-President and former Indiana governor Mike Pence was giving the commencement address at Notre Dame University, over 100 students walked out in protest over his anti-LGBTQ and anti-refugee policy positions. Pence used this opportunity to give a 15-minute lecture about free speech on […]
Chokwe Antar Lumumba Wins Democratic Primary for Mayor of Jackson, MS in Victory for Progressive Movement
By John Royal, NLG Detroit/Michigan Chapter President In a stunning rebuke to the conservative Democratic Party of Mississippi; to the reactionary Republican Party of Mississippi; to the national right-wing trend; and to the election and policies of Donald Trump; the people of Jackson, MS have risen up and overwhelming selected Chokwe Antar Lumumba the nominee […]
Anti-Boycott Bills Are Part of Wider Crackdown on Protest
By Chip Gibbons, Policy and Legislative Counsel at Bill of Rights Defense Committee/Defending Dissent Foundation A number of commentators have noted two different trends. First, across the nation Republican lawmakers are pushing for bills criminalizing protests. Second, a number of state legislatures have passed or considered, often at the impetus of Democratic lawmakers, bills aimed at […]
Mass Incarceration in the Trump Era
By Pooja Gehi, NLG Executive Director In 2015, the National Lawyers Guild adopted a resolution calling for the dismantling and abolition of all prisons. As an organization, we recognized mass incarceration in all of its iterations—policing, violence, incarceration, forced labor, privatization and capitalism—as a crisis that we must resist in all of our work. Sharlyn Grace, then […]
New Anti-Protesting Legislation: A Deeper Look
By Traci Yoder, NLG Director of Research and Education In recent weeks, multiple articles have pointed to the wave of new anti-protesting bills introduced in state legislatures since the end of 2016. The Intercept, Washington Post, AlterNet, Democracy Now!, and other news outlets have provided overviews of the types of bills under consideration, the potential […]
Selma Samols, PRESENTE!
By David Gespass, NLG Past President I recall David Rein who, with his partner, Joe Forer, defended hundreds of Communist Party members during the 1950s, saying that the McCarthy era was the time the United States came closest to fascism. It required unusual determination and courage to stand up and resist during those times. The […]
Protest Policing in Trump’s America: Notes for J20 and Beyond
By Traci Yoder, NLG Director of Research and Education When independent media collective Unicorn Riot filed a records request to the North Dakota Department of Corrections related to the indigenous movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, they received the updated Field Force Operations Manual produced by the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA’s Center for […]