Reviewed by David Gespass, NLG past president and member of NLG-Alabama Your average lawyer’s memoir, if there is such a thing, talks about the triumphs – the trials that freed criminal defendants or won enormous damages for their wronged clients. Many speak of the nobility of our judicial system, the critical role of the rule […]
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.
People’s Tribunals: Holding Power to Account
“People’s tribunals are forums of justice set up by social justice movements and organizations to adjudicate cases often against states and state-backed corporations. Rather than courts and other judicial apparatus set up by states, organizers instead convene jurors from around the world to adjudicate. The judgments rendered through people’s tribunals are non-binding, as their decisions […]
The Case for Abolition, for Skeptics
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 shared 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 of […]
“Thugs” and “Riots”: Legitimizing Police Violence at Protests Against Police Violence
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 […]
Defunding the Police
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 […]
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 […]