Member Recap: June 2022

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Welcome to NLG’s Member Recap, our monthly virtual newsletter to keep you up-to-date with the latest NLG National, Chapter, and Committee news, programs, and announcements!

New Publications and Resources

NLG’s Updated Know Your Rights Guide is Available Now!

Our updated Know Your Rights booklet is a more comprehensive version of our classic pamphlet, with more information for protesters at higher risk of being targeted by law enforcement. This resource is best to use in advance of an action or demonstration, to give you the kinds of information that will help you know your rights and risks. Because it is much longer than the original version, it may take longer to read.

Print versions of this booklet are not available right now. We will send an email to membership when you can order them.

Open Booklet

Upcoming and Recorded Webinars and Events

During the COVID-19 pandemic, NLG attorneys focusing on housing law issues have necessarily been forced into a defensive posture: Primarily organizing and defending against evictions. However, if we are ever to substantively address the issues of economic and racial disparity, we need a more positive, long-term perspective on how to get housing – particularly multi-unit tenant housing – off the speculative market and into the hands of tenants and their communities.

Accessibility information: Closed captions forthcoming; we apologize for the delay!

Open Recording

This CLE is the second session of the MLTF’s Advocacy & Activism Through Military Law training program. Other trainings will be available in the near future, and you can find out more on the MLTF Training Program page, and/or join our low-volume mailing list.

Live via Zoom on July 13, 2022, at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern. A recorded version of the presentation will be available a few days after that.

Accessibility information: Live captioning will not be available, but the Task Force will provide a transcript alongside the recording.

Accessibility information: Live captioning will be provided. While registration is open, you can let us know if there are other accessibility features you need in order to attend.

Register Now

This CLE is the second session of the MLTF’s Advocacy & Activism Through Military Law training program. Other trainings will be available in the near future, and you can find out more on the MLTF Training Program page, and/or join our low-volume mailing list.

Live via Zoom on July 13, 2022, at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern. A recorded version of the presentation will be available a few days after that.

Accessibility information: Live captioning will not be available, but the Task Force will provide a transcript alongside the recording.

Register Now

Each year the National Immigration Project honors a member doing outstanding work for immigrant justice. In 2021, NIPNLG named this annual award after Lisa Brodyaga, a longtime National Immigration Project and NLG member whose career representing asylum seekers, other immigrants, and U.S. citizens spanned more than 40 years. This year, we honor Laila L. Hlass, a nationally recognized immigrant rights advocate, practitioner, and legal scholar. Join us for an evening of celebration. Light hors d’hoeuvres and a cash bar will be provided.

Accessibility information: This event is in-person in NYC.

Register Now

Webinar from NLG-NYC’s Animal Rights Committee.

Join the Hon. Congresswoman Dina Titus, six animal rights organizations and one intrepid journalist on July 13th, as they each describe how they used FOIA to discover and relieve the suffering of laboratory animals, farm animals and wildlife.

Live via Zoom on Wed., July 13 at 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT

Register Now

Upcoming and Ongoing Campaigns

MLTF’s Virtual Literature TableAs a part of our commitment to learning and growing together, we invite you to join us in reading Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell as part of an NLG-wide reading group.

We encourage Chapters, Committees, and other NLG groups to use our reading guide to organize their own reading groups and discussion circles.

Open Reading Guide

Chapter, Committee, & National Announcements

The Colorado Chapter would like to give a big shout out to Jes Jones and Z Williams for receiving the “Advancing Justice” Award from the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar on May 20, 2022. This award was given in recognition of the many months and long hours they spent supporting BLM protesters who took to the streets in response to George Floyd’s murder. Jes and Z tracked over 160 cases across the state, answered hundreds of legal line calls, and coordinated and supported over 60 pro bono attorneys, helping with everything from transportation to court hearings to strategic planning meetings with defense attorneys, and so much more, all with the help and support of NLG members here and across the nation!

Photo by Phil Cherner; Jes is on the left, Z on the right.

As a human rights organization, we staunchly support the rights to privacy, bodily autonomy, and medical care, and oppose the criminalization of reproductive decision-making. Our fundamental belief in maintaining abortion legalization is what compelled us to join an amicus brief on this very Supreme Court case. This regressive decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is more evidence that our current systems of law do not exist to protect people.

Open Statement on NLG Website

The Task Force believes that the armed forces in the United States, during this period of history, pose concerns for all people interested in civil and human rights. As an institution, the military is used to carry out an immoral, interventionist foreign policy.

Open Statement on MLTF Website

With its disastrous decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court has endangered millions of pregnant people and stripped them of their autonomy and reproductive rights. Twenty-two states have laws or state constitutional provisions already in place that will totally or effectively ban abortion in light of the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which holds that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Overturning Roe especially imperils the lives of the poor, people of color, and minors. It will also have an outsized effect on women in the military.

Open Full Statement on MLTF Website

Opportunities to Get Involved with NLG Committees

NLG’s Mass Incarceration Committee (MIC) needs volunteers for a project in solidarity with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak

The Mass Incarceration Committee (MIC) is recruiting members to join our Defense Committee formed in solidarity with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, the national prisoner group which led the prison strikes of 2018 during their Shut ‘Em Down demonstrations.

We are looking for legal workers and law students who can show up in mutual aid and respond to the leadership of prisoner activists in their fight for liberation. All are welcome, but a preference for folks located in Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Texas, Washington State, Oregon, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, California, and Colorado.

Volunteers will be asked to commit to:

  • Offer up to 8 hours a month for a few months beginning in August
  • Attendance of an information session with MIC leadership and attorneys
  • Sign a confidentiality agreement
  • Work in a team collaboratively
  • Support attorneys with research, writing, and other logistical support

Please direct inquiries to Jenipher Jones, lead counsel for the JLS International Law Project at micjlsnlg@gmail.com.

NLG Student Spotlight: Celebrating NLG’s Class of 2022 Graduates and Awardees

Congratulations to our student members on a fantastic academic year!
2022 NLG Law Student Awards and Graduates

Posted in Member Recap, News.

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