Current Issue

We’ve Been Here Before: Countering Violent Extremism through Community Policing

By Cynthia Gonzalez Cynthia Gonzalez is a 2017 graduate of Boston College Law School. In the past, our courts have decided that African-Americans have no rights the white man is bound to respect,1 separate but equal is appropriate under the federal Constitution,2 it is criminal to speak against our military’s involvement in a war,3 and [...]

Sessions’ Reversal of the Private Prison Phase-Out

By Laura Riley Laura Riley is a Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Los Angeles, California. “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky No more than a month after President Donald J. Trump came into office, his newly appointed Attorney [...]

James Mattis: Trump’s Military Decider

By Marjorie Cohn Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, past president of the National Lawyers Guild and deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. Visit her at marjoriecohn.com. “‘Mad Dog’ Mattis ‘Closest Thing We [...]

BOOK REVIEW: Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File

By Paul Von Blum Paul Von Blum is a longtime member of the California State Bar and has taught at the University of California for over 40 years. He is currently senior lecturer in African American Studies at UCLA. John Edgar Wideman, Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File, Scribner, 216, 208 pp. [...]

BOOK REVIEW: A Tilted Guide to Being a Defendant

By Kris Hermes Kris Hermes has been an active, award-winning legal worker-member of the NLG and has been a part of numerous law collectives and legal support efforts. He is the author of Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 (PM Press), which examined how Philadelphia helped develop and usher in today’s [...]

BOOK REVIEW: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

By Michael Avery Michael Avery is Professor Emeritus at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, Pantheon; 2016. Hardcover: 752 pages. $35.00. Blood in the Water, by Heather Ann Thompson, provides [...]

On Accepting the Champion of Justice Award, NYC Chapter of the NLG on June 9, 2017

By Alan Levine Alan Levine began his civil rights career representing activists in Mississippi and Alabama during the Freedom Summer of 1964. During his storied career he has represented Vietnam war protesters, Occupy movement activists, and countless others facing punishment for seeking a more humane and just society. I am deeply honored to be recognized [...]

Editor’s Preface: Spring 2017

Shortly after 9/11 the New York Police Department, resurrecting the lawless spirit of COINTELPRO, initiated a vast surveillance and disruption program against local Islamic citizens and organizations. The program was the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles by Associated Press. The AP chronicled the constitutional abuses of a well-orchestrated system of policing, omnipresent [...]