On Thursday March 31 at the Loyola Corboy Law Center, the Chicago NLG co-sponsored an event discussing the over 3,500 women are incarcerated in the state of Illinois. It covered such topics as who are these women, and how they end up in prison. The panel addresses the reality of prison for women, the effects of prison on women and the consequences in their lives and their communities.
On Wednesday, March 30 at the Corboy Law Center, the Chicago NLG hosted an event that discussed nontraditional approaches to practicing law and building legal
practices through organization-building. Panelists answered their thoughts on what it means to be a people’s lawyer, how progressive attorneys help interrupt
systems of oppression through their work, and how are attorneys working to consciously build organizing power and community leadership in their practice.
The panelists had participated in programs such as the AmeriCorps VISTA Legal Fellowship and Justice Entrepreneurship Project (“JEP”) where they learned how to build crossdisciplinary relationships to the end that “human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.”
Over the past fifteen years, people in the United States–and dissidents in particular–have witnessed a steady escalation of the National Security State, including invasive surveillance and infiltration, indiscriminate police violence, and unlawful arrests. These concerted efforts to criminalize dissidents and undermine mean ingful social change are made more repressive by the coordination of numerous local, state, and federal agencies often operating at the behest of private corporations.
On Sunday, March 13th at 4pm at In These Times the Chicago NLG chapter sponsored an event featuring activist and PM Press author Kris Hermes discussing his new book Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 .
Hermes will spoke alongside Sarah Gelsomino, an NLG attorney with thePeople’s Law Office who has worked on high-profile political cases including the Free the NATO 3, Leila Taha from Arab American Action Network who talked about the campaign supporting Rasmea Odeh, and Alex Goldenberg of Southside Together Organizing for Power – STOP, who with others used an innovative legal defense after arrests linked to the demand for a level 1 adult trauma center at the University of Chicago.
Copies of Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 are available for purchase here.
This morning, a ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals represents a partial victory in the case of Rasmea Odeh, the legendary Palestinian American icon who was convicted of a politically motivated immigration charge in 2014, and sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation last year.
Organizers with the Rasmea Defense Committee, which represents over 50 institutions across the country, have been waiting for a decision in the appeal since last October, and are pleased with the result.
“This isn’t a full victory yet, of course,” said Nesreen Hasan of the committee’s headquarters in Chicago, “but it really is what we were hoping for and anticipating at this stage. The conviction wasn’t overturned altogether, but at least Judge Drain will be forced to rethink his decision on the torture evidence.”
The appeals court determined that Gershwin Drain, the trial judge who sentenced Rasmea, wrongfully barred expert torture witness, Dr. Mary Fabri, from testifying at the trial. According to lead attorney Michael Deutsch, “The case will be remanded [back to Drain] for a determination as to the admissibility of the expert testimony. The appellate court has essentially ruled that it was an error for Drain to have precluded that testimony.”
We are hopeful that Rasmea’s full story will be told, and that she will ultimately be exonerated of all charges.
For more info: http://justice4rasmea.org/news/2016/02/25/appeal-a-partial-victory/
Fred Korematsu Day Film Screening & Discussion: “Of Civil Rights and Wrongs”
In 1942, at the age of 23, Korematsu refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity.
On Tuesday, February 9, at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, we honored Fred Korematsu, a civil rights hero by holding a special screening of the documentary “Of Civil Rights and Wrongs” which followed by reflections by a group of panelists, including a former internee of the Japanese internment camps.
SPONSORS: Asian Americans Advancing Justice-
Chicago CAIR-Chicago, National Lawyers Guild-
Chicago TUPOCC, Japanese American Citizens
League
STUDENT GROUP SPONSORS: Chicago-Kent
chapters of NLG, ACS, APALSA, ILS, MLSA
Please feel free to read the Resolution Supporting the Abolition of Prisons.
