NLG CHICAGO

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Kris Hermes Book Launch Event

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.

d74b99c9_crashing_the_party_lgOn 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.

NLG_Convention_Book_Signing

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Decision in Rasmea Odeh appeal a partial victory

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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/

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Korematsu Day @ Chicago-Kent

Fred Korematsu Day Film Screening & Discussion: “Of Civil Rights and Wrongs”

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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

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Prison Abolition: A Discussion for the Legal Community

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In support of the recently passed resolution supporting prison abolition, the Chicago NLG hosted a teach-in on prison abolition on January 21, 2016 at DePaul University. In addition to providing information about mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex, and abolition as a concept, the NextGen Committee facilitated a community discussion about what it means for us as legal professionals to support the abolition of prisons.
Panelists included:

  • Pooja Gehi, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild (and former member of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project);
  • Lark Mulligan, law student and collective member, Transformative Justice Law Project (*invited); and
  • Erica Meiners, Critical Resistance (*invited).

Please feel free to read the Resolution Supporting the Abolition of Prisons.

If you were unable to attend the event, you can access the presenters’ materials here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_xinf4U3jqXaDR0RkI3cFRQdXc

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Palestine Legal, NLG call on Loyola to Repeal Demo Policy, Apologize to SJP

3808028Yesterday, Palestine Legal and the NLG-Chicago sent a letter to Loyola University Chicago (LUC) demanding that LUC protect student speech and dissent by fully repealing draconian demonstration policies that the university has temporarily suspended, including a requirement that students register all demonstrations with the administration three days in advance.

In the letter, NLG and Palestine Legal raised concerns that LUC’s demonstration policy had been enforced selectively and in a discriminatory way against SJP. The letter called on LUC to extend an official apology to SJP.

The letter also demanded stronger due process protections for students facing disciplinary measures.

The NLG – Palestine Legal letter was sent after disciplinary charges were brought against three black students who had organized a racial justice demonstration in November in violation of the school’s demonstration policy. The students were also members of SJP, and Palestine Legal attended the students’ disciplinary hearing as their adviser. In December, after intense pressure, LUC dropped all charges and announced a temporary moratorium on the demonstration policy.

Click here to read the letter.

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Loyola Drops Charges Against Student Organizers

Palestine Legal Applauds Dismissal of Charges against Loyola Students; Calls for Further Action to Protect Students’ Rights

On Tuesday, Dec. 8, LUC announced a temporary moratorium on the Demonstration Policy, pending review of the policy by the campus community.

When students of color at Loyola University Chicago (LUC) organized a November 12 demonstration in solidarity with students at the University of Missouri, over 700 students, faculty, and staff attended. Demonstration organizers did not fully comply with LUC’s draconian demonstration policy – full compliance would have precluded participation in a national day of solidarity with Mizzou.

static1.squarespace.comBut despite promises from senior administration officials that no student would be disciplined, LUC charged three organizers – all black students – with violating the demonstration policy. The students faced suspension. All three students are also members of Students for Justice in Palestine at LUC (SJP), and Palestine Legal staff attorney Rahul Saksena acted as their adviser during their Friday disciplinary hearing.

On Saturday, after intense pressure from students and media, LUC’s interim president dismissed all charges and expressed a willingness to revise the demonstration policy.

Palestine Legal applauds this decision. But it exposes concerns that LUC applies its rules selectively and unfairly. Moving forward, to protect student speech and to protect students from unearned punishment, Palestine Legal joins SJP in calling on LUC to take the following steps:

  • LUC should issue a public apology to SJP for the University’s unfair and selective enforcement of the demonstration policy. We are concerned that LUC’s burdensome demonstration policy has been – and will continue to be – applied in a discriminatory way. Last year, SJP was unfairly placed on probation, and its members forced to attend a training session on “dialogue” for an impromptu demonstration that was not organized by SJP.
  • LUC should protect student speech and dissent by ending its draconian demonstration registration requirements. The burdensome policies – including a requirement to register demonstrations three days in advance – can only be interpreted to prohibit spontaneous demonstrations triggered by current events, demonstrations which we believe disproportionately impact students of color and other historically marginalized communities. Such a prohibition has no place in an academic setting, where unfettered speech, debate, and dissent must be protected and encouraged.
  • LUC should strengthen students’ due process rights in the disciplinary process. Student discipline is a serious matter, particularly when suspension is at stake. For example, students should have the right to know the specific charges brought against them well in advance of disciplinary hearings; blanket charges should not be brought against groups of students; and students should have the right to review evidence files well in advance of disciplinary hearings.

Contact

637 S. Dearborn St., 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60605

(773) 492-1405
chicago[@]nlg.org