Law and Disorder March 11, 2024

Legal Analysis Of Recent Supreme Court Decisions

The U.S. Supreme Court, securely under the control of a Super Majority of 6 conservative Republican justices, three of whom were appointed by Donald Trump, continues to play a decisive role in undermining our constitutional democracy.  This ominous trend continues based on three recent key cases, which we’ll be talking about today.

In one, the Court on March 4 rejected a lower court ruling that Trump was ineligible to run for president; in April the court will hear oral arguments on Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from criminal liability; and recently the Justices heard argument over whether social media sites had a right to ban Trump and others under their content moderation standards.

All of these cases arise from the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of thousands stormed the US Capitol to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as President. That day, and for many months before and after, Donald Trump attempted to interfere with the constitutionally mandated process for the election of the President of the United States. Hanging in the balance of these three cases are some of the most momentous issues facing our democracy.

Guest – Stephen Rohde is a noted constitutional scholar and activist. He is the past Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; one of the founders and current Chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace; and the author of American Words of Freedom and of Freedom of Assembly. Steve Rohde is also a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books, and to TruthDig, and a leader in the national campaign to free the imprisoned investigative journalist, Julian Assange.

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The Right To Boycott Israel

The First Amendment gives citizens the right to boycott, as well as the right to free speech and assembly and the separation of church and state. The right to boycott is under attack by right wing anti-democratic forces. Anti-boycott bills have been passed in 37 states so far. The main organization behind canceling our constitutional right to boycott Israel for its horrific crimes against Palestinians is the American Legislative Exchange Committee (ALEC). Its a well-funded right wing outfit with considerable power.

Today we speak with leading Palestine solidarity activist Felice Gelman. She helped produce and direct the five minute video called the Right to Boycott. It is a strategic tactic to oppose Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

The boycott started with the Boston Tea Party. The Montgomery Bus Boycott set off the civil rights movement in the south. The Grape Boycott supported Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers in California. The necessity of pushing back against Israel’s genocidal practices has never been more evident.

Guest – Felice Gelman is a coordinator of the Freedom2Boycott NYS Coalition, which has worked for a decade to defeat legislation penalizing boycotts in New York State and recently released a short film The Right to Boycott. She is a board member of the Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre, supporting The Freedom Theatre in the West Bank of Occupied Palestine. She was the co-producer of the first full length documentary filmed and directed by Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza, Where Should the Birds Fly?

Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith and Maria Hall

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Law and Disorder December 11, 2023

Sealed Search Warrant After Raiding Journalist’s Home Leaves News Gatherers Timid

At 6 a.m. on May 8, seven FBI agents with guns drawn raided the home newsroom of Florida journalist Tim Burke. For nearly 10 hours, they seized computers, phones, video equipment and other devices. The raid came on the heels of Burke’s obtaining outtakes of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). In those outtakes, Ye made antisemitic and other offensive remarks. The FBI investigation involves alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA.

It is not clear why prosecutors believe Burke, who runs the media company Burke Communications, broke the law. That’s because the government successfully fought to keep the affidavit supporting the search warrant sealed from public view. As listeners may recall, the CFAA is the federal law that prohibits unauthorized access to a computer. Burke has said he got the outtakes from websites where Fox News uploaded unencrypted live streams to URLs that anyone could access, using publicly accessible login credentials.

In response to the raid, more than 50 organizations sent a letter to the Department of Justice in October demanding transparency about the government’s basis for believing that Burke’s newsgathering broke the law. Florida’s First Amendment Foundation and the ACLU took the lead on the letter, with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, PEN America, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Society of Professional Journalists, among others, also signing on.

Guest – Seth Stern, Advocacy Director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). Prior to joining FPF, Seth practiced media and First Amendment law in Chicago for more than a decade. Before that, he worked as a reporter and editor in the Chicago and Atlanta areas.

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The SuperMajority : How the Supreme Court Divided America,

In late June 2022, a package of Supreme Court decisions drastically altered the nation’s legal landscape and divided the nation. It took just three days to roll back some of the most consequential gains for civil rights, voting, the separation of church and state, a woman’s right to choose, and more.

In his new book The SuperMajority : How the Supreme Court Divided America, Michael Waldman offers an in-depth analysis of the 2022 key rulings and the radical ways in which they were crafted. He provides historical context for how the Supreme Court has amassed power far beyond what the Framers intended, and how the current supermajority ascended to the high court. Waldman also points to previous Courts (on both the right and the left) that overreached and describes their consequences for the country. Significantly, he writes that the seizure of so much power by a few members of the Court, and their energetic wielding of it, poses a crisis for U.S. democracy.

A backlash against the Court is underway. Rather than seeking a supermajority of their own, Waldman writes that, “Liberals must fall out of love with the Supreme Court.” He recommends reform measures to curb the Court’s power while applying other pressure points – such as in the court of public opinion.

Guest – Michael Waldman is the president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. An expert on the Constitution and the courts, Waldman served on President Joe Biden’s commission on the Supreme Court. He is the author of The Fight to Vote and The Second Amendment: A Biography. Waldman was director of speechwriting during the Clinton administration. Sign up for newsletter – Briefing

Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn

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Law and Disorder July 10, 2023

How Affirmative Action Programs In Colleges and Universities Were Overturned

On June 28, the Supreme Court made front page headlines for gutting race-based affirmative action in colleges and universities. The decision rejected race-conscious admissions at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina. The Court’s conservative supermajority ruled in favor of Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit founded in 2014, that sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina over their admissions programs. The group, headed by right-wing activist Edward Blum, alleged that the programs violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Asian American applicants in favor of white applicants.

Paving the way for overturning 40-years of legal precedent was one group that we’ve covered for years on Law and Disorder: The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. This conservative, libertarian organization advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Over several decades, until recently working under the radar, the Federalist Society has dramatically altered the legal landscape in this country.

Guest – civil rights attorney Michael Avery, co-author with Danielle McLaughlin of the 2013 book, The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals, and a recent article in Truthout co-authored with Prof. Mark Brodin on the Federalist Society’s attacks on affirmative action. Professor Emeritus at Suffolk University Law School, Michael was president of the National Lawyers Guild and served as president of the board of the National Police Accountability Project.

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Here’s What “Moore v. Harper” Means for Voting Rights Going Forward

On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case that protected voting rights from an obscure theory that could have eliminated the right of state courts to review new voting provisions enacted by state legislatures.

In Moore v. Harper, a 6-member majority of the high court rejected the “independent state legislature” doctrine. Conservative legislators in North Carolina had sought to maintain an extreme gerrymandered congressional map they had drawn that favored Republicans.

Although Chief Justice John Roberts has a track record of decisions that weakened the right to vote, he wrote the Court’s opinion in Moore, as well as in Allen v. Milligan on June 8, both of which strengthen voting rights.

Guest – Marjorie Cohn  wrote the article titled, Here’s What “Moore v. Harper” Means for Voting Rights Going Forward, that was published by Truthout. Marjorie is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She is also on the advisory boards of Veterans for Peace, Assange Defense, and the American Association of Jurists. She writes frequent articles and provides commentary about legal and political issues. Marjorie’s most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.

Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn

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Law and Disorder June 12, 2023

 

The SuperMajority : How the Supreme Court Divided America,

In late June 2022, a package of Supreme Court decisions drastically altered the nation’s legal landscape and divided the nation. It took just three days to roll back some of the most consequential gains for civil rights, voting, the separation of church and state, a woman’s right to choose, and more.

In his new book The SuperMajority : How the Supreme Court Divided America, Michael Waldman offers an in-depth analysis of the 2022 key rulings and the radical ways in which they were crafted. He provides historical context for how the Supreme Court has amassed power far beyond what the Framers intended, and how the current supermajority ascended to the high court. Waldman also points to previous Courts (on both the right and the left) that overreached and describes their consequences for the country. Significantly, he writes that the seizure of so much power by a few members of the Court, and their energetic wielding of it, poses a crisis for U.S. democracy.

A backlash against the Court is underway. Rather than seeking a supermajority of their own, Waldman writes that, “Liberals must fall out of love with the Supreme Court.” He recommends reform measures to curb the Court’s power while applying other pressure points – such as in the court of public opinion.

Guest – Michael Waldman is the president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. An expert on the Constitution and the courts, Waldman served on President Joe Biden’s commission on the Supreme Court. He is the author of The Fight to Vote and The Second Amendment: A Biography. Waldman was director of speechwriting during the Clinton administration. Sign up for newsletter – Briefing

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First Amendment Auditor: Big Nick South Florida Accountability

Most of the populace, some police officers and federal employees may not realize that its every photographers right to take photos and video of federal buildings on public property. The easing of restrictions began when the New York Civil Liberties Union had looked into several cases of people who were wrongly harassed, detained and arrested by federal agents while photographing or shooting video of federal buildings from public plazas and sidewalks.

In 2010, the NYCLU brought a suit against the US Department of Homeland Security in federal court to end this practice. In October of 2010, a judge actually signed a settlement where the US government agreed that no federal statures or regulations bar people from photographing the exterior of federal buildings.

The US government agreed to issue a directive to members of the Federal Protective Service on photographer’s rights. A decade later, the rights attained in this decision are recently being put to the test in what’s known as First Amendment audits.

Guest – Nick Freeman – First Amendment Auditor with millions in view counts joins us to talk about his work in Fort Lauderdale being part of a long emerging trend to educate local law enforcement about the right to photography and subsequent issues such as police accountability.

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Law and Disorder March 27, 2023

Economic Update: Banking Collapse Contagion?

On March 10, 2023, the Silicon Valley Bank, the most important bank in Silicon Valley, failed. This bank held the money of some of the wealthiest people in the world, venture capitalists who invested in tech businesses.

The government bailed it out hoping to prevent the crisis from becoming a nationwide contagion like the one in 2008 when even larger banks failed. As a consequence in 2008, 8.7 million people lost their jobs. Unemployment jumped to 10%. There was a 1/3 drop in the value of homes and 10 million people lost their homes. The government did nothing to help them.

After the Silicon Valley Bank crashed the Signature Bank in New York crashed followed by the Republic Bank and then Credit Suisse. We speak with the economics professor Richard Wolff on why the economy was threatened with collapse and what must be done to protect us from the unstable banking system.

Guest – Richard Wolff is emerita professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts where he taught for for 35 years and a visiting professor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the Nee School University, NYC. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their national syndicated show Economic Update. Professor Wolff has authorized numerous books on capitalism and socialism, including most recently “The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us From Pandemics or Itself“, “Understanding Socialism“; and “Understanding Marxism”, which can be found at democracyatwork.info.

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Upcoming Supreme Court Cases

The ever more conservative and activist Supreme Court has already heard arguments this term in a number of cases of vital importance. The cases involve the legality of President Biden’s student debt relief plan, the fate of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other independent agencies, and the liability of social media cites where it is claimed that Google’s algorithms sent people to a hateful site that the plaintiffs in the case claim led to an Islamic State attack that killed their child.

Also of concern is the Supreme Court’s refusal to take an appeal from a lower count opinion upholding the State of Kansas law forbidding the State from doing business with any company that refuses to certify it does not support the boycott, divestment and sanctions, or “BDS” movement against Israel. And there is the Helaman Hansen case that addresses the question of whether the First Amendment permits criminal punishment of speech that merely encourages a noncitizen to remain in the United States, without any requirement of intent to further illegal conduct, and when remaining in the United States unlawfully is itself not a crime.

Julian Assange Movie – Ithaka

Click on Image for Screening Locations

Guest – Attorney Stephen Rohde is a noted constitutional scholar and activist. He is the past Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; the founder and current Chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace; the author of American Words of Freedom, and of Freedom of Assembly. Steve Rohde is a regular contributor to TruthDig as well as the Los Angeles Review of Books, and is a leader in the national campaign to free the imprisoned investigative journalist, Julian Assange.

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Law and Disorder January 23, 2023

 

The Supreme Court Is About To Eviscerate The Right To Strike

Sixty-four years ago, workers and unions gained protection from state lawsuits while pursuing unfair labor practice claims with the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). On January 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that threatens to unravel those protections. A company called Glacier Northwest is suing the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174, after 85 truck drivers walked off the job. If the high Court rules in favor of Glacier, unions will have to defend against costly lawsuits. And that will likely discourage them from going on strike. A Court decision is expected by the end of June.

Seventy-one percent of the U.S. public supports labor unions. That’s the highest number since 1965. And with an increase in economic inequality, union strikes are on the uptick.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.2 million workers in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien remarked that: “Workers in America have the fundamental right to strike, and American workers have died on picket lines to protect it.” In recent years, however, the ultra-right-wing Supreme Court majority has issued decisions systematically eroding these rights.

Guest – Attorney Marjorie Cohn is a legal and political analyst who provides commentary on local, national and international media. She is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the board of Veterans for Peace. Her most recent book is “Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.” Marjorie Cohn at Truthout

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Free Range Kids

You may have heard about the shaming of parents who let their son or daughter walk to school by themselves, or ride public transportation alone. They’re often ridiculed on social media and cast as neglectful. But in some instances, the consequences have gone beyond public shaming.

In 2015 parents in Silver Spring, Maryland made national headlines they were investigated for child neglect for letting their children, ages 6 and 10, walk home from a park by themselves.

In another case Lenore Skenazy, a former New York Daily News columnist was called America’s worst mom after writing a column in 2008 about why she let her 9-year-old son ride the subway by himself.

Last year, Utah passed a law making it not a crime for parents to let their children play in a park without supervision or walk home alone from school. This is hopeful news for our guest Lenore Skenazy who has been advocating for so-called free range parenting laws for many years.

Under the law, neglect does not include allowing a child, whose basic needs are met and who is of sufficient age and maturity to avoid harm or unreasonable risk of harm, to engage in independent activities such as going to and from school by walking, running or bicycling, going to nearby stores or recreational facilities and playing outside.

A recent U.S. Census showed that 7 million of the nation’s 38 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are left home alone on a regular basis, while the average time spent alone is six hours per week. Only a few states legislate an age under which kids may not be home alone.

Guest – Lenore Skenazy – New York City columnist-turned-reality TV show host got that title after letting her 9-year-old son take the subway, alone. In response to the enormous media blowback, she founded the book and blog, “Free-Range Kids,” which launched the anti-helicopter parenting movement. She has lectured internationally, including talks at Microsoft Headquarters and the Sydney Opera House, and has written for everyone from The Wall Street Journal to Mad Magazine. Yep. The Mad Magazine. And she’s a graduate of Yale.

Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn

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