Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Supreme Court
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U.S. Supreme Court Decisions July 2026
Last week, the US Supreme Court ended its 2025-2026 Term with a barrage of long-awaiting blockbuster decisions altering the entire structure of the American government and seriously undermining the crucial separation of powers between Congress, the President, and the courts. The Supreme Court, which is dominated by a conservative super-majority of Republican justices – including 3 justices appointed by Donald Trump – confronted such important issues as Birthright citizenship; whether the President can fire the heads of independent agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve; whether states can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day; whether states can ban concealed weapons on private property; and whether Trump can expel hundreds of thousands of migrants and turn others away at the southern border.
To help us understand what the Roberts Court is up to and what it means for our constitutional democracy, we’ve invited Law and Disorder co-host Steve Rohde to switch seats and serve as our guest today.
Guest – Stephen Rohde is a journalist, lecturer and political activist. For almost 50 years, he practiced civil rights, civil liberties, and intellectual property law and has won significant First Amendment victories in state and federal appellate courts.Steve is past chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Chair Emeritus of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice. He is a founder and current chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace; and a member of the Board of Directors of Death Penalty Focus. He is the Special Advisor on Free Speech and the First Amendment for the Muslim Public Affairs Council.Steve is the author of the books American Words of Freedom: The Words That Define Our Nation and Freedom of Assembly and numerous articles and book reviews on civil liberties and constitutional history. He is co-author of Foundations of Freedom published by the Constitutional Rights Foundation.In addition to being a co-host of Law and Disorder Radio, Steve is also the host of a10 episode podcast called Speaking Freely: A First Amendment Podcast exploring the most important Supreme Court cases in the area of free speech and free press. It is produced by Ms Studios and is streaming online at Spotify, Apple, and I Heart Radio.
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Draconian Sentencing Of Prairieland Nine Case
We look at a staggering display of judicial overreach coming out of a federal courtroom in Texas. On June 23 and July 1, 15 individuals were handed prison sentences totaling centuries. That followed a July 2025 demonstration outside the Praireland Detention Center. Among those condemned to spend the rest of her natural life behind bars is Maricela Rueda. She received a 70-year sentence. Her husband, Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada, wasn’t even present at the protest. Yet, he was sentenced to 30 years.
The core of the conspiracy charge against Daniel ties directly into Maricela’s sentence. It centers on a recorded jailhouse phone call. The government alleged Maricela asked her husband to move items from her house and car. Surveillance footage also showed Daniel dropping off a cardboard box, though that was prior to his call with Mariela. Inside that box? Not weapons. Not explosives. Just politically charged, constitutionally protected independent pamphlets and zines, all belonging to Mr. Sanchez himself.
Joining us to dissect this draconian sentencing is Sufia Khalid. Sufia is the Deputy Director of the National Security Criminal Defense Center at the Muslim Legal Fund of America. There, she represents defendants in federal national security prosecutions nationwide. She took on Maricela’s case for sentencing and currently represents her on appeal. Sufia has exclusively worked on national security prosecutions and appeals, FBI Counterrorism investigations, and terrorism sentencing and their associated constitutional issues for 8 years
Guest – Sufia Khalid is the Deputy Director of the National Security Criminal Defense Center at the Muslim Legal Fund of America. There, she serves as Senior Staff Attorney, representing defendants in federal national security cases. She currently represents Maricela Rueda in the “Praireland Nine” case. Before joining the MLFA, Khalid worked with the United Nations, including the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia and the UN Development Programme in New York.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Gaza, genocide, Right To Dissent, U.S. Militarism, Whistleblowers
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Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small Town
Investigative reporter Michael Edison Hayden has spent years on the front lines documenting extremism in America. In his new book, Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small Town, Hayden tells the story of a quiet West Virginia town thrust into turmoil when a white nationalist organization moves its headquarters to a nearby 19th century castle.
At the center of the story are the neighbors who suddenly find their community reshaped by a VDARE, a group promoting conspiracy theories like the so-called “great replacement.” Hayden’s book provides a close look at how extremism is lived, contested, and resisted in real communities. As he embeds with locals, the line between observer and participant begins to blur, with personal and professional consequences. Our conversation comes as the Southern Poverty Law Center faces 11 federal fraud charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy. To money launder. The Justice Department alleges the SPLC secretly paid over $3 million dollars to informants tied to white supremacist groups like the KKK and Aryan Nations—while telling donors the funds were being used to fight those groups. The SPLC denies wrongdoing, saying the informant program was used to monitor threats.
Guest – Michael Hayden has worked as a politics writer for Newsweek and covered crime for VICE. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, ABC News, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. He co-hosts the podcast Posting Though It, and is a three-time grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
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Defending Rights And Dissent
Donald Trump’s wholesale attack on the American democracy, in general, and on freedom of speech and the right to dissent, in particular has reached epidemic proportions. We could literally spend the next half hour simply listing all of the unconstitutional Executive Orders he has issued and the unlawful steps his co-conspirators have taken to implement his dangerous policies of punishing free speech, muzzling the free press, and destroying academic freedom.
Resistance to Trump and his MAGA ideology has been widespread. More than 700 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration in his second term, resulting in over 150 TROs, preliminary injunctions, and final judgments against the administration. And the response from the American people has been equally admirable, with a series of nationwide – indeed worldwide – protests, culminating in No Kings Day on March 28, with 3300 events in all 50 states, with an unprecedented 8 million people participating, making it the largest single day of protest in American history.
The resistance has been driven by scores of large and small pro-democracy organizations across the country. One of those is Defending Rights & Dissent, a national civil liberties organization that defends the American people’s right to know and freedom to act through grassroots mobilization, public education, policy expertise, and advocacy journalism.
Guest – Nathan Fuller is Communications Manager for Defending Rights & Dissent and former Executive Director of the Courage Foundation, a whistleblower and journalist defense organization, where he campaigned on behalf of Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Daniel Hale, Lauri Love, and several others. Nathan also led Assange Defense, the U.S. campaign to free WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who was released from prison in 2024. Previously, Nathan was the courtroom reporter and press liaison for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, covering Manning’s entire court-martial in Fort Meade. Youtube Channel
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Jewish Voice For Peace: West Bank Divided and Conquered
Our guest today is Leta Hirschmann-Levy, a young Jewish New Yorker, who just returned from a solidarity delegation to the Israeli militarily occupied West Bank of Palestine. Ms. Hirschmann-Levy is a leading activist in Jewish Voice Peace, a writer and an actress. Her grandparents on her mother’s side were German Jewish refugees from the holocaust.
Israel has killed at least 1000 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, 2023. The murders are part of their project to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and East Jerusalem and make them free of Palestinians. Peace seems less and less possible.
The West Bank was invaded and taken by Israel during the 1967 war, a war that was initiated by Israel against its neighbors, especially Egypt and Syria. The West Bank has been occupied by the Israeli military ever since. It is the longest occupation in history. Despite Israeli propaganda, there’s no such thing as a liberal occupation.
Over 700,000 Israeli settlers have since moved into the occupied territory with the intent of preventing the West Bank from being part of a future Palestinian state, a Palestinian hope which the Israelis have vowed to never allow.
The territory is run on an apartheid basis with complete segregation of Jews and Arabs who are isolated by a 20 foot cement wall that snakes through their land. Arabs must use their own roads, are issued distinct license plates, suffer the indignity of military checkpoints, go to their own schools and live in separate communities at the base of hills occupied by Israeli settlers.
They are constantly surveilled and harassed by the military which keeps thousands of Palestinians, including children, in prison, many tortured and detained with no charges against them. Hundreds of their homes have been destroyed, their ancient olive trees uprooted, and their water supplies stolen. It is this situation that our guest went to observe.
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The Blue Road To Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved The Way For Autocracy
In 2016, a man famous for humiliating people on television with the catch phrase, “You’re fired,” was elected president of the United States. Many were surprised – chief among them, his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
But others, like our guest for this segment, saw it coming, and believes the Democratic Party could have done so much more than it did to avoid it.
Today, in the midst of Trump presidency #2, the country is as polarized as ever. How did we get here? And where are we headed? Is there a way to avoid the US slipping into a country where only the wealthiest enjoy power, resources, liberty and justice?
Guest – Norman Solomon, author of the new book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy. Norman is the national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of more than a dozen books including War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine. Solomon has written about politics for many publications including The Hill, The Nation, the Guardian, Common Dreams, the LA Times and Salon.
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Censorship, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Economics, Freedom Of Speech, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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From The Flag To The Cross: Fascism American Style
From The Flag To The Cross: Fascism American Style is the title of a recently published anthology edited by Zachary Sklar and our own Michael Smith. Co-host Jim Lafferty wrote the introduction. The book draws from seven key interviews with prominent socialist thinkers in the United States and Canada. They include Margaret Kimberly, Henry Giroux, Dianne Feeley and Bill Mullen. Bill will also be joining Michael and Jim in the guest seat. He’s Professor Emeritus of American Studies at Purdue University and author of We Charge Genocide! American Fascism and the Rule of Law.
Chris Hedges who is also included in this book, writes “when fascism comes to America, it will be mass of recitations of the pledge of allegiance, the Christian cross and the flag.” We’ll explore these frayed boundaries of Christian fascism, capitalism, and the assaults on free speech and censorship while highlighting the strategies of community based actions.
Guest – Michael Steven Smith is the author, editor, and co-editor of many books, mostly recently Imagine: Living In A Socialist U.S.A. and “The Emerging Police State,” by William M. Kunstler. He has testified before committees of the United States Congress and the United Nations on human rights issues. Mr. Smith lives and had practiced law in New York City with his wife Debby, where on behalf of seriously injured persons he sues insurance companies and occasionally the New York City Police Department.
Guest – Jim Lafferty is the Executive Director Emeritus of the National Lawyers Guild in Los Angeles and the host of The Lawyers Guild Show on Pacifica Radio’s Los Angeles station, KPFK. Jim has been a national leader in the peace and social justice movement for 60-years. He served as a national Coordinator of the National Peace Action Coalition, the group that organized the largest protests against the U.S. war in Vietnam, and in leadership positions in other peace coalitions opposing various imperialist U.S. wars. In the early 1960’s he was the national Director of the National Lawyers Guild during its historic work in the South. In the mid-1960’s until the 1980’s, Jim was in the private practice of law in Detroit, Michigan, where he specialized in Selective Service law, employment discrimination law, and civil rights law. He serves on the governing board of the A.C.L.U. of Southern California, is a member of the steering committee of the national Julian Assange Defense Committee, and a Fellow at the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Southern California.
Guest – Bill Mullen is professor emeritus of American studies at Purdue University and the co-founder of The Campus Anti-fascist Network. He’s also co-author of The Black Antifascist Tradition and We Charge Genocide: American Ashes and the Rule of Law. He’s a contributor to the just published Law And Disorder book From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style.
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Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Freedom Of Speech, Human Rights, Racist Police Violence, worker's rights
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We’re Coming for You and Your Whole Rotten System
Tens of thousands of socialists, union members, and working people fought alongside Kshama Sawant and her city council office to win historic victories, like the $15 an hour minimum wage, Amazon tax on businesses, renter rights and more. Long before AOC and Bernie Sanders became household names, Kshama won elections as a socialist to the office of city council in Seattle in 2013.
Twelve years ago the demand for $15 an hour was dismissed as utopian by the Democrats in Seattle and the corporate media. They won and moreover, they won an escalation clause. Seattle workers are now getting over $20 an hour, the highest in the country.
In 2020, her office won the historic Amazon tax which funds affordable housing and other needs to the tune of $214 million a year by taxing the city’s, wealthiest corporations. Sawant launched the people’s budget campaign, organizing hundreds of activists every year and winning millions of dollars in funding for affordable housing, renters needs, including defense against evictions, and social services.
They won a law after the Roe versus Wade decision making abortion free in Seattle for all those who need it. They won a resolution making Seattle the largest city to pass the strongest cease-fire resolution condemning Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. Why is KShama and the forces around her been able to defeat big business interests, the right wing, and the Democratic Party establishment again and again whereas Bernie Sanders and the Squad have not?
Guest – Jonathan Rosenblum, the author of the recently published book We’re Coming for You and your Whole Rotten System to answer this question. Mr. Rosenblum worked on the Sawant’s staff at the Seattle City Council office throughout the decade of 2010s. He’s a journalist, labor organizer, and a member of the National Writers Union.
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Netflix Documentary and Innocence Project Help Exonerate Falsely Imprisoned Killers
The black political leader, Malcolm X was assassinated 50 years ago in the Audubon ballroom in Harlem, in the City of New York. Assassination is a political murder. The story that we were all to believe was that Malcolm X, as a member and leader of Elijah Muhammad’s nation of Islam, developed differences with Elijah Mohammad. That he left the nation of Islam. And that he was later killed by members of the NY and Newark chapters, who came across the Hudson River and shot him while he spoke out at the ballroom.
But as we have learned recently, that story is not the full truth. The truth started coming out when Netflix did a six-part documentary on the assassination. This was followed up by the work of the Innocence Project, who along with help from the Manhattan district attorney’s office got two of the falsely imprisoned supposed killers exonerated.
We have learned of the FBI’s intelligence program called Cointelpro. One of its aims was to neutralize any future black leaders. Malcolm X‘s daughters have retained a team of civil rights attorneys who are suing the New York Police Department and the FBI over their possible involvement in the assassination of Malcolm X, and it’s cover-up.
Guest – Flint Taylor of the Peoples Law Office. Taylor is a nationally recognized civil rights attorney. He represented the family of Fred Hampton demonstrating that the Chicago Police Department and the FBI were responsible for the assassination of the young Black Panther leader. He’s written the book “The Killing Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago”. He is one of the editors of the “Police Misconduct Law Reporter. He’s the author of The Torture Machine: Racism And Police Violence In Chicago.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Freedom Of Speech, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Prison Industry
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From The Flag To The Cross: Fascism American Style: Live Event
From The Flag To The Cross: Fascism American Style is the title of a newly published book edited by Zachary Sklar and our own Michael Smith. The book draws from seven key interviews with prominent socialist thinkers in the United States and Canada. They include Margaret Kimberly, Henry Giroux, Dianne Feeley and Bill Mullen. Last month publishers OR books held a live book launch event taking place at Live On Avenue C in the East Village. Speakers included economist Rick Wolff, New York-based writer Margaret Kimberly and economist Kshama Sawant.
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What Is Pretrial Justice?
On any given day, roughly 7,000 people are held in New York City jails—mostly at Rikers Island—awaiting trial. Many are there not because they’ve been convicted of a crime, but because they can’t afford bail or have been remanded to custody. Critics argue that New York’s approach to pretrial detention is both unjust and unsustainable and that meaningful reform is long overdue. Detaining people before they’ve been found guilty turns the presumption of innocence upside down.
This system hits Black and Latino New Yorkers hardest. Lower average incomes and heavier policing in their neighborhoods make them far more likely to be jailed pretrial. Beyond the human toll, pretrial detention drives up expenses for staffing, security, medical care, and administration—all paid by taxpayers. And the social costs ripple outward. Lock-up before trial separates families, jeopardizes jobs, housing, and pressures individuals into pleading guilty simply to go home.
Recently, the Pretrial Justice Institute joined forces with NYU’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, and the Bronx Defenders to convene directly impacted people, public defenders, advocates, and service providers to reimagine a more just system. Their report, A City Without Cages: Creating Pretrial Safety and Liberty in NYC, outlines what that future could look like.
Guest – Guisela Marroquín, Executive Director of the Pretrial Justice Institute in New York. There, she leads cross-sector efforts to advance racial equity and transform pretrial systems. Before that, she was Senior Director of Programs at the New York Women’s Foundation.
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