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Law and Disorder is a weekly independent civil liberties radio program airing on more than 150 stations and on Apple podcast. Law and Disorder provides timely legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and practices of torture exercised by the US government and private corporations.
Law and Disorder August 3, 2009
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David Kairys: Lawyers You’ll Like
David Kairy began his career at the Philadelphia public defender’s office in the late 1960s. Since then, he’s been a leader in effort to fight discrimination and protect individual rights, now he’s regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent civil rights attorneys. David is a professor at the University of Temple Law School, where he teaches civil rights and constitutional law. He has written several books, including Philadelphia Freedom: Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer, which was published last year.
- We were of a number of young firms dedicated to civil rights and representation of progressive groups.
- The Camden 28, caught in the act of breaking into a Camden, New Jersey draft board and destroying all of the files. This was a Catholic Left action.
- FBI had informant in the group, who the FBI was paying on an hourly rate. The informant supplied the means to make the action happen.
- One hundred FBI agents sat around and waited til they destroyed all the files in the office. Many of the 28 were priests. There were more than 300 draft board raids during Vietnam.
- Father Michael Doyle said when your government is napalming children, the place you should be is in jail.
- Father Doyle and I strategized a way to start talking to the FBI informant Bob Hardy and eventually got an affadavit saying that the FBI manufactured this crime.
- I filed the affidavit and it was on the front page of the New York Times.
Guest – David Kairys, Professor of Law, the first James E. Beasley Chair (2001-07), and one of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers. He authored Philadelphia Freedom, Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer and With Liberty and Justice for Some and co-authored the bestselling progressive critique of the law, The Politics of Law, and authored With Liberty and Justice for Some and over 35 articles and book chapters. His columns have appeared in major periodicals, and he has been profiled in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Wall Street Journal, and Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine. Kairys’s Public Nuisance Theory.
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Detroit’s Economic Corrosion
The bankrupt General Motors will use the billions of taxpayer bailout funds to move their productions to Mexico and China. In one report Mexican workers will be making 3 dollars an hour without benefits. Meanwhile, the jobless in Detroit rose to 13 percent unemployment. Retired Auto Worker member of local 235, Dianne Feeley says Detroit is 40 percent unoccupied, homes are looted for furnaces and copper and soon burned to the ground. Dianne joins us today to give us a sense of the economic corrosion in Detroit. Dianne Feeley Speaking – Youtube.
Dianne Feeley:
- In Detroit we were a city of 2.2 million now were about 900,000.
- Saving Corporations, Sacrificing Workers by Dianne Feeley
- We need manufacturing to be re-tooled like in WWII. It took 8 months to re-tool those plants.
- We’re suggesting since the United States, doesn’t have mass transit, that’s something our plants can build.
- General Motors used to manufacture buses. In addition to green vehicles, there’s the whole range of mass transit.
- Detroit no longer has any department stores in the city, although we’re 140 square miles.
- There’s no major grocery store in the city, no wonder fast food is the only thing available for large swaths of the city. Detroit is 85 percent African American.
- GM has insisted that more auto workers are laid off, and more benefits are cut back.
- Right before GM went bankrupt, the US Treasury Department demanded the UAW give up the retiree vision benefits and dental benefits.
- Now, why in an economic downturn are you going after small benefits that retirees have?
- Out of the price of the car manufactured, auto worker wages represent 8-10 percent of the total cost.
- At least in other countries when the government gives money to corporations, they don’t lay off workers. In our case, the government has helped GM and Chrysler to lay off workers, that’s what they’re demanding.
- (Instead of laying off workers) How do we move out of an auto-centric society into a mass transit society?
- In the last 30 years the unions have taken the position of “how do we make the company profitable” so there’s no concession we can’t make.
- The media and politicians (esp) have demonized the auto-worker. We’re supposed to be the high paid 73 dollars an hour worker.
- No one talks about how much CEOs make an hour. We don’t make 73 dollars/hour, that’s a miscalculation.
- The jobs not only left the US, but they left where there were better labor laws.
Guest – Dianne Feeley, a retired auto worker who currently serves as an editor of Against the Current, a socialist magazine. She is an advocate for auto workers and has written recently about the U.S. auto industry, arguing that the government should buy Chrysler and General Motors and turn them into a public trust.
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Law and Disorder July 27, 2009
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Host Updates:
- Obama’s Detention Policy Taskforce
- Federal Court Trials / Military Commissions / Preventive Detention
- Holder May Not Prosecute If Torturers Stay Within Yoo Guidelines
Segments This Week:
- Washington DC Check Points: Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
- Jewish Fast For Gaza
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Washington DC Check Points Not Legal: Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
Last summer, D.C. police set up checkpoints around the city’s Trinidad neighborhood and denied access to drivers who refused to disclose their destination. The purpose of the checkpoints, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, was to deter violence after a string of drive-by shootings in 2008. Recently, a federal appeals court ruled that these checkpoints are unconstitutional. In the opinion, Chief Judge David Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that “citizens have a right to drive upon the public streets of the District of Columbia or any other city absent a constitutionally sound reason for limiting their access.” The Partnership for Civil Justice
- We do think if we had not succeeded with this case, it would have been a model in implementation in urban environments throughout the U.S.
- In the District of Columbia, last summer the mayor and the attorney general deployed an extraordinary checkpoint program. It was really a blockade or barricade program.
- It was the sealing off of an entire neighborhood, police setting up check points and not letting anyone through without being interrogated. It’s an interrogation and seizure program.
- The police would question you, as to where you were going, who you were visiting, demand that you provide identity information, information on your associates, information on what you were doing, who you knew.
- You could not continue to drive on this public roadway unless you proved to the satisfaction of the police, a legitimate reason to travel further. When we challenged them, they stayed in court, they defended the program, saying it was absolutely constitutional.
- Plaintiffs included a 50 year old resident, a retired DC school teacher. He would have to be stopped at the checkpoint to get to his own home. Visitors were reluctant to come over, to avoid getting tangled with the police. Racial profiling, police misconduct, abuse of power.
- It’s not nearly that your stopped by the police and you can explain your way in. The police set up 6 defined categories of legitmate reasons for entering. Visiting a friend is not a legitimate reason.
- If crime became the prevention for fundamental fourth amendment rights, then there wouldn’t be any fourth amendment rights to speak of.
- The issue is you have the right to travel down a public roadway without being seized by the police without any allegation of criminal activity or suspicion of criminal wrong doing.
- The Trinidad neighborhood is on the cusp of gentrification. We’re seeing a lot of these programs happening in areas that are moving toward gentrification.
- The community wants geniune responses to crime in their neighborhoods, this program was not only unconstitutional but ineffective.
- We believe they were collecting information at the checkpoints and collecting a criminal database.
- We demanded that they cease that activity and expunge the information collected in the database.
- They were sending in tag readers, they’re mounting cameras on government vehicles, they do a mass scan on license tags and suck up information on where you are.
Guest – Mara Verheyden-Hilliard is an attorney and co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice, which represented three drivers challenging the checkpoints.
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A group of American Rabbis have launched a water-only fast, aimed at breaking the Jewish Community’s silence over Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians. The initiative, called Jewish Fast For Gaza includes Reform, Reconstructionist, Orthodox and Conservative rabbis who call for lifting the blockade on Gaza. They plan to fast the third Thursday of each month, lasting from sunrise to sunset.
Rabbi Brian Walt:
- This idea of a fast in a time of trouble is an ancient tradition. We were stunned by the silence among the Rabbis.
- So we decided to gather together as a Minyan, to break the silence in our community.
- It’s not a Jewish-only initiative, it’s a Jewish initiated event to draw people of all faiths.
- The state that is the state of the Jewish people is preventing food from reaching children whose growth is stunted by these actions. To be silent in the face of that as a Rabbi, is inconceivable to me.
- Can’t one separate out, an opinion about a government and collective punishment of a whole people?
- Four goals: Lifting Israeli blockade, bring in food, make peace with your enemies.
- Does Israel recognize the Palestinian people?
- Why is Israel asking two things of it’s partner that its not prepared to do?
- It’s a pretext because Israel doesn’t want to negotiate. If Israel doesn’t want to negotiate, they’ll say the other side doesn’t want to, it’s a trick that Israel has done for decades.
- Anyone can join the fast, nearly 600 have joined. 70 Rabbis so far.
- The most vile and violent responses we get come from Israel.
- I grew up under apartheid in South Africa in a very Zionist family with deep connections in Israel.
Guest – Rabbi Brian Walt, co-coordinator of Jewish Fast For Gaza. Rabbi Walt is also the founding executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America and Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Mishkan Shalom, a synagogue in Philadelphia, PA. He is dedicated to the integration of spiritual life and social justice. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, he was active in the struggle against Apartheid. He is a member of the board of the National Religious Campaign against Torture.
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Law and Disorder July 20, 2009
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Host Updates:
- Prosecution On the Table? – Holder May Appoint Line Prosecutor.
Segments This Week:
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French Company, Veolia Abandons Light Rail Project Linking Illegal Jewish Settlements
A French multinational company, Veolia Transport, contracted to build a light rail tramway system linking west Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements has abandoned the project. The rail system would have grouped more Jewish settlements into the State of Israel and help annex the Palestinian territory of east Jerusalem. The victory came about from years of coordination by the French, Dutch and British groups, as well as the Palestinian BDS National Committee.
Omar Barghouti:
- Israel has not found an effective weapon to counter the civil non-violent weapon of the Palestinians.
- BDS is a movement based on Palestinian rights, to live without occupation, without colonization, without apartheid and the system of discrimination.
- A colony is a base for settlers who have are aggressive / military and confiscate more Palestinian land. Stealing more land, stealing water, cutting Palestinian trees, doing very nasty colonial acts.
- Boycott Divest and Sanction / BDS movement – Motorola / Israeli fruit and vegetables in Europe
- Divest, is when you pressure a university like Hampshire College to divest from companies profiting from the occupation. Also churches and unions can be pressured and levied. Sanction is a boycott by state. A decision by sovereign governments to isolate another government. Sanctions take a long time to get going.
- Veolia is part of a consortium that is contracted to build a light rail to connect illegal Israeli colonies with Jerusalem.
- International support for the Derail Veolia campaign came from Australia, Sweden, Britain, France and Tehran.
- Veolia lost 8 billion in contracts mainly due to the boycott movement.
- Veolia has not withdrawn yet, its a very technical process requiring Israeli approval. But Veolia has said it can’t sustain the losses and has considered withdrawing.
- This victory told us that you can’t censor yourself. Veolia says it will sell its 5 percent share in the consortium light rail.
- The project is illegal, that’s why people didn’t have to think twice to stop it. Israel’s reaction to Veolia withdrawal and BDS movement, very hush hush, which was intentional.
- The boycott campaign is impacting Israeli produce. Israeli barcodes begin with “729.” The BDS movement is growing in Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela.
Guest – Omar Barghouti, founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Omar is a Palestinian political analyst and doctoral student of philosophy (ethics) at Tel Aviv University. His articles have appeared in the Al-Ahram Weekly, Z-Magazine, and Counterpunch.
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Last month, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Ricci v. DeStefano that a group of white firefighters and one Hispanic had been discriminated against when the city threw out a 2003 lieutenants’ promotion exam after African-American firefighters scored lower than required. The higher scoring firefighters say the decision is unfair and compared it to (quote) reverse discrimination. The high court declared that white firefighters in Connecticut were unfairly denied promotion because of their race, ruling against minorities and overturning Supreme Court nominee Judge Sotomayor’s earlier ruling. Title VII
Attorney Richard Levy:
- The question: When can an employer set aside a hiring test or procedure because it has adverse impacts on a minority group?
- In the Connecticut firefighters case, whites passed the exam at levels twice that of blacks and hispanics.
- The city decided to take a look at the test, considering the adverse impact on minority officers in the fire department.
- The city held a number of hearings that determined that the test should not be certified. As a result a group of white firefighters backed by their unions, sued the city.
- They said, wait, now you’re discriminating against whites because we studied and passed, and black and latinos did not, doesn’t mean that the test is bad.
- The test had a 60 percent written component and 40 percent oral component. (Test questions were not reviewed by anyone in the New Haven fire department)
- The test was created in a way that purportedly measured firefighter skills. However, oral skills in the field are much more important than written.
- Title VII says that you have to look at exams that are neutral on their face, but not neutral on their outcome.
- The Supreme Court says you can’t just throw out a test because blacks didn’t do well, suppose it’s a test that is fair and necessary for job performance? You are then discriminating against those who took the test and did well to perform the job.
- Supreme Court: What should the standard be. A new standard. Must have a strong basis in evidence that the test is not valid.
- Five of the nine justices changed the standard. It raises the standard for a city to do what its supposed to do.
- The Supreme Court did not allow the case go back to the city where they could show “strong basis in evidence”
- A result oriented outcome, an activist right wing bench changing the law, and the parties are not allowed to present evidence in light of the new law.
- Forty percent black in Connecticut. Their fire department has 30 percent black incumbency.
- NYC is 28 percent black, the fire department is 3 percent black incumbency. Levy Ratner is challenging the NYC test. (entirely written some physical, no oral component) CCR Firefighters Case in NY. Vulcan society brought the case several years ago.
Guest – Richard A. Levy (Cornell, B.A., 1964, NYU School of Law, J.D., 1968) is a senior partner at LR. He has practiced labor, employment, employee benefits and civil rights law since 1971. During law school he was associate editor of the Annual Survey of American Law. A member of the United States Supreme Court Bar, Levy has lectured at conferences for the NLRB, AFL -CIO, Practicing Law Institute and has published articles on labor law and civil rights litigation. He has served on the Lawyers Advisory Panel of the AFL -CIO.
Richard Levy has litigated a number of important employment discrimination class actions. These include Grant v. Bethlehem Steel, 635 F.2d 1007 (2d Cir. 1980) (finding prima facie case of disparate treatment and disparate impact in failure to promote black ironworkers into supervisory jobs); Latino Officers Association v. City of New York, 209 F.R.D. 79 (S.D.N.Y. 2002) (class action challenge to disparate discipline in the New York Police Department, with settlement for up to $20 million in damages and injunctive relief) and most recently, United States v. City of New York, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39514 (E.D.N.Y. 2009) (representing class of African-American applicants for entry-level firefighter jobs with City of New York ).
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