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Contact: Paige Cram, NLG Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext. 15, communications@nlg.org
New York--In the wake of President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) encourages a reasoned analysis of Sotomayor's candidacy. Critics are focusing on accusations of judicial activism and identity politics rather than engaging in sound examination of her legal qualifications. Comments of this nature serve only to distract from meaningful discussion surrounding the judicial confirmation process.
“When Judge Sotomayor was nominated, conservative pundits immediately leveled allegations of judicial activism against her. That charge is not only hypocritical, but is also disingenuous. Bush v. Gore, supported by these same commentators in 2000, is the most vivid example of judicial activism ever displayed by the highest court,” said Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild.
Critics have increasingly questioned the role that Sotomayor’s race and gender played in her nomination. Changing the discourse from one of judicial qualifications to one of identity politics detracts from a proper evaluation of her suitability for the job.
The Guild encourages an analysis that focuses on Sotomayor’s credentials and ability to interpret the Constitution of the United States. These are the criteria by which any judicial nominee should be evaluated.
The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color. The NLG is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.
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American NLG Lawyers Release New Findings that Israel Violated International Law, US Domestic Law in Gaza
For Immediate Release – April 2, 2009Contact: Paige Cram, NLG Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext.15
New York – Israel violated international law by targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, misusing weapons, deliberately denying medical care to the wounded and attacking medical personnel, the National Lawyers Guild Delegation to Gaza said today upon releasing a 37 page report containing new evidence on the facts surrounding Israel’s 22 day military offensive in Gaza. The full report can be viewed at www.nlg.org. Photos are also available upon request.
“Our findings join a growing chorus of voices—which include Israeli soldiers themselves—asserting that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians during the Gaza offensive,” said Radhika Sainath, one of the attorneys who initiated the seven-day fact-finding delegation to Gaza. “On a number of occasions, Israeli soldiers shot and killed young children as well as unarmed civilians holding white flags—both violations of the laws of war.”
The Delegation also uncovered evidence of Israeli soldiers using Palestinians as human shields, acts that constitute war crimes, as well as evidence that the Israeli military targeted civilian infrastructure and grossly misused weapons. Further, Israel denied the wounded access to medical care and routinely fired on emergency medical teams attempting to reach those in need of help. Paramedics and doctors reported to the Delegation that many civilians could have been saved if the Israeli army allowed Palestinian medical services access to the wounded. “On one occasion, when Israeli forces did allow Palestinian medical services to enter an area after four days, soldiers prohibited their ambulances from approaching and paramedics were forced to pile the injured on donkey carts,” reported Reem Salahi, a California-based civil rights attorney. “Medical workers were then forced to pull the carts to their ambulances two kilometers away.”
The Delegation is calling on the Obama Administration and Congress to investigate the possible misuse of U.S. defense articles by Israel during the Gaza offensive. The Delegation is also calling for the Obama Administration to immediately suspend military aid to Israel until protocols are in place to assure compliance with international humanitarian law. “The United States must take action to ensure that its U.S. foreign assistance is not used in violation of international law,” said Thomas Nelson, an Oregon-based attorney specializing in national security law.
A National Lawyers Guild delegation of seven attorneys and one law student traveled to the Gaza Strip from February 2-8, 2009, to investigate the 22 day Israeli military offensive into Gaza that began on December 27, 2009. The objective of the Delegation was to investigate the circumstances that led to the massive Palestinian casualties, to determine what, if any, violations of international law occurred, and whether U.S. domestic law was implicated as a consequence.
Founded in 1937, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York, and it has chapters in every state.
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For Immediate Release—March 2, 2009
Contact: Paige Cram, NLG Communications Coordinator, 212.679.5100 x15
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org
New York—Across the United States, in observance of the March 1-International Death Penalty Abolition Day, student members of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) are speaking out in opposition to the death penalty. Every year, law school chapters participate in the NLG Student Day Against the Death Penalty by organizing panel discussions, debates, film screenings, and other events. There are currently more than 3000 people on death row in the United States.
Míchel Angela Martinez, the NLG National Student Organizer, says, “Students in the National Lawyers Guild focus attention every year on the death penalty because it is a grave injustice. While electing Barack Obama was historic—a special achievement—he supports capital punishment, which remains a racist, classist, tragic mark on our justice system. Guild students are determined to change the public’s and the president’s views about the death penalty, and it starts with days of action like this.” The NLG calls for the immediate abolition of the death penalty.
National Lawyers Guild students focus not only on the cruel and unusual nature of capital punishment, but also on its inconsistent and economically and racially biased application. Students educate the public about the social and psychological impacts the death penalty has on those in the prison system and their families and communities. Capital punishment is being increasingly scrutinized as death row inmates are exonerated and states such as New Jersey officially outlaw the practice. We hope that other states can look to New Jersey for inspiration and use their efforts as a model.
The National Lawyers Guild, an organization of attorneys, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers, is part of the growing national and international movement opposing the death penalty in the United States. Founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated bar organization, the NLG today comprises over 200 chapters and committees using the law in the service of the people.
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For Immediate Release—February 24, 2009
Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923
Paige Cram, NLG Communications Coordinator, communications@nlg.org, 212-679-5100, x15
Statement on Prosecution of Former High Officials
We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice whose memos sought to justify torture, and other former top officials of the Bush Administration.
Our laws, and treaties that under Article VI of our Constitution are the supreme law of the land, require the prosecution of crimes that strong evidence suggests these individuals have committed. Both the former president and the former vice president have confessed to authorizing a torture procedure that is illegal under our law and treaty obligations. The former president has confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
We see no need for these prosecutions to be extraordinarily lengthy or costly, and no need to wait for the recommendations of a panel or “truth” commission when substantial evidence of the crimes is already in the public domain. We believe the most effective investigation can be conducted by a prosecutor, and we believe such an investigation should begin immediately.
Drafted by The Robert Jackson Steering Committee
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/robertjackson
Signed By:
Center for Constitutional Rights
http://www.ccrjustice.org
The National Lawyers Guild
http://www.nlg.org
After Downing Street
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org
American Freedom Campaign
http://www.americanfreedomcampaign.org
Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel and US diplomat
http://www.voicesofconscience.com
Backbone Campaign
http://www.backbonecampaign.org
Brad Blog
http://www.bradblog.com
Cities for Peace
http://citiesforprogress.org
CODE PINK: Women for Peace
http://www.codepink4peace.org
Daniel Ellsberg, Truth-Telling Project
http://www.ellsberg.net
Defending Dissent Foundation
http://www.defendingdissent.org
Delaware Valley Veterans for America
http://www.delvalvets4america.org
Democrats.com
http://www.democrats.com
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.space4peace.org
Gold Star Families for Peace
http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com
Grandmothers Against the War
http://www.grandmothersforpeace.org/gatw
Grassroots America
http://www.grassrootsamerica4us.org
High Road for Human Rights Advocacy Project
http://www.highroadforhumanrights.org
Iraq Veterans Against the War
http://ivaw.org
Justice Through Music
http://www.jtmp.org
Marcus Raskin, co-founder of Institute for Policy Studies, member of editorial board of the /Nation/, member of the special staff of the National Security Council in the Kennedy Administration
Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored
http://www.projectcensored.org
Naomi Wolf, author of /End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot/, and /Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries/
http://naomiwolf.org
National Accountability Network
Northeast Impeachment Coalition
http://www.neimpeach.org/wp
Op Ed News
http://www.opednews.com
Peace Action
http://www.peace-action.org
Peace Team
http://www.peaceteam.net
The Progressive
http://www.progressive.org
Progressive Democrats of America
http://www.pdamerica.org
Republicans for Impeachment
http://republicansforimpeachment.com
United for Peace and Justice
http://www.unitedforpeace.org
Velvet Revolution
http://www.velvetrevolution.us
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/vips
Veterans for Peace
http://www.veteransforpeace.org
Voters for Peace
http://votersforpeace.us/index2.php
War Crimes Times
http://www.warcrimestimes.org
Wisconsin Impeachment/Bring Our Troops Home Coalition
http://www.impeachwi.com
World Can't Wait
http://www.worldcantwait.net
Organizations and individuals can add their names to this statement at http://prosecutebushcheney.org
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NLG Members in Gaza Document Executions of Civilians, Blocking of Humanitarian Aid, and Destruction of Civil Property
For Immediate Release—February 5, 2009Contact: Paige Cram, NLG Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext.15
Gaza—On its second day in Gaza, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) delegation witnessed the rubble of the American International School in Gaza. An Israeli aerial attack killed the watch guard on duty and completely demolished the school at 2am on January 3, 2009.
“Israel doesn't want anything good or bright in Gaza. They want us to live in the dark ages, just waiting in line for gas and bread,” said Ribhi Salem the school's Director, who previously spent 20 years living and teaching in Chicago. Salem noted that the school is modeled on American schools and teaches “American values.” Because of that, he said, the school has been attacked on two previous occasions by local extremists since it opened in 2000.
The American school was only one of thousands of buildings destroyed in the recent Israeli offensive. Guild delegates were alarmed at the indiscriminate attacks against civilian neighborhoods, which left thousands of Gaza’s residents homeless and living in UN-provided tents. Israeli forces also targeted local businesses, including a tahini and sweet factory in Jabaliyya, leaving the poverty-stricken population more aid dependant.
John Ging, Director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), told the delegation that although the need is much greater now because of the war, less food aid is getting in now than before the war. “Nine hundred thousand people need food aid now but on the amount of food we are receiving we can feed only 30,000 each day,” he said. “Thousands of tons of aid are piling up in Al Arish in Egypt and Ashdod Port in Israel,” said Ging. “People need food and blankets. . . its been two weeks and two days [since the ceasefire] and we can't get enough food into Gaza . . . where's the accountability?”
The seven delegates also witnessed the remains of the entire residential neighborhood of Izbit Abed Rabbo. Resident Khaled Abed Rabbo told delegates Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath how he witnessed an Israeli soldier execute his 2 year-old and 7 year-old daughters, on a sunny afternoon outside his house there. Two other Israeli soldiers were standing nearby eating chips and chocolates at the time on January 7, 2009. “I will never eat chocolate again,” said Abed Rabbo, who was formerly employed by the Fateh-led Palestinian authority. His third daughter, Samar, was also shot and paralyzed by the same Israeli soldier. Samar, 4 years old, is currently hospitalized for treatment in Belgium.
Founded in 1937, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.
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