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NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD AND SOCIETY OF AMERICAN LAW TEACHERS STRONGLY OPPOSE HOMEGROWN TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD AND SOCIETY OF AMERICAN LAW TEACHERS STRONGLY OPPOSE HOMEGROWN TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT
Contacts: *Marjorie Cohn, NLG president, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 619-374-6923
*Eileen Kaufman & Tayyab Mahmud, SALT co-presidents, eileenk@tourolaw.edu, (631)761-7125; Mahmud@seattleu.edu, (206) 398-4148
On October 23, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 by a vote of 404-6. The bill will be referred out of committee this week and will then go to the Senate floor. The National Lawyers Guild and the Society of American Law Teachers strongly oppose this legislation because it will likely lead to the criminalization of beliefs, dissent and protest, and invite more draconian surveillance of Internet communications.
This bill would establish a Commission to study and report on "facts and causes" of "violent radicalism" and "extremist belief systems." It defines "violent radicalism" as "adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." The term "extremist belief system" is not defined; it could refer to liberalism, nationalism, socialism, anarchism, communism, etc.
"Ideologically based violence" is defined in the bill as the "use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs." Thus, "force" and "violence" are used interchangeably. If a group of people blocked the doorway of a corporation that manufactured weapons, or blocked a sidewalk during an anti-war demonstration, it might constitute the use of "force" to promote "political beliefs."
The bill charges that the Internet "has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens." This provision could be used to conduct more intrusive surveillance of our Internet communications without warrants.
This legislation does not criminalize conduct, but may well lead to criminalizing ideas or beliefs in violation of the First Amendment. By targeting the Internet, it may result in increased surveillance of Internet communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The National Lawyers Guild and the Society of American Law Teachers strongly urge the Senate to refuse to pass the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, 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.
The Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) is a community of progressive law teachers working for justice, diversity and academic excellence. SALT is the largest membership organization of law faculty and legal education professionals in the United States.
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NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD STRONGLY CONDEMNS STATE OF EMERGENCY IN PAKISTAN, URGES BUSH TO SUSPEND AID
Contacts:
Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923
Jeanne Mirer, NLG International Committee, mirerfam@earthlink.net, 212-473-8700
The National Lawyers Guild strongly condemns the State of Emergency imposed on the people of Pakistan and the attacks on lawyers and the judiciary. The NLG demands that President Musharraf immediately withdraw the emergency declaration of November 3, 2007, the Provisional Constitutional Order No. 1 of 2007 (PCO), which suspends Pakistan's Constitution. This declaration includes suspension of the right to life and liberty, freedom of speech, assembly and association, and equal protection of the law, all of which are guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is being held under house arrest, and over 2500 lawyers in different parts of Pakistan including the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association and other leaders of the Bar including officials of the Democratic Lawyers Association of Pakistan, have been detained. Journalists said the government ordered that journalists who brought "ridicule or disrepute" to Musharraf could face three years in prison.
The real motivation for the PCO is not to defend the country against "Islamic extremists" but to maintain Musharraf in power. The State of Emergency was declared after the Supreme Court indicated it would overturn the results of the illegitimate election that preserved Musharraf's rule. Musharraf seeks to prevent public protests that lawyers and political parties were organizing.
The lawyers and the judiciary are resisting efforts by Musharraf to violate Pakistan's Constitution and to interfere with the judiciary. The NLG salutes the lawyers of Pakistan for their principled stand in upholding the Constitution, independence of the judiciary, and the rule of law. The NLG supports the call by the lawyers of Pakistan to refuse to practice before judges who have agreed to take oath under the PCO. The PCO has been held to be unconstitutional and illegal by a 7-judge bench of the Pakistan Supreme Court. Chief Justice Chaudhry and other judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts who have refused to take oath under the illegal PCO continue to hold office and cannot be removed.
The NLG demands the immediate release of the lawyers and others from custody and/or house arrest and withdrawal of all restrictions illegally imposed. The NLG further urges President Bush to discontinue all aid to Pakistan until the state of emergency is lifted, the Constitution is no longer suspended, and Musharraf provides assurance that the January 2008 elections will proceed as planned.
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, 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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NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD VOTES FOR IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT BUSH AND VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY
Monday, November 5, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, Marjorie@tjsl.edu; 619-374-6923
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org 212-679-5100, ext. 11
James Marc Leas, NLG member who drafted the resolution, 802 864-1575 or 802 734-8811
November 5, Washington, D.C. The National Lawyers Guild voted unanimously and enthusiastically for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney at its national convention in Washington, DC. The resolution lists more than a dozen high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush and Cheney administration and "calls upon the U.S. House of Representatives to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings, to investigate the charges, and if the investigation supports the charges, to vote to impeach George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney as provided in the Constitution of the United States of America."
The resolution provides for an NLG Impeachment Committee open to all members that will help organize and coordinate events at the local, state, and national level to build public participation in the campaign to initiate impeachment investigation, impeachment, and removal of Bush and Cheney from office without further delay.
The resolution calls on all other state and national bar associations, state and local government bodies, community organizations, labor unions, and all other citizen associations to adopt similar resolutions and to use all their resources to build the campaign demanding that Congress initiate impeachment investigation, impeach, and remove Bush and Cheney from office.
The full text of the resolution can be found at http://nlg.org/convention/2007%20Resolu ... lution.pdf
National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn said, "The war of aggression, the secret prisons, the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the use of evidence obtained by torture, and the surveillance of citizens without warrants, all initiated and carried out under the tenure of Bush and Cheney, are illegal under the U.S. Constitution and international law.”
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, 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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BUSH ADMINISTRATION DENIES VISA TO NOTED CUBAN ATTORNEY: National Lawyers Guild Calls Visa Denial Punitive and Unrelated to National Security
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, 858-204-3565
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212-679-5100, ext. 11
BUSH ADMINISTRATION DENIES VISA TO NOTED CUBAN ATTORNEY
National Lawyers Guild Calls Visa Denial Punitive and Unrelated to National Security
October 29, Washington, D.C. In one of the first acts of the Bush Administration's latest crackdown on Cuba, the United States Department of State has apparently denied a visa to Guillermo Ferriol Molina, Vice-President of the Labor Law Society of the Cuban bar association and a member of the Board of Directors of the UN-affiliated International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL). Mr. Ferriol had been invited to the U.S. to speak at the 70th anniversary Convention of the National Lawyers Guild this week, as well as at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York.
On Friday, October 26, the State Department informed aides to Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) that Mr. Ferriol's visa had been denied on October 21. The State Department has not yet informed Mr. Ferriol of this decision. The decision to deny the visa, which overturned a preliminary decision more than a month earlier by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, followed a lengthy security advisory opinion check.
The State Department informed Doyle's aide that the visa was denied because Mr. Ferriol allegedly works for a union that is connected with the Cuban government, citing Presidential proclamations 5377 and 212(f), which prohibit entry of certain non-immigrants. However, Mr. Ferriol does not work for a union. In addition to his duties with the Labor Law Society and the IADL, both nongovernmental organizations, he is employed by CIMEX, a private company capitalized by the Cuban state which operates more than 80 enterprises in different industries throughout Cuba. In 2002, Mr. Ferriol was granted a visa to speak at the National Lawyers Guild Convention and at Sarah Lawrence, and his trip took place without incident.
National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn denounced the decision, citing it as "part of yet another shortsighted and futile attempt by the Bush Administration to decide Cuba's future by punishing the people of both the United States and Cuba."
In his October 24 announcement of new initiatives designed to hasten a "transition" in Cuba, Bush called on Cuban officials and ordinary Cubans to rise up against the current regime. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque responded by stating, "Cuba's reaction is one of indignation, but of absolute serenity and confidence in our strength. The word in order here is courage." He also laid out 12 initiatives that he proposed President Bush use as a way to aid Cuba, which included things such as respect for Cuba's right to independence and sovereignty, lifting the travel ban, the release of the "Cuban 5" (five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for their roles on reporting terrorist plans against Cuba by Cuban exiles in Miami), the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles (the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of a Cuban civilian jet and tourist hotels) and the immediate closing of the Guantanamo Naval Base.
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THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD OPPOSES THE CONFIRMATION OF MICHAEL MUKASEY AS ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, October 23, 2007THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD OPPOSES THE CONFIRMATION OF MICHAEL MUKASEY AS ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
Contact: Marjorie Cohn, President, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, director@nlg.org, 212-679-5100, ext. 11
The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general demonstrated he cannot be relied upon to function as an independent leader at the Department of Justice. Mukasey claims he doesn't know what water boarding is, so he can't say if it constitutes torture. Mukasey made the incredible claims that "we do not torture" and "I don't think people are mistreated" at Guantánamo.
The torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody is widely known. The newly leaked 2005 memos say the government is engaging in water boarding, head slapping and exposing people to frigid temperatures; the International Committee of the Red Cross said the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody is tantamount to torture, and the U.N. Human Rights Commission concluded that force feeding Guantánamo prisoners amounts to torture. Water boarding, or simulated drowning, has long been considered torture. Rear Adm. John Hutson (USN Ret.) testified at the confirmation hearing, "Other than, perhaps the rack and thumbscrews, water boarding is the most iconic example of torture in history. It was devised, I believe, in the Spanish inquisition. It has been repudiated for centuries."
Michael Mukasey cannot be counted on to independently investigate the crimes of the White House. He refused to acknowledge the unconstitutionality of the President violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. When asked about contempt charges against witnesses who refuse to respond to congressional subpoenas, Mukasey said he would refuse to follow the statute that requires a U.S. attorney to refer contempt citations to a grand jury.
The Senate should confirm Muksey only if he pledges to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration, as the Democratically-controlled Congress did in 1973 after Nixon nominated Elliot Richardson for attorney general. Richardson agreed, he was confirmed, and then appointed Archibald Cox as special prosecutor. Cox's investigations and summary dismissal resulted in impeachment of Richard Nixon in the House Judiciary Committee followed by Nixon's resignation. Congress should once again stand up to the President when he breaks the law.
Mukasey has indicated his opposition to the appointment of a special prosecutor. Unless he agrees to appoint one, the Senate should refuse to confirm him as attorney general of the United States.
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association which did not admit people of color, 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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