http://nlg.org/news/index.php Copyright 2008, NLG National Office NLG National Office en-US SPHPBLOG 0.4.8 http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080626-133816
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 26, 2008

Contacts:

Marjorie Cohn, NLG president, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923
Jeanne Mirer, NLG International Committee, mirerfam@earthlink.net, 313-515-2046
Dan Mayfield, NLG Military Law Task Force, dan@carpenterandmayfield.com, 408-287-1916

Today the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties continued its investigation into the role played by key administration lawyers in the development of aggressive interrogation techniques. This was the third hearing of this subcommittee on this topic. The witnesses who testified were former Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo; Cheney's former legal counsel and now chief of staff, David Addington; and Christopher Schroeder, professor at Duke Law School.

NLG President Marjorie Cohn had testified at the first subcommittee hearing on May 6, articulating the law of torture, and stating that torture is never allowed under U.S. law. Today’s hearing was attended by Jeanne Mirer, co-chair of the NLG’s International Committee.

Yoo's testimony revealed that the guiding principle of his work at the Justice Department was his belief in the overriding power of the President to order anything he thinks necessary in the "war on terror." When specifically asked, "Is there anything that the President cannot order?" Yoo answered "I believe there are things an American President WOULD not order." He was asked again, "Are there things the President COULD not order?" Yoo replied that he would "have to know the context." Dan Mayfield from the NLG Military Law Task Force stated, "This is consistent with Yoo's previous statement that the President could order torture of a person up to and including the crushing of the testicles of a person's son in order to make the person talk." When asked whether a President could order that someone be buried alive, Yoo's answer was non-responsive: "No American president would ever have to order that," he said.

While Yoo claimed there was little in the law which helped to define torture, Shroeder pointed out the wealth of guidance that exists in the areas of asylum and immigration law. Yoo admitted that the Convention Against Torture and the U.S. Torture Statute both define torture. Yet he wrote his memos to re-define torture so that those following his re-definition could state, "We do not torture." Marjorie Cohn said, "Yoo's memos so vastly narrowed the definition of torture, the interrogator would nearly have to kill someone for it to constitute torture."

Yoo and Addington were evasive, repeatedly stonewalling members of the subcommittee. The Justice Department evidently placed limitations on what Yoo was allowed to discuss, but he invoked privileges where it did not appear privilege was authorized. This led to Yoo's refusal to answer several direct questions. Jeanne Mirer stated, “The evasiveness of Yoo and Addington did not earn them credibility with the subcommittee, and frustrated many of the questioners. These tactics prevented the subcommittee from getting answers to the many important questions about the source of legal authority for the positions espoused in the 'torture memos' regarding aggressive interrogation techniques.”

The NLG has decried the use of torture techniques as well as efforts by lawyers to try to justify them. The NLG has called for holding accountable those who violated the law. While these hearings have helped to establish the record, there is a need for a full blown investigation which could lead to a call for criminal prosecution. The NLG calls for the appointment of an independent special prosecutor, and the establishment of a congressionally appointed commission to investigate potential wrongdoing, including the commission of war crimes, by high officials and lawyers of the Bush administration.

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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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080626-133816 NLG National Office Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:38:16 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080624-090840
June 24, 2008

Contact: Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 619-374-6923
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org; 212-679-5100,

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS ON SENATE TO VOTE “NO” ON ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE BILL, H.R. 6304

New York. The National Lawyers Guild condemns the passage by the House of Representatives of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) bill, H.R. 6304, and calls upon the Senate to stand up for the Fourth Amendment and vote “No” when the measure comes before that body for approval this week.

“Senator Feingold has said it well,” said Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild. “This is not a compromise measure; this is a total capitulation to the White House.”

The FISA bill passed by the House last week authorizes sweeping, untargeted surveillance of all electronic communications to and from this country. It also gives virtually complete immunity to the telephone companies who cooperate with the government and turn over personal telephone records for their customers without any notice to the consumer.

Under the House proposal, any member of Congress who is not on the Judiciary or Intelligence Committees will not have access to reports on the FISA surveillance. At the same time, the House bill wipes out any meaningful judicial review of the warrants issued to conduct the surveillance, creating an “exigent” circumstances exception that guts the Fourth Amendment. The special FISA court, which approves these warrants, will officially now be nothing but a rubber-stamp for the White House under the proposed measure.

Just two weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled against the administration for the third time in the Guantanamo detainee cases, reminding the nation that the so-called “War on Terror” is not a blank check for the President to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment. With this bill, the House of Representatives has handed the White House another blank check.

“The nation wants change. That is the message of this election. Let’s start meaningful change by ending secret government spying on Americans,” said Cohn.

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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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080624-090840 NLG National Office Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:08:40 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080606-074843
June 6, 2008
Contact: Hazel Weiser, SALT Executive Director, 631 650 2310, hweiser@saltlaw.org
Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, 619 374 6923, marjorie@tjsl.edu

On May 12, 2008, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), now a part of the Department of Homeland Security, conducted the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history at Agriprocessors, a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. Postville is the latest in a pattern of raids that has intensified in the past three years. With the help of state and local law enforcement, ICE arrested 389 workers, most of them from Guatemala and Mexico, nearly a third of all residents living in the town. The ICE raids came coincidentally after Agriprocessors had been issued 39 citations for alleged violations of state workplace safety and health standards, and after efforts to organize plant workers by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, according to Iowa newspapers.

In an unprecedented move, ICE criminally charged 302 of the workers with aggravated ID theft and/or for using false social security numbers. In a matter of days, with the workers held at various detention centers, ICE resolved the fate of most of these workers: 297 of these men and women pled guilty and were sentenced to prison and subsequent deportation. The uncharacteristic speed and efficiency of these proceedings left workers without adequate opportunity to consult with lawyers as they faced hard bargains from prosecutors. Hundreds of children were left not knowing about their parents’ fate. Only 44 workers were released to care for their children. As in past raids, these children are likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. In contrast to the fate of the workers, so far no one in Agriprocessors’ management has been charged, despite evidence that the company helped workers procure false documents, paid substandard wages, failed to pay overtime, and engaged in other types of grave worker mistreatment.

SALT and NLG deplore these raids that are creating a moral, legal, and humanitarian crisis in our nation. ICE’s heavy handed enforcement against undocumented workers in the wake of failed immigration reform is shameful. Immigration laws remain completely out of touch with reality, and the absence of labor protection for these workers leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. Under current immigration laws, no more than 10,000 backlogged permanent visas for unskilled workers and 66,000 temporary visas for seasonal workers are available per year, while an estimated 2,000 men, women, and children cross the Southwest border into the U.S. daily. An estimated 12 million undocumented persons live in the U.S. These workers come to the U.S. because of global economic realities that drive them out of their nations where they have no means for even subsistence living, and into low wage jobs in the U.S. While U.S. employers and consumers benefit from this source of cheap labor, undocumented workers and their children bear the brunt of a broken immigration system. The last immigration reform sought to stem the flow of illegal immigrants by sanctioning employers who knowingly hired undocumented workers. Enforcement has been sporadic and arbitrary. The financial incentives to employ workers who will be afraid to complain about substandard working conditions and violations of labor codes governing hours and wages are compelling. Few employers face civil or criminal sanctions for taking advantage of these laborers.

SALT and NLG also condemn ICE’s decision to criminally charge almost all of the arrested workers when few constitutional guarantees are available to them. Ordinarily, use of false Social Security numbers to engage in otherwise lawful conduct, such as to apply for jobs, is not pursued criminally. This unprecedented shift to criminalize workers for the use or possession of false work documents has not been accompanied by a comparable infusion of constitutional guarantees in the handling of these cases. ICE conducted the investigation leading to the Postville raid with easy-access to immigration databases and employee documents, by relying on informants, and then executed the raid with easily-procured administrative, not criminal, warrants. Thus, the protection of stricter Fourth Amendment search and seizure, Fifth Amendment due process, and Sixth Amendment right to counsel constitutional guarantees that apply to criminal investigations and arrests in judicial proceedings were unavailable to these workers. Moreover, the suppression remedy for illegally seized evidence or coerced confessions is quite limited in immigration proceedings. Overwhelmingly, most workers pled guilty in their criminal cases, and thus, relinquished any possibility of raising a Fourth Amendment challenge in court. These workers waived their Fourth Amendment and other due process guarantees under extreme prosecutorial pressure and with little opportunity for adequate legal representation.

SALT and NLG are also concerned about the consequences to communities of the involvement of local law enforcement in these raids. Already distrust of police keeps many immigrants from reporting crime, which increases their vulnerability as crime victims and as employees of unscrupulous employers. Moreover, these additional responsibilities drain limited resources and take local police away from their primary duties as community caretakers. Federal immigration enforcement by local police is constitutionally suspect, particularly in the absence of Congressional authorization.

SALT and NLG, therefore, urge the Department of Homeland Security to halt such raids immediately and to treat those still in detention humanely and in accordance with all due process guarantees available to criminal defendants. If ICE plans to charge workers as criminals, then ICE should procure lawful warrants based on probable cause for future workplace raids. SALT and NLG also call on courts to be vigilant in protecting the constitutional rights of workers and their families affected by the raids, and apply stricter constitutional guarantees when criminal charges are implicated. Congress should also seriously consider the implications of its trade and agricultural subsidies on developing nations and future migration flows. It is irresponsible to ignore the intersections of these policies. SALT and NLG call on Congress to adopt comprehensive immigration reform that offers a path to legalization to workers and their families. Such legislation must include strong labor protections while ensuring family unification.

Since 1973, the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) has been an independent organization of law teachers, deans, law librarians, and legal education professionals working to make the profession more inclusive, to enhance the quality of legal education, and to extend the power of legal representation to under-served individuals and communities. www.saltlaw.org

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. www.nlg.org
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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080606-074843 NLG National Office Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:48:43 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080605-080621 Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 619-374-6923 Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org; 212-679-5100, x11

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD SAYS POLITICS MOTIVATED DECISION IN CUBAN FIVE CASE

Two Judges on Three-Judge Panel Uphold Conspiracy to Commit Murder Conviction Despite Government’s Lack of Evidence

New York. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) believes that politics influenced yesterday’s federal appeals court decision upholding the convictions of five Cuban patriots accused of spying in the United States. The so-called Cuban Five were gathering information on U.S.-based exile groups planning terrorist actions against their island nation.

The court did, however, vacate the sentences of three of the Five, including two serving life terms. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals returned the three cases to a federal judge in Miami for re-sentencing based on findings that the three men had gathered no classified information.

The full 11th Circuit court in August 2006 upheld the convictions of the Five: Gerardo Hernández , Fernando González , René González , Ramon Labañino, and Antonio Guerrero. It rejected claims that their federal trial should have been moved out of Miami because widespread opposition to the Cuban government among Cuban-Americans would make it impossible to get a fair and impartial jury.

In the appeal ruled on yesterday, the Five challenged rulings on the suppression of evidence from searches conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, sovereign immunity, discovery procedures, jury selection, prosecutorial and witness misconduct, jury instructions, sufficiency of the evidence to support their convictions, and sentencing.

In this latest decision, the panel voted 2-1 to affirm the life sentence for Gerardo Hernández, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of four Miami-based pilots shot down by Cuban jets in 1996. In her 16-page dissent, Judge Phyllis Kravich wrote that the government failed to present evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hernández agreed to participate in a conspiracy to shoot down planes over international airspace, resulting in the deaths of four pilots from an anti-Castro organization, Brothers to the Rescue. The panel also affirmed Rene González's 15-year sentence for acting as a non-registered foreign agent and conspiracy to act as a non- registered foreign agent.

The panel vacated the life terms of Labañino and Guerrero, agreeing with their contentions that their sentences were improperly configured because no "top secret information was gathered or transmitted." The judges also vacated Fernando González's 19-year sentence because he was not a manager or supervisor of the network. The panel remanded these cases to the district court for re-sentencing.

After a trial that lasted six months, the Five were convicted in 2001 of acting as unregistered Cuban agents in the United States and of conspiracy to commit espionage for attempting to penetrate U.S. military bases. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit overturned the convictions in 2005, saying there should have been a change of venue. But the full court reversed that decision, 10-2.

"Conspiracy has always been the charge used by the prosecution in political cases," said NLG attorney Leonard Weinglass, who represents Guerrero. "In the case of the Five, the Miami jury was asked to find that there was an agreement to commit espionage. The government never had to prove that espionage actually happened. It could not have proven that espionage occurred. None of the Five sought or possessed any top secret information or US national defense secrets," Weinglass added. "The sentence for the conspiracy charge is the same as if espionage were actually committed and proven. That is how three got life sentences. The major charges in this case were all conspiracy related, the most serious being conspiracy to commit murder levied against Gerardo Hernández."

"Anti-Cuba sentiment has tainted all possibility of a fair trial for the Five since their original arrest and confinement, which the UN Rapporteur on Torture described as violating the Convention Against Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment," said NLG Executive Director Heidi Boghosian. "During the original trial, the Bush administration paid journalists to write unfavorable stories about Cuba. Anti-Cuban extremists tried to intimidate the jurors, and even prospective jurors admitted that they would be afraid to return not-guilty verdicts against the Five."

"For nearly 50 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against Cuba," said NLG President Marjorie Cohn. "In the face of this terrorism, the Cuban Five were gathering intelligence in Miami in order to prevent future terrorist acts against Cuba."

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.

For a list of national protests on behalf of the Cuban Five, please visit nlg.org/news or see below:

New York Emergency Protest
Friday, June 6, 5pm
26 Federal Plaza
Take the N/R to City Hall, 4/5/6 to Brooklyn Bridge, J/M to Chambers, A/C to Chambers, or 2/3 to Park Place

Los Angeles Emergency Protest to Free the Cuban Five Friday, June 6, 5pm Outside the CNN Building 6430 W. Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles (Corner Sunset & Cahuenga) For more info call 213-251-1025 or answerla@answerla.org .

San Francisco Demonstration
5 pm Friday, June 6
Protest: Powell and Market St.

NY/Tri-State Area Working Conference on the Cuban Five Hostos Community College 149th St. and Grand Concourse in the Bronx Take the 4,5,or 2 train to 149th and Grand Concourse Saturday, June 14 8am-REGISTRATION 9:30am-5:00pm-Conference
Speakers: Leonard Weinglass, Cuban 5 Legal Team A Representative of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five


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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080605-080621 NLG National Office Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:06:21 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080603-104408


Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 619-374-6923

Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org; 212-679-5100, x11

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD (NLG) URGES UNITED STATES TO SIGN AND RATIFY TREATY BANNING USE OF CLUSTER BOMBS

NLG Also Renews Its Call for the U.S. to Ratify Land Mine Treaty

New York. The National Lawyers Guild is disturbed to see that, once again, the rhetoric of the United States government about building peace and security is directly contradicted by its actions. While more than 100 countries met in Dublin and signed a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs, the United States, along with Russia, China and Israel, refused to participate in the conference that led to the treaty and have refused to sign it. The Guild calls on the United States to immediately sign and ratify the treaty, and also renews its call for the United States to ratify the land mine treaty as well.

Cluster bombs are particularly insidious munitions. First, they litter an area with hundreds of submunitions, known as "bomblets," which both kill and maim. Many of the bomblets do not explode on impact and, like land mines, lurk undetected until unfortunate civilians, often children, stumble on them or pick them up. While the State Department’s Stephen D. Mull had said that removing unexploded ordnance from a battlefield is “an absolute moral obligation,” he did not explain how that was to be accomplished. He also maintained that, for some unexplained reason, the United States needed to utilize cluster bombs as part of its national defense, as inconceivable as it may be to imagine the use of such bombs on U.S. soil. If countries that do not have enormous stockpiles of nuclear weapons, massive land, sea and air power, laser-guided smart bombs and missiles, drone planes and countless other weapons of death and destruction can agree to give up their cluster bombs, there is no reason the United States cannot also agree to cease using them.

In the interest of world peace, and as a means of gaining back a measure of its lost credibility in the international community, the National Lawyers Guild calls on the United States to sign and ratify the treaty banning the use of cluster bombs, and renews its call for the United States to ratify the land mine treaty.

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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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080603-104408 NLG National Office Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:44:08 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080523-131911
Contacts:
Brian Concannon Jr., Director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, 541-432-0597, brian@ijdh.org
Marjorie Cohn, President, NLG: libertad48@san.rr.com, (619) 374-6923

National Lawyers Guild Congratulates Raboteau Massacre Victims on Historic Victory

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) congratulates the victims of the Raboteau Massacre on their recent victory after a 14-year struggle in the courts of Haiti and the United States. On May 16, the victims received over $400,000 in court-awarded compensation.

NLG President Marjorie Cohn noted that “the Raboteau victims have provided all of us a lesson in fighting for justice. They have now won landmark cases in two countries from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the poorest country in the hemisphere. The Haitian prosecution in 2000 was one of the most important human rights cases anywhere in the Americas. The U.S. cases showed that persecutors and their money cannot hide from justice in the United States.”

The Raboteau Massacre was a joint military/paramilitary attack on a pro-democracy neighborhood during Haiti’s 1991-1994 de facto military dictatorship, carried out on April 22, 1994. With the help of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), a public interest law office in Port-au-Prince, the victims pursued senior military and paramilitary leaders in Haitian courts. The BAI is led by Mario Joseph, Haiti’s most respected human rights lawyer, and a member of the governing Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, an NLG affiliate.

The case was tried before a jury in Gonaives, Haiti, during six weeks in 2000. The jury convicted 53 soldiers and death squad members (37 of them in absentia), and the court awarded the victims 1 billion Haitian Gourdes (US $26.3 million) in damages. One of those convicted in absentia, Col. Carl Dorélien, a member of the de facto dictatorship’s Military High Command, fled to Florida after democracy was restored to Haiti in 1994. He later won $3.2 million in the Florida State Lottery.

The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) filed two civil suits against Dorélien in Florida. The first was filed in state court to enforce the Haitian judgment. The second was filed in a Miami Federal Court under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victims Protection Act on behalf of one of the survivors of the Raboteau Massacre and a former union leader, Lexiuste Cajuste, who was brutally tortured by the Haitian military in 1993. In 2007, the state court ruled that the Haitian judgment was enforceable in the U.S., and the jury in the Miami case awarded the Raboteau victims and Cajuste $4.3 million in damages. Dorélien has now exhausted all of his appeals.

“This case has been a model of international cooperation on human rights cases,” said Moira Feeney, an NLG member who spearheaded the case at CJA. “Attorney Joseph’s persistent preparation and the BAI’s victim-centered approach provided a strong foundation for building the cases in U.S. courts.”

“This day was a long time in coming, but it could not have come at a better time,” said NLG member Brian Concannon Jr., Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), who has worked on the case since 1995, with the United Nations, the BAI and IJDH. “With Haiti caught in a food crisis, the money will be a life-saver for some. With Haiti struggling through a democratic transition, the lesson that persistent, non-violent fighting for justice can bear fruit can be an inspiration for the whole country to work for a more stable and just future.”

The National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. It was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state. The Guild prepared the first two major human rights reports following the February 2004 coup d’état against Haiti’s elected government. Guild President Cohn has written extensively on the international law implications of the U.S.-supported 2004 coup d’état in Haiti.

The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux is a public interest law office serving Haiti’s poor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. http://www.ijdh.org/bureau.htm.

The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti is an Oregon-based human rights organization that works for constitutional democracy, justice and human rights in Haiti through litigation, information dissemination and grassroots advocacy. www.ijdh.org.

CJA is a San Francisco-based human rights organization dedicated to ending torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress. CJA uses litigation to hold perpetrators individually accountable for human rights abuses, develop human rights law and advance the rule of law in countries transitioning from periods of abuse. www.cja.org.

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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080523-131911 NLG National Office Fri, 23 May 2008 20:19:11 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080520-133643
Contact: Sara Sturtevant, NLG Queer Committee, sarasturtevant@gmail.com, 831-531-4342
Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 858-204-3565

National Lawyers Guild’s Queer Committee Celebrates California Supreme Court Decision on Same-Sex Marriage


New York. The National Lawyers Guild celebrates the California Supreme Court ruling of May 15, 2008 that it is unconstitutional to bar same-sex couples from marriage.

The Court ruled that marriage is a fundamental constitutional right, and laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation must be judged by the same high level of scrutiny as classifications based on race, sex, or religion. The court's application of the "strict scrutiny" standard to sexual orientation is a new and important standard of review.

The court found that the right to marry "constitutes a vitally important attribute of the fundamental interest in liberty and personal autonomy that the California Constitution secures to all persons." This inclusive decision means that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons are important members of the citizenry and may not be legislated into second class citizens by virtue of their sexual orientation.

The National Lawyers Guild applauds the court’s rejection of the “separate but equal” statutory scheme put forth in the form of domestic partnerships created by California’s state legislature. The court held that “affording same-sex couples only a separate and differently named family relationship will, as a realistic matter, impose appreciable harm on same-sex couples and their children, because denying such couples access to the familiar and highly favored designation of marriage is likely to cast doubt on whether the official family relationship of same sex couples enjoys dignity equal to that of opposite-sex couples…”

Public opinion about marriage equality has changed dramatically since the 2000 law limiting marriage to same-sex couples. In 2005, California's state legislature became the first in the nation to enact a same-sex marriage law without a court order compelling it to do so; Schwarzenegger later vetoed that law.

"This ruling is consistent with California’s constitution and democratic process," NLG Queer Committee co-chair and Aptos, California resident Sara Sturtevant said. "This is not an example of what many have described as 'judicial activism' overruling the voting public’s decision."

The Queer Caucus of the National Lawyers Guild appreciates Governor Schwarzenegger’s support in opposing the proposed referendum to amend the state’s constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. The governor has said that he respects the Court’s decision and as governor will uphold its ruling.

Sixty years after its landmark decision in Perez v. Sharp, making California the first state to strike down the ban on interracial marriage, the California Supreme Court has made history again as the second state court to overturn a ban on same-sex marriage. The Queer Caucus of the National Lawyers Guild congratulates the court on its landmark decision In re Marriage cases that finds its precedent in that first historic decision in Perez.

The National Lawyers Guild was 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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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080520-133643 NLG National Office Tue, 20 May 2008 20:36:43 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080512-145553
ISSUES WHITE PAPER ON TORTURE LIABILITY

Contacts:
Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 858-204-3565
Jeanne Mirer, NLG International Committee, mirerfam@earthlink.net; 313-515-2046

New York. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls on Congress to appoint a Special Prosecutor, independent of the Department of Justice, to investigate and prosecute high Bush officials and lawyers including John Yoo for their role in the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody.

The NLG has issued a White Paper explaining why the memos, which purported to give objective legal advice, subject all those involved to prosecution under international and U.S. domestic law. This includes people who ordered the torture, approved it or gave advice to justify it.

Guild President Marjorie Cohn testified on May 6 before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee, that some lawyers in the Department of Justice were "part of a common plan to violate U.S. and international laws outlawing torture."

The 14-page White Paper details the ways in which the lawyers, including Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, and William Haynes, counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes. The lawyers said that the Department of Justice would not enforce federal laws against torture, maiming, assault and stalking. "Just because the statute says," John Yoo explained in a recent Esquire interview, "that doesn't mean you have to do it."

Professor Cohn told the congressmen it was "reasonably foreseeable" the lawyers' advice "would result in great physical and mental harm or death to many detainees"; more than 100 have died, many from torture. Torture, like genocide, slavery and wars of aggression, is absolutely prohibited at all times. No country can ever pass a law that would allow them.

Professor Philippe Sands, a British international litigator and author of the new book, "Torture Team," also testified at the congressional hearing. He said that after his extensive interviews with many Bush officials, including John Yoo, "it became clear to me that the Administration has spun a narrative that is false, claiming that the impetus for the new interrogation techniques came from the bottom-up. That is not true; the abuse was a result of pressure and actions driven from the highest levels of government."

It was recently revealed that Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, George Tenet, and John Ashcroft met in the White House and personally oversaw and approved the torture by authorizing specific torture techniques including waterboarding. President Bush admitted he knew and approved of their actions.

"They are all liable under the War Crimes Act and the Torture Statute," Professor Cohn testified. "Under the doctrine of command responsibility, commanders, all the way up the chain of command to the commander-in-chief, are liable for war crimes if they knew or should have known their subordinates would commit them, and they did nothing to stop or prevent it. The Bush officials ordered the torture after seeking legal cover from their lawyers."

The National Lawyers Guild calls on Congress to appoint a Special Prosecutor, independent of the Department of Justice, to investigate and prosecute the high officials of the Bush administration and the lawyers who advised them, for their roles in misusing the rule of law and legal analysis to justify torture and other crimes.

The White Paper can be read at http://nlg.org/news/statements/NLGWhitePaper_Yoo.doc

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]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080512-145553 NLG National Office Mon, 12 May 2008 21:55:53 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080501-122821
Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, libertad48@san.rr.com, 858-204-3565
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org; 212-679-5100, x11

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD PRESIDENT TO TESTIFY ON TORTURE LIABILITY AT HEARING BEFORE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn will provide testimony at a hearing titled “From the Department of Justice to Guantánamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules,” before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee. The hearing will begin at 10:00 a.m. at 2141 Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.

Cohn is a Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, in which she documents the illegal policy of torture established by high officials of the Bush administration and lawyers in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, including former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo.

Yoo was also invited to testify at Tuesday's hearing but declined the invitation.

Testimony will also be provided by Philippe Sands, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at the University College London. Sands authored the book, Lawless World, in which he accuses George W. Bush and Tony Blair of conspiring to invade Iraq in violation of international law.

On April 9, 2008 the National Lawyers Guild called for John Yoo to be tried as a war criminal and for the University of California Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law to dismiss him for conspiring to facilitate the commission of war crimes. The Guild also called on Congress to repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give Yoo immunity from prosecution for torture committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005.

Cohn said, "John Yoo's complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the U.S. War Crimes Act." See Cohn's article at http://marjoriecohn.com/2008/04/center- ... ghts.html.

The National Lawyers Guild was 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.

###]]> http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080501-122821 NLG National Office Thu, 01 May 2008 19:28:21 GMT http://nlg.org/news/index.php?entry=entry080423-092007
Contact:
David Gespass, NLG International Committee, thepasss@aol.com, 205-323-5966 or 205-566-2530
Jeanne Mirer , NLG International Committee, mirerfam@earthlink.net, 212-473-8700
Abdeen Jabara, NLG International Committee, amjabara@aol.com

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD URGES ISRAEL TO PERMIT RICHARD FALK TO ENTER ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

New U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Barred from Entry

New York. The National Lawyers Guild calls on Israel to permit Richard Falk, an eminent and widely-respected law professor and scholar, to enter Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories it seized forty years ago and has held illegally ever since. Professor Falk was recently appointed as the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Israel has barred entry to Professor Falk, claiming he cannot be fair because of his prior condemnation of persistent and pervasive human rights violations carried out by Israel in the Occupied Territories. In fact, Professor Falk made no claims any different from those made by John Dugard, the man he was to replace, in several reports on conditions in the Occupied Territories.

The National Lawyers Guild is familiar with the Israeli practice of avoiding criticisms of its practices. The Guild has sent several delegations to the Middle East to investigate conditions there. The Israeli government has refused to meet with the Guild’s delegates because of their claimed hostility to the State of Israel. In fact, Guild delegations, like Professor Falk, are hostile only to violations of human rights and international law.

Over the years Israel has sought to deny admission to a host of academics, activists, and political figures, former President Jimmy Carter being the most recent. Others are subjected to long processing delays and humiliating body searches. A 1977 National Lawyers Guild Delegation to the Middle East saw four of its members singled out for strip searches. Many others had research and written materials confiscated either upon entry or leaving the country.

Professor Falk is not unlike many others, including Mr. Dugard, who have criticized the horrendous Israeli human rights record that has continued for more than forty years. It is this ongoing and escalating practice of human rights violations which Israel carries out with the blessing of the United States despite condemnation by the rest of the world that Israel must confront. It cannot do so, and should not be permitted to do so, by excluding its critics.

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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