Violent White Supremacists Threaten Basic Civil Rights—and Our Lives
Jesse Jackson | commondreams.org | 2019-08-27
Karina Cardoso and Linda Nevarez hold their cellphone flashlights up during an Aug. 4 vigil in El Paso for the victims of the Walmart shooting. (Photo: Lola Gomez/American-Statesman) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/phones.jpeg …
commondreams.org/views/2019/08/27/violent-white-supremacists-threaten-basic-civil-rights-and-our-lives?cd-origin=rss

Stripped of Their Rights
aclu.org | 2019-08-27
In 2011, guards at an Illinois prison violated the constitution when they carried out a mass strip-search of incarcerated women. | In March 2011, a tactical team of guards at a state prison in Lincoln, Illinois gathered 200 women and ushered them into a gymnasium, where they were brought in small groups into a separate room nearby. Inside that room, they were told to strip naked in plain view of other guards, cadets, and civilians, without any explanation. Women on their periods were ordered to remove their tampons and sanitary pads. One-by-one, each woman was ordered to lift her breasts, cough and squat, and dis…
aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/women-prison/stripped-their-rights

New Resource Tool Sheds Light on Government's Prepublication Review System
aclu.org | 2019-08-27
Millions of current and former government employees are subjected to this far-reaching censorship system. | This piece was originally published in Just Security. | For more than three years, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have been litigating a series of Freedom of Information Act requests relating to "prepublication review." Under this far-reaching censorship system, millions of current and former government employees, con…
aclu.org/blog/free-speech/employee-speech-and-whistleblowers/new-resource-tool-sheds-light-governments

Arrest, Release, Repeat: New Report Exposes Vicious Cycle of Imprisonment
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-27
| Robert McCoy has a 78-page rap sheet that includes 80 arrests and five prison sentences. He was paroled to New York City in June 2018 after spending over 11 years in prison. Determined to stop the cycle of arrests and incarcerations stemming from his past drug use, he found both a job and a bed in a homeless shelter. But, three weeks into his job as a dishwasher, he dropped a piece of machinery onto his foot, leaving him unable to work. | Two months later, he was in midtown Manhattan when he…
truthout.org/articles/arrest-release-repeat-new-report-exposes-vicious-cycle-of-imprisonment/

Landmark victory: Johnson & Johnson forced to pay $572 million for their role in the opioid epidemic
Alexandra Jacobo | nationofchange.org | 2019-08-27
With still thousands of cases pending against Big Pharma companies for their role in the opioid epidemic, a landmark ruling in Oklahoma is holding one company accountable. | A judge in Oklahoma, where the first lawsuit filed against opioid makers and distributors went to trial, has ruled that Johnson and Johnson must pay $572 million for its part in flooding the state with opioids. | The state of Oklahoma had previously settled with other drug manufacturers Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical earlier this year. | "Those actions compromised the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans," said Judge Thad Ba…
nationofchange.org/2019/08/27/landmark-victory-johnson-johnson-forced-to-pay-572-million-for-their-role-in-the-opioid-epidemic/

Ex-Google Engineer Charged in Uber Self-Driving Theft Case
Staff | truthdig.com | 2019-08-27
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A former Google engineer was charged Tuesday with stealing closely guarded secrets that he later sold to Uber as the ride-hailing service scrambled to catch up in the high-stakes race to build robotic vehicles. | The indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Jose, California, is an offshoot of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Waymo, a self-driving car pioneer spun off from Google. Uber agreed to pay Waymo $245 million to settle the case, but the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit made an unusual recommendation to
truthdig.com/articles/ex-google-engineer-charged-in-uber-self-driving-theft-case/

Selected Articles: Amazonia in Flames — Brazil's Bolsonaro Is a World Criminal
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-27
Online independent analysis of US-led wars, rampant corruption, corporate greed, civil rights and fraudulent monetary transactions is invariably relegated to the bottom rung of search engine results. | As a result we presently do not cover our monthly running costs which …
globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-amazonia-flames-brazil-bolsonaro-world-criminal/5687259

19 States and DC Sue Trump Over 'Cruel, Immoral, and Illegal' Plan to Detain Migrant Children Indefinitely
Jake Johnson, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2019-08-27
"We're taking the Trump administration to court to defend children from the irreparable harm caused by unlawful detention." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-9787825282_2.png …
commondreams.org/news/2019/08/27/19-states-and-dc-sue-trump-over-cruel-immoral-and-illegal-plan-detain-migrant?cd-origin=rss

Fired for Being Trans or for Violating Dress Code? Supreme Court Will Decide
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-27
| Earlier this month, the Trump administration told the U.S. Supreme Court that federal employment anti-discrimination laws do not protect LGBTQ workers. This fall, the justices will hear a trio of cases on the matter and decide whether they agree. | The administration made the arguments in a brief filed in one of those three cases: that of
truthout.org/articles/fired-for-being-trans-or-for-violating-dress-code-supreme-court-will-decide/

Immigrants hold four days of protest outside Mexican detention center
wsws.org | 2019-08-26
Two hundred protesters staged sit-ins and blocked vans with migrants bound for deportation.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/26/mexi-a26.html

Breaking The Media Blackout on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange
Mnar Muhawesh | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-26
The same media that has spent years dragging Assange's name through the mud is now engaging in a blackout on his treatment. If you are waiting for corporate media pundits to defend freedom of the press, you're going to be disappointed.
mintpressnews.com/media-blackout-imprisonment-espionage-act-julian-assange/261510/

Germany: A politically motivated verdict in Chemnitz refugee trial
wsws.org | 2019-08-26
A 24-year-old refugee from Syria has been jailed for years, so that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the extremist mob, which rampaged in Chemnitz last summer, can claim their victim.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/26/alaa-a26.html

Family mourns 18-year-old killed by East LA Sheriffs
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-08-26
Los Angeles, CA – On August 23, over 70 people, including the family of Paul Rea, gathered for a memorial. 18-year-old Rea was shot and killed by East Los Angeles Sheriffs on June 27, after a minor traffic infraction. The East LA sheriff's station is currently under FBI investigation. Since 2014, there have been lawsuits against and reports that there is a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department gang called Los Bandidos. Additionally, East LA sheriffs have a long history of brutalizing and murdering Chicanos. | The event featured tacos cooked on site and drinks, all at no cost to participants. Chairs, tables and fl…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/8/26/family-mourns-18-year-old-killed-east-la-sheriffs

'About Damn Time': In First of Thousands of Lawsuits Against Big Pharma, Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572M for Flooding Oklahoma With Opioids
Common Dreams staff | commondreams.org | 2019-08-26
In the first decided case against a corporation accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic in the U.S., the personal care and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson was ordered on Monday to pay $572 million in fines. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/oxy.jpg …
commondreams.org/news/2019/08/26/about-damn-time-first-thousands-lawsuits-against-big-pharma-johnson-johnson-ordered?cd-origin=rss

Newark's Water Crisis is One of Thousands That Are Worse Than Flint's
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-25
Lead poisoning is a public health emergency in poor working class communities across the United States, raising crime rates, causing school dropouts, filling our prisons and creating human tragedy…
therealnews.com/stories/newarks-water-crisis-is-one-of-thousands-that-are-worse-than-flints

Apple and Samsung sued over 'cancer risk' from cell phone radiation
rt.com | 2019-08-25
Apple and Samsung have been hit with a class-action lawsuit over claims that their phones expose users to radio frequency emissions up to 500 percent beyond federal limits. Meanwhile the health debate around smartphones heats up. | Filed following an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, the lawsuit alleges that the Radio Frequency (RF) emissions of a number of Apple and Samsung phones — among them the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and Galaxy S8 — "far exceed federal guidelines." The risks of such radiati…
rt.com/usa/467274-apple-samsung-cancer-lawsuit/

Will North Carolina's Supreme Court Allow Racism to Remain a Persistent Factor in its Death Penalty?
aclu.org | 2019-08-23
North Carolina's Supreme Court will determine whether evidence of racism in capital punishment can be swept under the rug. | In 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act (RJA), which allowed defendants to strike the death penalty from their cases if they could show that racial discrimination was a factor in their prosecution. The law came as a response to a series of exonerations of Black people who were falsely convicted of crimes they did not commit by all-white or nearly all-white juries. The legislature took a bold step to address was what suspected to be deeply troubling evidence of racism infe…
aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment/racial-disparities-and-death-penalty/will-north-carolinas-supreme-court

'Crime does pay': CNN hires disgraced ex-FBI director Andrew McCabe
rt.com | 2019-08-23
What does one get for leaking to the media, lying to federal investigators about it, and allegedly participating in a plot to derail an American election? If you answered jail time, too bad. The correct answer is a job at CNN. | …
rt.com/usa/467172-mccabe-cnn-russiagate-hoax/

Israel's Online Occupation of Palestine
Miriam Deprez | progressive.org | 2019-08-23
How a Facebook post can land you in prison.
progressive.org/dispatches/israels-online-occupation-of-palestine-deprez-190823/

Statewide protest says 'Black Lives Matter'
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-23
Indigenous rights Zebedee ParkesIssue 1234 Australia #Black Lives Matter justice SydneyAugust 23, 2019Aboriginal rights activis…
greenleft.org.au/content/state-wide-protest-says-black-lives-matter

Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's War Against Migrant Families as U.S. Moves to Indefinitely Jail Kids
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an old Walmart where the government was detaining about 1,500 immigrant children in Brownsville, Texas.
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/jeff_merkley_trump_administration_child_separation

A Louisiana Parish Jailed a U.S. Citizen for Being Latinx. We're Suing
aclu.org | 2019-08-22
Officers in a Louisiana jail held a U.S. citizen for four days on an immigration hold simply because of his skin color and name. | Ramon Torres had been a U.S. citizen for nearly ten years when he was detained for four days on an immigration hold — despite having a U.S. passport, a Louisiana driver's license, and a Social Security card, and despite that fact that a court ordered his release. | Torres' ordeal began in August 2018, when he was pulled over and arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Torres, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2009, was carrying multiple forms of identification, inclu…
aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/louisiana-parish-jailed-us-citizen-being-latinx-were

Los Angeles County Votes to Stop Construction of New Jail-Like Facility, Adding Momentum to National Abolition Movement
Francisco Aviles Pino | theintercept.com | 2019-08-22
"A jail is a jail is a jail. It is not enough to change the name of the facility," said LA Board of Supervisors member Heidi Solis.
theintercept.com/2019/08/22/los-angeles-county-mental-health-facility-abolition/

Warren Apologizes to Native Americans; Sanders Backs Rescinding Medals for Wounded Knee Massacre
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-22
This week 10 Democratic candidates and one independent in the 2020 presidential race, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, addressed indigenous communities at the first-ever Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. During the two-day event, candidates individually answered questions from a panel of tribal leaders and Native American youth and elders on issues including treaty rights, voter suppression, and murdered and missing indigenous women.
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/22/frank_lamere_native_american_presidential_forum

An Arizona Law Requires Surveillance of People Who Are Presumed Innocent
aclu.org | 2019-08-21
The government cannot take shortcuts around constitutional rights. | A pillar of our democracy is the presumption of innocence: before a person has been convicted of a crime, they are considered completely innocent under the law. Yet across the country, people who have not been convicted are punished–both explicitly and implicitly–based on the mistaken assumption that they are dangerous, purely on the basis of an accusation. We do not live in a society where you can be incarcerated or monitored simply because you have been accused of a crime. Doing so violates constitutional rights, fuels mass incarce…
aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/arizona-law-requires-surveillance-people-who-are

Over 500 Lawsuits Already Filed Days After Child Victims Act in New York Goes into Effect
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-21
This is Part 2 of our conversation with two New York state legislators, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who helped pass the Child Victims Act in New York. The state law, which went into effect last week, extends the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse and includes a "lookback period," giving survivors of any age a year to take legal action even if their cases had expired under the old statute of limitations. Over 500 lawsuits have already been filed. Both Biaggi and Niou are sexual abuse survivors, and they have spoken about the importance of the Child Victims Act in personal…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/21/child_victims_act_biaggi_niou

Trump is Taking More Money for Raids and Detention. Congress Should Stop Him
aclu.org | 2019-08-19
Without congressional checks, ICE and CBP will continue to overspend and overstep. | 08/27/19 Update: Congress made public today a document outlining the Department of Homeland Security's plan to take nearly $280 million in funds meant for FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the TSA, among other critical priorities. Over $115 million of these funds will go towards President Trump's growing detention and deportations of immigrants, with the rest being used for sham border courts to support Trump's n…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/trump-taking-more-money-raids-and-detention

Activist Scott Warren, Facing Federal Charges for Aiding Migrants, Says He Won't Be Deterred
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-19
We broadcast live from Tucson, Arizona, where the government recently put humanitarian activist Scott Warren on trial amid the ongoing policing of the U.S.-Mexico border, separation of families, and cruel and inhumane conditions at immigrant jails across the country. Warren, a longtime volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was charged with three felony counts for his alleged crime of providing food, water and shelter to migrants in Ajo, Arizona. The immigrants had arrived at the doorstep of a humanitarian shelter after a perilous journey across the Sonoran Desert. At the same time, he and othe…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/no_more_deaths_scott_warren

"Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime": No More Deaths Volunteers Drop Water in Desert to Aid Migrants
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-19
Volunteers with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths have been venturing into the harsh Sonoran Desert for years to leave life-saving supplies for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Longtime volunteer Scott Warren was charged with three felonies for the alleged crime of providing food, water and shelter to migrants. After a hung jury in June, he is now facing retrial on two felony counts and faces a possible 10 years in prison. As he awaits his next trial as well as deals with misdemeanor charges in another case of aiding migrants, Democracy Now! followed him into the Sonoran Desert for his first trip…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/humanitarian_aid_is_never_a_crime

US Trained Honduran Police Get Medieval as Political Prisoner Edwin Espinal Released
Adrienne Pine | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-16
The Honduran corruption canard keeps the focus on police resources and individuals rather than on the pangs of privatization, and so it is often the line favored by the U.S. State Department.
mintpressnews.com/honduras-political-prisoner-edwin-espinal-released-us-trained-police-medieval/261374/

The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person
aclu.org | 2019-08-15
How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…
aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/pregnancy-and-parenting-discrimination/challenges-breastfeeding-black-person

The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs
SAMIR | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-15
The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs: PACBI StatementConne Island, Golden Pudel and : //about blank are complicit in Israel's oppression of Palestinians | Cultural Boycott Right To BoycottAugust 15, 2019…
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-calls-to-boycott-three-german-clubs

SPLC publishes Opportunity Costs: Unequal Justice in Alabama's Community Corrections Programs
splcenter.org | 2019-08-15
A new investigative report published today by the Southern Poverty Law Center reveals serious flaws in Alabama's community corrections programs, an otherwise promising system for diverting people from the state's prisons.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/15/splc-publishes-opportunity-costs-unequal-justice-alabamas-community-corrections-programs

BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide
patrick | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-14
BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide: BNC StatementOur nonviolent movement opposes all forms of racism and racial discrimination. | Right To BoycottAugust 14, 2019 | By: | | Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) …
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-condemns-antisemitic-fascist-forces-germany-and-worldwide

Expanding Involuntary Confinement is Not the Answer to Solve Gun Violence
aclu.org | 2019-08-13
Institutionalizing people against their will is usually a mistake. | In the wake of last weekend's tragic shootings, President Trump did what he does best: stoked fear and cast blame. He proclaimed that "we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people, not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement." | There are two things wrong with the idea of involuntary commitment as a solution to gun violence. First, focusing on people with identifiable mental disabilities won't help. The data is clear: men…
aclu.org/blog/disability-rights/integration-and-autonomy-people-disabilities/expanding-involuntary

Unequal Justice: John Roberts' Dark Legacy of Voter Suppression
Bill Blum | progressive.org | 2019-08-13
Plaintiffs are litigating voting rights cases in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and several other states. Some will succeed, some will fail, but all will be more uncertain and expensive thanks to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
progressive.org/dispatches/unequal-justice-john-roberts-dark-legacy-of-voter-suppression-blum-190812/

Weekend Read: Neo-Nazi leader must pay more than $14 million in damages
splcenter.org | 2019-08-10
A federal judge has ruled in an SPLC lawsuit that neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin must pay more than $14 million in damages for using his website to launch an antisemitic campaign of terror against a Jewish woman and her family.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/10/weekend-read-neo-nazi-leader-must-pay-more-14-million-damages

New Civil Rights Memorial to be installed on 54th anniversary of Voting Rights Act
splcenter.org | 2019-08-05
Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by Alabama state troopers during a peaceful voting rights march on Feb. 18, 1965.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/06/new-civil-rights-memorial-be-installed-54th-anniversary-voting-rights-act