Archives for February 2023

The Supreme Court sleeps on defending boycotts and the right to political expression

Published by Cody Bloomfield: Defending Rights & Dissent

In an absurd ruling, the Eighth Circuit denied that boycotts are political expression. Now, the Supreme Court has denied writ of certiorari, letting the Eighth Circuit’s ruling in Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip stand. This is a missed opportunity for the Supreme Court to take a stand for the proud tradition of political boycott in the United States.

The FBI, Anti-Globalization Protests, and FOIA Deception

Published by Chip Gibbons: Defending Rights & Dissent

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, international financial summits, like the IMF and the World Bank, attracted masses of protesters. In many cases, protesters engaged in civil disobedience. They were also met with brutal repression by police that included physical violence and illegal arrests. The media helped peddle police narratives that painted them as violent rioters engaged in senseless destruction for destruction’s sake. The reality is that protesters were victims of police riots.

Trump, Pence and Biden won’t be punished — but Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner went to prison

By Jesselyn Radack – Kathleen McClellan: Salon.com

What happened to whistleblowers like our client Daniel Hale never happens to high-level government officials

We can now add Vice President Mike Pence to the list of former presidents and vice presidents who have had classified information found in their homes. While there are marked differences between Donald Trump intentionally keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and refusing to cooperate with authorities, and Pence and Joe Biden’s apparent discovery of classified documents that inadvertently ended up in their homes — and were returned voluntarily and promptly — the commonality between these cases and others involving high-level officials is the lack of serious punishment.