National • News & Public Affairs
Law and Disorder is a weekly, independent radio program airing on several stations across the United States. Law and Disorder gives listeners access to rare legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and the horrendous practices of torture exercised by the US government.
Law and Disorder is a weekly, independent radio program airing on several stations across the United States. Law and Disorder gives listeners access to rare legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and the horrendous practices of torture exercised by the US government.
This program examines the political forces and legislation that are moving the United States into a police state. Four of the top progressive attorneys and activists host the program and bring an amazing, diverse line up of guests from grassroots activists to politically mindful authors. Most importantly, Law and Disorder brings access to attorneys who give insights to some of the most controversial cases. Law and Disorder will sometimes be the generator of news within the radio echo-chamber throughout the country.
Program website – http://www.lawanddisorder.org/
Recent Episodes
July 27, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Charges Dropped Against Pipeline Activists; and Continued Erosion Of Voting Rights In The United States
The climate movement won a significant victory on July 13 when all charges were dropped against 16 pipeline protesters and a journalist. The local district attorney in Saint Martinsville, Louisiana rejected all criminal charges and vowed not to prosecute them for alleged violations of Louisianas anti-protest amendments to their critical infrastructure law. The Bayou Bridge pipeline is the tail end of the infamous 1172 mile long Dakota access pipeline which brings dirty oil from North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico. Guest - Attorney Pam Spees, one of the team of attorneys that handled the criminal defense case.
We are in the middle of a second great disenfranchisement in America. The first was after the Civil War reconstruction ended and Black people were stripped of their right to vote and their ability to hold office. This disenfranchisement lasted almost 100 years until the modern civil rights movement of the 1960s. Legislatures in Republican run states are imposing new voting restrictions particularly on non-white voters. The Brennan Center found that as of June 20th, 17 states enacted 28 new laws restricting the ability to vote since the start of the year. Guest - Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she taught from 1991-2016, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild.
ListenJuly 20, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Source For The Intercept Outed, Faces 10 Years In Prison; and Aerial Investigation Research Pilot Program And Persistent Tracking
In 2019 the Department of Justice indicted Daniel Hale"a former intelligence analyst for the U.S. Air Force and NSA"for giving classified national defense information to Jeremy Scahill for the online publication The Intercept. The events in question took place between 2013 and 2015. In late March, Daniel pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Many have criticized the Intercept for its failure of source protection. Guest - William Neuheisel, the Development and Program Manager for the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program, (WHISPeR), at ExposeFacts.
As the nation erupts in protests against racially-infused police violence, the Baltimore Police Department has just launched a six-month, day-time aerial surveillance experiment. A Texas billionaire has funded the project. The plane flies overhead and records the movements of everyone in the city. Michael Harrison, Baltimore Police Commissioner, has justified the nearly $4 million experiment by saying, There is no expectation of privacy on a public street, a sidewalk. Guest " ACLU Senior Staff attorney David Rocah has worked on a number of significant cases involving free speech, police misconduct, privacy, election law and more.
ListenJuly 13, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim by Professor Richard Falk; and In Defense of Whistleblowers: Attorney Sarah Alexander
If we are ever to have a world not threatened by catastrophic climate change and devastating nuclear war we will need a world governed by respect for the rule of law, democracy, and the democratic right of peoples to self- determination. After the World War II, the United Nations was established in 1945 in an effort to prevent future wars. In this it has failed. Michael Ratner, a founder of Law And Disorder Radio and who practiced human rights law internationally, used to say that you cannot have imperialism abroad and democracy at home. Guest - International Law Professor Richard Falk who is still teaching and going strong at age 90. He has recently had published his magnificent memoir titled Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim. Professor Falk is a leading international law professor, prominent activist, public author, and a pioneer thinker dedicated to peace and justice.
James Glenn was working for NetDesign, a Cisco Systems reseller in Denmark when he came across a vulnerability in software made for a line of Cisco's video surveillance cameras. The flaw made it easy for would-be hackers to access the systems running the devices and to penetrate the systems on a deeper level. Glenn learned the cameras and software were still being used by the Los Angeles International Airport in 2010. He spoke with law enforcement personnel about his concerns regarding LAX. Cisco failed to fix the vulnerability until an updated version of the software was released in 2012. It took the company 3 more years to release a security advisory to companies using the flawed version of the software. Whistleblowers frequently lose their jobs and suffer significant personal hardships as a result of coming forward on behalf of the publics interest. Guest - Attorney Sarah Poppy Alexander of the law firm Constantine, Cannon. Poppy represents whistleblowers and government entities in so called qui tam lawsuits in both federal and state court, as well as under the IRS and Securities and Exchange Commissions whistleblower programs.
Read MoreJuly 6, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s License To Practice Law Suspended; and The Capital Riot Aftermath Evaluation: Attorney Margaret Ratner-Kunstler
Two weeks ago former president Donald Trumps attorney Rudy Giulianis license to practice law was suspended The disciplinary committee found that Giulianis conduct immediately threatened the public interest in warranted interim suspension for the practice of law. Giuliani became the first attorney to experience professional consequences for perpetuating lies about fraud in the 2020 election. Guest - Professor and attorney Ellen Yaroshefsky, one of the signatories to one of the complaints against Giuliani. Professor Yaroshefsky is the Howard Lichtenstein professor of legal ethics at Hofstra Law School and the Director of the Monroe Friedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics.
People and organizations supporting Trump and egged on by him ransacked the Capital on January 6. The military was an active participant by refusing cars to intervene to stop the invasion of the building, Barry Shepard wrote in Green Left Weekly. They stood by for some four hours. Eventually it was the Washington DC police who finally ended it. Guest - human rights attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler who has worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights and is the editor of the recent book In Defense of Julian Assange.
ListenJune 29, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Building Support To Free Wikileaks’ Julian Assange; and Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class
Julian Assange's crime was to expose the war crimes, murder, and the inner workings of the American empire to the world press. He might pay for this embarrassment with his life. James Goodale, who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon papers case, commented, The charge against Assange for conspiracy with a source is the most dangerous I can think of with respect to the first amendment in all my years representing media organizations. Guest - John Shipton, Julians father who is visiting the United States from his native Australia touring to raise support for his victimized son.
We need to know our enemy because the task of changing society begins with understanding who holds power. In 1915 the great Irish socialist James Connolly said, O, yes! The ruling class are worthy of study. You realize that " the capitalist class is the meanest class that ever grasped the reins of power. Jacobin magazines Spring 2021 issue is devoted entirely to an examination of the ruling class. Guest " Doug Henwood who has an article in Jacobin titled Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class and is the editor of Left Business Review and the host of the radio program Behind the News.
Read MoreJune 22, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
NSA Whistleblower Released From Texas Prison; and Channeling the Past: Politicizing History in Postwar America
Former NSA contractor Reality Leigh Winner was released on good behavior from a Texas prison on June 2. Winner, a former Air Force linguist, leaked a top-secret report detailing hacks by Russian intelligence operatives against local election officials and a company that sold voter registration software. Reality Winner entered a guilty plea to a single felony count of unauthorized transmission of national defense information in 2018. Guest - Alison Grinter Allen, who is Reality's attorney
History is constantly being reshaped especially by those with the resources to do so. According to Professor Erik Christiansen, as new channels of mass communication emerged on the heels of World War II, elite communities in the media, commerce, and government mined examples from history to create their own propaganda. Through a range of techniques, aided greatly by television, they advanced their respective agendas, from commerce to politics. Guest - Erik Christiansen, professor of history and public history coordinator at Rhode Island College.
ListenJune 15, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Attorney Ron Kuby Updates On Donziger Trial; and Building Support To Free Wikileaks’ Julian Assange
Three weeks ago, environmental attorney Steven Donzigers Chevron-funded trial for misdemeanor contempt trial drew to a close. Steven and his defense team are now waiting for what they claim is an inevitable verdict of guilty by Chevron-linked Judge Loretta Preska. The defense team is preparing for its expected appeal after Preska delivers her ruling. They are following up on, and researching, additional revelations of corruption by Chevron and their high-paid lawyers. Guest - Attorney Ron Kuby, who along with his law partner Rhiya Trevedi and noted First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus, comprise the Donziger defense team.
Whistle blowing Australian journalist and the publisher of WikiLeaks Julian Assange sits in a jail cell in solitary confinement in London's infamous Belmarsh prison. There he awaits the decision of the British High Court as to whether at the behest of the Trump and now Biden administrations he will be extradited to the Eastern District of Virginia to stand trial on 17 counts of espionage under the recently resurrected 1917 Espionage Act. Julian Assanges crime was to expose the war crimes, murder, and the inner workings of the American empire to the world press. He might pay for this embarrassment with his life. Guest - John Shipton, Julian's father who is visiting the United States from his native Australia touring to raise support for his victimized son.
ListenJune 8, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Flint Taylor Updates On The Marcus Smith Case In Greensboro, NC; and Phyllis Bennis: The Influence Of Think Tanks And IPS
Police in America kill more than 1500 citizens a year. That's more than three a day and they're disproportionately Black. The latest outrageous case has come to the national fore in Greensboro, North Carolina where eight white cops killed Marcus Smith two years ago by hogtying him causing him to suffocate to death . Now they are being sued and they're trying to cover it up and trying to silence the Smith family's attorney Flint Taylor, drive him out of the state, and sanction him with heavy financial penalties. So instead of banning hogtying, settling the case with the Smith family and issuing an apology, they are trying to silence the messenger. Guest - Flint Taylor of the Peoples Law Office is a nationally recognized civil rights attorney. He represented the family of Fred Hampton against the Chicago Police Department and the FBI for the assassination of the young Black Panther leader. He's author of The Killing Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago. He is one of the editors of the Police Misconduct Law Reporter.
With the growth of globalization on the heels of the Cold War, entities called Think Tanks grew rapidly during the late 1980s. Now, there are nearly 2,000 think tanks in the United States alone. Not surprisingly, more than 400 are located in the nation's capital, with ready access to key policymakers. These entities play an outsized role in shaping the world we live in. While many think tanks are nonprofit organizations, some especially high-profile ideological ones advocate solutions that benefit their corporate donors. Often they are criticized for crossing the line between research and lobbying. Some think tanks, such as the Rand Corporation, receive direct government assistance; most others are funded by private individuals or corporate donors. Guest " Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she is she is the director of the New Internationalism Project and works on anti-war, US foreign policy and Palestinian rights issues. Her books including Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Todays UN, and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
ListenJune 1, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Palestine Legal Director Speaks On Recent Israel-Palestine Conflict; and The Dallas 6: Andre Jacobs
Zionism, the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was and is a settler colonial project that started 100 years ago. But Zionism had a problem, an early Zionist Congress in Vienna sending three rabbis to Palestine to report on what they saw. Palestine was densely populated and had been for thousands of years. It was not a land without a people for a people without a land. The Zionist goal then and now was to get rid of the Arabs. In this they have almost succeeded. But not quite. Guest " Dima Khalidi, founder and Director of Palestine Legal. Her work includes providing legal advice to activists, engaging in advocacy to protect their rights to speak out for Palestinian rights, and educating activists and the public about the repression of Palestine advocates.
The Dallas 6 are Andre Jacobs, Anthony Kelly, Anthony Locke, Dwayne Peters, Derek Stanley, and Carrington Keys. The six men were forced to remain in the Restrictive Housing Unit, or solitary confinement for up to ten years. They're a group of prisoners who in 2010 protested the ongoing abuse from prison guards while locked in solitary confinement at the SCI Dallas prison in Pennsylvania. Abuse there included tasering genitals, being hog tied, cutting off of clothes and leaving the men in cages for hours at a time. Guest - Andre Jacobs, Andre served more than two decades in prison, was the victim of prolonged and tortuous prison guard abuse, became a successful jailhouse lawyer, and has been released from prison.
ListenMay 25, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs
Steven Donziger Trial: Continuing Coverage Part 2; and Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class
After five days in court and 650 days on house arrest, environmental lawyer Steven Donziger chose not to take the stand and testify in his own defense for criminal contempt of court charges. Judge Loretta Preska denied Steven a trial by jury, and many contend that a jury of his own peers might have acquitted the human rights defender of all six counts. Guest " Attorney Martin Garbus, one of three pro bono lawyers representing Donziger in an attempt to get his law license restored.
The ruling class are worthy of study. You begin with interest, you proceed with awe and admiration, you deepen into hatred, and you wind up with contempt for the nature of the beast. You realize that " the capitalist class is the meanest class that ever grasped the reins of power. Guest - Doug Henwood has an article in Jacobin titled Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class. Doug Henwood is the editor of Left Business Review and the host of the radio program Behind the News.
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