March 2, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Activists Face Felony Charges In Action Denouncing Elijah McClain Murder; and The Current Risk of Nuclear War And Treaty Restoration

On September 17, 2020 at least six anti-racist activists were arrested in an action denouncing the Colorado police, notably for the murder of Elijah McClain. In the summer of 2019, three Aurora Colorado police officers put 23-year-old McClain in a chokehold and medics injected him with ketamine. The social justice activists now face a litany of felony charges, and possible decades in prison, on charges that include kidnapping.

When Donald Trump was president, the Democrats called him Putin's poodle. They falsely claimed that Russia influenced the election and caused Hillary Clinton to lose to Trump. Clinton famously said all roads lead to Russia. But the truth of the matter was quite different. Despite Trump seemingly adoration of Vladimir Putin as a strong man, American policy towards Russia was not completely friendly. The question now is what will Biden do?

February 23, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Chris Hedges: Donald Trump Acquittal, Going Forward; and ICC Investigation Into War Crimes Proceeds

Before going to prison Trumps attorney and fixer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Trump would never leave office peaceably. Trump instigated an insurrection on January 6th. His plan appears to be that he would get his followers to prevent the ballot certification of Biden as president and cause enough mayhem to declare martial law. The marauders that he sent to the Capitol hunted for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence and roamed the halls chanting Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence.

In 2015, the State of Palestine became a member of the International Criminal Court and granted the Court jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, since June 13, 2014. The Prosecutor of the ICC opened a preliminary examination into crimes committed in Palestine on January 16, 2015, and the State of Palestine referred the case for investigation in May 2018. During the preliminary examination, Palestinian human rights organizations and victims made submissions describing war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli officials, including in relation to the 2014 military offensive on Gaza.

February 16, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Attorney Jim Lafferty On Trump’s Impeachment Case; and Chris Hedges Interviews Michael Smith On Michael Ratner’s Autobiography

According to a study by The Chicago Project published last week in the Atlantic magazine the Capitol rioters weren't like other extremist. Most of them were middle-aged and middle class. Forty percent of them were business owners or had white-collar jobs as CEOs, shop owners, doctors, even lawyers. Only 9% of them belong to paramilitary groups The overwhelming reason the rioters cited again and again in court documents was that they were following Trumps orders to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election. They believed Trumps big lie that the election was stolen.

We hear the interview Chris Hedges conducted with Michael Smith on his RT show On Contact about civil rights attorney Michael Ratner's recently published memoir, "Moving the Bar " My Life as A Radical Lawyer". Michael Ratner was one of the most important civil rights attorneys in our era. He spent his life fighting on behalf of those who state and empire sought to crush, from the leaders of the prison uprising at Attica to Muslim prisoners held in Guantanamo, to Julian Assange.

February 9, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Paul Robeson: Ballad of an American by Sharon Rudahl; and Constitutional Scholar Stephen Rohde On Impeachment

Paul Robeson, like John Brown before him and Malcolm X after him, was an American of great courage and great accomplishments. Like John Brown and Malcolm the powers that be, vilified him and attempted to reduce him to obscurity. Robeson was born the son of a slave in Somerville, New Jersey In 1898. At Rutgers University he was a Phi Beta Kappa, graduated at the top of his class, and delivered the valedictorian speech. He won 16 letters in sports; football, baseball, track and field, and basketball. He had a beautiful bass voice and sang in the choir. He briefly played professional football and graduated from Columbia Law school. He traveled the world singing spirituals, labor songs, and folk songs of American Blacks. He was outspoken in support of civil rights, union struggles, anti-colonialism, and asserted himself as a socialist. Because of this he was repressed by the reactionary forces in America in a period of time after World War II known as McCarthyism.

Former president Donald Trump has been impeached by the Democrats in the House and will stand trial in the Senate beginning the week of February 8th. He received 75 million votes in the 2020 election, more than he received when he won in 2016. Even though he lost last November his power is barely diminished. He will likely be acquitted of the charge of inciting an insurrection on January 6th. With the help of most of the 50 Republican senators the Democrats wont be able to get the 60 necessary votes to convict him and prevent him from running for president again. Thus he will continue to control the Republican Party. There is the possibility of his running again that helps keep him as the powerful leader he has become and keeps the Republicans in line, fearful as they are of being primaried and losing their own power and privilege. Only a few Republicans have shown the integrity and courage to oppose this venal, cruel and cunning man.

February 2, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard: Law Enforcement Caught Off Guard On January 6th?; and Fred Hampton: The Fight For Truth

Many are saying that the police were caught off guard when rioters stormed the nations capitol on January 6, 2021, leaving four people dead. It was the most significant breach of Congress in more than 200 years, and pro-Trump rioters promised that it wont be the last. But how could the Capitol be unprepared? Word on social media and in the news was that fascists planned to converge in throngs prior to the changing of presidential administrations.

Fred Hampton was the young dynamic leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. On December 4, 1969 he was assassinated as part of FBI leader J. Edgar Hoovers Cointelpro program. Chicago attorney Flint Taylor of the Peoples Law Office, who along with Jeff Haas, Dennis Cunningham, and Morton Stavis of the Center for Constitutional Rights was part of a team that after 13 years of litigation were able to prove that the FBI, the Chicago police, and the Chicago States Attorney were guilty of killing Fred Hampton, his fellow Black Panther Mark Clark, and wounding several others.

January 26, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Brian Becker on Inauguration Protests, Security and Reform; and A Path Forward: Professor Jack Rasmus

Americans have protested incoming presidents throughout history, starting in the 19th century. Four years ago, thousands descended on the nations capital this to protest Donald Trumps inauguration, and more than 200 were arrested. The day before President Woodrow Wilson took office in 1913, up to 8,000 women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in what one historian says was likely the first large-scale inauguration protest.

Centrist Democrats like Biden, since the remaking of the Democratic Party beginning with neo-liberal Clinton, have not vigorously defended the social gains secured in the 1930s with the Roosevelt New Deal. Will Biden defend these? Will he extend them? Can he do this by governing from the center? What does his proposed $1.9 trillion rescue package consist of? Will Biden's proposals hold up in Congress? Is there more needed?

January 19, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

JoAnne Page: The Fortune Society; and Alison Cornyn: The Incorrigibles

Each year in the United States, more than 600,000 individuals are released from state and federal prisons. A staggering 6.9 million people are on probation, in jail, in prison, or on parole. On top of that, an additional nine million persons cycle through local jails. As grim as these numbers are, more sobering is the fact that more than two-thirds of prisoners are rearrested within 3 years of their release. Half of those are reincarcerated. Why is this recidivism rate so high? It has much to do with the failure of re-entry support programs.

Families are in bad shape with suicides, drug addiction, and divorces soaring. Many dont have enough food and homelessness is rapidly increasing. All this within the framework of a divided society, deeply impacted by racism. How does this affect young people? And especially rebellious teenage girls? What laws apply to young people? How are they treated in a criminal justice system, historically and currently?

January 12, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer – Michael Ratner Revisited

Hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith interviewed some of Michael Ratner's closest friends and colleagues as part of a special broadcast highlighting Michael Ratners legal work and mentorship. The special also marked the upcoming release of Michael Ratners autobiography Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer published by OR Books. In this one hour taken from the two hour fundraiser broadcast, we hear from attorneys including Eleanor Stein, Richard Levy, Ray Brescia, David Cole and Baher Azmy.

January 5, 2021 National, News & Public Affairs

Lawyers You’ll Like: Professor Holly Maguigan

In our Lawyers Youll Like series were joined by Professor Holly Maguigan, Professor of Clinical Law at the New York University School of Law, where she teaches Comparative Criminal Justice Clinic: Focus on Domestic Violence and Evidence. Professor Maguigan is an expert on the criminal trials of battered women. Her research and teaching is interdisciplinary. Professor Maguigan is a member of the Family Violence Prevention Funds National Advisory Committee on Cultural Considerations in Domestic Violence cases. She serves on the boards of directors of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women and the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice.

December 29, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Capital Punishment: Mumia Abu-Jamal And Heidi Boghosian; and CCR: A Rights Based Vision for the First 100 Days

Journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal spent 40 years on death row in Pennsylvania. While on death row he published 13 books and numerous commentaries on issues of social justice and the carceral state. In a special interview, Mumia joins us to reflect on capital punishment and its relationship to our modern society.

Some political skeptics , distrusting of the incoming Biden administration, are saying that nothing fundamental will change now that the old neo-liberal crew from the Obama/Clinton days are back in power. They are especially concerned about the impending climate catastrophe, systemic racism, the threat of nuclear war, the shifting of wealth from the bottom to the top, and the never ending forever wars. The Center for Constitution Rights has developed a comprehensive program to challenge this.