Tag Archives: NLG

Bits of News

Posted on by elizabeth
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KBR [Halliburton] had moved for [Jamie Leigh] Jones’ claim to be heard in private arbitration, instead of a public courtroom, as provided under the terms of her original employment contract.

Ellison, however, wrote in his order Friday that Jones’ claims of sexual assault, battery, rape, false imprisonment and others fall beyond the scope of her employment contract.

“The Court does not believe that Plaintiff’s bedroom should be considered the workplace, even though her housing was provided by her employer,” Ellison wrote.   ABC News

Good start.

The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court — one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing — has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously.   CommonDreams

American civil liberties up for grabs …

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that local and state institutions cannot provide health insurances for partners of employees in same-sex relationships. The Associated Press reports that the decision was a result of Michigan’s 2004 ban on same-sex marriage.  MS Wire

More American families with no health insurance – good work “justice” system.

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.  CommonDreams (NLG Press Release)

Go lawyers!

Earlier this week, the White House disclosed that it could not recover lost e-mails from emergency backup tapes for the period covering the invasion of Iraq and the U.S. failure to find Iraq’s alleged WMD.

This new gap – from March 1, 2003, to May 23, 2003 – also may have wiped out evidence of how George W. Bush and his top aides reacted to the emerging criticism from former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson that the White House had sold the war using false claims about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger in Africa, an investigation by The Public Record has found.

Dissident Voice

George and his boys regret not hiring a secretary.

Outrage over the killings [of Iraqi civilians] prompted the Iraqi government to demand Blackwater’s ouster from the country. But after an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Blackwater appears to be back to business as usual.   RINF

Business as usual …

Lawyers as Criminals

Posted on by elizabeth
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Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyer’s Guild, testifies before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee:

What does torture have in common with genocide, slavery, and wars of aggression? They are all jus cogens. That’s Latin for “higher law” or “compelling law.” This means that no country can ever pass a law that allows torture. There can be no immunity from criminal liability for violation of a jus cogens prohibition.

The United States has always prohibited torture in our Constitution, laws, executive statements, judicial decisions, and treaties. When the U.S. ratifies a treaty, it becomes part of American law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, says, “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture.”

Whether someone is a POW or not, he must always be treated humanely; there are no gaps in the Geneva Conventions.

The US War Crimes Act, and 18 USC sections 818 and 3231, punish torture, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and inhuman, humiliating or degrading treatment.

The Torture Statute criminalizes the commission, attempt, or conspiracy to commit torture outside the United States.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to make laws and the President the duty to enforce them. Yet Bush, relying on memos by lawyers including John Yoo, announced the Geneva Conventions did not apply to alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda members. But torture and inhumane treatment are never allowed under our laws.

Justice Department lawyers wrote memos at the request of Bush officials to insulate them from prosecution for torture. In memos dated August 1, 2002 and March 18, 2003, John Yoo wrote the DOJ would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.

Video of testimony and NLG White Paper on torture   here