2008 ANNUAL REPORT - National Lawyers Guild

Green Scare
When the FBI began using terms like “eco-terrorism,”
labeling the animal rights movement the number one
domestic terrorism threat and issuing subpoenas to
environmental and animal rights activists, the Guild
responded. The
Green Scare Hotline
was created
in 2006 to provide
legal support to
animal and environmental
rights
activists who are
arrested, harassed
or subpoenaed by
local or federal law
enforcement. Since
its inception, the
hotline has connected
callers with
experienced attorneys,
and provided
a barometer of the
scope of FBI activities
nationwide.
Beth Baltimore
“Taking calls from targeted activists provided me
with a better understanding of government tactics of
repression, and the important role attorneys play in
times of crisis. It allowed me to become involved with
the Guild nationally while I was still a law student,” says
Beth Baltimore, who graduated from Brooklyn Law
School this past year. While at school, Beth monitored
the Green Scare Hotline for two years.
tion of safeguarding First Amendment
protected material.”
Military Recruiters
Guild lawyers in the Bay area worked
with other community activists to put a
voter initiative on the November ballot
to regulate the location of both public
and private military recruiters through
zoning restrictions. NLG Berkeleybased
lawyer Sharon Adams said, “The
city has the power to regulate the areas
where businesses can locate, and even
to decide what kinds of businesses can
locate in what areas. We believe that
the military recruiters...lie to the young
men and women about the benefits of
being in the military. All we are doing
is using zoning laws to do what zoning
laws are uniquely designed to do—to
regulate the location of recruiters by
prohibiting them from being in or near
neighborhoods, schools and parks.”
Testifying Before Congress
On May 6, 2008, National Lawyers
Guild President Marjorie Cohn testified
before the Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil
Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee
at a hearing titled “From the
Department of Justice to Guantánamo
Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration
Interrogation Rules.”
Just a month before, the National
Lawyers Guild called for John Yoo to
be tried as a war criminal for his role
in writing memos justifying the use of
torture. We also urged the University of
California Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School
of Law to dismiss him for conspiring to
facilitate the commission of war crimes.
The Guild called on Congress to repeal
the provision of the Military Commissions
Act that would give Yoo immunity
from prosecution for torture committed
from September 11, 2001 to December
30, 2005.
In her Congressional testimony, Guild
President Marjorie Cohn said, “John
Yoo’s complicity in establishing the
policy that led to the torture of prisoners
constitutes a war crime under the
U.S. War Crimes Act.”
The NLG issued a white paper explaining
why all those who approved the use
of torture and committed it — whether
ordering it, approving it, or giving purported
legal advice to justify it — are