Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - National Lawyers Guild

Guild Notes 

A Publication of the National Lawyers Guild Foundation 

VOLUME XXXIII, NUMBER 4 • WINTER 2008 

Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC 

PHOTO: NATE2000 @ HTTP://FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/NATES_PICS/ 

Inside: Detroit Convention Coverage

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Victory in NYC 4 

Torture Scandal Arrest 5 

RNC 6 

DNC 9 

Immigration Watch 10 

Victory for Inaugural Protestors 11 

Convention Coverage 14 

Election Results 21 

Committee and Chapter Updates 22 

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President’s Report 

The Guild Going Forward 

The election of Barack Obama as president is a momentous 

event in a nation built on the backs of slaves, a country with a 

pernicious history of institutionalized racism. Many of us from 

the National Lawyers Guild, which was born as an anti-racist 

organization, spent countless hours doing voter protection in 

cities throughout the country. 

During the Republican National 

Convention, a large team from the Guild 

did protester protection. The FBI-led 

Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force 

sought to forestall lawful protest during the 

RNC, conducting preemptive searches, 

seizures and arrests. Preventive detention 

violates the Fourth Amendment, which 

requires that warrants be supported by 

probable cause. Throughout the week, St. 

Paul was a militarized zone. More than 800 

people were arrested, some charged with 

“conspiracy to commit riot,” a rarely-used Marjorie Cohn 

statute that is so vague, it is probably 

unconstitutional. 

Demonstrators were protesting the vicious policies of the 

Bush administration. The last eight years have been a disaster 

for people in the United States and around the world. The 

Bush-Cheney gang launched two tragic, illegal and expensive 

wars against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan; conducted 

illegal bombings in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Syria; 

engaged in systematic torture and abuse of prisoners; tried to 

suspend habeas corpus and keep prisoners at Guantánamo 

locked up forever without charges; and illegally spied on 

communications of people in the United States in an attempt 

to suppress dissent against the government’s illegal policies. 

Obama has promised to bring change in several key areas 

such as education, healthcare, climate change and the 

economy. But some of his positions are wrong and must be 

challenged by progressives. His enthusiasm for the war in 

Afghanistan and U.S. military attacks on Pakistan must be 

reversed. The amendments to FISA that weaken the standards 

for surveillance should be rescinded. Fortunately, Obama 

voted against the Military Commissions Act; he should now 

urge Congress to repeal it, and the PATRIOT Act as well. 

Obama opposed the Iraq war from the beginning and has 

pledged to bring the troops home. We must call for immediately 

bringing home—not redeploying—all U.S. troops and 

mercenaries, closing all U.S. military bases, and relinquishing 

all efforts to control Iraqi oil. The Guild has prepared and 

distributed a fact sheet about the illegality of the Iraq war 

and we are preparing one on Afghanistan as well. We have 

issued statements warning of the illegality and disastrous 

consequences of a war against Iran. 

Obama celebrated the recent Supreme 

Court decision upholding the right of habeas 

corpus for Guantánamo detainees. While 

Obama has rightly said he would close 

Guantánamo—which the Guild demanded 

several years ago—and try prisoners in U.S. 

courts, he has not agreed to close the secret 

CIA black sites. Immediately after he is sworn 

in, all detainees at both facilities should be 

released unless there is truly probable cause 

to believe they have committed a crime. 

Obama has opposed torture and extraordinary 

rendition. He should sign an executive order 

prohibiting extraordinary rendition, and 

the torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading 

treatment or punishment of any prisoners in U.S. custody 

anywhere in the world, including in the United States. 

Obama said he would examine the evidence against high 

Bush officials and determine whether there is sufficient 

evidence to launch criminal investigations. But Obama, who 

is “a uniter, not a divider,” is not likely to order his attorney 

general to prosecute Bush, Cheney and company. We must 

push him to bring them to justice, as Charlotte Dennett 

vowed during her campaign for attorney general of Vermont. 

We are suffering the worst economic crisis since the Great 

Depression. Bush exacerbated the trend that Reagan began to 

deregulate and privatize the big financial institutions. Bush’s 

tax cuts for the rich and nearly-trillion dollar Iraq war have 

created a deficit that has aggravated the situation. Obama 

voted for the $700 billion bailout, a measure that is unlikely 

to help people who are losing their jobs, homes and 

retirement. But Obama has consistently advocated a more 

progressive income tax system that would “spread the 

wealth.” In spite of being tarred as a “socialist” by his 

opponents, Obama was elected by a 2 to 1 margin. We 

should encourage his socialist tendencies. 

Our Detroit convention was a rousing success. From the 

keynote addresses by Daniel Ellsberg and Grace Lee Boggs, 

to panels, workshops, and plenaries that will move our critical 

work forward, the state of the Guild is strong. • 

WINTER 2008 • GUILD NOTES • 3

National Work 

NYC Awards $2 Million in Free Speech Suit 

by Sarah Kunstler 

On April 7, 2003, I was arrested at an 

anti-war protest with over 90 others 

during the opening days of the invasion 

of Iraq and soon after the city persuaded 

the Republican Party to hold its 2004 

convention in New York. 

The protest was in front of the offices 

of a Carlyle Group affiliate at 56th Street 

and 5th Avenue. The Carlyle Group is 

an investment firm managing some $14 

billion in assets, including stakes in a 

number of defense-related companies. 

They are a major defense contractor with 

ties to former heads of State and to the 

Bush White House. They are, in effect, 

war profiteers. 

Most of the arrested were charged 

with disorderly conduct and blocking 

pedestrian traffic, although videotapes 

showed a quiet orderly demonstration 

lining the edge of the sidewalk with 

ample room for passersby. Our arrests 

were made without any dispersal order 

or opportunity to leave. 

I was 26 years old and in my second 

year of law school. I had been going to 

protests all of my life. I thought I was 

invisible to the police. I thought that 

I could decide to participate in civil disobedience, 

and risk arrest, or to lawfully 

protest without such risk. I was naïve. 

I didn’t know any of the others 

arrested. But in the months and weeks 

that followed, we organized. We 

supported each other as our criminal 

cases wound their way through the 

court system. And after some of us were 

acquitted and the charges against the 

rest were dismissed, we decided to join 

together to fight the repression of our 

First Amendment Rights. Fifty-two of us 

filed a civil lawsuit against the New York 

City Police Department and the City of 

New York. 

The case went on for over five years, 

delayed by the City’s refusal to negotiate. 

We had no idea it would take so long to 

reach a resolution. We were 52 people 

against the City of New York and the 

NYPD. There were many points 

along the way when the odds seemed 

insurmountable. 

Finally, in August 2008, we settled 

with the city for just over $2 million. 

Litigation like ours puts pressure on 

the City to stop violating people’s rights 

as a matter of policy and stop wasting 

taxpayers’ money doing so. I hope our 

victory serves as a reminder that 

Washington’s illegal war in Afghanistan 

and Iraq is also being fought at home— 

against its own citizens and in the name 

of war profiteers like Carlyle and 

Halliburton. • 

Sarah Kunstler is a long-time Guild 

member, an attorney and filmmaker. 

NLG Hosts Luis Posada Carriles Tribunal 

On November 7, 2008 the New York University NLG Chapter, along with 

the New York Chapter and the National Office, hosted “Luis Posada 

Carriles: A Tribunal.” The event was hosted by Michael Steven Smith and 

featured historian Jane Franklin, author of two books about Cuba— 

Cuban Foreign Relations: A Chronology, 1959-1982 (Center for Cuban 

Studies, 1984) and Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History 

(Ocean Press, 1997). Also speaking was Wayne Smith, Senior Fellow at 

the Center for International Policy in Washington, who spent 25 years 

with the Department of State, having served as the Executive Secretary 

of President Kennedy’s Latin American Task Force. Brian Becker rounded 

off the evening. Brian is National Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. 

Coalition and has spearheaded a nationwide campaign over the past few 

years demanding the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela to stand trial for his crimes against humanity. 

The event has been transcribed into an electronic book and is available on line at www.nlg.org/posada 

4• GUILD NOTES • WINTER 2008


Police Commander Arrested in Torture Scandal 

by Heidi Boghosian 

Years of work by the Chicago People’s 

Law Office in the decades-old Chicago 

police torture scandal were rewarded in 

late October. Former Chicago Police 

Commander Jon Burge was arrested 

in his Florida home on one count of 

perjury and two counts of obstruction 

of justice for lying when he denied 

torturing African American suspects in a 

scandal dating back to the early 1970s. 

G. Flint Taylor, a long time NLG 

member who has represented numerous 

torture victims for more than 20 years, 

and who has repeatedly called for prosecutions 

of the alleged torturers, said, 

“We are heartened by this significant and 

long overdue victory for the human 

rights movement, but there is still much 

remaining to be accomplished, including 

the indictment of Burge’s henchmen, 

new hearings for the torture victims still 

behind bars, and compensation and 

treatment for the many victims who have 

no legal remedy.” 

Over 100 African American men have 

come forward saying they were tortured 

by Burge and a crew of white officers 

under his command on the South Side 

of Chicago from 1973 to 1991. A 2006 

report issued by Cook County Special 

Prosecutors after a four-year investigation 

exonerated the high public officials who 

were implicated in the scandal, including 

Mayor Richard M. Daley, and refused 

to bring indictments. Nevertheless, the 

report found that Burge and his men 

tortured “with impunity” during interrogations. 

Subsequently, in the Federal 

indictment, United States Attorney for 

the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick J. 

Fitzgerald, alleged that Burge lied during 

2003 civil court proceedings, when he 

gave false sworn interrogatory answers 

denying torture in a lawsuit brought by a 

torture victim. 

According to the indictment, Burge 

knew, participated in and was aware of 

the abuse and torture of persons in 

custody. Some of the abuse that he 

knew about included wrapping inmates’ 

heads in plastic to simulate the feeling of 

being suffocated; using cattle prods and a 

so-called black box that delivered electric 

shocks; and mock executions. 

(from left) Ben Elson, G. Flint Taylor, and 

Joey Mogul 

In January 2008, the city of Chicago 

approved a $20 million settlement with 

four former death row inmates who were 

tortured by Burge and his men, had given 

false confessions, spent decades on death 

row as a result, and were subsequently 

given innocence pardons by the governor. 

The Chicago Police Department fired 

Burge in 1993, and the City, while on 

record as supporting the findings in the 

indictment, continues to defend Burge 

and his men in another pending torture 

case, and to pay their pensions. 

Should he be found guilty, Burge faces 

up to 20 years in prison for each obstruction 

of justice charge, five years for perjury 

and a $250,000 fine on each count. 

In the September/October 2008 issue 

of “Police Misconduct and Civil Rights 

Law Report,” Flint Taylor wrote that 

widespread community outrage to the 

PHOTO: BRAD THOMSON 

“shockingly inadequate report” by the 

Cook County Special Prosecutors 

resulted in a group of over 210 human 

rights, civil rights, criminal justice and 

racial justice organizations and individuals 

issuing a “shadow” report titled, 

“Report on the Failure of Special 

Prosecutors Edward J. Egan and Robert 

D. Boyle to Fairly Investigate Systemic 

Police Torture in Chicago.” The Shadow 

Report was given to the City Council’s 

50 members, the Cook County Board 

of Commissioners, and the U.S. 

Attorney, in response to which several 

hearings were held, resolutions passed, 

and official letters sent, calling for 

Burge’s indictment. 

In his conclusion, Flint writes that 

the City and Cook County have already 

spent over $53 million in the torture 

scandal, while many of the torture 

victims remain untreated and uncompensated. 

Twenty-five victims still remain 

incarcerated without hearings and the 

Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office 

has to take responsibility for its significant 

role in the scandal. 

For more than four decades, the 

People’s Law Office has successfully 

represented victims of misconduct by 

police and other government officials. 

They have fought for justice for people 

who have been tortured and physically 

abused, wrongfully arrested and convicted, 

unfairly sentenced to death, or 

targeted as a result of their race, political 

beliefs or organizing efforts. Their litigation 

has helped to uncover secret abuses 

by police and government officials, from 

the FBI’s secret plan to murder Black 

Panther leader Fred Hampton to the 

Chicago Police Department’s torture 

ring, and has also resulted in many 

multi-million dollar verdicts and 

settlements for their clients. • 


Cover Story 

Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC 

PHOTO: NIGEL PERRY 

by Caroline Palmer 

When St. Paul, Minnesota was named the site of the 

2008 Republican National Convention, the 

Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild 

knew it would have its hands full. Previous experiences in New 

York City, Boston, Los Angeles and other cities indicated a 

need to be prepared for mass arrests, police misconduct, 

and many surprises. And so the Minnesota NLG began its 

mass defense and legal observation plans a year in advance, 

developing strategy, organizing volunteers, monitoring law 

enforcement, coordinating with other organizations such as 

the Minnesota ACLU and public defenders, and holding a 

well-attended continuing legal education program. Litigation 

involving march permits and routes began in spring 2008. 

Three days before the convention got under way, trouble 

started, with official actions directed mainly toward an organizing 

group called the RNC Welcoming Committee (this group 

has come to be known as the RNC 8). Dozens of police raided 

the activist convergence space in West St. Paul, detaining 

everyone on site and seizing pamphlets and other property. 

The next morning police descended on three Minneapolis 

homes and arrested members of the RNC Welcoming 

Committee, snatching others off the street over the next 

two days. The police also surrounded and eventually entered 

a private home in St. Paul where members of I-Witness Video 

were staying. No arrests were made but all inside were 

detained in the back yard. Probable cause in all cases was based 

in part on the word of paid informants, including the claim 

that what turned out to be 23 boxes of pro-vegan literature 

were “weapons to be used during the RNC.” NLG attorneys 

and legal observers were onsite during all of these raids. 

The many volunteers at the Coldsnap Legal Collective 

(temporarily based in a NLG member’s office), which served 

as a central hotline for RNC-related arrestees, quickly sprang 

into action. Over the course of the week, their phones rang 

nonstop as they fielded reports of arrests and calls from jail. 

NLG attorneys visited individuals held at the Ramsey County 


Cover Story 

PHOTO: GEOFF BRADY 

PHOTO: AVYE @ HTTP://FLICKR.COM/PEOPLE/AVYE/ 

Jail, which resembled a fortress with its armed guards. 

Meanwhile, over 225 legal observers were dispatched from a 

local muster site. They began their work on September 1 

monitoring the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop 

the War demonstration, which drew some 20,000 people, and 

didn’t come up for air until September 5, after observing many 

planned and spontaneous marches. 

The law enforcement presence throughout the RNC was 

overwhelming, with police in full riot gear. Hundreds of 

marchers were arrested, some were beaten, and tear gas and 

pepper spray were employed liberally even toward those who 

were attempting to clear an area and not resisting arrest. 

Parts of the city were closed off at times. No one was immune 

from intimidation. Aside from activists, many legal observers, 

journalists and street medics were also detained or arrested. 

The week was physically and emotionally exhausting for all 

involved, with the most dispiriting aspect being the complete 

transformation of St. Paul into a forbidding police state. 

Although the RNC is long gone, the convention’s impact 

continues. The RNC 8, who are represented by a team of 

NLG attorneys, face felony charges under Minnesota’s 

version of the federal PATRIOT Act of “conspiracy to riot in 

furtherance of terrorism.” Other arrestees face felony and 

misdemeanor charges. Civil lawsuits are also under way. The 

City of St. Paul appointed a commission to investigate RNC 

security and planning but its work has been largely dismissed 

because the co-chairs are former prosecutors, and its aim is not 

to address police misconduct but rather to make recommendations 

to law enforcement for future conventions. Drawing on 

human rights law and internationally developed principles 

and practices, the Chapter identified specific standards for 

evaluating the validity of official investigations of the alleged 

human rights abuses during the RNC. A copy of the Chapter’s 

position paper on this subject is available upon request. 

Ongoing RNC-related support work continues to be done 

by a broad coalition of arrestees and allies; more information 

is available at http://rncaftermath.org. And finally, one of the 

best documentaries to date of the RNC week is the film 

“Terrorizing Dissent.” Go to www.terrorizingdissent.com to 

view it online or find a screening near you. • 


Cover Story 

RNC Street Coverage: Audio Document Features 

Guild Members 

“Law and Disorder” radio program, hosted by Guild members 

Michael Ratner, Michael Smith, and Heidi Boghosian, along 

with Dalia Hashad from Amnesty International, featured a 

30-minute special on the Republican National Convention. 

The show’s producer Geoff Brad Geoff Brady and Heidi 

traveled to Minneapolis/St. Paul to document the event. 

With press passes from Pacifica Radio, they were able to enter 

the many areas closed off to the public surrounding the Xcel 

Center. The program features in-depth interviews with Bruce 

Nestor and Dan Spalding, along with the voices and sounds of 

protesters, demonstrations, and interviews with legal observers 

and activists. To listen to the show, and to see photographs 

from the protests, go to http://lawanddisorder.org/ 

nlg-rnc-coverage/. 

Excerpt from the “Law and Disorder” RNC special 

Heidi: Just blocks from the Xcel Center we caught up with a 

local activist and independent journalist named Nick. He 

described in detail the launching of paint and flash bang 

grenades, the arrests of journalists, and the unwarranted use 

of pepper spray by police. 

Nick: What they would do is, they would shoot people with 

paint, like balls of paint, like paint bullets. I kept tasting paint. 

It was green paint. And they would hit people. I saw people 

splattered, covered with it. They would ignite some smoke 

bombs and then spray mace on just a couple of people, and it 

would carry down all Kellog Boulevard. And you could see it. 

I felt it from about 150 yards away. It hit me in my eyes and 

my mouth. It was like getting burned. I felt it; it was right 

there. 

I had some press passes for inside. I kept trying to get up to 

get photos because I’m doing a blog about it, and I would 

come up and the police would scream “get back!,” and I 

turned around and I had a big gun pointed in my face. I 

would hold up my press credentials and yell “press corps, 

press corps,” like don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me! He’d say: 

“Get back!” In my face! Like don’t get in my way. It’s 

overwhelming how scary these guys really are. 

The green paint grenade looked like a one-barrel shotgun. 

It reminded me of the gun in Terminator II, that’s what it 

looked like. I saw them shooting, I saw one of the bullets lying 

on the ground and I was like “Back up, get away, get away.” 

I did not know what it was. 

At first I kept tasting paint. And I had the mace burning. 

Heidi Boghosian speaks to reporters about the Guild Legal Observers. 

I kept tasting paint. Smelling paint. And I had my mask on, 

my little “SARS” mask, and here comes a guy with splatters, 

like Jackson Pollock splatters all over his pants. He had his 

disposable camera in his pocket. He was taking pictures. The 

bullet hit the disposable camera, shattered the camera and 

saved his leg. But he showed me the bruise, and it’s this black 

smear, bruise smear on his leg. From the paint guns! It hit him 

right there. 

Oh there was the boom! It wasn’t like a tank; it was like an 

echo. When you hear it you duck, you get down. It was one of 

the loudest things I’ve heard in my life. There were people 

dancing, like Funk the War. At that point I was ready to get 

out of there, but obviously I didn’t because I wanted to see 

what happened. 

“Law and Disorder” airs weekly on Pacifica’s WBAI station 

in New York, as well as on several public radio stations around 

the country. To download past programs, or to podcast, go to 

http://lawanddisorder.org/. • 

PHOTO: GEOFF BRADY 


DNC 

Denver Fails to Convict DNC Protesters 

Judge rules that no reasonable person could convict defendant, dismisses case 

PHOTOS: THOM CINCOTTA 

by Thom Cincotta 

During the week of October 22, 2008, 

the defense won the first in a series 

of trials for individuals arrested at 

demonstrations during the Democratic 

National Convention. The defendants’ 

attorneys—Qusair Mohammedbhai, 

Margaret O’Neill, and Lonn Heymann 

—are among 30 recruited by the 

NLG’s DNC People’s Law Project to 

provide pro-bono representation for 

those arrested at free speech events 

during the convention. 

After a three-day trial, a six-person 

jury came back with a deadlocked 

verdict. Judge Karen Bowers subsequently 

dismissed all charges against 

one of the defendants, Eli Hardy, 

finding the evidence so scant that 

“no reasonable person could convict 

Mr. Hardy.” The jury also found there 

was not enough evidence to convict 

the other defendant, Tiffany Bray, who 

may face a re-trial in the next 45 days. 

In addition to the cases of Bray and 

Hardy, the City dismissed seven of the 

first nine DNC-related cases that were 

set for trial that week. 

“The City is on an impressive losing 

streak,” said Brian Vicente, Denver 

Guild lawyer and director of the 

People’s Law Project. “But the real 

loser is the Denver taxpayer who 

foots the bill for these needless 

prosecutions.” 

The Denver City Attorney’s office 

is slated to prosecute another 50 individuals 

before the end of the year. 

These trials stem largely from 

the mass arrest of more than 100 

individuals on August 25, 2008, at 

the intersection of 15th St. and Court 

Place. Some protesters had announced 

on a website that they planned to fan 

out from Civic Center through downtown 

to disrupt convention fundraisers. 

Police, acting on that information, 

decided not to let anyone who looked 

like a protester leave the park in 

front of the City and County Building. 

Police used pepper spray to trap 

protesters and bystanders before 

moving in to make mass arrests. In the 

first nine cases before the court, police 

and prosecutors were unable to make 

specific allegations about what each 

defendant did. The three defendants in 

the first trial argued that they tried to 

leave the area but were stopped by a 

police blockage and could not get free 

from the group of approximately 200 

people who had gathered in the street. 

Attorney David Lane, who represents 

several of the accused protesters 

in possible civil suits, said, “Taxpayers 

in Denver should ask themselves why 

are police arresting people without 

probable cause, and why is the city 

spending all this money prosecuting 

people when they don’t have enough 

evidence to convict?”• 

Above: (left) Student member Britta Stunkard 

leads a Know Your Rights training prior to the 

DNC; (right) Legal Observer Clay Taylor. 



Keeping Watch on the Immigration Court at 

The Northwest Detention Center 

by Peggy Herman 

On April 7, 2004, Immigration 

and Custom Enforcement 

(ICE) opened its newest 

immigration prison, the 

Northwest Detention Center 

(NWDC) under the management 

of its Office of Detention 

and Removal (DRO). 

NWDC, a for-profit prison, 

built at a cost of $115 million 

on the industrial tideflats of 

Tacoma, Washington, is owned 

and operated by the GEO 

Group Inc., a multinational corrections corporation that 

The Northwest Detention Center is a private immigration prison 

located in Tacoma, WA. 

contracts with the DRO to run the day-in day-out operations. 

The prison was originally designed for between 700 and 870 

detainees. By 2007, the capacity had been expanded to 1,061 as 

part of a national enforcement strategy dedicated to “removing 

all removable aliens by 2012.” GEO recently announced plans to 

further expand the facility to house 1,500 detainees. 

When the NWDC first opened, the Immigration Judges (IJs) 

from the Seattle Immigration Court, located 35 miles away, 

heard the docket via teleconferencing equipment. Detainees 

were brought to the courtroom in Tacoma to answer the 

government’s charges that they were subject to deportation. All 

communications between the IJ and the government’s attorney 

were done by video. The detainee’s attorney—if s/he could 

afford one—had to decide whether to appear in the courtroom 

in Seattle or in Tacoma. Earlier this year, the Tacoma 

Immigration Court was established. Since then, all of the 

hearings for detained individuals have been heard in person. 

Groups concerned about the initial organization of the 

Immigration Court and the increasing difficulty in accessing legal 

representation caused by the move of the detention center from 

Seattle contacted the NLG in late 2004. The NLG agreed to 

help organize a CourtWatch project. It was modeled after the 

Boston NLG CourtWatch project established in 2001 in the 

aftermath of 9/11. The Chicago Appleseed and the Legal 

Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago study conducted 

in 2004 that looked at the impact of the use of videoconferencing 

in immigration proceedings in the Chicago Immigration 

Court was also used as a model. 

CourtWatchers at the NWDC 

receive full training on unique 

aspects of immigration court 

proceedings. When immigrants 

who are undocumented or have 

criminal convictions are picked 

up by ICE or DRO agents, they 

face a very different justice system 

than the one in civil or criminal 

courts. The IJs in Immigration 

Court do not preside over trials; 

they conduct hearings. The Rules 

of Evidence in trials do not apply 

in these hearings. There is no 

opportunity to have a jury decide the case. 

Unlike almost all civil and criminal cases, immigration court 

files are not public. There is no public record of who is in the 

detention centers in the United States as required of prisons and 

jails. When immigration detainees appear in immigration court, 

there is no presumption of innocence. They have the burden to 

prove they have the right to remain in the country. Although 

those who appear at the Tacoma Immigration Court are held in 

jail cells, they have no right to an attorney at the government’s 

expense. Significantly, very few detainees can afford to hire a 

private lawyer. Most immigrants in removal proceedings face the 

IJ and the government’s attorney alone. With so few protections 

in place to ensure that due process protections are followed, 

NWDC CourtWatchers provide an invaluable service by adding 

some measure of transparency to the process. 

As the Bush administration has increased the targeting of 

undocumented immigrants through workplace raids and a 

agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies, 

more and more citizens in the Northwest have begun to 

understand the importance of the NWDC CourtWatch Project. 

Law school students at Seattle University and University of 

Washington and immigrant advocates have asked to expand the 

project so that immigrants in removal proceedings in Seattle 

will also benefit from having witnesses to their Immigration 

Court hearings • 

Peggy Herman is the Northwest co-Regional Vice President. For 

more information, contact her at peggylherman@cablespeed.com 

10 • GUILD NOTES • WINTER 2008


Free Speech and Assembly Returns to 

Pennsylvania Avenue 

by Heidi Boghosian 

Tens of thousands more people than in 

the past will be able to congregate on 

the sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue 

for the January 2009 Presidential 

Inauguration Parade thanks to a lawsuit 

brought by Guild members Carl 

Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard. 

At the 2005 inauguration, the 

Department of the Interior and its 

National Park Service (NPS) illegally set 

aside the vast majority of space along 

Pennsylvania Ave for the exclusive use of 

the Presidential Inaugural Committee 

(PIC). The PIC is a private political 

body into which banks and huge 

corporations pour tens of millions of 

dollars as the administration starts its 

term. The PIC erected bleachers upon 

nearly every block of the parade route 

and allowed tickets only for hand-picked 

Bush/Cheney donors and supporters. 

The public had little space to stand at 

this most public of all public events. 

In 2005, Carl and Mara, of the 

Partnership for Civil Justice (PCJ) in 

Washington, D.C., filed a federal lawsuit 

on behalf of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition 

challenging the government’s unconstitutional 

effort to block access to those 

who sought to protest against the Bush 

administration. “The government 

worked hand in hand with the private, 

political Bush/Cheney Presidential 

Inaugural Committee in a desperate 

attempt to stage-manage democracy 

and block from view the vast majority of 

attendees who wanted to demonstrate 

against the criminal conduct of the 

administration including the war in 

Iraq,” stated Carl Messineo. “The last 

thing they wanted the world to see on 

Thanks to the hard work of the Partnership for 

Civil Justice, thousands more people will have 

access to this year’s Inaugural Parade. 

Inauguration Day was tens of thousands 

of people coming out against Bush and 

Cheney as they took their ‘victory’ lap 

down Pennsylvania Avenue,” added 

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard. 

Just before the 2005 Inauguration, 

the National Park Service revoked the 

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition’s permit for 

demonstration space along the route. 

At an emergency hearing days before 

the ceremony, Judge Paul Friedman 

denied the motion for a preliminary 

injunction filed by PCJ. 

The Partnership persisted through 

years of litigation. They presented the 

Court with a full record including 

exhaustive legislative and statutory legal 

history to counter the government’s 

claim that the Presidential Inaugural 

Ceremonies Act granted authority for 

PHOTO: DECLAN MCCULLAGH 

the NPS to violate permitting rules. 

On March 20, 2008, Judge 

Friedman granted the Motion for 

Summary Judgment and Motion for a 

Permanent Injunction filed by the 

Partnership, finding that the NPS had 

violated the Constitution and permitting 

regulations in order to issue a 

permit for space to the PIC and not 

A.N.S.W.E.R.. “The Inauguration is 

not a private event,” he wrote in his 

decision. Judge Friedman elaborated, 

agreeing with the Partnership’s 

argument and ruling, “As plaintiffs 

point out, the Presidential Inaugural 

Ceremonies Act ‘is hardly the carte 

blanche the government makes it out 

to be.’” 

In November 2008 the NPS issued 

new regulations governing access to the 

inaugural parade route. They have 

reduced by nearly two-thirds the 

allotment of bleacher space to the PIC, 

opening up the majority of the parade 

route to the public. It is a landmark 

achievement just in time for the 

unprecedented public attendance at 

the Obama Inauguration. 

The Partnership, however, has not 

yet closed the case on the inaugural 

litigation. “The new regulations evidence 

the lawsuit’s success in defending 

the First Amendment. However, the 

Park Service regulations continue to 

unconstitutionally grant preferential 

treatment to the PIC to the abridgment 

of the free speech rights of our clients 

and the public.” The Partnership is 

filing to strike down the regulations and 

force the NPS to fully comply with its 

constitutional obligation to open up the 

entirety of the parade route without 

discrimination. • 


International 

S.S. Dignity Breaks Israeli Blockade of Gaza 

By Larry Redmond 

Guild members Huwaida Arraf and 

Audrey Bomse are making history in the 

Middle East. They were among the 23 

passengers and four crew members 

aboard the S.S. Dignity that broke, for 

the second time, the Israeli blockade of 

Gaza on October 29, 2008. The S.S. 

Dignity is a private vessel owned by the 

Free Gaza Movement which first broke 

the blockade on August 23, 2008, 

aboard the S.S. Free Gaza and S.S. 

Liberty. 

Along with Saha Hassan and the 

author, Audrey Bomse is co-chair of the 

Free Gaza Subcommittee under the 

International Committee of the NLG. 

Her answers to a few e-mailed questions 

follow. 

Q: Why did you decide to make this 

trip? 

A: As a human rights lawyer from the 

U.S., I wanted to make a statement that 

the man-made humanitarian disaster in 

Gaza, imposed by Israel but which 

could not exist without the support and 

aid of the U.S., was not being done in 

my name. That until I, and others, 

could change U.S. policy toward Israel 

and toward the democratically elected 

government in Gaza, a popular movement 

needed to be built to end the 

inhumane and illegal siege. I wanted to 

encourage other Guild members to join 

this growing movement to return hope 

to the people of Gaza. 

On a more personal note, I spent 

several years working with human rights 

NGOs which seemed to have so little 

effect. My hope was that documenting 

human rights abuse would expose the 

truth, and then justice would prevail. 

However, Palestinian, international and 

We felt tremendous joy at having actually 

made it, but also tremendous sadness, seeing the 

excitement that our small action had caused 

among a people who believe they have been 

abandoned by the international community. 

Israeli human rights NGOs, as well as 

countless UN agencies and committees, 

have been documenting the human 

rights abuse of the Palestinian people 

for decades now. The truth is known. 

What is missing is the political will to 

do something about it. I needed to try 

and do something more direct and 

hopefully more effective to challenge 

this abuse. 

Q: Can you describe for us the scene 

at the launch? 

A: It had been raining on and off in 

Cyprus all day, but the sun literally 

broke through the clouds about a half 

hour before our departure, enabling us 

to hang our banners and flags—and to 

joke that this was surely a sign from 

above that we would get through. 

Q: What was your reaction when you 

learned the Israel Navy planned to 

stop you? 

A: Of course we were all a bit scared, 

knowing the disregard that Israel has 

shown—and which the U.S. has 

permitted Israel to show—to international 

law and human rights. But as 

internationals, we also realized that 

Israel would not treat us in the same 

brutal manner as it treats Palestinians 

day in and day out. So there was no 

question but that we would proceed 

with our plans. We prepared ourselves 

for every possible scenario: being 

arrested, being targeted by bullets, 

water cannons, tear gas or “the skunk” 

(Israel’s new method of crowd control, 

a stinking nauseating substance that 

remains on the body and clothing for 

days). Our respect and trust for each 

other grew and our resolve to continue 

was strengthened through these 

discussions. 

Q: How did you spend the night 

passage? 

A: Thankfully I was not as sick as some 

of the passengers, but I cannot say that 

the trip was a pleasant one. We did, 

however, have a nice pleasure boat— 

much larger, faster and more comfortable 

than the two tiny fishing boats 

which made the first voyage. When it 

was my turn to lie on one of the beds 

down below, I was able to catch a few 

hours of fitful sleep. 

Q: When did you learn the Israel 

Navy had decided not to stop you? 

A: We started receiving radio communication 

from Israel about two hours 

before we reached Gaza. We responded, 

telling Israel that we were a pleasure 

boat, detailing how many passengers 

were on board and the cargo of medical 

supplies that we carried. We also told 

them that we did not intend to enter 

Israeli waters. They told us that there 

were two Israeli naval ships monitoring 

us and one began to approach at high 

speed. It finally veered away, but 

continued to follow us, first on our left 


International 

and then to the right. When we were 

asked on the radio by Israeli authorities 

what our destination was, we 

replied—without asking for permission—that 

we were headed for Gaza. 

The response, amazingly, was: “OK. 

Thank you.” The navy vessel then 

took off, heading in the direction of 

Israel. 

Q: What was it like when you 

arrived? How did the crowd react 

to you? 

A: Our arrival in Gaza was incredible. 

Fishing boats loaded with people 

came out to meet us. The European- 

Palestinian doctors on board and 

Palestinian member of Parliament, 

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, were all up 

front, holding Palestinian flags and 

signs and yelling greetings back in 

Arabic. We all had tears in our eyes. 

We felt tremendous joy at having 

actually made it, but also tremendous 

sadness, seeing the excitement that 

our small action had caused among a 

people who believe they have been 

abandoned by the international 

community. We were also embarrassed 

at being treated as heroes 

because the threats and suffering 

we endured were so minor in 

comparison to what the people in 

Gaza face every day. 

Join the 

International Committee 

• Participate on the committee’s email listserv of over 120 progressive 

attorneys active in international human rights law and activism. 

• Plan and travel on delegations abroad to monitor elections and report on 

country conditions, such as upcoming trips to El Salvador and Venezuela. 

Check out past delegations’ reports at our website. 

• Build international solidarity with workers and movements around the world, 

as well as groups advocating for human rights and the implementation of 

international law in the United States. 

• Get involved in our subcommittees, which are leading campaigns for Vietnam 

victims of Agent Orange, peace with North Korea, and to free Gaza. 

• Join us at the XVIIth Congress of the International Association of Democratic 

Lawyers in Hanoi. 

International Committee dues are only $25 a year. 

You can join by sending dues to the National Office. 

www.nlginternational.org 

Korean Peace Project • Free Gaza Ad Hoc Subcommittee 

Haiti Subcommittee • Africa Subcommittee 

Task Force on the Americas • Middle East Subcommittee 

Phillippines Subcommittee • United Nations Subcommittee 

International Labor Justice Working Group • Cuba Subcommittee 

Q: How do you feel about your 

victory? 

A: I feel tremendous hope in the 

power of people to force a change. 

I believe that the small number of 

people on our boat are part of a 

much larger movement of people 

throughout the world who will join 

us to end the siege of Gaza. The first 

boats showed that it could be done. 

The second showed that it could be 

repeated. The following trips will 

prove that progress can continue. • 


Convention 08 

Guild Meeting In Detroit A Huge Success 

by Dan Mayfield 

More than 400 NLG members and 

friends met in Detroit for the 71st annual 

convention from October 15 to 19, 2008. 

NLG Executive Director Heidi Boghosian 

said that the convention met all of her 

personal and organizational goals. 

As is traditional, the convention began 

with several well-attended Continuing 

Legal Education (CLE) programs. The 

National Immigration Project presented 

a day-long CLE on national security 

cases and the National Police 

Accountability Project put on a day-long 

seminar, “Trends in Police Misconduct 

Litigation.” The International 

Committee held a CLE on “Using UN 

Treaties and the Office of the Inspector 

General.” The theme of the UN Treaties 

would appear over and over throughout 

the weekend and was especially relevant 

because of the clear violations in the 

waning months of the Bush years. 

Thursday was mostly a day for 

committee meetings. These were meaningful 

meetings for many people because 

they represent the one time that NLG 

members from around the country get to 

meet face to face to plan the rest of the 

year’s activities. Thursday night was the 

opening plenary and we had two major 

speakers: Grace Lee Boggs from Detroit 

and Daniel Ellsberg from California. 

Both were wonderful speakers and 

enlightened us with their insights. 

Grace Lee Boggs looked back over 75 

or more years of socialist activism and 

spoke about the need to “think globally 

but act locally.” Daniel Ellsberg drew 

parallels between his personal history 

with the Pentagon Papers and the war in 

Vietnam and the current situation and 

the secrecy of the Bush White House. 

On Friday and Saturday the convention 

really got under way with more than 

20 workshops aimed at every aspect of 

our work from mass defense of protestors 

to Native American rights, and from 

stopping torture to Freedom Summer. 

All of the workshops were well attended 

and in several instances the discussion 

carried on well after the workshop 

was over. As usual, major panels and 

constituency panels were held on Friday 

and Saturday, and Saturday morning was 

devoted entirely to an Anti-Racism 

Training and a TUPOCC training. 

The early evenings during the convention 

were dotted with various receptions: 

The International Committee, the 

Immigration Committee, the Sugar Law 

Center and the Law Union of Ontario 

from Canada, organized by former NLG 

membership Coordinator Mac Scott. 

Several NLG authors held receptions or 

book signings, including a special visit by 

longtime member David Kairys whose 

book Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer 

recounts his history as a people’s lawyer. 

The Daniel Levy Award from the 

National Immigration Project was 

awarded to the lawyers from the ACLU 

of Southern California—14 lawyers and 

legal workers who organized the 


Convention 08 

Southern California response to the ICE 

(Immigration) raids. 

The Women’s Lunch and the Banquet 

both honored the local Detroit and 

Michigan attorneys who had just finished 

the first of many trials supporting the 

rights of incarcerated woman prisoners. 

They spoke of their recent victory while 

they were in jury selection for the next 

trial. The issues in these trials are 

important to all Guild members, not 

just because we support the humane 

treatment of all people (in jail or not), 

but because the lawyers made the clear 

connection between torture in the 

Michigan prison system and torture as 

practiced by our government in 

Guantánamo and elsewhere. 

Saturday night was the banquet 

followed by a party on the 68th floor of 

the hotel. If you were one of the few 

who missed the party, let me simply tell 

you that from the 68th floor of the hotel 

(illuminated only by the lights of the 

city) I think you could see Cleveland; I 

am sure you could see Toledo. 

More workshops were held on Sunday 

morning (surprisingly well attended), 

including an important workshop on the 

differences between the Guild’s analysis 

of human rights and mainstream 

“human-rights” organizations, and the 

use of local police to enforce national 

immigration policy. 

On Sunday afternoon the National 

Executive Committee met and began 

planning for the 72nd annual convention 

in Seattle to take place next October. 

See you there! • 

Daniel Mayfield is a criminal defense 

lawyer. He has been a member of the NLG 

since 1974 and claims to have missed only 

three or four conventions in the last 34 

years. Dan is the representative to the 

NEC for the Military Law Task Force and 

he is a partner in the firm Carpenter and 

Mayfield in San Jose, CA. 

From top to bottom: David Gespass, Andrea Carter, Lindsey Stover, Heidi Boghosian, Urzula 

Masny-Latos, Caroline Lorenz, and Paige Cram at the Sugar Law Center Reception. Opposite page: 

(top) Jeanne Mirer and Jitendra Sharma of IADL; (bottom) Peggy Herman chats with Judy Somberg 

(right) and Kathy Johnson (left). 


Convention 08 


Convention 08 

Clockwise from upper left (opposite page): Merrilyn Onisko; 

Marjorie Cohn, Daniel Ellsberg and Vincent Warren speak at 

“Punishing Crimes of the Bush Administration”; Bill Goodman; 

Ian Head accepting the Legal Worker Award; Judge Claudia 

Morcum and Ann Fagan Ginger; Paul Wright, Julia Yoo and 

Deborah LaBelle at “Ending the Systematic Rape of Women 

Prisoners in Michigan” 

Clockwise from upper left (this page): Cynthia Heenan presents 

the Law for the People award to Dick Soble, Deborah Labelle, 

Michael and Peggy Pitt, Shannon Dunn, Ralph Sirlin, Patricia 

Streeter, Molly Reno and Ronald Reosti; Pakistani guest Sahizada 

Anwar Hamid; Merle Ratner and Jeanne Mirer with guests from 

the Agent Orange speaking tour; Brenna Bell and Ashlee Albies 

of NexGen; Jim Vail accepts on behalf of his brother Joe. 


Convention 08 

Why Go to Anti-Racism Training? I’m Not Racist! 

A Message to My Fellow White Folks in the Guild 

by Katy Schuman Clemens 

At the Anti-Racism Training in Detroit, we were all supposed to write 

something in response to the question, “why are you here?” My first 

line was, “So that we don’t waste so much time stepping in our own 

shit on our way to the New World we’re creating.” 

My first Guild convention was Austin 

in 2006. I looked at the schedule and 

saw that all of Saturday morning was 

taken up by an Anti-Racism Training and 

a TUPOCC training. “Okay,” I thought 

to myself. “I guess that’s the perfect time 

to get out and see Austin. And I’ll get to 

sleep in.” 

What was I thinking? Probably what 

many of you have thought. “I’ve done a 

thousand anti-racism trainings. I’m in 

touch with my own racism. I won’t learn 

anything there.” I wondered why that 

was all that was available on Saturday 

morning. 

As I learned this year, I was wrong. 

Over my past three years in this organization, 

I have felt issues of racism run 

through its veins like sour blood. Some 

(mostly younger) folks have told me that 

they are fighting active racism within the 

Guild, while other (mostly older) folks 

have told me of their simmering resentment 

that some people within the Guild 

seem ready to call them racist anytime, 

anywhere. 

And this is the Guild, people. If we 

can’t deal with issues of racism within 

the Guild, how will we ever tackle it out 

in the real world, where we can’t even 

count on the baseline that nobody wants 

to be racist? 

It starts at the Anti-Racist Training. 

First you have to start from a position 

of recognizing racism. It’s not easy for 

the “Current Gen” of the Guild because 

racism in the 60s was so much easier to 

spot than it is today, and it is easy to get 

caught up in the joy of how far we’ve 

come. It’s not easy for the “Next Gen” 

of the Guild because racism as it looks 

today is what we were cooked in, simmered 

in, marinated in. 

Let me just explain, briefly, a moment 

in my own personal journey. It was a 

conversation I had with my friend Omar, 

whom I had met in a race relations class 

in college. Omar was a tall, Black man 

with long dreadlocks. “You know what 

really gets me?” he said. “Everywhere I 

go, I see white women grab their purses. 

Ever so slightly. They move away and 

just tighten their grip a little. They don’t 

realize they’re doing it. But when you 

walk through the world and people are 

moving away from you just a little bit 

everywhere, all the time, ‘cause they 

think you’re about to attack them, that 

can really get to you. It does something 

to your mind.” 

And then I saw it. I was sure that 

I had done that. In fact, since that 

conversation, it’s all I can do not to 

make a specific point of not grabbing my 

purse whenever a Black man walks past 

me. But that’s not the answer either. It 

would be nice if I didn’t notice when 

a Black man walked past me, besides 

giving him a smile and a nod because 

he’s a fellow human being. This is what 

I’m working on—part of my life’s work. 

It should be part of all of our life’s work. 

Many white people think that antiracism 

training is nothing but self-hatred 

and self-blame. They’re wrong. It’s a 

constant struggle. It has to be hard. 

Institutionalized racism is so big that you 

can’t see it. Anti-racism training is the 

act of lifting your head out of quicksand, 

trying to twist your bound self around 

in Plato’s cave so that you can see the 

puppets and the blinding light of the sun 

rather than the shadows on the wall. 

But there’s joy too, particularly once 

you get down to the actual work of 

actively pushing back against the norm of 

racism. You’re trying to push the chains 

off of everyone who is bound, including 

yourself. Think about where we’ll get 

with this endeavor if the getting is good. 

It’s easy to get discouraged when 

facing such a large problem. I can only 

imagine what it must look like and feel 

like to be a person of color. But for me, 

once I had gotten a handle on it, my 

eyes had been opened. Now I could be 

one of the forces of change—a conduit 

through which the Revolution could 

flow. The least I could do, to start with, 

was to try to take some of the onus off 

of Omar and my other friends of color 

who have the big hearts to try to teach 

all of us. I could take on at least some 

of the teaching myself, from my own 

white perspective. 

I really believe that there is joy in 

making of yourself an anti-racist sword as 

well as a shield. But it starts with never 

ceasing in your efforts, and never pausing 

in your own personal journey. If you care 

about the health of this human family 

that is the Guild, and of the greater 

human family on this Earth, then it starts 


Convention 08 

by coming to the Anti-Racism training. 

Show the people of color within the 

Guild that you really do care about 

them, and that you want badly to 

increase their numbers. Show the 

younger generation that you don’t think 

that marching with Dr. King gave you a 

Get-Out-of-Racism-Free card for life, 

and that you know your work is never 

done. Show the older generation that 

you love and respect and have been 

inspired by what they’ve done and that 

you want to carry their work forward, 

even if the work looks different. Most 

importantly, show yourself that you 

know you’re not there yet, but that 

you’re jumping back into the struggle 

with both hands ready and with eyes and 

ears wide open. Show both the Guild 

and the world that, together, we’ve got 

no time to waste wiping our own shit off 

our feet. We’ve got a Revolution to 

bring here. 

I hope to see you all there next year. • 

The Living Constitution 

with highlights from the Supreme Law of the Land 

A new publication from the 

Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute 

In 2008 each one of us needs to read the words in the Constitution of the 

United States that are the Law today. This edition of the Constitution 

takes out every obsolete passage, like “‘3/5 of all others,’ ‘male’ voters 21 

and over,”and inserts them where they belong, in the Appendix. 

In Article VI, clause 2, the Constitution guarantees that a treaty is the 

supreme law of the land, and so relevant passages of the Constitution are 

juxtaposed with relevant passages of international law: “Congress shall have 

power...To declare war” (as in 1787), and “All member nations shall 

refrain in their international relations from the threat or use 

force...against...any state” (as in United Nations Charter article 2.4) 

Order today at http://mcli.org 


Convention 08 

Roadtrip to Detroit 

by Sara Korol 

In October, ten National Lawyers Guild members tore 

themselves away from their studies at the State University of 

New York at Buffalo to attend the annual NLG conference in 

Detroit. The group proudly represented each law school year, 

including seven 1Ls—an impressive contingent given the 

newly-revived status of UB’s student chapter. 

Given the number and variety of 

things that could have gone wrong 

but did not, the trip was a great 

success, thanks in part to incredible 

support and inspiration provided to us 

from the NLG. 

The content of the panels and 

workshops was varied and balanced. 

The competing interests of undocumented 

immigrants shared time with 

the champions of organized labor; panels 

specific to Michigan, such as the high instance of rape of 

women inmates across the state, appeared back-to-back with 

global concerns in Palestine; threats to civil liberties were presented 

in tandem with environmental injustices. Each student initially 

gravitated toward the issues that brought him or her to law 

school, but over the course of three days, no one came away 

without branching out and learning something completely new. 

For the 2- and 3Ls who are poised on the verge of practicing 

law, the conference was a happy reminder of the meaningful 

roles that lawyers play in social change and social justice. Anna 

Falicov, the most senior of the group, thought the conference 

was inspiring and refreshing for these reasons. Rebecca 

Hoffman, an active member of the Working Families Party of 

Buffalo, thoroughly enjoyed hearing labor union leader discuss 

immigration, the rights of undocumented workers, and the 

need to unite along class lines. Demian Fernandez, whose goal 

is to work toward greater American corporate accountability 

outside of our borders, took away some much needed guidance 

from the conference. He reflected that the human perspective is 

largely absent from the law school curriculum. He speaks for 

many in the group in that he feels more energized and focused 

after hearing what is actually being done in the field to further 

social justice everywhere. 

For the 1Ls the experience was less a reinforcement and 

more a first impression—a glimpse of such a concentration of 

people in whom we see manifestations of our own fledging 

social justice aspirations. More concretely, it underscored for us 

the national nature of the NLG. Unlike the other student 

groups at UB, the NLG is something that we can be a part of 

for the rest of our lives, reaping the benefits of the network and 

furthering its cause long after we leave law school. 

The whole group was housed for free in one place, thanks to 

the generosity of a friend of the Detroit Guild chapter—a boon 

for organizational and bonding purposes. By traversing the city 

ourselves in order to get to and from the 

downtown, getting lost, and being 

rerouted by Sunday’s marathon, we got 

to see a substantial cross-section of what 

was once one of the richest cities in the 

U.S. and is now the poorest. Evidence 

of past wealth starkly contrasted with the 

multitude of empty lots, abandoned 

buildings, and homeless people camped 

out in fields. Coming from another 

financially disadvantaged city in the U.S., 

this was nothing new, but the extent of the decline seemed more 

pervasive in Detroit than in Buffalo. 

However, the word “poor” cannot be applied to Detroit’s 

cultural offerings nor to its pride. Mike Raleigh, a Buffalo 

native, found the conviction of those who choose to live in the 

city a heartening characteristic. Melissa Wischerath, also a 

Buffalo native, felt the people of Detroit were among the 

friendliest she had ever met. 

When we were not at the conference center, we were walking 

in Greektown, listening to live jazz, going feather bowling (a 

Detroit past-time rooted in its Belgian immigrant past), riding 

the People Mover (the closest thing to the Simpson’s monorail 

we will ever see), admiring the shiny 1950s GM sports cars on 

display, dancing the night away at a pub across from the old 

Lions’ stadium, eating late-night greasy goodness at Detroit’s 

famous heartburn heaven Coney Island, doing U-turns in a 

12-passenger van, and coming home from a party only to find 

the party has beaten you there. 

For me the weekend confirmed that I have found an amazing 

group of people to share my law school experience with. I 

became excited about the potential we have for the future with 

so many new recruits. I could have been overwhelmed by the 

number of fronts the NLG presented in the continuing struggle 

for equality in the eyes of the law, but I was not. More than 

ever, I was convinced that individuals can make a difference. 

That is, individuals united. • 

PHOTO: KATY CLEMENS 


Convention 08 

Resolutions and Elections 

At the 71st annual National Lawyers Guild convention, and in the electronic/mail ballot voting that ensued between 

November 3 – 24 , 2008, the following national officers were elected and the following resolutions passed: 

David Gespass was elected 

to a one-year term as 

President-Elect. 

Lynne Williams was elected 

to the three-year term of 

Executive Vice President. 

Roxana Orrell was elected 

to a second three-year 

term of Treasurer. 

Thom Cincotta was elected 

to a two-year term of 

National Vice President. 

PASSED. Amendment to NLG Bylaw 8.4(a) Resolutions, Constitution and Bylaws Amendments – NLG members in 

good standing who attend the National Convention shall vote at the Convention to approve or disapprove proposed 

resolutions (including those drafted or amended at the Convention) and amendments to the NLG Constitution 

and/or Bylaws properly before the Convention. 

(a) Proposed resolutions must be submitted to the Convention Resolutions Committee in writing not less than sixty 

(60) days prior to the commencement of the National Convention and must contain a specific implementation clause. 

Whenever possible, resolutions proposed for consideration by the National Convention should be published to the 

entire membership before the Convention, preferably in the pre-Convention issue of Guild Notes. 

Proposed Amendment to the Bylaws Concerning Emergency Resolutions 

The following paragraph will now be inserted after subsection (a): 

Emergency resolutions may be submitted after the sixty-day deadline, and up to twenty-four (24) hours prior to the 

voting plenary, as long as they are based on events that have taken place after the sixty day deadline. The twenty-four 

hour deadline nay be waived in the event that an emergency resolution in non-controversial as determined by the 

Resolutions Committee and confirmed by the actual vote. Emergency resolutions must comply with all resolution 

requirements not related to timeliness. 

PASSED. Emergency Resolution to Educate and lobby the United States to create a second “New Deal.” (Full text 

available upon request to the National Office, nlgno@nlg.org). 

PASSED. Resolution commemorating, honoring and thanking National Lawyers Guild Founder Barney Rosenstein 

on his 100th Birthday. Full text available upon request to the National Office, nlgno@nlg.org. 


COMMITTEE AND CHAPTER UPDATES 

Death Row Exoneree Curtis McCarty Speaks 

at Brooklyn Law 

by Rebekah J. Pazmiño 

On October 20, 2008, the Brooklyn Law 

School (BLS) chapter of the National 

Lawyers Guild was honored to host a talk 

with Curtis McCarty, exonerated last year 

by DNA evidence after spending 21 years 

in Oklahoma prisons, including 18 years 

on death row for a murder he did not 

commit. Mr. McCarty spoke to a 

captivated student audience about his 

experiences with the criminal justice 

system, his relationships with his 

attorneys through the years, and the 

challenges he has faced upon reentering 

society after spending so much of his life 

behind bars. His talk also shed light on 

his wrongful incarceration, which was the 

result of prosecutorial misconduct and 

false testimony by Joyce Gilchrist—the 

now infamous Oklahoma City police 

department forensic analyst whose shoddy, 

sometimes outright erroneous, work 

later became the subject of FBI scrutiny. 

Despite her participation in at least 

two other prosecutions where innocent 

men were exonerated by DNA evidence, 

Ms. Gilchrist has not been prosecuted 

criminally or civilly for her transgressions, 

as Mr. McCarty informed several 

students who spoke to him after the 

event. This led Mr. McCarty to caution 

students in the room to take their ethical 

responsibilities seriously because of the 

damage that can arise from prosecutorial 

misconduct, erroneous prosecutions, and 

wrongful convictions. 

This event presented a rare opportunity 

for the BLS community to hear directly 

from someone who had spent time on 

death row and put a human face on the 

destruction that is caused when a false 

We weren’t merely touched by your grace; we 

were transformed by your insight. Every student 

who attended will be a better lawyer because of 

your visit. 

conviction occurs. The impact of this was 

clearly felt: following the talk, students 

approached event organizers about writing 

personal thank you letters to Mr.McCarty. 

The following are excerpts from three of 

those letters: 

“I can say with certainty that [your 

talk] was the most moving talk I have 

ever attended during school. Your 

attendance and comments helped put a 

human face on a very crucial issue facing 

the criminal justice system. I think it 

really made a difference for the many 

students who were present who may not 

have realized how problematic and errorriddled 

death penalty sentencing can be.” 

“I want to thank you for the incredibly 

inspiring and insightful talk you 

gave…Your talk further solidified the 

fact that there are many serious issues 

facing those on death row. I believe other 

students present certainly benefited from 

exposure to the existence of these systematic 

problems, as well as your wonderful 

advice on the ethical obligations we must 

live up to as young attorneys. You are a 

truly amazing individual, Mr. McCarty, 

and I hope you know this.” 

“It takes extraordinary character to 

emerge from an ordeal like the one you 

faced thinking about the future and 

hoping to improve other people’s lives. 

But we weren’t merely touched by your 

grace; we were transformed by your 

insight. Every student who attended will 

Curtis McCarty inspired dozens of Brooklyn 

Law School students by sharing his story on 

October 20, 2008. 

be a better lawyer because of your visit, 

which brought our ethics training to life 

in a way that no textbook or classroom 

exercise ever could. Expecting a lesson 

about the death penalty and the 

innocence movement, we received an 

education in conscience: how to be good 

and do right. Thank you, Mr. McCarty, 

for making us better lawyers and better 

people.” 

Beyond deeply moving those in attendance, 

Mr. McCarty’s talk also brought to 

life the numerous failures within the criminal 

justice system that underlie the Guild’s 

historic anti-death penalty and pro-reform 

missions. The BLS NLG chapter would 

like to thank Mr. McCarty’s legal team at 

the Innocence Project for offering us the 

opportunity to have such a powerful and 

eloquent speaker visit the school. • 



Georgia Chapter Campaigns for Human Rights 

by Azadeh Shahshahani 

The mission of Human Rights Atlanta is 

to organize a grassroots campaign commemorating 

the 60th anniversary of the 

1948 Universal Declaration of Human 

Rights; foster inclusive and sustainable 

collaboration among human rights organizations 

and activists in metro Atlanta; 

and contribute to an ongoing human 

rights movement that can challenge 

unjust policies and institutions at home 

and abroad. 

The newly revitalized Georgia chapter 

of the National Lawyers Guild has joined 

a broad coalition of organizations and 

advocates under the banner Human 

Rights Atlanta to commemorate, celebrate, 

educate, reflect, and act upon the 

anniversary of the Universal Declaration 

of Human Rights (UDHR). The group 

perceives the UDHR as a powerful tool 

to link issues of social justice, and the 

60th anniversary commemoration as a 

means of strengthening the dialogue and 

collaboration among the human rights 

advocacy community in the metro- 

Atlanta area. Currently made up of more 

than 40 groups, Human Rights Atlanta 

members are hoping to broaden the 

coalition to include 60 organizations by 

December 10th, Human Rights Day. 

Between October 10 and December 

10, the coalition presented dozens of 

events in the metro-Atlanta area 

“highlighting and honoring the ongoing 

struggles for social justice, racial and 

gender equality, peace, democracy and 

the full enjoyment of human rights by 

all.” The regularly-updated schedule can 

be viewed at: http://www.humanrightsatlanta.org/calendar.html. 

Each event 

was aimed at creating awareness and 

recognition of the UDHR and the 

A press conference in front of the Cobb Detention Facility held on October 14 announced the 

kick-off of the Human Rights/Immigrants’ Rights Conversation Series. 

international human rights framework. 

Recent events have included: a 

Continuing Legal Education seminar 

on using the international human rights 

framework in public interest litigation; 

coordinated humanitarian visitations to 

the Stewart detention facility in 

Lumpkin, Georgia (which holds more 

than 1,700 immigrants); reading and 

signing of Kafka Comes to America by 

Steven Wax; a series of screenings of the 

movie The Visitor; and the kick-off of a 

new initiative, “The Immigrants’ 

Rights/Human Rights Conversation 

Series.” Centered around the UDHR, 

the initiative is aimed at deepening the 

understanding of the complex human 

rights issues facing migrant, immigrant, 

and refugee communities. 

The coalition will likely continue on 

past December 10, through the creation 

of various initiatives focusing on local, 

state, or national issues. A committee 

will be formed to push for the passage of 

a Human Rights Charter by the City of 

Atlanta. Another will work on local 

implementation of the Convention 

on Elimination of All Forms of 

Discrimination Against Women 

(CEDAW). Yet another team will devote 

its efforts to nationally push for the 

adoption of a human rights agenda by 

the new administration. • 

If you are interested in collaborating 

on continued human rights work, please 

contact Azadeh Shahshahani at 

ashahshahani@acluga.org. 

PHOTO: AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI 



Cornell NLG Creates Week of Awareness on 

Torture, Law, and American Values 

by Kathleen Rourke 

According to NLG member 

and Cornell grad Gita 

Gutierrez, Guantánamo Bay 

at Cuba was deliberately 

chosen in 2002 as an interrogation 

center, a place where it 

was thought no U.S. law 

would apply. Two years 

after people first became 

incarcerated there, she and 

other lawyers were the first 

civilian persons allowed in as 

legal counsel for prisoners, 

only after the Center for 

Constitutional Rights, where 

Ms. Guiterrez works, filed 

habeas petitions on behalf of 

prisoners at Guantánamo. 

Finally, in June 2004, the 

U.S. Supreme Court, in 

Rasul v. Bush, held that the 

habeas statute extends to 

include Guantánamo Bay. 

As part of a weeklong 

series of events with the goal 

of bringing awareness to the 

Cornell Law School community 

about the conditions at 

Guantánamo, the local chapter 

of the National Lawyers 

Guild invited Ms. Gutierrez 

to talk about her experiences 

at the Guantánamo interrogation 

center. 

The students listening were 

horrified at the facts presented 

by Ms. Gutierrez, many 

of which are not public 

knowledge. The detainees 

originally ranged in age from 

10 years old to over 80 and 

come from over 40 different 

nations. Many of them were 

turned in to the Americans 

Reminder to all national projects, 

committees, and task forces! 

This is a friendly reminder to all Guild entities to submit 

your accountings of annual income and expenditures by 

January 15, 2009 to the National Office. You can email it to 

frontdesk@nlg.org or fax it to 212-679-2811. If you are 

separately incorporated you need not submit this information. 

Thank you! 

SECTION 4 - PROJECT, COMMITTEE, AND TASK FORCE 

ASSESSMENTS 

Section 4.2 Annual Reporting - Each National Project, 

Committee, and Task Force shall submit to the National 

Office a report detailing its income and expenses for the 

prior year and a budget for the next year by on or about 

January 15 each year. 

and transferred to Cuba 

simply on the word of local 

people who were eager to 

receive the U.S. bounty 

money. 92% of the inmates at 

Guantánamo are now classified 

as non-Taliban fighters. 

Although a number of them 

have since been released to 

their home countries through 

diplomatic efforts, 260 men 

remain incarcerated, all adults. 

No one has yet been released 

due to the ongoing habeas 

process. Meanwhile, they 

remain prisoners with little or 

no mental stimulation or 

interaction with each other. 

What minimal contact they 

have with their families 

appears in heavily redacted 

Red Cross letters. 

Ms. Guiterrez believes 

that the site was set up 

purposely to allow torture 

and intelligence gathering 

outside of U.S. laws and with 

no concern for human rights. 

Some of the torture practices 

include: water-boarding; sexual 

humiliation; forced standing 

for days; being held in darkness 

for months; deprivation 

of food, washing, and toilet 

facilities; and being unable to 

practice their Muslim religion. 

The prisoners are totally 

dependent on their captors 

for everything they need to 

survive, and these practices 

have made the U.S. look like 

a tyrannical super power on 

the world stage. 

It is important to remember 

that torture is not an 

American value. But at the 

same time, we need to recognize 

that it is also part of our 

past. Our ability to dehumanize 

people was demonstrated 

at Guantánamo. Her message 

to the law school community 

is that, as a people, and as 

new lawyers, we need to 

know and understand our 

history, and also learn from 

it. Without our country’s 

habeas corpus right, she and 

other lawyers would not have 

been allowed to meet the 

prisoners. Habeas is still 

important, but prisoners are 

still being held. She urged 

the students to “strive for 

the ideal. There is never 

justification for torture. It 

should never be part of our 

judicial system.” 

Continuing the weeklong 

events, students wore orange 

ribbons, the color of the 

Guantánamo prison uniforms, 

to raise visibility about 

on-going human rights issues 

associated with Guantánamo. 

The NLG chapter also 

sponsored a screening and 

discussion of the movie Road 

to Guantánamo on October 

30. The movie is about the 

lives of four prisoners during 

their years of relentless 

interrogation and torture, 

aimed at forcing them to 

submit false confessions 

of being terrorists. • 



New NLG Student Chapter Gets out the Vote 

by Hillary Scholten 

Only a month old, the NLG 

chapter at the University of 

Maryland School of Law 

mobilized in early October to 

register nearly 200 disenfranchised 

voters at the Baltimore 

City Jail and federal courthouse. 

The voter enfranchisement 

project focused on two 

key groups—individuals with 

criminal histories detained 

at the jail and recently 

naturalized U.S. citizens. 

The student group’s 

founder and president, Katie 

D’Adamo, led the push to 

help detainees vote. “I 

thought that it was important 

to conduct the registration 

at the jail for a number of 

reasons, but mainly to inform 

detainees of their voting 

rights and to enable them to 

participate in the election 

process if they were eligible,” 

D’Adamo said. She added, 

“While detained, few people 

actually register because of 

perceived logistical difficulties: 

they can’t just go to 

the Internet and print off a 

voter registration form or 

absentee ballot application 

and mail it in.” 

The project focused mainly 

on those affected by a new 

law passed in Maryland, 

which allows individuals to 

vote if they have finished 

serving the sentence of their 

felony conviction. Many of 

the individuals detained at 

the jail had previous felony 

convictions and were either 

awaiting trial or serving time 

for a misdemeanor. 

The group faced many 

obstacles in their campaign, 

ranging from difficulties with 

the board of elections to 

roadblocks from the prison 

board. But D’Adamo says 

that Warden Norman Watkins 

was a huge assistance 

throughout the process. 

Watkins registered voters 

before and after the group 

came on the scene and was 

passionate about helping 

inmates take advantage of 

this new law. In addition to 

registering voters, the group 

assisted those who would be 

detained beyond Election 

Day apply for, fill out, and 

mail in absentee ballots. 

The students also led the 

effort to help newly naturalized 

citizens register to vote. 

The U.S. Citizenship and 

Immigration Service offered 

extra oath ceremonies in the 

weeks leading up to the election. 

Because of the small 

window of time between the 

ceremony and the last day to 

register, the group joined 

with CASA of Maryland, 

which has been spearheading 

an immigrant citizens voter 

registration drive, to make 

sure the new voters made the 

deadline. • 

For more information about 

upcoming events, making 

donations, or general 

involvement please contact 

president Katie D’Adamo at 

Katie.D’Adamo@gmail.com. 

Give Back to the Guild 

Do you value the work that the National Lawyers Guild does? Has a Guild attorney helped you or 

someone you know? Won’t you reach out and help the Guild continue its work–work it has been doing 

for 70 years and, with your support, will continue doing. As long as we are needed, we will be there. 

Bequests 

Include the National Lawyers Guild in your will 

or estate plan, and leave a legacy of defending civil 

rights and civil liberties to future generations. 

Request information on making gifts of life insurance, 

retirement plan benefits, stock, property, cash or 

proceeds from a charitable trust. 

Stock Gifts 

Save on capital gains taxes, and make your contribution 

with stock or mutual fund shares, instead of cash. 

If you have appreciated securities worth more than 

you paid for them, you gain a charitable deduction 

for the full fair market value of the shares and avoid 

capital gains tax. 

For information about opportunities to support the National Lawyers Guild through planned giving, 

contact Marjorie Suisman, Esq. at (617) 589-3836. msuisman@davismalm.com 



Coming Soon to a Location Near You! 

Cardozo School of Law Sponsors Official Legal Observer Training Film 

SCENE: Some morning, some day, 

September 2006, a phone rings at the 

NLG National Office 

“Good morning. Míchel Martinez, 

student organizer—how can I help you?” 

“Hey, Míchel. I’m a student in the KU 

chapter. There’s a big demonstration 

next month and we want to hold a legal 

observer training.” 

New staff person panic sets in. 

KU. Is that Topeka? Wichita? Lawrence? 

It turns out that it doesn’t much matter 

which city in Kansas that KU is located— 

we don’t have a Guild member to lead a 

legal observer training anywhere near 

their campus (Lawrence, for those of you 

still wondering). 

Actors turned Cardozo law students draw on their theater backgrounds to produce the Official 

Legal Observer Training Video. 

PHOTO: MICHEL ANGELA MARTINEZ 

This happened repeatedly during my 

first months at the NLG and continues 

to this day. Students will call or write, 

hoping that I can find them a local Guild 

member to lead a Legal Observer 

Training so that they can be prepared to 

protect the people’s rights of free speech 

and assembly at an upcoming protest— 

and I tell them that I can’t help. I have to 

tell them, “I’m sorry, but there simply 

aren’t any Guild members around and 

there’s no money to fly someone in.” 

Many students involved in our campus 

chapters do not have the luxury of local 

NLG staff and members to help with 

events and trainings, or serve as mentors, 

and the like. They work incredibly hard, 

and the National Office tries to offer 

support, but there is nothing quite like 

having the support and resources of local 

members. 

Borne of the frustration of being 

locked in New York City and my deep 

desire to help students everywhere get 

more from the Guild came an idea: what 

if we could hold a formal, scripted NLG 

Legal Observer training and film it, 

distributing the product to students and 

other Guild members who don’t have 

local Mass Defense Committee members 

or Legal Observer trainers nearby?” 

What was once a pipedream has 

become a reality—albeit, two years later. 

Persistence is a virtue. 

On October 30, 2008, after a 

few months of script-hashing and 

money-haggling, the Official Legal 

Observer Training Video was taped. 

Hosted and funded by Cardozo Law 

School NLG, coordinating with the 

National Office and the NYC chapter 

on the concept and script, the taping 

was a huge success. Students Jaya 

Vasandani, Kimberly Wong, and Joshua 

Moskovitz headed up the organizing 

effort on campus. Actors turned 

Cardozo law school students—some 

with SAG credentials—came through 

with brilliant vignette performances, 

playing police, protestors, and legal 

observers. CUNY law student Insha 

Rahman, recent grad/attorney Mark 

Taylor, and veteran Mass Defense 

committee member Bruce Bentley, were 

our top-notch trainers. The production 

would not have been possible without 

generous filmmakers—and new friends 

of the Guild—Justin Lange, Ted Walter, 

and Matthew Landfield. 

In a few months the video will be 

complete, edited and ready for release. 

It is meant to be used in tandem with 

the official Legal Observer Training 



Manual and standard certification 

procedures. We will send out an email 

when we have the final piece at the 

National Office about how you can 

secure a copy for your chapter so that 

you can host a Legal Observer Training, 

officially train your members, and be 

prepared for the next demonstration. 

We look forward to making the film 

available, building the Legal Observer 

Program and Mass Defense Committee, 

and in kind, preserving the rights of free 

speech and assembly. 

Once again, I am eternally grateful to 

the Cardozo NLG Chapter—this would 

not be possible without them. • 

Míchel Angela Martinez is the National 

Student Organizer of the National 

Lawyers Guild. To learn more about the 

Legal Observer Training Video, or for 

questions about student organizing, you 

may write her at studentorg@nlg.org. 

The Economic Task Force is Reborn! 

We are many in the Guild who work in legal services and other public interest 

economic justice law firms. However, we have no on-going equivalent to the 

Immigration or Labor and Employment Committees. But we used to. Some 

of you will remember the Economic Rights Task Force of years past and its 

periodic bulletin. In the hopes that this tradition can be revived, there was a 

very informal gathering of like-minded folks at this year’s convention. 

People discussed ideas of how to work together. Ideas include ways for 

legal services attorneys to connect better with the private bar, how to address 

the fact that many new legal services hires are not at all politicized, the need 

to push the new administration in Washington to end LSC restrictions, how to 

spread the word about the Impact Fund, and the planning of a workshop and 

bigger reception or even dinner at next year’s convention. 

The NO has also set up a listserv for us. To join, go to http://lists.nlg.org/ 

mailman/listinfo/economictaskforce. The hope is that, within a few months, 

we can have a functioning committee planning regional and national activities. 

As the Second Great Depression may be upon us, it is an important task for 

the Guild. 

Steve Bingham 

Daniel Gross Discusses His Book at Bluestockings 

On November 15, Guild member and 

IWW Starbucks Union Organizer Daniel 

Gross spoke at Bluestockings bookstore 

in lower Manhattan about the recently 

published Labor Law for the Rank and 

Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying 

Clear of the Law (PM Press). Daniel 

co-authored the book with noted scholar 

and attorney Staughton Lynd. They call 

it a guerrilla legal handbook and a 

practical guide for workers to make their 

work environment a better place while 

re-invigorating the labor movement. In 

his talk, Daniel presented models of 

“solidarity unionism,” a simple and 

elegant organizing model by which 

workers take action around issues of 

concern on the job while avoiding legal 

and bureaucratic pitfalls. The book 

includes new cases on fundamental 

labor rights and ways to build 

grassroots solidarity across borders. 

A graduate of Fordham Law School, 

Daniel serves on the executive committee 

of the National Lawyers Guild Labor 

and Employment Committee. Daniel is 

involved with Brandworkers International, 

the first nonprofit advocacy organization 

for retail and food employees. The New 

York based Brandworkers was founded 

in 2007 by a group of retail and food 

employees active on workers’ rights 

issues. 

Brandworkers empowers workers 

with social change tools needed to 

achieve employer compliance with the 

law and improve working conditions. 

Their approach combines class action 

litigation, union/community organizing 

and public education. 

To listen to a radio interview with 

Daniel, go to lawanddisorder.org and 

click on the show that aired November 

24, 2008. 



Massachusetts Chapter Update 

October community meeting that the NLG and Greater Boston Legal Services organized with the 

Boston City Council. 

By Meg Schroeder 

Last summer the NLG Massachusetts 

Chapter started a Foreclosures and 

Evictions Task Force to help Boston 

area communities fight the problems 

associated with the foreclosure crisis. 

Suffolk law student Lori Hill and I 

served as summer interns for the Guild, 

and we worked closely with Jeff Feuer 

and Lee Goldstein to develop an 

educational program for those affected 

by the current housing crisis. 

When a home is lost to foreclosure it 

affects more than just the former owner. 

We focused our efforts on helping the 

tenants who, through no fault of their 

own, no longer have a place to live. 

Banks and loan servicers are currently 

unwilling to continue to accept rent from 

tenants living in foreclosed properties 

until they are able to sell the home. This 

occurs because they are not prepared to 

be landlords, and they insist that properties 

are significantly harder to sell with 

people living in them. However, many of 

the homes remain vacant for months or 

years after the tenants are evicted and they 

become hot spots for other problems— 

including drugs, fires and theft. Part of 

our project is aimed at encouraging banks 

PHOTO: KC BAILEY 

to accept rent from tenants, or at least 

help tenants receive enough money in a 

settlement to facilitate a comfortable 

move to a new residence. 

Our efforts will include clinics to advise 

tenants of their legal rights following the 

foreclosure of their building, focusing 

initially on Somerville, which is largely 

ignored by other organizations. Trainings 

of attorneys and students to run the 

clinics have already begun, and we are on 

track to start regular clinics in September 

2009. 

We have also been working with the 

Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory 

Lending (MAAPL) in their lobbying 

efforts this summer. They were advocating 

three pieces of legislation that would help 

alleviate the foreclosure crisis in 

Massachusetts: One of the bills is a six 

month moratorium on foreclosures; the 

second will create a system of judicial 

foreclosure in the state; and the third 

will protect tenants living in foreclosed 

properties from eviction without cause. 

Lori and I participated in a lobby day at 

the State House for the bills, which was 

an exciting way for the Guild to be 

involved in their work. A large group 

of supporters went from office to office 

speaking with senators and representatives, 

encouraging them to support the 

bills. Although the bills did not make 

it out of committee before the formal 

session ended, we did raise awareness that 

there is a problem requiring attention. 

There are currently Homerule Petitions 

in the legislature with the same provisions 

as the three bills for several cities in 

Massachusetts, including Boston. 

We also worked with City Life, a 

grassroots group that uses community 

organizing to pressure banks into allowing 

tenants and former owners to pay rent 

until the house is sold. When legal 

avenues are unsuccessful, City Life will 

host an eviction blocking in front of the 

home when the constable arrives to evict. 

Guild attorneys, Neil Berman, Jeff Feuer, 

and Lee Goldstein are always available at 

eviction blockings for any legal help. 

Fortunately, arrests are usually unnecessary, 

but in September, four activists 

were arrested during one blocking and are 

represented by Jeff and Lee. 

Finally, we participated in the Lawyer 

for a Day program at the Boston Housing 

Court. It gives law students and attorneys 

the opportunity to help pro se tenants and 

landlords when they appear in Housing 

Court. The Guild is hoping to continue 

to participate in the program and is looking 

for students and attorneys who would 

be interested in working in the Court on 

Thursdays. 

The Foreclosures and Evictions 

Project has been exciting, and we look 

forward to an active and productive year. 

If you would like to participate in any of 

the upcoming clinics or be a part of the 

Lawyer for a Day program, please contact 

the SLC at 617-723-4330 or email 

nlgmass-slc@igc.org. 

Meg Schroeder is a student at Boston 

College School of Law. 



Georgetown Law Hosts William Ayers 

by Samantha Godwin 

On November 17, 2008 the 

Georgetown Law chapter of the National 

Lawyers Guild proudly hosted Bill Ayers 

in his first public appearance since the 

Republican presidential campaign 

demonized him in an effort to discredit 

Barack Obama by association. Ayers’s 

work as an educational reformer, social 

critic, interdisciplinary academic, and 

community organizer provided a solid 

platform for his speech, which focused 

on issues of legal reform and societal 

attitudes toward punishment. 

He is most widely known, however, 

for his role as a leader of the Weather 

Underground Organization (WU). 

Ayers’s appearance led to protests on 

campus and broad media coverage, and 

while he intended to discuss his work 

since leaving the WU, as well as his 

forthcoming book Race Course Against 

White Supremacy, he was forced to 

address the way he and his past have 

been systematically misrepresented. 

Ayers has been characterized as a 

terrorist and even a murderer by politicians 

and the media; the fact that neither 

he, nor his organization, killed anyone 

seems to be irrelevant. He described the 

Weather Underground’s campaign as 

one of pointed acts of vandalism, as a 

means of protest, against government 

property, not people. This campaign was 

no doubt illegal, but to call it terrorism 

is inaccurate. 

Ayers neither avoided addressing his 

past nor did he offer the blanket apology 

for it that so many have demanded. 

Instead he took a politically responsible 

line: although he has plenty of regrets, 

to cave into the pressure to repent 

would mean taking his actions out of the 

context they responded to—the mass 

Bill Ayers holds the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at 

the University of Illinois in Chicago. 

murder of the Vietnamese people and 

mass terror against the Black community. 

Ayers explained that it would be wrong 

of him to renounce everything he did in 

the 60s and 70s while the politicians 

responsible for carrying out true war 

crimes in Indochina have never had to 

account or apologize for their actions. 

During his talk at Georgetown, 

Ayers pointed out that while today 

people think of non-violent protest as 

passive, it was defined in the civil rights 

and anti-war movements as confronting 

authorities and defying the law without 

causing injury. The fact that these acts 

of protests were illegal was intrinsic to 

the gravity of their message because 

participating meant taking real personal 

risks and sacrificing comfortable lives. 

Those risks and sacrifices showed that 

the war in Vietnam wasn’t just a policy 

they opposed in theory, but a reality 

they couldn’t live with. Delivering that 

message was essential to ending the U.S. 

atrocities in Vietnam. 

Ayers reminded his audience at 

Georgetown that the U.S. government 

ended its involvement in Vietnam not as 

a result of a military defeat, but out of 

political necessity. The war lost support 

as the American people recognized, 

largely due to the protests of the antiwar 

movement, that their government’s 

actions were wrong, outrageous and 

intolerable. To that extent, it would not 

be unreasonable to say that Ayers and his 

fellow protesters were responsible for the 

shift in U.S. policy which saved many 

more lives from being lost. 

Ayers did not use the platform that 

Georgetown’s NLG chapter gave him 

to justify his actions, but only to ask that 

they be considered for what they truly 

were. His appearance helped to dispel 

the myth surrounding him that was so 

aggressively exploited by the right. 

He showed himself to be a thoughtful, 

multi-dimensional activist, as opposed 

to the caricatured terrorist to which the 

media has attempted to reduce him. • 

PHOTO: SAMANTHA GODWIN 


Notable 

Past President Peter Erlinder Receives American 

Muslim Alliance Malcolm X Award 

Peter Erlinder received the Malcolm X 

Freedom Award, presented at the 2008 

American Muslim Alliance National 

Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, 

on October 12, for his work “opposing 

secret evidence deportations and defending 

Muslim and Palestinians unjustly 

accused of terrorism, following 9/11, 

as well as speaking out against the 

PATRIOT Act…early on.” 

As Guild Notes readers know, Dr. 

Al-Arian, was charged with being a 

leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad 

in February 2003. After spending three 

years in prison, a Tampa jury acquitted 

him of the most serious charges and 

deadlocked 10-2 for acquittal on others. 

In December 2005, Time Magazine 

reported the verdict as one of the 

Justice Department’s most embarrassing 

post-9/11 defeats. 

Al-Arian eventually pleaded guilty to a 

single count of conspiracy, in return for 

the promise to release him in May 2006 

and to facilitate immediate voluntary 

removal from the United States. The trial 

judge extended his sentence for a year 

based on violent conduct of which the 

jury had acquitted him. Erlinder 

appealed the “acquitted conduct” issue 

to the United States Supreme Court. A 

few days later, federal prosecutors in 

Virginia called Al-Arian before a grand 

jury. Al-Arian refused to testify and 

criminal contempt charges were filed 

earlier this year. Recently, however, 

Judge Leonie Brinkema postponed the 

contempt trial indefinitely because of 

irregularities in the indictment and a 

pending Supreme Court appeal. She 

also released Al-Arian to house arrest. 

A motion to dismiss the indictment is 

pending. 

Erlinder represented Al-Arian in the 

4th and 11th Federal Circuit Courts and 

in a cert petition to the U.S. Supreme 

Court. He has been a professor of law at 

William Mitchell Law School since 1982. 

He is a defense attorney at the U.N. 

International Criminal Tribunal for 

Rwanda and the former president of 

the National Lawyers Guild. Peter has 

beenquoted extensively about the case 

in international media and has written 

anarticle on the case in the forthcoming 

University of Southern California 

Journal of Social Justice. • 

Lawyers Needed for NLG 

Green Scare Hotline 

1-888-NLG-ECOL 

The Guild’s toll-free “Green Scare” hotline, for environmental and 

animal rights activists, has been operational for one year. The calls are 

still coming in, and we seek Guild attorneys around the country to be 

on a list that we can refer callers to. Please let us know if we can add 

your name to our referral panel. We especially need lawyers with 

experience counseling individuals who have been visited by the FBI. 

If you can be available to handle a few calls a year, please email Heidi 

Boghosian at director@nlg.org 

Socially responsible activists have told us how much they appreciate 

this service—the Guilds hotline is the only one that we know about! 

David Kairys 

Philadelphia Freedom 

Available now for only $20 

EMAIL REQUESTS TO FRONTDESK@NLG.ORG 


NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

National Lawyers Guild 

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tel: (212) 679-5100 fax: (212) 679-2811 http://nlg.org 

President: Marjorie Cohn 

libertad48@san.rr.com 

President Elect: David Gespass 

ThePasss@aol.com 

Executive Vice President: Lynne Williams 

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Executive Vice President: Russell Bloom 

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Treasurer: Roxana Orrell 

aquila23@gmail.com 

National Vice Presidents: 

Thom Cincotta 

Dan Gregor 

National Legal Worker VP: 

Susan Howard 

National Law Student VPs: 

Rachel Rosnick 

Robert Quackenbush 

National Jailhouse Lawyer VPs: 

Mumia Abu-Jamal 

Mark Cook 

REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENTS 

Far West: Rebecca Thornton 

Mid-Atlantic: Ryan Hancock 

Mideast: Cynthia Heenan 

Midwest: Position open 

Northeast: Jeff Thompson and Carl Williams 

Northwest: Peggy Herman and Kenneth Kreuscher 

South: Katherine Shepherd 

Southwest: Position open 

Tex-Oma: Matt Simpson and Rena Guay 

STAFF 

Executive Director: Heidi Boghosian 

director@nlg.org 

Communications Coordinator: Paige Cram 

nlgno@nlg.org 

Student Organizer: Michel Martinez 

studentorg@nlg.org 

Development Associate: Cecilia Amrute 

frontdesk@nlg.org 

National Lawyers Guild Foundation 

132 Nassau Street, Rm. 922, New York, NY 10038 

tel: (212) 679-5100 fax: (212) 679-2811 http://nlg.org 

Chair: Bruce Nestor 

Treasurer: Jeffrey Petrucelly 

Secretary: Jerome Paun 

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Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - National Lawyers Guild

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