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President Obama Grants Commutation to Chelsea Manning
The Obama administration announced today the commutation of Chelsea Manning's sentence for disclosing classified information that raised public awareness regarding the impact of war on innocent civilians. Manning will
WASHINGTON
The Obama administration announced today the commutation of Chelsea Manning's sentence for disclosing classified information that raised public awareness regarding the impact of war on innocent civilians. Manning will reportedly be freed in May 2017.
"I'm relieved and thankful that the president is doing the right thing and commuting Chelsea Manning's sentence," said Chase Strangio, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT Project representing Manning. "Since she was first taken into custody, Chelsea has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement -- including for attempting suicide -- and has been denied access to medically necessary health care. This move could quite literally save Chelsea's life, and we are all better off knowing that Chelsea Manning will walk out of prison a free woman, dedicated to making the world a better place and fighting for justice for so many."
Manning, a transgender woman, is in the seventh year of an unprecedented 35-year sentence and has been forced to serve her sentence in an all-male prison. The ACLU previously filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the appeal of Manning's conviction, arguing that the prosecution of Manning under the Espionage Act violated the Constitution because it leads to prosecutions where a court gives no consideration to the public interest. The ACLU also argued that such cases give the government too much leeway to selectively prosecute disfavored speakers.
Nancy Hollander and Vince Ward, Manning's appellate counselors, said in a joint statement, "Ms. Manning is the longest serving whistleblower in the history of the United States. Her 35-year sentence for disclosing information that served the public interest and never caused harm to the United States was always excessive, and we're delighted that justice is being served in the form of this commutation."
The president's decision comes after an outpouring of support for Manning since her unfair and egregious sentence and the ongoing mistreatment throughout her incarceration. In December, the ACLU and over a dozen other LGBT groups sent a letter to President Obama urging him to grant clemency to Manning, and an official White House petition with the same request secured over 100,000 signatures.
The ACLU has represented Manning in a lawsuit against the Department of Defense that was first filed in 2014 over the department's refusal to treat Manning's well-documented gender dysphoria.
To read more about the case, click here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/manning-v-hagel-et-al
This press release can be found here: https://www.aclu.org/news/president-obama-grants-commutation-chelsea-manning
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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Cori Bush Calls On Biden to Protect Reproductive Rights With ERA
"President Biden has two months," said the congresswoman.
Nov 13, 2024
With just over two months to go until U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to take all the action he can to protect reproductive rights from Republican leader who has bragged about his role in ensuring Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Biden "must immediately direct the archivist of the United States to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment which can protect access to abortion care and contraception," said the Missouri Democrat, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Bush's call comes more than a year after the congresswoman and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced the ERA Now Resolution, urging Colleen Shogan, the archivist of the United States, to certify state ratifications of the amendment and publish it in the Federal Register, which would formally cement it as part of the U.S. Constitution.
First introduced 101 years ago, the ERA would guarantee legal equality for women and men in the U.S. It could push judges to overturn anti-abortion rights laws on the basis that they violate a constitutional right to gender equality. In Utah, a state-level ERA has successfully blocked an abortion ban.
Since first being proposed, the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 and sent to the states for ratification. Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it in 2020, meeting the threshold for it to become law.
"Today the ERA has met all the constitutional requirements to become the 28th Amendment—all that's standing in the way is some paperwork," said Bush in July on the anniversary of the ERA's introduction. "As Republicans and the Supreme Court's extremist majority continue to attack access to abortion care, contraception, and LGBTQ+ rights, the ERA is needed now more than ever to protect our communities. I'm urging the archivist to fulfill her ministerial duty by certifying and publishing the Equal Rights Amendment and affirming it as the 28th Amendment."
The overturning of Roe in 2022 paved the way for at least 21 states to ban or restrict abortion care. Republicans in Congress have proposed a nationwide 15-week abortion ban. Trump has claimed he would not sign a national ban but Vice President-elect JD Vance has expressed support for one.
"There is always the possibility of a national ban," Brittany Fonteno, president of the National Abortion Federation, toldThe Cut on Wednesday.
In her July statement, Bush said that "one hundred and one years of advocacy have brought us to this moment, and we refuse to wait a minute longer to cement constitutional gender equality as the law of the land in St. Louis, Missouri, and across the nation."
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US Labor Board Bans Captive Audience Meetings to Ensure 'Truly Free' Worker Choice
"Today's decision better protects workers' freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights," said the chair of the National Labor Relations Board.
Nov 13, 2024
In a decision that advocates say will likely be reversed during the second administration of Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday ruled that employers cannot force workers to attend anti-union speeches.
The NLRB's 3-1 decision in Amazon.com Services, LLCmeans that workers will no longer have to take part in so-called "captive audience meetings," which employers often use as a union-busting tool and a form of coercion. The agency explained that such meetings violate Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act "because they have a reasonable tendency to interfere with and coerce employees."
"However, the board made clear that an employer may lawfully hold meetings with workers to express its views on unionization so long as workers are provided reasonable advance notice of: the subject of any such meeting, that attendance is voluntary with no adverse consequences for failure to attend, and that no attendance records of the meeting will be kept," the NLRB added.
NLRB Chairperson Lauren McFerran, a Democrat, said in a statement that "ensuring that workers can make a truly free choice about whether they want union representation is one of the fundamental goals of the National Labor Relations Act."
"Captive audience meetings—which give employers near-unfettered freedom to force their message about unionization on workers under threat of discipline or discharge—undermine this important goal," McFerran added. "Today's decision better protects workers' freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights under the act, while ensuring that employers can convey their views about unionization in a noncoercive manner."
In April 2022, the NLRB's general counsel office issued a memo asserting that captive audience meetings are illegal. At least 11 states have banned such meetings. Other states are in various stages of considering or enacting bans or restrictions on them.
Workers' rights advocates hailed Wednesday's decision, although labor journalist Hamilton Nolan quipped on social media that employees should "enjoy this brief shining period before the Trump NLRB reverses this decision."
However, More Perfect Union producer Jordan Zakarin argued that Democrats can protect this "monumental win for labor" for "the next few years" if "they finally confirm" President Joe Biden's nomination of Joshua Ditelberg—a Republican lawyer who has represented companies including Amazon, Airbnb, and UnitedHealth—to fill the fifth NLRB seat.
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)—a Washington, D.C.-based, pro-union think tank—U.S. employers spend an estimated $433 million per year on union-busting consultants.
"This reality makes it harder for workers to fight for their collective bargaining rights because they do not know the extent of their companies' investments in union-busting, a figure that could empower them at the negotiating table when employers claim they can't afford to increase pay and benefits," EPI said last year.
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Democratic Governors Form Coalition to Fight 'Increasing Threats of Autocracy'
"You come for my people, you come through me," said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently.
Nov 13, 2024
With Republicans set to control the White House and both chambers of Congress starting in January, Democratic governors on Wednesday launched an initiative aimed at protecting democracy and countering "emerging threats" from the far-right MAGA movement, pledging that state-level institutions will be safeguarded from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis are leading the initiative, called Governors Safeguarding Democracy (GSD). Democrats currently govern 23 states while Republicans are the governors of 27; Pritzker and Polis did not say on Wednesday which other governors have signed on as members of the coalition.
Pritzker toldthe Chicago Sun-Times that the coalition is "built off a model that all of us governors have already successfully pioneered through the Reproductive Freedom Alliance. And together, what we're doing is pushing back against increasing threats of autocracy and fortifying the institutions of democracy that our country and our states depend on."
The nonpartisan Reproductive Freedom Alliance was established in 2023 to counter anti-abortion rights legislation in Republican-controlled states. Alliance states have stockpiled medication abortion pills, passed "shield" laws to protect patients and providers from out-of-state efforts to criminalize abortion care, and coordinated efforts to make reproductive healthcare more affordable.
Following the election, said Polis, "protecting democracy has never been more relevant or important, and doing so demands strong leadership at the state level. Governors Safeguarding Democracy shows our shared dedication to defending the democratic principles upon which our country is built."
GSD plans to:
- Leverage governors' collective strength, experience, and institutional knowledge to design and implement affirmative strategies to protect the rule of law and deliver for people in the states;
- Reinforce key state institutions to protect executive agencies, elections, state courts, and other core democratic bodies; and
- Develop playbooks to enable governors and their teams to anticipate and swiftly respond to emerging threats.
Pritzker told the Sun-Times that the coalition would likely focus on strengthening state-level environmental protections. On Monday, Trump announced his nomination of former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Zeldin's record includes voting against clean air and water legislation, the creation of a federal climate resilience office, and to withdraw the U.S. from global climate negotiations.
He also said a plan proposed by Stephen Miller, who Trump has named as his deputy chief of policy adviser, to use red state National Guard members to complete mass deportations in blue states was "unacceptable."
"That's not something that's within Title 32 anybody would anticipate would be allowed, and we would not, certainly not cooperate with that," Pritzker told the Sun-Times, referring to the portion of the U.S. code that defines the National Guard's responsibilities. "Beyond that I can't speak to how they would intend to get that accomplished."
Pritzker pledged that the coalition "will serve as a powerful force in state-level efforts to ensure that our democracy lives up to our ideals and thrives for generations to come."
GSD was announced days after the Illinois governor issued a stark warning to the incoming Trump administration regarding plans for mass deportations and other attacks on marginalized communities: "You come for my people, you come through me."
Since the election, several Democratic governors have pledged to protect their constituents from Trump's policies, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowing to "Trump-proof" the state.
Newsom, said he aimed to shore up the state's disaster funds, advocate for waivers that would allow California to phase out fossil fuel-burning vehicles, and pushing for federal approval of several healthcare programs before Trump takes office.
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