[Some upcoming events are posted at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2026/04/update-for-week-16-of-2026-palestinian.html (updated over recent weeks in May) and some anniversaries are posted at: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/04/some-additional-events-and.html , etc.]
[Sent out in early evening on May 12th:
NLG Opposes DOJ Plan to Lower Bar for States to Expedite Capital Punishment
This statement is also being submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice in opposition to the proposed rule changes.
Dear [ ],
The National Lawyers Guild (“NLG”) submits this comment in strong opposition to the Department of Justice’s proposed rule amending 28 CFR Part 26 (“Proposed Rule”). The NLG is the nation’s oldest and largest progressive bar association, and our members across the country regularly represent individuals fighting capital punishment. Hence, the Proposed Rule directly affects our interests.
Before addressing the Proposed Rule’s specific legal defects, the NLG writes to situate those defects in their proper context: capital punishment in the United States has never operated fairly, and this Proposed Rule will amplify its unfairness. The NLG has consistently opposed capital punishment as incompatible with human dignity and equal justice. People on death row are disproportionately Black, brown, and poor, and the death penalty has unequally targeted them.
The procedural protections this rule would dismantle are crucial to any notion of fairness in state-level post-conviction litigation. By eliminating federal competency and compensation standards for state-appointed capital counsel, removing the timeliness requirement for the appointment of that counsel, and rendering certifications permanent with no mechanism for revocation, the Proposed Rule will predictably result in states obtaining expedited federal habeas review, while providing condemned prisoners with inadequate representation.
The rule is also constitutionally and procedurally defective in ways the Department does not acknowledge. By vesting in the Attorney General—the nation’s chief law enforcement officer—sole authority to certify the adequacy of states’ mechanisms for provision of counsel in capital post-conviction proceedings, the statute and this rule create a structurally biased decisionmaker. See, e.g., Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 556 U.S. 868 (2009); Marshall v. Jerrico, Inc., 446 U.S. 238 (1980). Concentrating in the Executive Branch the effective power to activate or withhold procedural rights in federal habeas proceedings also implicates separation-of-powers principles that reserve to the judiciary governance of its own proceedings. See U.S. Const. art. III, § 2. The Proposed Rule amplifies these embedded constitutional infirmities by compressing the decision timeline to 90 days, eliminating notice-and-comment on state applications, as well as removing any post-certification review. These changes truncate dramatically the record available to any reviewing court and further insulate the Attorney General’s determinations from meaningful scrutiny.
Moreover, the Proposed Rule’s elimination of mandatory public notice and comment on individual state certification requests is independently fatal. Notice and comment is the primary mechanism by which defense attorneys, civil rights organizations, affected prisoners, and the public can present evidence that a state’s capital counsel system fails in practice. State officials will not volunteer any evidence that lawyers do not meet competency standards, compensation levels prevent the enrollment of competent counsel, or substantial delays in the appointment of counsel undermine their ability to provide adequate representation. Chapter 154 clearly requires a state’s mechanism to operate the way it purports to. The Department’s proposal to simply review a state’s laws on their face improperly removes any burden from the state, even though Chapter 154 demands a meaningful quid pro quo for a state to obtain the benefits of expedited federal habeas proceedings.
The Department’s claim that this Proposed Rule is compelled by the text of Chapter 154 is a post-hoc rationalization for a policy choice. The President and Attorney General have made clear that they wish to accelerate executions in this country. That choice is one the NLG categorically rejects. The NLG urges the Department to withdraw this Proposed Rule in its entirety.
National Lawyers Guild
Sent out in early evening on May 11th:
NLG Denounces SCOTUS’s Ruling Eviscerating the Voting Rights Act
Dear [ ],
The National Lawyers Guild condemns in the strongest terms the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. This decision represents a mortal wounding of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
Section 2 of the Act served as a bulwark against racist electoral districting and as a remedy for the dilution of Black and minority votes in favor of white votes. Gutting the last remaining section of the VRA is a direct assault on the rights and power of the Black people of the Black Belt. We know from history that this decision will unleash the systemic disenfranchisement of Black voters specifically in the South. Building on his decades-long effort to destroy the VRA, Chief Justice Roberts is leading the Court on a transparent mission to lock in Republican rule and enable the formal resegregation of the United States. This white-supremacist agenda is not confined to “Red” states or “Blue” states; no voter and no election will be spared the impact of this ruling.
We condemn the bad-faith reasoning of Callais, which like Shelby County v. Holder before it, purports that the VRA is obsolete due to “dramatic changes” in the South that have erased the remnants of chattel slavery and Jim Crow. This is not a legitimate finding of fact, nor even a genuinely held belief on the part of the majority. As the majority well knows, Callais itself is evidence anti-Black racism still defines and influences U.S. political and legal culture. The NLG condemns the jurisprudence of gaslighting. The Federalist Society, an organization built on racist reaction to Brown v. Board and the era of substantive due process, has striven to restore segregation one “facially neutral” decision at a time. This bluff at the heart of originalism requires other lawyers to play along. We urge liberal, progressive and radical lawyers, law professors, and law students to undermine the right’s agenda wherever possible by refusing to treat racist revanchism like earnest legal interpretation.
Decades of struggle by Black people and their allies to fight for equality culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act which preserved via the ballot box the collective power they won in the streets and in mass collective action. Countless people who stood up for these rights and protections were injured and killed by law enforcement and white supremacist vigilantes. The NLG will always stand with the Black Liberation Movement and our Southern siblings.
The National Lawyers Guild continues to support the activists pushing back against fascist overreach as we did during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. We will defeat this authoritarian regime and their billionaire backers the same way our elders and ancestors in the struggle fought against South African Apartheid, Nazism, Jim Crow, and slavery: together.
Signed,
Executive Council
Sent out at mid-day on May 7th:
NLG Disability Justice Committee Statement on Proposed Changes to SSI and Attacks on Collective Care
Dear [ ],
The National Lawyers Guild Disability Justice Committee condemns proposed changes to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) that threaten to punish disabled people for surviving through family and community support. These policy shifts represent a continuation of the long-standing use of the law as a tool to discipline poverty, undermine collective care, and isolate disabled people from the very networks that sustain life.
As reflected in the federal regulatory agenda under Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (RIN 0960-AI94), proposed revisions to SSI rules would reduce or eliminate benefits for disabled people who live with family members, including parents and adult children. These changes would disproportionately impact disabled adults with high support needs, as well as older people forced by economic conditions to rely on shared housing arrangements.
SSI is a program of last resort, providing minimal income to people who are poor and disabled, many of whom have never been able to access wage labor or have been systematically excluded from it. Yet instead of strengthening this lifeline, policymakers continue to impose punitive rules that treat mutual aid, caregiving, and shared survival as grounds for punishment. By counting family support as “income,” the state effectively forces disabled people to choose between basic subsistence and connection to their communities.
This is not administrative reform. It is austerity enforced through bureaucratic violence.
These proposed changes reflect a broader legal and political framework that criminalizes dependency while erasing the reality that all people rely on interdependence to survive. Disability justice teaches that care networks are not fraud or abuse; they are essential responses to systemic abandonment. Efforts to reduce SSI benefits based on living arrangements function to dismantle these networks and push disabled people further into poverty, institutionalization, or homelessness.
The National Lawyers Guild has long recognized that the law is not neutral. It is a site of struggle. In the context of disability benefits, the law is being mobilized to redraw the boundaries of who is considered worthy of survival. These policies echo other attacks on the social safety net that disproportionately harm poor, disabled, Black, and Brown communities, reinforcing a system where economic precarity is weaponized to control and exclude.
As movement professionals, advocates, organizers, and lawyers, we reject frameworks that individualize survival and penalize collective care. We affirm that:
- Disabled people have the right to live in community without losing access to essential benefits.
- Caregiving and mutual aid must not be treated as disqualifying income.
- Public benefits programs must be expanded and strengthened, not restricted through punitive eligibility rules.
We call on movement professionals, advocates, organizers, and lawyers to engage in collective defense of disabled communities facing these changes.
We further recognize that legal strategies alone are insufficient. True disability justice requires building power outside of traditional legal systems, centering those most impacted, and advancing transformative approaches that prioritize dignity, autonomy, and collective survival.
The Disability Justice Committee stands in solidarity with all those resisting these attacks. We commit to using the law where it is useful, challenging it where it is harmful, and organizing beyond it to build a world where disabled people are not punished for living, loving, and surviving together.
Signed,
Disability Justice Committee and Executive Council
Sent out in early evening on May 6th:
NLG Stands in Solidarity with SPLC Against Baseless Attacks by a Weaponized Department of Justice
Dear [ ],
Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has lodged an attack on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) by indicting the organization for alleged wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. This is a clear signal to fascist organizations that they are safe and can continue their racist attacks against communities that they marginalize. It is also a clear warning to any of Trump’s perceived enemies.
SPLC’s work has been vital in furthering the rights of people across the South and the nation. For over 50 years, SPLC has had a track record of fearlessly taking on the KKK and other white Christian Nationalist organizations. Their work ensures that all people in the U.S. can live and lead lives with dignity and without fear. Indeed, Trump, through the DOJ, picked SPLC as its latest political target because of this very impact. According to the indictment, SPLC “defrauded” donors by using paid informants to investigate and expose far-right hate groups. But this is precisely the work that donors wanted to support.
This persecution is the latest in a long line of organizations and people under attack by Trump and his allies. Through the Department of the Treasury, the Administration has targeted Samidoun as a “sham” organization. Using the Department of State, the Administration has designated international solidarity groups as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” Following the lead of Trump, both Texas and Florida have gone after the Council of Islamic-American Relations (CAIR), falsely declaring it a "Domestic Terrorist Organization”. We are not unfamiliar with these kinds of attacks. Throughout our history, the NLG has been targeted by the federal government, and more recently, members of Congress have attempted to intimidate us and the work our members do.
The indictment against SPLC is yet another manifestation of Trump’s directive (NSPM-7) targeting leftist ideas. We have already seen it be implemented against the Prairieland Defendants in North Texas, and it continues to be tested against Stop Cop City protesters in Georgia.
We continue to denounce these targeted attacks against our movements and organizations that defend all of us in our fight for liberation.
Signed,
Executive Council ]
Sent out in the afternoon on April 29th:
[Statement] Free the Cobb County 3: Georgia Attorney General Launches Yet Another Bogus Attack on Cop City Defendants
Dear [ ],
Four months after the Cop City RICO was dismissed in Fulton County, Georgia, on Thursday, April 23, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced that a Cobb County grand jury indicted three of the 61 Cop City defendants on new charges.
Hannah Kass, Katie Kloth, and Tyler Norman are charged with two counts of felony destruction of property and one count of felony arson to lands just outside of Atlanta. These stale charges are related to a protest that occurred outside of Brassfield & Gorrie, the contractor that built Cop City, in May of 2022. The timing of the indictment came just three weeks before the statute of limitations would block Georgia’s ability to begin a prosecution. It is also just one month before the primary election in which Carr is running for Governor of Georgia, in a race he is losing.
Questionably, the Cobb County indictment is for the exact same allegations that the three defendants faced in the Fulton County RICO that was dismissed in December - allegations that are extreme and an attack on First Amendment activity. As in many other Georgia counties, the Attorney General has come back for yet another bite at the apple to try to prosecute demonstrators who opposed the construction of Cop City.
However, the language used by the Attorney General to describe the 2022 protest against the construction company has notably changed from the Fulton indictment. In a clearly politicized move, the highest prosecutor in Georgia now repeats language used by the federal government in the prosecution of the Prairieland Defendants in the North District of Texas. Whereas Carr referred to anarchist ideologies and a non-existent criminal enterprise in his 2023 Fulton RICO indictment, in his 2026 Cobb County press conference, he framed the defendants as members of “Antifa” - a boogeyman fabricated by the far right for years.
We are witnessing a coordinated attack on our social movements by both the state and federal governments. After previous charges against protesters failed to stick, Trump’s NSMP-7 directive gives government actors a new, dangerous weapon against the right to protest.
NLG demands that all Cop City charges be dropped and calls for solidarity with the Cobb County 3, the latest victims in Georgia’s political theater.
Signed,
Executive Council
Sent out in the afternoon on April 14th:
[Statement] NLG Stands With "Aunt Tifa", Criminalized for Antifascist Phallic Costume
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is in solidarity with Renea Gamble, a 62-year old protester who was assaulted by police officers at a “No Kings” protest in Fairhope, Alabama. Former NLG president, David Gespass is representing her, along with his partner, NLG member Kathy Johnson.
After being arrested and handcuffed, Ms. Gamble was asked her name and replied “Aunt Tifa”, for which she received a municipal ordinance citation for giving false information to an officer. She is also charged with misdemeanors of disorderly conduct, breach of the peace and resisting arrest. Why was she charged? For wearing an inflatable penis costume. “While the story seems amusing for an outsider, the charges and ramifications of this case are very serious.” says David Gespass. “It is an assault on free speech and the freedom to protest. Renea has said from the beginning that it is not she who is on trial, but the Constitution.” Recently, several protesters in eggplant costumes were seen at the latest “No Kings” rally.
Arrests and charges against protesters have been increasing in frequency and severity at all levels. However, the Trump administration has faced mixed success in securing convictions. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and Chicago have had cases dismissed, while cases like the Prairieland Defendants in Texas have declared anyone who attends an anti-ICE protest, possesses zines, wears black, and uses Signal a “domestic terrorist.” In Minneapolis, the Department of Justice has filed charges against over 30 anti-ICE protesters, signaling that if you stand against the Trump administration, you will be subject to punishment. Yet the only thing more unpopular than Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents are artificial intelligence companies, which feed the deportation machine and cause devastating impacts on our communities and planet.
This escalation in protest-related arrests has been turbo-charged during this administration because of the increasing unpopularity of its policies and actions. In turn, it appears that all forms of dissent are being criminalized, in an attempt to push society to fall in line and accept fascist governance.
We demand that the charges against Renea Gamble be dropped. The NLG will continue to protect our movement's right to dissent, protest, and free ourselves.
Signed,
Executive Council
Sent out in the morning on March 31st:
[Statement] NLG Condemns Government’s Failure to Provide Evidence in Prairieland Defendants’ Federal Case
Last week, In These Times reported that the federal government in the Prairieland Defendants’ case failed to turn over a report from the FBI that declared “Dallas Fort Worth Antifa” posed “no credible threats to national security”. This likely constitutes a violation of the defendants’ rights at the hands of the prosecution, who is legally required to share any evidence that may help the defendants.
We stand firm in our support for the Prairieland Defendants, whose case has been highly politicized, since the beginning. Many of the defendants languished for months inside of Texas jails, while no formal charges were filed against them. Only after the Trump administration declared that it would implement NSPM-7 to target leftists, the defendants were accused of extreme federal charges. Many abuses happened during their pre-trial detention, such as mandatory segregation, failure to meet dietary restrictions, and rampant gender violence. Trump-appointed Judge Mark Pitman also declared a mistrial due to a defense attorney’s shirt and lobbied hostile fines against the defense attorneys.
Since their wrongful conviction, the federal defendants continue to face abusive incarceration conditions. Defendants who are awaiting sentencing at FMC Fort Worth Detention Center report broken air conditioning and a lack of access to hygiene products. These harsh conditions of confinement are unacceptable. The fact that the defendants must continue to remain in cages under these conditions is all the more outrageous given the news of the missing exculpatory evidence that could have changed their faulty verdicts. From arrests to raids to trial, this case has been a dire warning of the Trump administration's criminalization of dissent, and an assault on the Prairieland Defendants’ rights.
Prior NLG Statements on the Prairieland Defendants:
- March 2026: More Support Needed for Prairieland Defendants after Verdict.
- February 2026: All Eyes on North Texas.
- January 2026: Who Isn’t a Domestic Terrorist?
- November 2025: Alarming Criminalization of Green Card Holder.
- October 2025: NLG Stands with Anti-ICE Dissent.
- August 2025: NLG Stands in Support of Prairieland Defendants.
Signed,
Executive Council
Sent out in the afternoon on March 2nd:
ABOLISH ICE: 2026 NLG Student Week of Abolition Begins Today!
Dear [ ],
NLG's 2026 student Week of Abolition is underway!
In honor of NLG's resolutions to abolish prisons (2016) and abolish the police (2020), the Guild holds an annual student Week of Abolition (WOA) to reflect the Guild’s commitment to finding alternatives to current systems of incarceration and policing.
Given the ongoing escalated attacks on immigrant communities and the huge expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by the Trump administration, the 2026 WOA theme is “ABOLISH ICE.”
Dozens of NLG student chapters at law schools across the country have planned WOA events this week! Check out some of their actions below (and stay tuned for more updates):
University of North Carolina NLG
We will continue to highlight and uplift NLG student organizing throughout the Week of Abolition!
In solidarity,
NLG National Office
Sent out in the afternoon on February 20th:
[Statement] All Eyes on North Texas: Judge’s Attacks on the Right to Fair Trial in First “Antifa” Case
After spending over seven months in multiple jails across North Texas, the Prairieland Defendants finally had their federal trial start on Tuesday, February 17. But then, as soon as the first defense attorney started asking questions to the prospective jurors, presiding Judge Mark Pittman declared a mistrial. Why? Because attorney MarQuetta Clayton, the only Black woman among the defense lawyers and counsel for defendant Maricela Rueda, was wearing a t-shirt featuring civil rights leaders of the past. Judge Pitman also took issue with Ms. Clayton’s voir dire questions, which reasonably probed jurors’ feelings about protest.
As experienced defense attorneys, we can attest that Ms. Clayton did nothing wrong. Despite both the prosecution and the defense opposing more delays, Judge Pittman nevertheless declared a mistrial and dismissed the entire jury pool. Significantly, immediately before the judge’s decision, prospective jurors had overwhelmingly expressed criticism of ICE, and several took the position that the Second Amendment extends to protests – opinions with which the judge appeared to take issue.
Ms. Clayton now faces a threat of being held in contempt at a hearing that Judge Pittman has announced will take place after the trial commences. NLG affirms that Ms. Clayton is clearly facing anti-Black retaliation for her zealous advocacy, while wearing a t-shirt with Black civil rights icons.
Alarmingly, this mistrial order is just the latest example of attacks on the Prairieland Defendants’ constitutional rights to access to counsel, a fair and impartial jury, an adequate defense, a public trial, and more. Judge Pittman has made highly unusual moves that suppress defense teams and which federal lawyers have not seen during their entire careers:
- Judge Pittman refused to allow local counsel, George Lobb, to represent defendant Maricela Rueda, threatening to hold him in contempt for 90 days if he did not withdraw from his role as her attorney. This led Rueda to hire Ms. Clayton as her attorney.
- Judge Pittman attempted to place limits on defense objections, allowing only one defendant’s lawyer to object during the prosecution’s case. After a motion from attorney Leigh W. Davis, counsel for defendant Ines Soto, the judge is now limiting duplicative objections which, practically, will still limit defendant-specific arguments.
- In a pretrial hearing, Judge Pittman fined attorneys Patrick McLain, Brian Bouffard and Bradley Sauer, counsel for defendant Zachary Evetts, $500 each for filing a discovery motion, effectively discouraging other defense attorneys from filing motions in the case. It is not only the right of counsel to file pre-trial motions; attorneys are obligated by the Rules of Professional Conduct to competently and diligently represent their clients. This ruling by Judge Pittman arguably violates defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights and puts counsel in an untenable position with respect to their independent professional ethical duties.
- Defense attorneys have been allotted only eight minutes each for their opening statements, and 35 hours total across nine defendants to put up witnesses. Judge Pittman has justified these time limit restrictions in a case where several defendants are facing life in prison by citing “other pressing matters on the court’s docket.”
- Since the mistrial, Judge Pittman has moved the trial to a smaller room in the Federal Courthouse in Fort Worth, and assigned an overflow room for the public to observe in Dallas, more than 30 minutes drive away.
- Most recently, Judge Pittman ordered that only the Court will be allowed to ask questions to the jury during voir dire.
NLG remains extremely concerned about these cases. Defendants' First Amendment rights to free expression, assembly, and association; their Sixth Amendment rights to counsel; their Fifth Amendment rights to a public trial; and their Second Amendment rights to bear arms are under attack in North Texas. If unchecked and ignored, this case and the judicial decisions coming from it will set a very dark precedent for the rest of the country.
Signed,
Executive Council
Sent out the evening of February 19th:
[Statement] National Lawyers Guild Condemns DHS’s Violence and Killings
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues its violent practices, resulting in death across the U.S. Their actions are impacting the lives of everyday people, our neighbors, and immigrant communities. NLG members from our Portland chapter, alongside the ACLU, won a Temporary Restraining Order against ICE’s widespread use of chemical weapons. In Chicago, federal agents used chemical weapons at least 49 times on protesters, in violation of orders from judges. Earlier this week, Immigration Customs and Enforcement’s (ICE) actions led to the death of Linda Davis, a school teacher in Georgia. This is the latest in a string of deaths related to DHS’s, ICE’s, and Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) campaign of terror.
Keith Porter was murdered at his apartment complex in Northridge, California, after an off-duty ICE agent shot and killed him. ICE shot Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, hitting one of them in the leg, after accusing them of assaulting an agent. It turned out they lied under oath. In Chicago, Silvero Villegas-Gonzalez was shot and killed by ICE, after initial reports claimed the ICE agent feared for his life. News reports claim that the ICE agent described his own injuries as “nothing major”.
Renee Nicole Good was killed by ICE in her car for doing the constitutionally protected action of observing law enforcement. Alex Pretti was also killed in broad daylight by CBP officers, because he was recording them. These incidents are not an anomaly. They are designed to cause terror and fear. The message is clear: DHS, ICE, and CBP agents can get away with any violence, and the Trump administration is happy to let them do it.
This is an escalation of who is deserving of violence: since 2004, ICE has been responsible for over 250 deaths inside of its cages. Over 30 occurred just last year, making it one of the deadliest years in ICE detention. The majority of these deaths go underreported, likely because the typical victims of ICE are Black and brown immigrants. Nonetheless, the outrage even reached the 2026 Winter Olympics, where ICE agents were strangely assisting with security in Italy.
The NLG emphasizes that what we are experiencing today is part of a U.S. legacy of anti-Black and anti-indigenous State violence, met with impunity throughout history. Additionally, the normalization of imperialist horrors that we see in Gaza, Venezuela and elsewhere continue to lay the groundwork for domestic, unfettered State repression.
The NLG continues its calls to abolish ICE and to end the occupation of our cities. We demand that these masked agents immediately stop the State-directed racial profiling, excessive force, wrongful detainment, and killings of civilians, regardless of their immigration or citizenship status.
Signed,
Executive Council
Posts
