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Published by Heidi Boghosian, Michael Smith, Jim Lafferty, Maria Hall, Stephen Rohde
Hosted by 4 attorneys, Law and Disorder is a one hour weekly show providing timely legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and practices of torture exercised by the US government and private corporations.
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Legal Challenges Leading Up to Mid-term Election Prior to our mid-term elections, scores of lawyers for the Republican Party prepared lawsuits in preparation to challenge the outcome of the elections around the country. And, in response, lawyers for the Democratic Party prepared to defend against all such lawsuits. Leading up to the elections, the Trump Administration sent federal agents to knock on potential voters doors, challenged mail-in ballots in court, and lost, and carried on a campaign to convince the American people that the elections would be unfair without the federal governments pre-election threats and lawsuits. Along the way Trump, on several occasions, suggested he might even declare martial law or take other steps to prevent the elections from taking place. He is on record as saying he wants to control the mid-term elections and will only honor the outcome if he judges them to be fair. So, today, on the eve of the elections, here on Law and Disorder radio, we will examine some of the many actions and threats coming from the Trump Administration in the lead-up to, and conduct of the elections, as well as possible challenges to the results of the elections once they have concluded. Guest - Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, and the former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times. Among his more than a dozen books are American Fascism: The Christian Right and the War on America; The Greatest Evil Is War; and A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine. Chris Hedges is also one of the contributors to the book titled From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style, a book composed of summaries of interviews with guests here on the Law and Disorder radio show, and available for purchase at O/R Books. His latest book is titled Requiem for Gaza. ---- Chicago Wrongful Murder Convictions Case Awarded 260.8 Million Our guest today is Chicago civil rights attorney Anand Swaminathan. In October 2026, the Chicago City Council authorized payment of $260.8 million, that is over a quarter of $1 billion dollars, in compensation to 17 men who each spent decades in prison for wrongful murder convictions. These men were represented by Anand Swaminathan and his law firm Loevy & Loevy. They altogether served nearly 400 years in prison for murders of which they were falsely convicted. Attorney Swaminathan and his partner Steve Art litigated their civil cases for 13 years. The false convictions of murder were arranged by Chicago police detective Reynaldo Guevarra. He was responsible for some 50 wrongful convictions which he accomplished by using false witness statements, and false coerced confessions. The victims lived in the heavily Latino community of Chicagos Northwest side in the 1980s and 1990s. The victims were all young men ages 14 to 28. Detective Guevara is retired. He lives on a Chicago Police Department pension of $91,000 a year and will likely never be held accountable. The passage of time and the unavailability and death of witnesses has so far, got him off the hook. When Anand deposed Guevara, Guevara took the fifth Amendment some 200 times. At the same time detective Reynaldo Guevara was sending innocent Latino men to prison in the Humboldt Park area his counterpart Chicago Police Department Commander Jon Burge was torturing Black men on the south side into confessing falsely to an array of crimes. This was exposed through decades of community activism and litigation by civil rights attorneys from the People's Law Office. Peoples Law Office attorney Flint Taylor wrote about it in his book titled The Torture Machine." Burge was ultimately convicted of perjury and sent to prison. In 2015, the City of Chicago passed a landmark ordinance that among other things paid reparations to Burge's victims. Comedian Lenny Bruce used to say Chicago is so corrupt its thrilling." Is it possible to reform the police? What part does racism play? How much money have the citizens of Chicago been forced to pay by the actions of the police department?Will this gargantuan settlement actually bring about reforms? Do the powers that be in Chicago really want reforms? The most fundamental reform would be community control of the police instead of allowing them to terrorize the Black and Latino Community. Guest - Anand Swaminathan grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of immigrant Indian parents who were professors . He attended Harvard law school, where he had more cases in its legal aid efforts than any previous student at the school. Swaminathan is a partner at a law firm of Loevy and Loevy, where he has worked for the last 16 years.
Gaza Rising: Voices From the Rubble As Israel continues to perpetrate its genocide in Gaza and atrocities in the West Bank, support for Palestinian liberation and sovereignty is growing around the world and in the United States. In July, Pew Research Center survey found unfavorable views of Israel at 62% among Americans and a recent Gallup Poll found for the first time, that US sympathy now leans toward the Palestinians (41%) compared to Israel (36%). This trend is due in great part to the unrelenting and outspoken defense of the Palestinian cause from prominent voices such as our guest today Dr. Ramzy Baroud. Dr. Baroud is a Palestinian author, historian, and academic whose work focuses on Palestinian history and liberation. He is the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle, which he has led since 1999, and has spent decades developing an alternative historical narrative centered on lived Palestinian experience rather than elite political frameworks. Dr Baroud holds a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter. He has taught mass communication at Curtin University and serves as a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Istanbul Zaim University. His scholarship bridges journalism and academia, and his work has appeared in numerous academic journals and edited volumes. He is the author of eight books. He has just published two new books, Before the Flood (from Seven Stories Press), which reconstructs Gazas modern history through family memory and intergenerational testimony, and Gaza Rising: Voices From the Rubble.(from Clarity Press).His earlier works include Searching Jenin, The Second Palestinian Intifada, My Father Was a Freedom Fighter, The Last Earth, and These Chains Will Be Broken. He is also the co-editor, with Ilan Papp, of Our Vision for Liberation. Guest - Dr Ramzy Barouds writing has been translated into multiple languages and widely published internationally. His work combines historical analysis, oral history, and political interpretation, contributing to global debates on settler colonialism, resistance, and liberation movements. He has lectured extensively at universities, research centers, and public institutions across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, contributing to global discussions on Palestine, decolonization, media, and popular resistance. His public scholarship places academic research in conversation with civil society audiences, activist communities, and policy forums. ---- Buffalo Activist Coalition Demands Uniland Developer Not Lease Space To ICE In Buffalo, New York, a coalition of activists, community organizations, and small businesses is taking on powerful real estate developer Uniland over its decision to lease space to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The coalition, Evict ICE from 250 Delaware, is demanding that Uniland end ICEs lease at a downtown building. Federal immigrations operations there include detention holding rooms and the coordination of arrests and deportations across much of New York State outside New York City. The campaign is also challenging the local business establishment that profits from these arrangements. Last week, activists took their protest directly to a Buffalo Business Hall of Fame banquet, where Uniland executive chairman Carl Montante was being honored. Some campaign members entered the banquet as guests and confronted the proceedings, while others held a parallel Hall of Shame protest outside. The coalitions demand is straightforward: ICE out of 250 Delaware when the lease expires in March 2027. But the campaign raises larger questions about corporate responsibility, public subsidies, immigration enforcement, and what ordinary people can do when powerful institutions refuse to listen. Guest - Holly Verrett, Lackawanna resident, revolutionary activist, and gardener, Holly is committed to building stronger communities and fostering a love of nature. She is also the proud wife of Tony and mother to their daughter, Alice.
Understanding Trump Era Capitalism Just prior to the 2024 presidential election, we interviewed 7 leading socialist thinkers and activists on whether, and if so to what degree, they were fearful that if Trump was elected to a second term Americas already weakened democracy would be further weaken and if so, to that extent. And did they think Trump was essentially a would-be fascistic, authoritarian president. Our guests over a number of weeks were Chris Hedges, Dianne Feeley, Henry Giroux, Bill Mullen, Margaret Kimberley, Kshama Sawant and Richard Wolff. All of them felt Trump and the Project 21 proposals he was promoting suggested he would, if elected, demonstrate fascistic and authoritarian desires, and act accordingly. After the election, OR Books published the book, From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style, which provided, in essay form, the contents of the interviews of those seven guests. Today, we interview one of those guests, Richard Wolff on to what extent his fears about Trumps politics and manner of rule has come to pass and if so, in what ways and to ask him the best ways to fight back against the actions and policies of the Trump Administration. Guest - Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, and the author of Understanding Capitalism. According to New York Times, Richard Wolff is, probably Americas most prominent Marxist economist. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their national syndicated show Economic Update. Professor Wolff has authorized numerous books on capitalism and socialism, including most recently The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us From Pandemics or Itself, Understanding Socialism; and Understanding Marxism, which can be found at democracyatwork.info. ---- I Did It for My Country: Sirhan Sirhan, Palestine, and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy Historian Michael Fischbach's new book I Did It For My Country is on the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan. He was a Palestinian refugee who shot RFK in the head at a Los Angeles hotel the night Kennedy won the California presidential primary. Sirhan and his family were driven out of their native country of Palestine by Zionist settlers in 1948. History Professor Michael Fishbachs book is a unique contribution to our understanding of the unfolding of the tragedy of relatively recent American history.It is unique because of the many books written on the assassination Professor Fischbachs book is the only one that puts it in the context of the Palestinian catastrophe. In 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their native land. More than 500 villages were plowed over to establish Israel on the false Zionist slogan that they were making a country for a people without a land on a land without a people. When Robert Kennedy was murdered the night he won to California primary he was destined to become the next United States president. Had he become president modern American history wouldve turned out differently. Robert Kennedys brother John F. Kennedy had been assassinated by elements within the CIA five years before. It Is the consensus of knowledgeable people that JFK was killed because he was trying to pursue peace in Vietnam, Cuba, and especially with Russia. JFK signed a national security Memorandum in 1963 stating his intention to withdraw all American troops from Vietnam. Instead Lyndon Johnson who succeeded Kennedy escalated the war in Vietnam, which killed 3 million Vietnamese and 53,000 American soldiers before United States was forced out in 1975. Historically blowback is understood as the unintended consequences of a foreign policy action. Robert Kennedys murder was a blowback phenomenon. In this case, it was America's unwavering support from 1948 on to establishment of Israel. When Sirhan killed Kennedy yelled out I did it for my country. The centrality of American military , diplomatic, and economic support of Israel was never brought to the fore. Guest - Michael R. Fischbach is professor of history at Randolph-Macon College. His books include The Movement and the Middle East: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left.
The FACE Act Cited As Religious Protection Against Protesters Of Israeli Land Sale In Palestine Passed in 1994 in response to violent and obstructive protests at reproductive-health clinics, the federal FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) also protects people exercising their First Amendment right to religious freedom at places of worship. The law has now become the latest battleground over protest and free speech. The Party for Socialism and Liberation New Jersey, or PSL-NJ, published a social media post calling for a public protest against a real estate event involving the sale of property in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. The Trump Administration's Justice Department responded by filing a federal lawsuit under the FACE Act, arguing that the protest violated the law's protections for religious worship. Their argument was an unusual one. Guest - Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and the Center for Protest Law and Litigation in Washington DC. In addition to serving as counsel for PSL-NJ in this case, Mara has spent decades defending protesters and political movements against government surveillance, repression and unconstitutional restrictions on speech. ---- Geopolitical Shift In Balance As Brazil Elections Underway We go south, to Brazil. Following its first-round presidential election on October 4th, incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and challenger Flávio Bolsonaro—son of former president Jair Bolsonaro—are officially heading to a runoff. It is an incredibly tight race, with Bolsonaro securing approximately 47% against Lula’s 45% of the vote. Against this electoral backdrop, relations between Brazil and the US remain fraught with tension. Remember—they’re the two largest democracies in the Western Hemisphere, so mounting friction with Washington continues to open up key diplomatic and economic opportunities for Brazil with China. What does this runoff and geopolitical shift mean for the future of Latin American democracy, global trade, and Washington’s influence in the region? Guest - James N. Green, Professor Green is Emeritus Professor of Brazilian History and Culture at Brown University, where he was also director of the Brazil Initiative. He’s spent decades studying Brazil’s political and social transformations—from the military dictatorship years to today’s high-stakes election.
Jews No Longer Identifying With Israel Phil Weiss started Mondoweiss 20 years ago to provide a critique of Zionism and the suppression of Palestinians, which in those days was very much minority view. Today, Mondoweiss is widely read and respected for accurate reporting. Things have changed. A great number of Jews no longer identify with Israel. This is especially true of young people. Israel, because of its continuous genocide against the Palestine people in Gaza, it’s ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, it’s bombing of Lebanon and its partnership with the United States in its disastrous illegal war against Iran has become the most detested country on the planet. Guest - Philip Weiss , was a successful professional journalist 20 years ago before he launched Mondoweiss. He had contributed articles to places like the New York Times magazine. He grew up in a family of six children, the son of a microbiology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He attended Harvard and started off as a crime reporter in Philadelphia.What caused Philip Weiss to change his political appreciation of Israel and his understanding of what it means to be. Jewish is the subject of our discussion today. Wages of War In Iran and Gaza Tuning in to international news today is more confusing than ever… with political alliances shifting daily, and the Trump administration provoking new challenges to peace, decency and world order. With the barrage of “breaking news” headlines perpetuating chaos on the mainstream news, we can forget to take some time to breathe, and critically think about the history of how we got to this moment, and how we might use that wisdom to avoid the doomsday scenarios that some believe to be inevitable. With that purpose in mind we will focus today on the U.S. war with Iran and its impact throughout the Middle East. How far will the war spread? When will the war end? Will the increased flow of Mid-East oil help bring about an end to the Iran war? Guest - Richard Becker is an expert on history and U.S. policy in the Middle East. Mr. Becker is the Western Regional Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition. He is the author of numerous political writings, including his book, Palestine, Israel, and the U.S. Empire and his book, The Myth of Democracy and the Rule of the Banks. Mr. Becker is also a leader in the Party for Socialism and Liberation. LiberationNews BreakthroughNews
Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism And The Fight Over Free Speech In Modern America Today in America, "we proclaim our commitment to fighting hatred while applying it selectively. We champion free speech until confronted with speech we despise - and minimize the claims of those wounded by words." American democracy "stands at a precipice, besieged by authoritarian politics, resurgent nativism, and populist demagoguery. These forces, once relegated to history, now threaten our pluralistic society and its defining commitments to freedom and equality." Those chilling words are from the brand new book Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism And The Fight Over Free Speech In Modern America by James Loeffler. Guest - Professor James Loeffler is the Felix Posen Professor of Modern Jewish History at Johns Hopkins University, and Kogod Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. He writes widely on modern Jewish history from antisemitism to Zionism, with a focus on the overlooked ties between the Jewish past and the global present in politics, law, and culture. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic. ---- Privacy Laws Lag Far Behind Evolving Digital Communication The 15th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street has just passed, when protesters occupied Zuccotti Park NYC and sparked a global movement. Occupy also attracted significant government surveillance. Documents later obtained through FOIA showed that the Department of Homeland Security monitored the movement and circulated intelligence to the private sector about Occupy activists and protests. That history raises a question that goes well beyond protest movements: How do lawyers protect confidential communications in a world where so much of their work is digital? Confidentiality handle information that can affect a client's freedom, finances, safety, and legal strategy. Yet many lawyers aren't trained to think about the technology they use in terms of protecting that confidentiality. Guest - Jonathan Stribling-Uss, is a New York City lawyer and digital security consultant. He founded and directs Constitutional Communications, an organization that supports non-profits specializing in information security for professionals and civil society groups. Jonathan previously served as a Mozilla and Ford Foundation Media and Democracy Fund Technologist Fellow at the New York Civil Liberties Union. He has trained hundreds of attorneys in cybersecurity and ethics through organizations including the New York County Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association. ----
The Conviction Machine: Prosecutors, Politicians and Police Violence in Chicago The comedian Lenny Bruce used to joke that Chicago was so corrupt. It was thrilling. He had no idea. Bruce was referring to run of the mill bribery of a traffic cop or a police officer taking your floor mats in lieu of a ticket or a pay off from a local bar owner. The corruption in Chicago ran much deeper. It went from the prosecutors who were actually in the police station, listening to the screams of men being tortured, before they went and took a signed confession from them. It was the commander of a whole section of police who learned how to torture people from a tour of duty in Vietnam. He brought back an electric machine that they had actually used in Vietnam Vietnamese. This machine was used on Black people in Chicago. Three hundred people were convicted on the basis of tortured confessions. The corruption ran all the way up to the mayor’s office. Mayor Richard J Daily knew about it and said nothing. It was only the work of a few attorneys like Flint Taylor and the community, the Black Panther party, and activists and progressive politicians who exposed it. Their victory included reparations, The torture of people in police stations on the west side and southside of Chicago is now taught to eighth grade and 10th graders in the public schools. “In the halls of justice the only justice is in the halls“ said H. Rap Brown, the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Guest – Flint Taylor, a founding member of Chicago’s Peoples Law Office. He represented the families of slain Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. He continues to represent many survivors of police torture and wrongful convictions. Attorney Taylor is co-counsel in the Malcolm X assassination case and is the award-winning author of the historical memoir “The Torture Machine“. Flint’s book is a captivating account of the most corrupt and blood soaked chapter In Chicago law-enforcement history. ---- U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Resetting Precedent Part 2 Back we go to review of more cases from the recent term of the U.S. Supreme Court. We start with the birthright citizen case. Then we take up cases dealing with immigration and executive power, as well as other major cases. We also look at what many have described as corruption among the Justices. Guest – Ellen Yaroshefsky is the Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics, Maurice A. Deane School of Law, at Hofstra University. She is a leading educator and expert in ethics law and serves as an expert witness and advisor to lawyers and law firms. Prof. Yaroshefsky is a former Commissioner on the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics. She has previously worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights and has been in private practice. And Prof. Yaroshefsky has received numerous awards, including the New York State Bar Association’s honor for Outstanding Contribution in Criminal Law Education. ---------------
Reviewing Key SCOTUS and Lower Court Cases Last month co-host Stephen Rohde reviewed the conservative legal doctrine known as the Unitary Executive Theory as the US Supreme Court ended its term further entrenching the reactionary Republican agenda. As legal battles mount across every tier of the judiciary, basic constitutional rights continue to be tested in the courtroom. We'll highlight key cases that impact immigration, voting rights, freedom of speech and freedom of press. Guest – Stephen Rohde is the author of two books and numerous articles and book reviews on constitutional law and history. He is the former president of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and is a special Advisor on Free Speech and the First Amendment for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He is host of the new podcast Speaking Freely produced by MS Studios and is available on Spotify and I Heart radio and other streaming platforms. Steve Rohde is also, of course, one of the co-hosts here on the Law and Disorder radio show. ---- Defending Attacks Against First Amendment Rights We are living through one of the most dangerous government attacks on freedom of speech and freedom of the press in American history. Trump has issued more than forty executive orders, fact sheets, and presidential memorandum, along with scores of enforcement actions dutifully issued by the obedient federal officials he has appointed, that abridge the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans and foreign visitors. Here's a sampling of what Trump has done: He has retaliated against law firms for their advocacy and representation of specific clients; terminated billions of dollars in federal funding to universities in an effort to alter their ideological cultures and control their core academic operations; conditioned federal research and other funding on the agreement not to practice or promote “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “gender ideology” and to teach only “patriotic” curricula in K-12 schools; arrested, detained, and subjected to deportation international students and foreign scholars based on their viewpoints and political activism, and revoking the visas of foreign nationals based on political expression; retaliated against the press by excluding specific media outlets from White House events based on their viewpoints and reporting; threatened to revoke broadcast licenses based on networks’ editorial decisions; restricted reporters’ access to unclassified defense-related information held by the Pentagon; sued newspapers and publishers for defamation, consumer fraud, and “election interference”; scrubbed historical, scientific, and other data from federal agency websites; ordered the removal of “anti-American” displays in national museums; Guest - Floyd Abrams, one of the most prominent First Amendment lawyers in America. ------------------------
Analysis Of A Transformation Our country is going through a great transformation. We are no longer the constitutional democracy we once were. Its reported that Elon Musk, the world‘s first trillionaire, gave Trump and his MAGA organization $200 million in the last election. Miriam Adelson, the widow of a casino magnate gave another $100 million. Trump bragged about her ready access to the White House. Musk took a wrecking ball to federal jobs. Other institutions such as law firms, the Supreme Court,universities, and Congress have been transformed. Extraordinarily no one in Congress is able to say “the king has no clothes“. The media facilitate all of this. Guest - Ann Wright is a retired colonel in the army having served 29 years in it and the reserves . She then became a diplomat and was posted in many countries around the world. In 2003 she quit over the lies the government told to manipulate the American people into supporting a war on Iraq. She then co-wrote the book with Susan Dixon titled “Dissent : Voices of Conscience : Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq. It includes a forward by Daniel Ellsberg. Ann Wright has been active since then as a the leader of the anti-war group Code Pink and a leader of Veterans for Peace. She is was on numerous flotillas that sailed across the Mediterranean to bring help to the Palestinians and publicize their plight. VoicesOfConscience. ---- We Will Dismantle The ICC Brick By Brick The United States has long endeavored to undermine the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Although it is not a party to the Rome Statute, the U.S. has consistently attacked the ICC. In 2003, Congress passed, and then-President George W. Bush signed, the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, known as “The Hague Invasion Act.” It says that if a national of the U.S. or its ally (which includes Israel) is detained by the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, the U.S. military can use armed force to extricate them. The Bush administration effectively blackmailed 100 countries that were parties to the Rome Statute by forcing them to sign bilateral immunity agreements in which they promised not to turn over U.S. persons to the ICC, or the United States would withhold foreign aid from them. In November 2024, after an investigation lasting more than three years, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They stand charged with the war crimes of starvation as a form of warfare, and intentional attacks on civilians; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. Donald Trump has taken the U.S. assault on the ICC to a new level with punishing sanctions against those who seek to hold accountable individuals who commit the most heinous crimes. In February, Trump issued an executive order that has led to the sanctioning of nine of the ICC’s 18 judges and three ICC prosecutors. Sanctions include frozen or closed bank accounts, rejection of financial transactions, denial of access to digital services, and travel bans. In July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court. He accused the ICC of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles,” but with “the force of so-called international law.” In an article in Wall Street Journal, Rubio wrote that “we will dismantle the ICC – brick by brick, if necessary.” Now four prominent human rights organizations have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that Trump’s executive order violates the U.S. Constitution, federal statutes, and international law. Guest – Marjorie Cohn , a former host on Law and Disorder is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People’s Academy of International Law, and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She sits on the national advisory board of Veterans For Peace, she is a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and serves as the U.S. representative to the continental advisory council of the Association of American Jurists. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. She writes a regular column for Truthout, including a recent one entitled, Trump Sanctioned ICC Officials to Shield Israeli Leaders. Rights Groups Sued. --------------
Transgender Community Legal Protection, LGBTQ Rights and SCOTUS The transgender community is the whipping boy of the Republican Party. Conservatives never miss a chance to try to inflame voters with scary stories about transgender people invading public bathrooms and women’s sports. Transphobia has now reached the US Supreme Court which has handed down a series of regressive decisions seriously impairing trans rights.To help us understand what’s going on and how decent people can stand in solidarity with the transgender community, we’re delighted to be joined by Shannon Minter, who is Vice President and Legal Director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights , where he has led the legal team’s impact litigation, legislative, and public policy efforts for nearly 30 years. Currently, he is leading litigation challenging a range of anti-transgender executive orders and federal policies. Shannon is one of the nation’s foremost experts on conversion therapy, helping to draft and pass legislation in states to protect LGBTQ youth and support survivors.An appointee to President Obama’s Commission on White House Fellowships, Shannon was one of the most senior transgender appointees in the Obama administration. He was named to the 2026 TIME100 and has received ABA’s Stonewall Award and several other important recognitions. —- Agents Of Hope: Rebuilding American Democracy We are 10 weeks away from one of the most momentous Midterm Elections in the history of the United States, which could well spell the future of the American democracy. If the Democrats do not win control of Congress, President Donald Trump will have clear sailing to continue to expand his fascist regime by killing citizens and non-citizens, dismantling cherished American institutions, and violating the US Constitution. The question facing every one of us is what are We the People going to do about it. What are we going to do deny the MAGA movement control of the House and Senate and governorships and state legislatures, and what are we going to do over the next 2 years, 4 years, 8 years and beyond to take back and rebuild our democracy. To help us chart that path, we are very fortunate to be joined today on Law and Disorder by Heather Booth. Heather Booth is one of the country’s leading strategists on progressive issue campaigns and elections. She began organizing in the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1960s. She started JANE, an underground abortion service in 1965, before Roe v Wade was decided. Heather has been involved in and managed a wide range of political campaigns and was the Training Director of the Democratic National Committee. In 2000, she was the Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund, which helped to increase African American election turnout. In 2008, she was the director of the Health Care Campaign for the AFL-CIO. In 2009, she directed the campaign to pass President Barack Obama’s first budget. In 2010 she was the founding director of Americans for Financial Reform, fighting to regulate the financial industry. She was the national coordinator for the coalition around marriage equality and a strategic advisor to the Alliance for Citizenship. She was the field director for the 2017 campaign to stop the tax giveaways to millionaires and billionaires and won the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Dodd/Frank Bill. She directed Progressive and Seniors Outreach for the Biden/Harris campaign. Currently, Heather Booth is a member of the consulting firm Democracy Partners , she is national outreach director of Battleground Alliance, organizing in about 40 marginal congressional districts, and she is President of the Midwest Academy, training social change leaders and organizers. Best of all she is the sister of Dave Tobis, one of my dearest friends and classmates at Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, Long Island.
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times - A Guide for All of Us: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy We're joined by Skye Perryman, the author of a new book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times - A Guide for All of Us: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy. Skye opens her book this way: “I know how you feel - because I’ve been there to ... On a bad day, and there are many bad days, our nation’s backslide from democracy into autocracy accelerates....Untrained, masked federal agents are running roughshod in our streets, terrorizing communities. Peaceful protesters have been killed. The government has been weaponized, and the Supreme Court feels stacked. It is harder and harder for many to make ends meet....We are all so tired. And many of us are numb.... It’s almost impossible to keep up; even harder to know what to do.” Guest - Skye Perryman i s the President and CEO of Democracy Forward, a national legal organization that advances democracy and progress in the courts. Named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, she is a leader in the largest affirmative litigation effort against executive branch overreach in United States history. In reviewing her new book for Ms Magazine, I called it "timely, hopeful, and practical. She is the author of a new book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times - A Guide for All of Us: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy. ----- A Real Right To Vote: How A Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy From Donald Trump's dangerous Executive Orders imposing restrictions on voting to the Supreme Court's dismantling of the Voting Rights Act and all the efforts at voter suppression in Congress and state legislatures, the right to vote in America is under assault. The Midterm Elections are less than 90 days away and many people are asking whether free and fair elections will even take place this November, and if they do, whether Trump and the Republicans will try to block the results in races they lose. To help us understand what is going on, we're very pleased to be joined by an internationally recognized expert in election law, Rick Hasen. Guest - Rick Hasen is the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law, and Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law. He is co-author of leading casebooks in election law and served in 2022 and 2024 as an NBC News/MSNBC Election Law Analyst. He was a CNN Election Law Analyst in 2020. From 2001-2010, he served as founding co-editor of the quarterly peer-reviewed publication, Election Law Journal. He is the author of over 100 articles on election law issues. His latest book, A Real Right to Vote, was published by Princeton University Press in February 2024.
Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism On July 20th, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the State Department released a 100-page McCarthyite propaganda report. It is a document that seeks to serve as the ideological justification for an escalating assault on Cuba, the Cuba solidarity movement and all political dissent on the left. The report casts a wide net of unfounded accusations, maliciously painting over 40 left-leaning social movement organizations and individuals as purported Cuban "front groups" while employing guilt-by-association tactics to smear even elected officials such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Among the organizations cited is the National Lawyers Guild, an association of attorneys, law students and legal workers, of which all of the hosts here on Law and Disorder are members. It goes so far as to cite reports from the long-discredited House Un-American Activities Committee, reviving Cold War conspiracy theories from the 1950s and repackaging them for the present. As our guest today writes, “These accusations are not meant to be rational. They, like the charges that our elections are manipulated, are transparent excuses to go after institutions and individuals that are seen as threatening Trump and the Republican Party’s absolute grip on power.” Guest – Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, and the former Middle East correspondent for the New York Times. Among his more than a dozen books are American Fascism: The Christian Right and the War on America; The Greatest Evil Is War; and A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine. Chris Hedges is also one of the contributors to the book titled From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style, a book composed of summaries of interviews with guests here on the Law and Disorder radio show, and available for purchase at O/R Books. ---- Khalil v Trump Mahmood Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident has sued senior Trump administration officials and private anti-Palestinian groups for conspiring to target, detain, and attempt to deport him because of his identity and his advocacy for Palestinian rights. He is represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the law firm of Beldock, Levine and Hoffman. The lawsuit argues that government officials and private actors, including the Heritage Foundation, Betar and Canary Mission violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and the US Constitution when they coordinated to suppress political speech and support of Palestinian rights through the weaponization of immigration enforcement and baseless, pretrial accusations of terrorism and antisemitism. Mahmoud‘s arrest, detention, and attempted deportation were part of a broader strategy to criminalized solidarity, chill speech and make an example of those who speak out against the subjugation of Palestinians. This case is about more than one person or one freedom movement. Is about whether government power can be weaponized by private actors to target human rights defenders and strip people of their constitutional rights. Guest - New York attorney Adina Marx-Padare. She is a justice fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights ( CCR). She graduated.CUNY law school and worked at Bronx Defenders. -----------------------------
Challenges To The Trump Administration's Executive Orders The legal system is straining as it tries to hold the Trump administration accountable for its unprecedented assault on our constitutional rights. Close to a thousand lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump’s Executive Orders and their implementation, plus more than ten thousand separate habeas corpus petitions filed by people targeted by Trump’s immigration crackdown. We take a deeper look at some of these legal and political developments. We’re joined by our very own co-host Steve Rohde, who practiced constitutional law for almost 50 years. He is a former Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the author or two books and numerous articles on the courts and the law. Guest – Stephen Rohde is a journalist, lecturer and political activist. For almost 50 years, he practiced civil rights, civil liberties, and intellectual property law and has won significant First Amendment victories in state and federal appellate courts.Steve is past chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Chair Emeritus of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice. He is a founder and current chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace; and a member of the Board of Directors of Death Penalty Focus. He is the Special Advisor on Free Speech and the First Amendment for the Muslim Public Affairs Council.Steve is the author of the books American Words of Freedom: The Words That Define Our Nation and Freedom of Assembly and numerous articles and book reviews on civil liberties and constitutional history. He is co-author of Foundations of Freedom published by the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Steve is also the host of Speaking Freely: A First Amendment Podcast exploring the most important Supreme Court cases in the area of free speech and free press. ---- Student Journalism Supported By Law Center Student journalism is one of the most vital—and often overlooked—front lines in the fight for a free press. Across the country, student reporters expose such topics as sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and government secrecy. Yet without the institutional legal backing enjoyed by newsrooms, they frequently face censorship, retaliation, and lawsuit threats from administrators and public officials. For more than fifty years, the Student Press Law Center has stood as the nation's leading legal advocate for student journalists. Founded in 1974, the nonprofit offers free legal help via a nationwide hotline, advises on First Amendment issues—from libel to public records access—and spearheads the "New Voices" movement for state-level legal protections. Guest - SPLC staff attorney Jonathan Gaston-Falk. A former student journalist himself at York High School in Virginia, Jonathan joined the center in March 2022 after a five-year tenure leading the Education Law Unit at the Legal Aid Society of Rochester, New York. There, he advocated for student free speech rights before school boards and the state Commissioner of Education.
Unitary Executive Theory The US Supreme Court just ended a momentous term further entrenching the reactionary Republican agenda. Our sometimes consideration of relevant court cases and other legal developments, today includes a review of the conservative legal doctrine known as the Unitary Executive Theory, now favored by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and the conservative doctrine of Originalism. Well also look at a new opinion poll of Americans showing that at least half of Americans disapprove of the job the Supreme Court is doing. Guest - Stephen Rohde is the author of two books and numerous articles and book reviews on constitutional law and history. He is the former president of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and is a special Advisor on Free Speech and the First Amendment for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He is host of the new podcast Speaking Freely produced by MS Studios and is available on Spotify and I Heart radio and other streaming platforms. Steve Rohde is also, of course, one of the co-hosts here on the Law and Disorder radio show. ---- Hold Your Representative Accountable A dozen years ago, two professors from prestigious universities, Martin Gillens and Benjamin Gage conducted a study of decision-making in our government. Their conclusion was a bombshell destroying as it did the myth that America is a majoritarian democracy. Their conclusion, in the most widely cited quote from their study, was that the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, nearly 0 statistically, non-significant impact on public policy. So who decides the policies of the government? Not us. It is the economic leaders, the business interests and the organized lobbies that call the shots. The American people by and large are way to the left of their government. However, they are ignorant of the true record of the Congress people who claim to represent them. What can be done about this? Guest - Felice Gelman is a long time movement activist and part of The Network For Voter Education, a non-partisan effort that has created an Internet tool called yourreprecord.org which people can use to look up the true record of members of Congress.
PEN America Writer’s Organization President Resigns Amid Controversy Last week, on July 9, a long-simmering controversy burst into the headlines pitting allies of robust freedom of expression against each other over how writers, publishers and literary agents should respond to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The dispute came down to a fundamental question: Should a boycott be imposed on Israeli writers? The dispute was so divisive that Professor Dinaw Mengestu resigned as president of the free expression group PEN America. Guest – Prof Mengestu the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of the Humanities and Director of the Written Arts Program at Bard College, where he has taught since 2016. He is the author of three novels, all of which were named New York Times Notable Books. A native of Ethiopia, he came with his family to the United States at the age of two. Prof Mengestu is also a freelance journalist. His articles and fiction have appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, Jane, and Rolling Stone. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award, Guardian First Book Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, among other honors. He was elected President of PEN America in December 2025, having served on its Board of Directors for about a decade. —- Sex Work: It’s Just a Job For decades, debates over sex work have been shaped by criminal law, morality, and public safety. Supporters of tougher enforcement argue that prostitution fuels exploitation and human trafficking. Advocates for decriminalization contend that criminal penalties often make sex workers less safe and discourage people from seeking help when they need it. It’s a conversation that raises difficult questions about policing, labor, consent, and human rights. A 2025 documentary, Sex Work: It’s Just a Job, enters that debate by arguing that consensual adult sex work harm than good. The film was directed by documentary filmmaker Tami Gold from the Film Department at Hunter College. Through the voices of current and former sex workers, organizers, and researchers, it explores the movement to decriminalize sex work and the broader social consequences of should be treated as work rather than as a crime. The film distinguishes consensual sex work from human trafficking. It asks whether a law-enforcement-centered approach has done more criminalization. Guest – sociologist Alex Vitale , professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and co-producer of the film. The populations and advocates for decriminalization and non-police safety interventions documentary is inspired by Vitale’s book The End of Policing, which argues that criminalizing sex work harms vulnerable.
[display_podcast] Billionaires and Trillionaires When Donald Trump came back to resume the office of presidency a year and a half ago the kind of government we were living under was unclear. It was a government where billionaires dominated our mass media, corporations, universities, courts, and government. Was this oligarchy authoritarianism or was it fascism American style? Last month, the media treated us to the spectacle of Elon Musk becoming the world‘s first trillionaire. One trillion is 1000 billion dollars. One billion is 1000 million dollars. The amount of money $1 trillion represents is difficult to even imagine. It would take a man working 52 weeks a year for $25 an hour 19.23 million years to make $1 trillion. The impact on a democratic society of having a trillionaire and over 1000 billionaires is transformative and a spectacle that has affected all of our lives. Guest - Professor Henry Giroux - last year Law annd Disorder interviewed seven significant thinkers about the topic of American fascism. We put together a book on the topic titled From The Flag To The Cross: Fascism American Style .. Professor Henry Giroux was one of the seven contributors to the Law and Disorder book He wrote about the transformation of education. Henry Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for scholarship and the public Interest. His most recent book co-authored with Anthony DiMaggio is titled Fascism on Trial: Education and the Possibility of Democracy. Professor Giroux frequently writes for the LA Progressive and has recently authored an article on Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire. ---- U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Resetting Precedent Part 2 Back we go to review of more cases from the recent term of the U.S. Supreme Court. We start with the birthright citizen case. Then we take up cases dealing with immigration and executive power, as well as other major cases. We also look at what many have described as corruption among the Justices. Guest - Ellen Yaroshefsky is the Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics, Maurice A. Deane School of Law, at Hofstra University. She is a leading educator and expert in ethics law and serves as an expert witness and advisor to lawyers and law firms. Prof. Yaroshefsky is a former Commissioner on the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics. She has previously worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights and has been in private practice. And Prof. Yaroshefsky has received numerous awards, including the New York State Bar Association’s honor for Outstanding Contribution in Criminal Law Education.
U.S. Supreme Court Decisions July 2026 Last week, the US Supreme Court ended its 2025-2026 Term with a barrage of long-awaiting blockbuster decisions altering the entire structure of the American government and seriously undermining the crucial separation of powers between Congress, the President, and the courts. The Supreme Court, which is dominated by a conservative super-majority of Republican justices - including 3 justices appointed by Donald Trump - confronted such important issues as Birthright citizenship; whether the President can fire the heads of independent agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve; whether states can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day; whether states can ban concealed weapons on private property; and whether Trump can expel hundreds of thousands of migrants and turn others away at the southern border. To help us understand what the Roberts Court is up to and what it means for our constitutional democracy, we've invited Law and Disorder co-host Steve Rohde to switch seats and serve as our guest today. Guest - Stephen Rohde is a journalist, lecturer and political activist. For almost 50 years, he practiced civil rights, civil liberties, and intellectual property law and has won significant First Amendment victories in state and federal appellate courts.Steve is past chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Chair Emeritus of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice. He is a founder and current chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace; and a member of the Board of Directors of Death Penalty Focus. He is the Special Advisor on Free Speech and the First Amendment for the Muslim Public Affairs Council.Steve is the author of the books American Words of Freedom: The Words That Define Our Nation and Freedom of Assembly and numerous articles and book reviews on civil liberties and constitutional history. He is co-author of Foundations of Freedom published by the Constitutional Rights Foundation.In addition to being a co-host of Law and Disorder Radio, Steve is also the host of a10 episode podcast called Speaking Freely: A First Amendment Podcast exploring the most important Supreme Court cases in the area of free speech and free press. It is produced by Ms Studios and is streaming online at Spotify, Apple, and I Heart Radio. ---- Draconian Sentencing Of Prairieland Nine Case We look at a staggering display of judicial overreach coming out of a federal courtroom in Texas. On June 23 and July 1, eight individuals were handed prison sentences totaling centuries. That followed a July 2025 demonstration outside the Praireland Detention Center. Among those condemned to spend the rest of her natural life behind bars is Maricela Rueda. She received a 70-year sentence. Her husband, Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada, wasn't even present at the protest. Yet, he was sentenced to 30 years. The core of the conspiracy charge against Daniel ties directly into Maricela’s sentence. It centers on a recorded jailhouse phone call. Maricela asked her husband to move her car and phone. Surveillance footage also showed Daniel dropping off a cardboard box. Inside that box? Not weapons. Not explosives. Just politically charged, constitutionally protected independent pamphlets and zines. Guest - Sufia Khalid is the Deputy Director of the National Security Criminal Defense Center at the Muslim Legal Fund of America . There, she serves as Senior Staff Attorney, representing defendants in federal national security cases. She currently represents Maricela Rueda in the "Praireland Nine" case. Before joining the MLFA, Khalid worked with the United Nations, including the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia and the UN Development Programme in New York.
U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Resetting Precedent There have been several major U.S. Supreme Court decisions issued under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts.These decisions include abortion rights cases, anti-immigrant cases, cases enhancing administrative or executive power and, of course, voting rights cases. Well also learn about the role of the shadow docket. This is known as the emergency docket with a range of uses such as for routine procedural matters and last-minute requests. The cases we examine impact the fabric of democracy in the United States. We'll talk about broader implications with our guest Professor Ellen Yaroshefsky. Guest - Ellen Yaroshefsky is the Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics, Maurice A. Deane School of Law, at Hofstra University. She is a leading educator and expert in ethics law and serves as an expert witness and advisor to lawyers and law firms. Prof. Yaroshefsky is a former Commissioner on the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics. She has previously worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights and has been in private practice. Prof. Yaroshefsky has received numerous awards, including the New York State Bar Associations honor for Outstanding Contribution in Criminal Law Education. ---- Grito 2048 Ursula Leguin is one of the most admired writers of speculative science fiction in America. Her work challenges the rationality and desirability of our capitalist system. LeGuin has written We live under capitalism. Its power seems indestructible. So did the divine right of kings. Our guest today is Brooklyn based writer Maritza Arrastia, who has just had published her climate science fiction novel Grito 2048. Her novel is set in the last remaining Caribbean colony of the collapsing empire of the Diez Familias, where climate catastrophe and colonial extraction have reached their limits. As imperial elites prepare to abandon Earth for replica planets, beyond the reach of ruin, those left behind must decide whether the planet can still be reclaimed. The novel follows the central figure Marina and others as they leave the imperial city for Palenque, a seaside encampment where rebels, families of the disappeared, and youth organizers are rebuilding life amid rising seas. It is there that Marina gathers the Grito Chronicles " war cries, threaded through centuries of Caribbean resistance " while the youth lead movement Todx prepares for the last Grito,, an uprising planned for 2048 to take back Earth. Guest - Author Maritza Arrastia is a Cuban " Puerto Rican writer whose literary life spans five decades. She was a reporter and editor at Claridad, A bilingual newspaper of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. Ms. Arristia has published poetry, drama, fiction, journalism, and essays. She has taught literacy in English as a second language through collaborative, community-pedagogy. Her work explores climate futures, colonial afterlives, and insurgent memory.
Communities Nationwide Unite Against Data Center Resource Grab Across the nation, communities are becoming ground zero in a growing fight over data centers. The explosive growth of AI, cloud computing, and cryptocurrency has triggered a massive boom in their construction. These sprawling facilities often cover hundreds of acres and consume enormous amounts of electricity and water. Residents from Virginia to Pennsylvania, Georgia to Arizona, are asking a simple question: who benefits, and who pays the price? The answer has sparked one of the fastest-growing grassroots movements in the nation. In the past year, local campaigns have blocked or delayed dozens of proposed centers worth billions of dollars. Citizens are challenging developers over rising electricity costs, water consumption, noise pollution, loss of farmland, and the construction of new fossil-fuel infrastructure designed to power these facilities. Nationally, more than 230 organizations have joined calls for stronger regulation and even a moratorium on new large-scale data centers until environmental and community protections are in place. Guest - Jim Walsh, Policy Director at Food & Water Watch in Washington, DC. It’s one of the leading organizations helping coordinate community resistance to the rapid expansion of data centers. Since joining Food & Water Watch in 2009, Jim has focused on energy, climate, and public water policy. He is a prominent advocate for policies prioritizing environmental protection and community control, from campaigns to ban fracking and challenges to carbon capture projects. Jim worked has also worked with New Jersey Citizen Action and the Progressive Action Network. ---- The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State Here at Law and Disorder we've been exposing how efforts that claim to be combating antisemitism have been weaponized in a concerted effort to silence criticism of Israel and demonize support for the Palestinians. One organization that is playing a leading role in these efforts is the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. Many people, including many Jews, may think of the ADL as a long-established civil rights organization that is known for opposing racism in general, and antisemitism, in particular. But as we'll learn from our guest today, there's a lot more we need to know about the ADL. Guest - Emmaia Gelman is the author of the new book The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, and co-editor of The Anti-Defamation League: A Critical Reader. She also co-hosts the podcast Unpacking Zionism. Emmaia is co-chair of the American Studies Association Caucus on Academic and Community Activism, and is the founding director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, which examines the political and ideological work of Zionist institutions in Palestine and transnational contexts. She has taught social and cultural analysis at NYU and social sciences at Sarah Lawrence College. Her writing appears in Jewish Currents, Boston Review, The Forward, and elsewhere. CriticalZionistStudies.org
The Future of Cuba When the Cuban revolution succeeded on January 1, 1959, it drove the American supported Batista dictator out of their country. One of the first things that the revolution government did was to create a law " which is very popular because a lot of people would have fought on the side of the revolution and benefited directly from it " to initiate a comprehensive land reform. Previously, large tracks of land had been owned by American corporations. The average peasant worked part-time, seasonally, was not literate, and lived from hand to mouth. The revolutionary government nationalized the big properties " which was their right under international law. Not only did it nationalize the large lands but the government told the former owners that they would be compensated for their losses. They said to the American owners we will pay you exactly the amount you said the land was worth when you listed it for tax purposes." The Cuban government was turned down. In retaliation the United States, which was refining all Cuba oil in American owned oil refineries, stopped refining oil and Cuba was cut off from gasoline. What did the Cubans do? They nationalized the oil refineries, then the bus company was nationalized, the phone company was nationalized, the nickel mines were nationalized, the top levels of the economy were nationalized. Instead of having production for profit, which is really irrational and anarchical, they had a planned economy " which is called a socialist revolution. That's what happened very quickly to Americas surprise in Cuba. Getting that property back has been the aim of American foreign policy ever since. Cuba has great respect and support internationally because of the example it set. It has free education, universal healthcare, inexpensive housing, wonderful art, and music and dance. The United States has aimed to overturn Cuba's accomplishments and example. Its economic, political, and diplomatic aggression against Cuba has been relentless for 67 years. But under Trump, its never been worse. US-CubaNormalization.org Guest - Ike Nahem, a founder and leader of the New York -New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition. He has organized labor and educational tours of Cuba.Mr. Nahem is a retired Amtrak locomotive engineer. ---- The Conviction Machine: Prosecutors, Politicians and Police Violence in Chicago The comedian Lenny Bruce used to joke that Chicago was so corrupt. It was thrilling. He had no idea. Bruce was referring to run of the mill bribery of a traffic cop or a police officer taking your floor mats in lieu of a ticket or a pay off from a local bar owner. The corruption in Chicago ran much deeper. It went from the prosecutors who were actually in the police station, listening to the screams of men being tortured, before they went and took a signed confession from them. It was the commander of a whole section of police who learned how to torture people from a tour of duty in Vietnam. He brought back an electric machine that they had actually used in Vietnam Vietnamese. This machine was used on Black people in Chicago. Three hundred people were convicted on the basis of tortured confessions. The corruption ran all the way up to the mayors office. Mayor Richard J Daily knew about it and said nothing. It was only the work of a few attorneys like Flint Taylor and the community, the Black Panther party, and activists and progressive politicians who exposed it. Their victory included reparations, The torture of people in police stations on the west side and southside of Chicago is now taught to eighth grade and 10th graders in the public schools. In the halls of justice the only justice is in the halls said H. Rap Brown, the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Guest - Flint Taylor, a founding member of Chicagos Peoples Law Office. He represented the families of slain Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. He continues to represent many survivors of police torture and wrongful convictions. Attorney Taylor is co-counsel in the Malcolm X assassination case and is the award-winning author of the historical memoir The Torture Machine. Flints book is a captivating account of the most corrupt and blood soaked chapter In Chicago law-enforcement history.
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