A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Texas’s controversial voter ID law is discriminatory and violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

ThinkProgress describes it as “a stunning, unexpected decision from one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the country,” the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Signed into law in 2011, Senate Bill 14 has been called the strictest voter ID law in the nation. As the Texas Tribune explains: “Texas is among nine states categorized as requiring ‘strict photo ID,’ and its list of acceptable forms is the shortest.”

The Tribune further reports:

The opinion states (pdf): “As the State would have it, so long as the State can articulate a legitimate justification for its election law and some voters are able to meet the requirements, there is no Section 2 violation. This argument effectively nullifies the protections of the Voting Rights Act by giving states a free pass to enact needlessly burdensome laws with impermissible racially discriminatory impacts. The Voting Rights Act was enacted to prevent just such invidious, subtle forms of discrimination.”

The appeals court “also sent the case back to a district court to examine claims by the plaintiffs that the law had a discriminatory purpose,” as Reuters reports, and to fix the “discriminatory effect” of the 2011 law—in time for the November elections. 

Since news emerged last week that imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning is facing new criminal charges and further punishment from the U.S. Army for attempting suicide, public outcry has been swift.

Civil liberties group Fight for the Future has received over 30,000 signatures on a petition that demands the new charges be dropped and that Manning be provided with adequate healthcare.

A separate petition demanding that Manning be spared solitary confinement garnered over 2,000 signatures in a matter of hours.

Chase Strangio, one of Manning’s attorneys, said on Democracy Now! Wednesday that after her suicide attempt last month, Manning is “relieved to be alive.”

“It’s terrifying to think that as she survives, the government is continuing to give her the message that they will enforce punishment of her essentially for living,” Strangio said.

“Governments have so much power, and a single person often does not. It is very terrifying to face the government alone.”
—Chelsea ManningIndefinite solitary confinement, the punishment Manning is currently faced with for attempting suicide, would be “catastrophic for her mental health,” Strangio said, noting that the United Nations has said that solitary confinement can amount torture and should be banned.

Strangio is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is also engaged in a lawsuit with the Department of Defense over Manning’s treatment while incarcerated, including her placement in a male prison. Manning is transgender, and Strangio observed that the “perils and the damages of being forced to be punished through the denial of her core identity has led to her depression, has imperiled her health.”

Putting aside the shortcomings of both major candidates, for many critical observers the biggest loser during Wednesday night’s presidential “Commander-in-Chief” forum on NBC News was the platform itself.

Click Here: Putters

Moderated by NBC’s host of The Today Show Matt Lauer, the town hall-style event was staged inside the belly of the U.S.S. Intrepid, a retired World War II aircraft carrier that now serves as a military museum in New York City, and was promoted by the news outlet as a chance to extract specific positions from both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on veterans affairs and foreign policy.

But instead of informing viewers on these key subject matters or holding the candidates to account for past actions or statements, a widespread reaction among progressive viewers and critical journalists from across the political spectrum was that Lauer failed to ask the necessary tough questions or followups, with many suggesting the forum was a lesson in how not to inform voters or put a check on those seeking high office.

According to Michael Calderone, senior media reporter for the Huffington Post, the forum “should have gone down as the first time the two 2016 presidential candidate shared a stage,” but instead “will be remembered largely for the shortcomings of the man who was tasked with moderating.”

Writing for The Intercept, staff journalists Zaid Jilani and Alex Emmons described the NBC production and Lauer’s performance as a “master class on how not to hold candidates accountable” before a national audience.

“From the questions chosen to the format,” Jilani and Emmons said that despite some good questions from veterans in the audience the event—which ran only one hour during prime time—was a total failure:

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, called the forum “an absolute disgrace” and just more proof that the entire presidential debate system needs an overhaul. “Matt Lauer treated this forum less as a chance to educate voters about the real differences in temperament and policy between the candidates and more as a chance to do clickbait trolling,” Green said. “Instead of asking about big ideas, he asked small-bore questions that voters aren’t asking at their dinner tables.”

Columnist Jonathan Chait, meanwhile, dubbed Lauer’s interview approach as “pathetic” and lamented the impact such performances have on the voting public and, ultimately, the election.

Citing an investigation that revealed federal agents went undercover to spy on environmental activists, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) on Thursday filed nine Freedom of Information Act requests seeking information on surveillance of peaceful protests at federal fossil fuel auctions.

As they wrote at The Intercept in July, journalists Lee Fang and Steve Horn obtained emails showing that in May, local law enforcement and federal agents monitored and infiltrated a “Keep it in the Ground” protest at a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auction in Lakewood, Colorado. 

“The emails, which were obtained through an open records act request, show that the Lakewood Police Department collected details about the protest from undercover officers as the event was being planned,” they wrote. “During the auction, both local law enforcement and federal agents went undercover among the protesters.”

Click Here: geelong cats guernsey 2019

What’s more, The Intercept reported:

Now, CBD wants to know not only what happened at the Lakewood protest, but whether similar surveillance strategies have been pursued at other fossil fuel auction protests. 

“Every oil and gas lease sale on public lands since September 2015 has faced climate protests as part of the ‘Keep it in the Ground’ movement that is calling on President Obama to end all new fossil fuel leasing on public lands,” a CBD press statement reads, noting that such protests “have halted several BLM fossil fuel auctions, and spurred BLM and [Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] to begin conducting fossil fuel auctions online to avoid public controversy.”

President Barack Obama’s creation on Friday of the world’s largest marine protected area drew praise from lawmakers, Hawaiian community members, and environmental groups alike, who say it will help protect biodiversity and increase resilience in the face of climate change.

Obama is expanding the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii, more than quadrupling it in size to 582,578 square miles.

A White House fact sheet says the expansion, which also bans commercial resource extraction, will afford “critical protections for more than 7,000 marine species,” “improve ocean resilience,” and help preserve “resources of great historical and cultural significance.”

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who was among those who had proposed the expansion to the president, praised the move, calling it “one of the most important actions an American president has ever taken for the health of the oceans.” He noted, however, that it was “only beginning” because “management, research, educational opportunities, and enforcement” need to follow.

Similarly welcoming the move was Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), who said the expansion “will help to combat climate change, preserve biodiversity, and honor cultural traditions.”

Calling it “a bold decision that will have lasting benefits for Hawaii’s unique ecosystem,” Greenpeace oceans campaign director John Hocevar said, “Setting aside areas closed to fishing, drilling, and other extractive uses is the best way to protect biodiversity, rebuild depleted fish populations, and increase the resilience of marine ecosystems so they can better withstand the impacts of climate change.”

Yet, he added, “Bolder steps are still needed” as “Less than two percent of the world’s oceans are protected from fishing, and many scientists suggest a target of 40 percent.”

That target, he continued, “in remote areas as well as those closer to home—will help preserve the health of our oceans and our communities.”

Prisoners across the United States are launching a massive strike on Friday, on the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, to protest what they call modern-day slavery.

Organizers say the strike will take place in at least 24 states to protest inhumane living and working conditions, forced labor, and the cycle of the criminal justice system itself. In California alone, 800 people are expected to take part in the work stoppage. It is slated to be one of the largest strikes in history.

In the era of Black Lives Matter, the issues of racist policing, the school-to-prison pipeline, and other factors that contribute to the mass incarceration crisis are coming to the forefront of civil and human rights movements.

“Slavery is alive and well in the prison system, but by the end of this year, it won’t be anymore,” reads the call to action from groups including Support Prisoner Resistance, the Free Alabama Movement, and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). “This is a call to end slavery in America.”

It continues:

As the organizers explain in their call to action, “Certain Americans live every day under not only the threat of extra-judicial execution—as protests surrounding the deaths of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and so many others have drawn long overdue attention to—but also under the threat of capture, of being thrown into these plantations, shackled and forced to work.”

Following a disciplinary review hearing which took place Thursday, U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning confirmed early Friday morning she has been sentenced to solitary confinement for attempting to take her own life while serving a 30-year prison sentence at Ft. Leavenworth prison in Kansas.

The attempted suicide took place in July and, according to Fight for the Future, a group which has advocated on her behalf, followed “years of the government systematically denying her access to medically recommended treatment for gender dysphoria, and previous threats of solitary confinement following minor prison ‘infractions,’ including possession of mislabeled general research materials that Chelsea used for article writing and an expired tube of toothpaste.”

Earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, Manning ended a five-day hunger strike after the military finally agreed to provide her with gender transition surgery as well as other medically prescribed treatments.

In 2013, Manning was convicted by a military court for passing military and government documents to the media outlet Wikileaks, many of which contained evidence of possible war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click Here: los jaguares argentina

Manning’s attorney, the ACLU’s Chase Strangio, confirmed the sentence of solitary confinement in a tweet Friday:

Following the ruling, Manning released the following statement to supporters:

In addition to supporters who have railed against the military’s treatment of Manning while incarcerated at Ft. Leavenworth, a larger effort is being made to have her released from prison altogether.

As with other whistleblowers charged with criminal conduct for their alleged disclosures under the Obama administration—including Edward Snowden, Jeffrey Sterling, Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou, and others—Manning’s advocates argue she should received a presidential pardon.

“It should be beyond question at this point that the archive that Manning gave to WikiLeaks – and that was later published in part by the Guardian and New York Times – is one of the richest and most comprehensive databases on world affairs that has ever existed; its contribution to the public record at this point is almost incalculable,” wrote Trevor Timm, co-founder and the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, in an op-ed last week. “To give you an idea: in just the past month, the New York Times has cited Manning’s state department cables in at least five different stories. And that’s almost six years after they first started making headlines.”

Timm said it’s “past time the administration did the right thing,” and let her go.