Working to make the promise of the Bill of Rights a reality.
Welcome to Defending Rights & Dissent
Join the grassroots movement to fulfill the promise of the Bill of Rights for everyone. Together, we can make police and intelligence agencies accountable to we the people whom they serve. It’s time to convert your concern and outrage into political action. Let’s do this.
Dissent NewsWire
June 15 Marks 6,000 Days of Guantánamo: Rights Groups Tell Donald Trump to Close the Prison, Say “Not One Day More!”
Today, June 15, 2018, is a depressing milestone in the long history of U.S. detention at Guantánamo Bay. Today the Guantánamo prison, set up after the 9/11 attacks, has been open for 6,000 days. Most of the men held at Guantánamo over the last 6,000 da… [Read More]
NYPD Use of Sound Cannons Could be Excessive Force, Court Rules
This is the first time a court has addressed the legality of police use of a Long Range Acoustic Device (“LRAD”) sound cannon for crowd control purposes.
Civil Rights, Community Groups Welcome NYPD Spying Report
This was Judge Robinson’s first public report on NYPD compliance with the revised Handschu Guidelines, negotiated to settle legal claims in Raza v. City of New York and Handschu v. Special Services Division, and limiting surveillance of religious and political activity.
Second J20 Trial Ends in Mistrial
The second trial of Trump Inauguration protesters arrested during an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist march has ended without a single conviction.
FBI, Jeff Sessions, Used Misleading Statistics to Drum Up Fear About Encryption
Defending Rights and Dissent has joined a coalition of 20 other civil liberties organizations in demanding that the Justice Department Inspector General review how the incorrect figure of 7,800 unlockable devices originally came to be. The coalition of groups is also pushing for an investigation into why Justice Department officials and Attorney General Jeff Sessions continued to cite this statistic even after it was discovered that the FBI had made an error in their calculations.
Yet Another Acquittal in Ongoing Prosecution of Trump Inauguration Protesters
A jury acquitted Seth Cadman of conspiracy to riot, inciting a riot, and several counts of property destruction. The jury deadlocked on the misdemeanor charge of engaging in a riot, causing Judge Knowles to declare a mistrial on that one charge
Another Bad Day for J20 Prosecutors, With One Defendant Acquitted, More Charges Dismissed
Today, was yet another day of setbacks for the prosecution,as the government dismissed charges against three more J20 defendants. In another J20 trial, a jury acquitted defendant Cathseigh Webber of all charges after less than two days of deliberations.
In Light of Due Process Violations, Charges Dismissed, Prosecution Sanctioned in J20 Trials
While prosecutors were going ahead with closing arguments in one set of J20 trials, one floor above in the same courthouse a judge was issuing sanctions against the government for failing to disclose exculpatory evidence. In a huge blow to prosecutors, conspiracy charges will be dismissed with prejudice against ten defendants and seven defendants had all of their remaining charges dismissed without prejudice.
Groups to DHS: What’s in the ‘Race Paper’ and Why are You Hiding it From Us?
More than 40 racial-justice and civil-liberties groups urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release an unredacted version of a memo referred to as the “Race Paper”
Rekognize the New Threat
Rekognition promises to “perform real-time recognition of persons of interest from camera livestreams against your private database of face metadata.” In plain English, that means it can identify people in real time.