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Defending Rights & Dissent
July 13, 2020
As the nation rises up against police brutality and racism, Attorney General William Barr has escalated his attacks on protesters. On June 26, 2020, he announced the formation of a task force on violent anti-government extremists. Although its stated purpose
July 13, 2020
Kenneth Marcus has announced that he is resigning as assistant secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.Given Marcus’s long history of working to silence student speech supportive of Palestinian rights, Defending Rights & Dissent opposed his nomination to the post. While Defending Rights & Dissent supports robust enforcement of our nation’s civil rights laws, we oppose the misuse of those laws to silence political speech about Palestinian rights or Israeli policy, as Marcus did.
July 10, 2020
“If the technology is flawed and the policing is flawed, then the whole thing is flawed.” Robert Williams wrongfully arrested in Michigan due to false facial recognition match As millions of Americans rise up – both on the streets and
July 7, 2020
On Tuesday, July 7, Defending Rights & Dissent, along with a host of national organizations and security experts (including DRAD board president Sascha Meinrath) from civil society, industry and academia, signed onto a national letter expressing our strong opposition to
June 17, 2020
Today, Defending Rights & Dissent joined MediaJustice and 100+ civil rights organizations urging Congress to cease federal funding for surveillance technologies, known to be disproportionately deployed in Black communities and other communities of color. As Black activists around the country
June 11, 2020
Defending Rights & Dissent joined with eight other civil rights and civil liberties groups in urging the Department of Education Inspector General to review the actions of Kenneth Marcus. Marcus currently heads the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), a position he previously held in the Bush administration. However, between his stints at the OCR, Marcus was a vociferous proponent of a number of schemes to deny supporters of Palestinian rights their First Amendment rights. This included encouraging the office he now heads to treat criticism of Israeli policies and support of Palestinian rights as violations of federal civil rights law. Complaints alleging just that were repeatedly rejected by the OCR. That is until Marcus came to head the office.
June 4, 2020
People angry at the sorry state of the world and looking to build a better one go out and protest. Yet, across the country when people gathered to protest police violence, they themselves were met with police violence. Donald Trump has responded with a seemingly never ending stream of inflammatory tweets. On Monday, in a demagogic speech, he openly spoke of using the military on US soil against US citizens. How does Mr. Trump justify his actions? He’s decided to claim that what the nation is is seeing is preplanned, carefully orchestrated, professionally managed protests and violence. The instigator? Antifa.
June 1, 2020
On Monday, a coalition of more than 70 civil rights and civil liberty groups and community organizations sent a letter to Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf asking him to end an anti-Muslim and deeply flawed $80 million
June 1, 2020
On Wednesday night our left-right coalition of grassroots activists and members of Congress managed to thwart House leadership’s attempt to ram an unacceptable reauthorization of the Patriot Act down our throats. Thousands of people across the country let their legislators
June 1, 2020
Over the last several days, we have seen shocking images of police violence against protesters. We have heard politicians at all levels of government, and from both sides of the aisle, speak of “outside agitators,” an age old lie told to delegitimize social movements, downplay rightful anger, and greenlight repression. These are dark and trying times. But it is precisely because of dark and trying times that we at Defending Rights & Dissent fight for the right to protest and engage in collective action aimed at building a more just world.
June 1, 2020
Defending Rights & Dissent today joined with almost 400 civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights groups to call on Congress to begin to address police violence and systemic racism in policing by passing eight reforms immediately. The letter recommended
May 29, 2020
It is unconscionable for the president of the United States to use his platform to call for the military to shoot people here at home. Police or the national guard do not have authority to use lethal force unless their
May 27, 2020
Thanks to you and thousands of others who sent emails, signed petitions and made phone calls over the past year, we forced a stalemate in the House of Representatives last night over the USA Freedom Act, which would have extended
May 27, 2020
Once again we’ve been double crossed by Nancy Pelosi, shanked by Adam Schiff. As these “heroes” of the resistance and leaders of the Democratic Party decry the authoritarian tendencies of President Trump, they fall over themselves to undermine our Constitutional
May 20, 2020
None of us wants the FBI looking over our shoulder while we surf the web. Most members of Congress understand that, but so far they’ve been unable to amend the PATRIOT Act to prohibit the FBI from using Section 215