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Cc: North Carolina
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Ugh, yes, this is a good point, unfortunately.
An important point from Adam Serwer: President Obama endorsed marriage federalism, not equality for all.
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Wow. Go, EEOC! (Now, please actually investigate and remedy violations, kthx.)
In what can only be described as a massive landmark for trans* rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — the federal government agency responsible for administering all anti-discrimination laws — just released a decision stating that discriminating on the basis of gender identity …
I’ve posted this before, but sadly it’s never irrelevant.
Yo dudes, especially if your rights aren’t read, refuse to talk without your lawyer present. And after you’ve seen your lawyer once? DON’T START TALKING TO THE POLICE AFTER YOUR LAWYER LEAVES.
Basic rule: at every single step of the process, no matter what’s happened previously, if you talk you waive your rights, even if you invoked them before.
(Source: iuwaehfoaiuwhefoiaulfjqn)
Just 45 years ago, 16 states deemed marriages between two people of different races illegal.
But in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of Richard Perry Loving, who was white, and his wife, Mildred Loving, of African American and Native American descent.
The case changed history - and was captured on film by LIFE photographer Grey Villet, whose black-and-white photographs are now set to go on display at the International Center of Photography.
Twenty images show the tenderness and family support enjoyed by Mildred and Richard and their three children, Peggy, Sidney and Donald.
The children, unaware of the struggles their parents face, are captured by Villet as blissfully happy as they play in the fields near their Virginia home or share secrets with their parents on the couch.
Their parents, caught sharing a kiss on their front porch, appear more worry-stricken.
And it is no wonder - eight years prior, the pair had married in the District of Columbia to evade the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which banned any white person marrying any non-white person.
But when they returned to Virginia, police stormed into their room in the middle of the night and they were arrested.
The pair were found guilty of miscegenation in 1959 and were each sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for 25 years if they left Virginia.
They moved back to the District of Columbia, where they began the long legal battle to erase their criminal records - and justify their relationship.
Following vocal support from the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches, the Lovings won the fight - with the Supreme Court branding Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional in 1967.
It wrote in its decision: ‘Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man, fundamental to our very existence and survival.
‘To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.’ [Read more]
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Extremely useful advice.
auto reblog. also, some more about your miranda “rights” here.
(Source: alamaquina)
Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005)
- Wrote the original complaint for Brown v. Board of Education
- The first African-American woman to argue a case before the US Supreme Court
- The first African-American woman elected to the NY State Senate
- The first female Manhattan Borough President
- The first female African-American district court judge
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Unity Dow, Botswana’s 1st High Court female judge
“I define what I want to do and ask myself if it’s ethical or principled and then, that’s what I do.”
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Holy Mother of God. Fyi, the 5th Amendment Miranda requirement - “you have the right to an attorney, everything you say can be used against you” that we think we all know from TV shows is actually an incredibly precarious right. Today, in a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit rendered it even weaker.
When 19-year-old Tio Sessoms was arrested in 1999 for the murder of a Sacramento minister, he told police that his father “asked me to ask you guys — uh, get me a lawyer.”The officers responded by saying they would advise him of his rights and then see if he wanted a lawyer. They also told him two other suspects had already talked to them without lawyers and that an attorney would probably discourage him from giving them his version of events. And they denied his request to call his father.
…The court said police must halt their questioning of a suspect who clearly asks for a lawyer, but that Sessoms hadn’t done that. When he said, “Get me a lawyer,” he wasn’t speaking for himself but was just relaying what his father had told him, Judge Richard Tallman said in the majority opinion June 3.Tumblr, I’m just a law student. I don’t know much. But I do know how fucking ugly it is to see a room full of privileged, well-off would-be lawyers scoffing at defendants who “didn’t know what to do. Man, how do you not ask for a lawyer? Everyone knows that.” Especially under this new ruling, it’s not that simple. (Also, save me from the “intellectually curious” friends who want to argue about how this is the defendant’s fault. NO.)
The other thing I know, which please, please, please be aware of: courts tend to side with the police on this one, as this case shows. The defendant’s lawyer is going to try for an en banc hearing, after which point the case would go up to the Supreme Court. There’s no guarantee that the defendant will get either. This may well be followed henceforth in the Ninth Circuit, which is to say: in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
Here are some tips of what to do if you’re read your Miranda rights, or even if you aren’t (the courts are going to put this all on you):
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS
1. NEVER EVER EVER SIGN A WAIVER. DO NOT SIGN A WAIVER. IF YOU ARE GIVEN A PIECE OF PAPER THAT SAYS “I WAS READ MY RIGHTS AND UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM DOING,” DO NOT SIGN IT.
2. Say loudly and clearly “I want a lawyer. You need to get me a lawyer.” THEN DO NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING ELSE. It doesn’t matter if the police seem nice. It doesn’t matter if they say they’re going to talk to you a bit and then see if you want a lawyer. NO. As soon as you say you want a lawyer, they are supposed to bring you one. DO NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING ELSE. (And look, I don’t mean to paint all cops as bad. I know there are some good cops. I know it. I’ve met a bunch. I’ve worked with a bunch. Honestly, here I’m more concerned about the prosecution and the courts not caring when cops slip up.)
3. Except for this: “I am asserting my right to remain silent. I will not answer any questions without my lawyer present.” Look, guys. The Supreme Court has said that actual silence does not get you this right. They decided against a guy who was silent for days because ‘silence is not enough.’ You actually physically have to say “I am asserting my right to remain silent. I will not answer any questions without my lawyer present.”
4. Also know this: even if you do get a lawyer, and even if you’ve told the police you know your rights, and you think the police have to pay attention to them, THEY DON’T. If your lawyer leaves for the day and the police come to your cell to talk to you, if you start talking, you’ve waived your rights. DO NOT TALK EXCEPT IN THE PRESENCE OF YOUR LAWYER.
Okay. Got it? Let’s review.
1. NEVER SIGN A WAIVER OF YOUR RIGHTS, NO MATTER WHAT THE POLICE SAY
2.SAY LOUDLY AND CLEARLY “I WANT MY LAWYER”
3. SAY LOUDLY AND CLEARLY “I AM ASSERTING MY RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT AND I WILL NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS WITHOUT MY LAWYER PRESENT”
4. SHUT UP
OK, so the right-wing noise machine wants you to talk about Anthony Weiner’s wiener. That’s the ONLY thing they want you to talk about. Not how Wall Street is filling its pants in fear that the Frankenstein monster they’ve created called the 112th Congress will crash the economy because they hate Obama and want him to fail, even if it means we (everybody except the rich Republicans, natch) have to live in cardboard boxes under a freeway overpass and barbecue pigeons over a fire to make that come to pass.
Not the fact that a district in western New York that has been represented by Republicans since 1970 just sent a woman Democrat to Congress for swearing in today, because everyone in the GOP voted to do away with Medicare and give you a coupon for half-off the early-bird special at the United Health Urgent Care Clinic, and voters think that’s stupid and cruel.
And definitely not the financial disclosure forms that Clarence Thomas just filed on Friday. Definitely not those.
"— Clarence Thomas – The Original #Weinergate (via ryking)
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Cat Number One is all, “Oh SNAP.”
Portrait of two funny cats, undated. Source: Corbis.
Anonymous hero performs public karate ritual in thunderstorm while wearing business attire.
Osaka.
submission from omigodbirds
No, really — the Obama campaign’s emails are a bit jarring sometimes.
We’re basically two months away from the...