"The Immense Immorality of Finding a Way to Legitimately Hang People:" Charles Gaines’s New Sculpture, Hanging Tree, Now at Freedom Monument Sculpture Park

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From [HERE] Acclaimed conceptual artist Charles Gaines came to Montgomery, Alabama, on October 17 to speak about Hanging Tree, his new work commissioned by EJI for Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. Mr. Gaines’s talk was part of an exciting program of events celebrating the opening of Elevation Convening Center and Hotel.

Mr. Gaines reflected on his upbringing in the Jim Crow South—remembering when his mother dragged him to the back of a bus after he tried to sit in the front and what it was like using the entrance for Black people at the Charleston Zoo—and how it inspires his work to this day.

“In Charleston [there was] this general tenor that you’re living in a place where people don’t like you. And I couldn’t understand that…I think [that] eventually helped shape what I was interested in terms of being an artist.”

Mr. Gaines’s desire to find a way out of living in a highly racialized society motivated him to use his art to “unpack ideological constructs that rule our lives.” His work has evolved as he continues to explore how best to make art that is personally meaningful.

The piece Mr. Gaines created for Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is site specific, he explained—designed to be “in correspondence with the other works in the park, and also with the general idea of the Museum.”

The “hauntingness of the space, of the environment, of this place,” Mr. Gaines said, “created this compelling idea of the importance of place.” His art draws from the power of place, he explained, because it “compels the reality of the narrative aspect of the work.”

Mr. Gaines described Hanging Tree as “a simple structure where I take a tree, turn it upside down, and hang it from a stanchion.” The tree is engineered to gently swing on a motor. [MORE]

Louisiana Death Row Prisoner Jimmie Duncan Released on Bail After Evidence Shows He is ​“Factually Innocent”

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On November 26, 2025, Jimmie Duncan was released on bail from Louisiana’s Angola prison after spend­ing 27 years on death row for a crime that a court now says nev­er occurred. Ouachita Parish District Attorney Robert Tew opposed Mr. Duncan’s release on bail and main­tains that he is guilty of rape and mur­der. Mr. Duncan’s attor­neys dis­pute this and say Judge Alvin Sharp’s bail rul­ing ​“acknowl­edged the clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence show­ing Mr. Duncan is factually innocent.” 

“[T]his court finds that a prop­er assess­ment [under rel­e­vant law] reveals there are not legal­ly suf­fi­cient grounds upon which to pros­e­cute [Mr. Duncan] and, thus, [Mr. Duncan] is enti­tled to bail as though he had not been con­vict­ed of the offense in question.” 

BAIL ORDER SIGNED BY LOUISIANA DISTRICT JUDGE ALVIN SHARP, NOVEMBER 21, 2025 

Last April, Judge Sharp set aside Mr. Duncan’s first-degree mur­der con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. Mr. Duncan was sen­tenced to death in 1998 for the 1993 death of his girlfriend’s tod­dler based large­ly on ques­tion­able ​“bite-mark” evi­dence. His con­vic­tion relied on foren­sic evi­dence and tes­ti­mo­ny pro­vid­ed by den­tist Dr. Michael West and pathol­o­gist Dr. Steven Hayne, whose work has been dis­cred­it­ed. Judge Sharp held that expert tes­ti­mo­ny demon­strat­ed the bite mark analy­sis used against Mr. Duncan is ​“no longer valid” and ​“not sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly defen­si­ble.” According to an inves­ti­ga­tion by ProPublica, Mr. Duncan stands to be the tenth indi­vid­ual freed from prison after it was proven that their con­vic­tions were based at least in part on inac­cu­rate evi­dence stem­ming from the work of these two doc­tors using ques­tion­able foren­sic tech­niques now char­ac­ter­ized by many experts as ​“junk science.” [MORE]

The International Criminal Court Shuns US Demands to Drop Israel War Crimes Probe and Amend Treaty

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The oversight body of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has shunned US demands for the court to drop its investigation into Israeli war crimes and to amend its founding treaty to prevent the prosecution of nationals from countries that do not recognise the court’s jurisdiction, Middle East Eye can reveal.

In a statement issued on Wednesday after its annual meeting in The Hague earlier this week, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) vowed to uphold the integrity of the Rome Statute and said it was “gravely concerned” by threats and coercive measures targeting the court.

The meeting took place in the shadow of US sanctions already imposed against a number of ICC senior officials, including judges and the chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.

Diplomats speaking on the sidelines of the event told MEE that the Trump administration had tried to exert further pressure on the ICC in the leadup to the ASP meeting by calling on the court to drop its investigations into war crimes in Palestine and Afghanistan as a condition for lifting sanctions.

The US also called on member states to amend the Rome Statute to prohibit prosecutions of citizens of non-signatory states, a move that would have effectively granted immunity to American and Israeli nationals. An amendment of that nature would also end the Ukraine investigation into alleged war crimes by Russia, a non-member of the ICC. [MORE]

The Clogic of Piece Maker Trump’s Drug War: Pardons for the Convicted, Drone Strikes for the Suspected

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ACCORDING TO FUNKTIONARY:

clogic – clogged logic—closed-circuit logic—clueless logic—locked in an endless loop of flawed axioms and paradoxical premises that prevent describing or relating to reality in alignment with its attributes. Using “clogic” is like being trapped in a hall of mirrors in which the two (self and world) endlessly reflect and determine one another in a dualistic duel that shape and dominate each other and with erring inaccuracy keeping us overruled and fooled (through dim and gross reflections that distort the world and ourselves) that is, until Shatterday arrives. (See: Shatterday, Psycholesterol, Wholesight, BLYND, Axioms, Logic, Truth, Belief Systems, Conclusion, Proof, Experience, Objectivism, Third Sight & Suffering)

From [HERE] This week, President Donald Trump pardoned a man federal prosecutors described as the architect of a “narco-state” who moved 400 tons of cocaine to United States shores. In September, the US military began killing people on Caribbean vessels based on unproven suspicions they were doing the same thing on a far smaller scale. The strikes have drawn allegations of war crimes; the contradiction has drawn bipartisan scrutiny.

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández walked out of a federal penitentiary in West Virginia on December 2, after Trump issued him a “full and unconditional” pardon. Hernández had been serving a 45-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2024 of facilitating the importation of more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States over nearly two decades. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time that Hernández had “abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with virtual impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences.”

Meanwhile, since early September 2025, the US military has conducted a series of more than 20 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 82 people. The administration alleges these individuals were all trafficking drugs, but without public evidence or judicial process. The legal framework constructed to justify these killings rests on the claim that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, rendering suspected smugglers “unlawful combatants” subject to lethal force.

This explainer examines that framework, with particular attention to a September 2 incident that has prompted congressional investigations and accusations that the US military committed war crimes.

Background

In August, the US began amassing troops and warships in the Caribbean, posing the build-up as a counter-narcotics effort. On September 2, the US military launched the first strike in what would come to be known as Operation Southern Spear, killing 11 people in a fishing boat. “There are 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the Caribbean right now who found out, at the hands of American power, that you will not be poisoning the American people anymore,” Secretary of Defense (or “Secretary of War,” as now designated by the Trump administration) Pete Hegseth said.

The strikes have escalated steadily. As of the start of December, US forces had conducted 21 kinetic strikes, killing 82, according to the Pentagon. According to analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), recent deployments to the Caribbean have included “larger ships, bringing with them immense firepower and other combat capabilities.” These include the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier.

The Administration’s Legal Theory

On September 4, Trump informed Congress of the strike, as required by the War Powers Resolution. The letter addressed domestic law by citing his constitutional authority under Article II, and international law by claiming “self defense.”

The legal justification for Operation Southern Spear is said to rest on a secret memo reportedly authorizing strikes against cartels beyond those that have been publicly designated as terrorist organizations, and against individuals merely “affiliated” with such groups. The memo was reportedly produced by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) within the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin described the memo as having given Trump “unchecked power to order military strikes on civilian targets who have unverified ties to ‘a secret list of groups.'”

In an October letter demanding the release of the memo, Raskin wrote that media reporting on the memo “raises the alarming prospect that DOJ has authorized the President to order targeted assassinations against anyone he deems an enemy combatant, including individuals located in the United States, without having to provide any evidence or justification to Congress or any federal judge.”

The memo has not been released to the public. [MORE]

Media Offers Only More Hearsay Evidence about the Unreleased, Unedited 1st Boat Strike Video; “Lawmakers call It Shocking.” Gemini Said the Original Video Looked “Cartoon Like” and "AI Generated"

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Video footage of a U.S. military strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea shows two people attempting to flip their capsized vessel as they were attacked again, multiple lawmakers said Thursday after speaking with the Navy admiral who oversaw the controversial mission.

The recording was shown during a day of closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill featuring Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander who oversaw the Sept. 2 operation, which entailed four strikes in all. The attack killed 11 people, including the two people who survived the first blast that hit their boat.

Rep. Jim Himes (Connecticut), the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, described the footage as “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” The two survivors, he said, were “in clear distress” after their boat was “destroyed.” [MORE]

“I am deeply disturbed by what I saw this morning,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after the briefing. “The Department of Defense has no choice but to release the complete, unedited footage of the September 2 strike, as the president has agreed to do.”

Reed’s remarks came after Adm. Frank Bradley and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine briefed some members of the Senate and House Armed Services and Intelligence committees on the so-called “double-tap” strike, in which nine people were killed in the initial bombing and two survivors clinging to the burning wreckage of the vessel were slain in second attack. [MORE]

Until Thursday, the only video of the attack that had been seen by lawmakers was an edited clip posted to the Truth Social account of President Donald Trump on September 2 announcing the strike. The edited clip captures the initial strike, showing a four-engine speedboat erupt in an explosion. It does not show the second strike on the wreckage of the vessel and the survivors — which was first reported by The Intercept.

Trump has said he supports the release of the video showing the second boat strike that killed the remaining survivors of the initial September 2 attack. “I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. [MORE]

Besides the video, which looks like a 80’s video game, massa media and authority have not presented any tangible evidence of boats being destroyed, such as damaged boats, dead bodies, funerals, witnesses, drugs or other contraband, etc. Also, if the 2 lone survivors of the several attacks were terrorist/drug dealers who the US intended to kill, then why did US authorities promptly release them without any charges? If they were so imminently dangerous to the nation then for what reason were they not also summarily “executed” upon capture or detained without charges as enemies of the state? [MORE]

Venezuelans, who should be reasonably angered about the ongoing random murder spree, appear to have had no reaction to the boat strikes in the many public gatherings since the strikes began. You would also assume that Venezuela authorities would use the boat murders against Tump/Bush to its moral advantage on the international stage. However, Freddy Ñáñez, the Venezuelan communications minister, stated that the footage of the attack was fake. [MORE] and Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, characterized the strike as "fake news" "invented" by the US as a cover for regime change and President Maduro has ignored the strikes altogether making no mention of them in his various speeches. [MORE]

The Seven Richest Billionaires Are All Zionists Using the CIA to Control the Media

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From [HERE] Trump loyalist and CIA contractor Larry Ellison’s purchase of CNN appears imminent, and marks the latest venture into media for the world’s second-richest individual.

But Ellison is not alone.

Indeed, the world’s seven richest individuals are all now powerful media barons, controlling what the world sees, reads, and hears, marking a new chapter in oligarchical control over society and striking another blow at a free, independent press and diversity of opinion.

MEDIA MONOPOLY

Paramount Skydance– an Ellison-owned company– is in pole position to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery, a conglomerate that controls gigantic film and television studios, streaming services like HBO Max and Discovery+, franchises like DC Comics, and TV networks such as HBO, TNT, Discovery Channel, TLC, Food Network, and CNN. This lead is largely due to Ellison’s proximity to President Trump, who will ultimately have to sign off on such a deal.

Ellison has already spoken to senior White House officials about axing CNN hosts and content that Trump is said to dislike, including anchors, Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar. It is this willingness to completely reorientate the network’s political direction that has made him the White House’s preferred purchaser of Warner Brothers Discovery. He is reportedly so wealthy that he can afford to pay in cash.

Ellison, whose net worth stands at a staggering $278 billion, has been on a media spending spree of late. Earlier this year, he provided the funds for Skydance to purchase Paramount Global, another gigantic conglomerate that controls such products as CBS, BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Streaming, and Showtime.

Immediately upon being appointed CEO of CBS News, Larry’s son, David, began drastically reorientating the network’s political outlook, firing staff, pushing it to become pro-Trump, and appointing self-described “Zionist fanatic” Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief.

The Ellison family, however, is far from finished. In September, President Trump signed an executive order approving a proposal to force through the sale of social media platform TikTok to an American consortium led by Ellison-owned tech company, Oracle.

Under the planned arrangement, Oracle will oversee the platform’s security and operations, giving the world’s second-richest man effective control over the platform that more than 60% of Americans under thirty years of age use for news and entertainment. Trump himself stated that he was extremely pleased that Oracle would be controlling the platform.

“It’s owned by Americans, and very sophisticated Americans,” he said. [MORE]

A Dependent Media: The Ellison Family is Now Poised to Control CBS, Paramount, CNN and TikTok, and thereby Refine Single Source Propaganda and Messaging for Elites

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ACCORDING TO FUNKTIONARY:

 Dependent Media – Establishment (dependent) media is both unwilling and incapable of reporting events truthfully, accurately, or without extreme bias. News coverage is just that—covering-up-(masking) and distorting the events and those wielding the power behind the events (those reported and deliberately unreported). News coverage has simply become “disinfotainment” with the sole purpose of perception and knowledge containment as well as realitY concealment. You report in the interests of those who paying you to do so. (See: MEDIA, NBC & NEWS)

From [HERE] and [HERE] Trump loyalist and C.I.A. contractor Larry Ellison’s purchase of CNN appears imminent, and marks the latest venture into media for the world’s second-richest individual.

But Ellison is not alone.

Indeed, the world’s seven richest individuals are all now powerful media barons, controlling what the world sees, reads, and hears, marking a new chapter in oligarchical control over society and striking another blow at a free, independent press and diversity of opinion.

Media Monopoly

Paramount Skydance — an Ellison-owned company — is in pole position to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery, a conglomerate that controls gigantic film and television studios, streaming services like HBO Max and Discovery+, franchises like DC Comics, and TV networks such as HBO, TNT, Discovery Channel, TLC, Food Network, and CNN.

This lead is largely due to Ellison’s proximity to President Donald Trump, who will ultimately have to sign off on such a deal.

Ellison has already spoken to senior White House officials about axing CNN hosts and content that Trump is said to dislike, including anchors, Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.

It is this willingness to completely re-orientate the network’s political direction that has made him the White House’s preferred purchaser of Warner Brothers Discovery. He is reportedly so wealthy that he can afford to pay in cash.

Ellison, whose net worth stands at a staggering $278 billion, has been on a media spending spree of late. Earlier this year, he provided the funds for Skydance to purchase Paramount Global, another gigantic conglomerate that controls such products as CBS, BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Streaming and Showtime.

Immediately upon being appointed CEO of CBS News, Larry’s son, David, began drastically re-orientating the network’s political outlook, firing staff, pushing it to become pro-Trump, and appointing self-described “Zionist fanatic” Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief.

The Ellison family, however, is far from finished. In September, President Trump signed an executive order approving a proposal to force through the sale of social media platform TikTok to an American consortium led by Ellison-owned tech company, Oracle.

Under the planned arrangement, Oracle will oversee the platform’s security and operations, giving the world’s second-richest man effective control over the platform that more than 60 percent of Americans under 30 years of age use for news and entertainment.

Trump himself stated that he was extremely pleased that Oracle would be controlling the platform. “It’s owned by Americans, and very sophisticated Americans,” he said.

The Ellison family’s sudden venture into the realm of media and communications has shocked many, with senior media figures sounding the alarm.

Longtime CBS News anchor, Dan Rather, warned that “we all have to be concerned about the consolidation of huge billionaires getting control of nearly all of the major news outlets.”

“It is a particularly tough time for anybody working at CBS News,” he stated, citing pressure to change coverage to be more pro-Trump. “I think if [the Ellisons] were to buy CNN, it would change CNN forever, and it might be another very serious wound to CBS News,” he concluded. [MORE]

In its Lathered Up Search for Trump Porn in Epstein Files, Massa Media Ignores [Conceals] Epstein's Relationship with Israel and his Prominent Role in Advancing the Israeli Cyberweapons Industry

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From [HERE] With an avalanche of new documents released by the House Oversight Committee, and looming legislation mandating further disclosures, the press has renewed its relentless coverage of the life and times of Jeffrey Epstein. Yet, with some notable exceptions, a major part of his life’s work has remained outside the media’s gaze, his relationship with the state of Israel and his prominent role in helping advance the Israeli cyberweapons industry. And so our series continues.

On July 31, 2019, just eleven days before Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell, his connection to the Rothschild banking dynasty became the subject of major public controversy.

Anonymous sources informed Bloomberg of a 2015 visit to Epstein’s New York mansion by baroness Ariane de Rothschild, the CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Group, a storied private bank and one of the largest Swiss financial institutions by assets under management. The bank’s spokesperson denied any relationship to the notorious American sex trafficker. Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019.

Four years later, after Epstein’s meeting calendars were leaked to the Wall Street Journal, the bank finally admitted that de Rothschild had met with Epstein as part of her “normal duties at the bank between 2013 and 2019.” Epstein provided introductions to U.S. finance leaders and law firms and provided tax and risk consulting, the bank disclosed, while also helping de Rothschild personally on “a couple of occasions” with advice on estate management.

The bank remained vague about the actual nature of its relationship with the convicted sex trafficker. Newly released documents reveal that Epstein and de Rothschild’s personal relationship was much closer than the bank previously acknowledged. According to emails released by the U.S. House Oversight Committee on November 12, Epstein planned to see a Broadway play with de Rothschild in January 2014, and scheduled a private trip with her to Montreal that September.

A second set of documents—the leaked inbox of former Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak, hacked by Handala and uploaded by non-profit whistleblower Distributed Denial of Secrets—sheds light on Epstein’s efforts to leverage his personal friendship with de Rothschild to raise funds for the development of Israeli cyberweapons. After Barak’s retirement from government in 2013, he recruited Pavel Gurvich, a graduate of the Israel Defense Forces’ secretive Unit 81 technology unit, to source cyberweapons startups from the Israeli intelligence community. Gurvich did not respond to a request for comment. [MORE]

So Called "Black" Mayor of NYC, who Delivered Nothing of Tangible Value to Black People, Signs a Pro-Israel Executive Order On His Way Out of Office as a Final Gesture to His Masters

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ANOTHER BOHICAN COMES AND GOES. Eric Adams signs a pro-Israel executive order on his way out: On the same day, outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued Executive Order 60, which directs city agencies and pension-fund trustees to steer clear of procurement or investment decisions that could be construed as discriminating against Israel, which urges contracting officers to avoid anything resembling a boycott of Israel, and which tells mayoral pension trustees to oppose divestment from Israeli assets. [MORE]

According to FUNKTIONARY:

BOHICAN – Bend Over Here It Comes Again Negro. ☻Sniggers are the last of the buck-dancing Bohicans. “I am the last of the Bohicans,” he said, “…and I will never be broken. I am the last and worst of my breed—and the final token.” (See: Snigger, Coin-Operated, Samboism, Uncle Tom, Possumist, Turdistan, Piece-Activist, Niggeroe & GOP)

While Doing Little for the Black Communities in Brooklyn, Coin-Operated Rolebot Hakeem Jeffries Solicited Jeffrey Epstein for Donations and Sweated Him for a Hook Up w/Obama

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From [HERE] A firm representing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) solicited Jeffrey Epstein for donations and to get him to attend a dinner with then-President Barack Obama, newly released files revealed. 

Thousands of pages of documents from Epstein’s estate published by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week included a 2013 email from a representative of Jeffries’ asking Epstein to meet with and give money to the Democrat leader.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) exposed the email on the House floor during consideration of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed 427-1:

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1990866192358055989

New York City-based firm Dynamic SRG sent Epstein an email referring to Jeffries, who had entered congressional office just a few months prior, as “Brooklyn’s Obama.”

“Hakeem is committed to electing a Democrat majority in 2014 and is encouraging his friends to participate in the DCCC/DSCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee/Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] fundraising dinner with President Obama this coming Monday night,” Dynamic SRG’s Lisa Rossi wrote.

Rossi went on to encourage Epstein to call or email her if he would like to “get involved” with the dinner or get an “opportunity to get to know Hakeem better.”

“… Another email shows fundraisers invited Epstein to an event or to meet privately with Hakeem Jeffries as part of their 2013 effort to win a majority,” Comer said. “So Hakeem Jeffries’ campaign solicited money from Jeffrey Epstein. That’s what we found in the last document batch.”

At the time of the May 2013 email, Epstein had been out of prison for a few years after serving a 13-month sentence for procuring a child for prostitution.

The Oversight chair went on to emphasize that former President Bill Clinton “must appear for his deposition.” On the floor, Comer misspoke and said “former President Trump,” but his prepared remarks state Clinton. [MORE]

Autonomous Constituents or Subjects to a Master? Poll Finds that 77 % of Democrat Voters “think Israel is committing genocide” but Only 10% of Democrat Puppeticians Agree, Spend Trillions to Massacre

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From [HERE] Last month, some House members publicly acknowledged that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza. It’s a judgment that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch unequivocally proclaimed a year ago. Israeli human-rights organizations have reached the same conclusion. But such clarity is sparse in Congress.

And no wonder. Genocide denial is needed for continuing to appropriate billions of dollars in weapons to Israel, as most legislators have kept doing. Congress members would find it very difficult to admit that Israeli forces are committing genocide while voting to send them more weaponry.

Three weeks ago, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced a resolution titled “Recognizing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Twenty-one House colleagues, all of them Democrats, signed on as co-sponsors. They account for 10 percent of the Democrats in Congress.

In sharp contrast, a national Quinnipiac Poll found that 77 percent of Democrats “think Israel is committing genocide.” That means there is a 67 percent gap between what the elected Democrats are willing to say and what the people who elected them believe. The huge gap has big implications for the party’s primaries in the midterm elections next year, and then in the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

One of the likely candidates in that race, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), is speaking out in ways that fit with the overwhelming views of Democratic voters. “I agree with the UN commission’s heartbreaking finding that there is a genocide in Gaza,” he tweeted as autumn began. “What matters is what we do about it – stop military sales that are being used to kill civilians and recognize a Palestinian state.” Consistent with that position, the California congressman was one of the score of Democrats who signed on as co-sponsors of Tlaib’s resolution the day it was introduced.

In the past, signers of such a resolution would have reason to fear the wrath – and the electoral muscle – of AIPAC, the Israel-can-do-no-wrong lobby. But its intimidation power is waning. AIPAC’s support for Israel does not represent the views of the public, a reality that has begun to dawn on more Democratic officeholders. [MORE]

Federal Judge Blocks DHS’ Warrantless Immigration Arrests

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From [HERE] A US federal judge on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from enforcing its policy of warrantless civil immigration arrests without probable cause of escape risk.

The order grants both a preliminary injunction and provisional class certification, and denies a separate motion for final class certification without prejudice, meaning plaintiffs can still refile this request in the future. The provisional class certification includes all individuals arrested in the District of Columbia who were not subject to escape risk assessments prior to their arrest.

Tuesday’s ruling stems from the lawsuit Escobar Molina v. DHS, filed in September. Four individual immigrants and CASA, Inc. challenged DHS policy of conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests in Washington, D.C. without individualized probable cause determinations, following an emergency declaration made in August. The plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction and provisional class certification under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(g). The complaint argues that DHS violated federal standards for warrantless arrests under 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(2), which requires the arresting officer to have reason to believe the individual is “likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.” 

Writing for the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Beryl Howell concluded that the plaintiffs had demonstrated sufficient likelihood of success on their claim that DHS adopted a policy requiring only “reasonable suspicion” rather than probable cause for both unlawful presence and escape risk. The 88-page memorandum opinion, which gives reasons for the order, cited repeated public statements by senior DHS officials, including Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, explicitly stating that warrantless arrests required only “reasonable suspicion.”

The Court rejected DHS’s jurisdictional defenses, holding that 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(5), (b)(9), and (g), which strip district courts of jurisdiction for removal-related matters, do not apply to arrest procedures that are not directly part of the removal process itself. The Court emphasized that being deportable does not automatically establish a likelihood of escape, rejecting arguments that would otherwise conflate the statute’s two distinct probable cause requirements. Tuesday’s injunction requires DHS to transmit the district court’s order to all federal agents with immigration enforcement authority, and it must now document the factual basis for each warrantless arrest. [MORE]

Federal Judge Rules Trump's National Guard Deployment in DC was Unlawful, but Appeals Court says his Race Soldiers Can Stay During Their Review

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From [HERE] The Trump administration will be allowed to continue its National Guard deployment in D.C. at least temporarily, pending another appeals court decision, a panel of U.S. Court of Appeals judges said Thursday.

The ruling means the deployment of troops to the nation’s capital could persist beyond Dec. 11, the date a lower-court judge had previously set as a deadline for the administration to halt the mission. Last month, that U.S. District Court judge handed D.C. a preliminary legal win in its lawsuit over the deployment, writing in an opinion that it was illegal and ordering the administration to pause it while litigation proceeds.

The Trump administration then asked the appeals court to intervene and allow the troops to remain longer — and on Thursday, judges with the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals granted an administrative stay in the case, meaning the drawdown of troops will be delayed at least until the appeals court makes an additional ruling.

The court emphasized that Thursday’s decision had nothing to do with the merits of the Trump administration’s arguments in the case and that it merely buys the judges more time. “The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” they wrote. [MORE]

From [HERE] Last week a US federal judge ruled that President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, DC, is unlawful, in District of Columbia v. Trump.

District Judge Jia M. Cobb of the US District Court for the District of Columbia stated in a memorandum opinion that the defendants “exceeded the bounds of their authority under Title 49 of the D.C. Code” by using the DC National Guard (DCNG) for “non-military, crime-deterrence” reasons, through mechanisms like patrols in public spaces. Although Title 49 designates the president as commander in chief of the DCNG, the president is nonetheless limited to “instances in which the relevant civil authorities request” their aid. She further stated that the Department of Defense “lack[s] statutory authority under 32 U.S.C. § 502” to bring in National Guard members from outside the state. According to the court, the code only permits this where the “operations or missions … are authorized under state law.” While granting preliminary relief, the court issued an administrative stay for 21 days to allow time for an appeal.

The suit was brought by the District of Columbia against the Trump administration on September 4. The complaint alleged that the use of the National Guard affects the District’s “sovereignty and right to self-governance … inflaming tensions.” An executive order declaring a “crime emergency” in DC was issued on August 11, and a second order deploying the National Guard was issued on August 25. Roughly 2,200 members of the National Guard are currently in DC.

‘Locking Up the Worst of the Worst’? DOJ Figures Show 97.4% of 614 Detained Immigrants in Chicago Had No Criminal Record [and are 100% non-white]

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From [HERE] President Donald Trump and his administration have claimed repeatedly that the immigration raids that have terrorized communities nationwide this year are focused on getting the “worst of the worst” off the streets and out of the country, but new detention data filed by the Department of Justice on Friday shows that only a tiny fraction of the more than 600 people who remain in detention in the Chicago area from raids over recent months have any criminal record, bolstering anecdotal evidence that many of those targeted for by ICE and federal border agents are hard-working, law-abiding members of society.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

The Trump administration on Friday released the names of 614 people whose Chicago-area immigration arrests may have violated a 2022 consent decree, and only 16 of them have criminal histories that present a “high public safety risk.”

The list was produced as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging immigration agents have repeatedly violated the terms of the in-court settlement, mostly during “Operation Midway Blitz,” that puts a high bar on making so-called warrantless arrests without a prior warrant or probable cause.

The newspaper reports that of the 16 people arrested with criminal histories—representing just 2.6% of the total listed in the filing— “five involved domestic battery, two were related to drunken driving, and one allegedly had an unidentified criminal history in another country.” None had criminal backgrounds that included worst-of-the-worst offenses like rape or murder.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the government to provide more information about the more than 600 people being held in detention and suggested he would order their release if compelling public-safety reasons were not presented. While ordering the immediate release of 13 people he deemed were arrested unlawfully, Cummings gave the government until Friday to release the additional information on those being held. [MORE]

Border Patrol Cops are Monitoring Law Abiding Drivers and Detaining People Deemed to Have ‘Suspicious’ Travel Patterns

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The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, The Associated Press has found.

The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then flag local law enforcement.

Suddenly, drivers find themselves pulled over — often for reasons cited such as speeding, failure to signal, the wrong window tint or even a dangling air freshener blocking the view. They are then aggressively questioned and searched, with no inkling that the roads they drove put them on law enforcement’s radar. [MORE]

New ACLU Study says Most Juries in Death Penalty Cases of Black Defendants are All White, Violating the Constitution

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From [HERE] To serve in a capital trial, potential jury members must declare that they are willing to impose the death penalty. This process, known as “death qualification,” erases large swaths of otherwise jury-eligible adults from the jury box and results in death penalty decisions—including the threshold and vital question of guilty or innocent —being made by a skewed pool of jurors who do not represent our communities.

The Constitution requires juries to carefully weigh mitigating circumstances in a separate penalty phase of a trial when deciding between life imprisonment without parole and death. The Constitution also requires the jury’s decision to express the “conscience of the community.” But, because of death qualification (which the Constitution does not require), juries making these decisions do not accurately reflect our communities or their values. Even though a juror who is unwilling to impose a death sentence can still listen to the evidence, weigh the credibility of witnesses, deliberate and even find a defendant guilty and impose the lawful sentence of life imprisonment, death qualification prevents the approximately 40% of Americans who now oppose the death penalty from participating in this important part of our democracy.

Decades of empirical research shows that death qualification results in juries that are more likely to convict, and more likely to reach hasty decisions and ignore mitigating evidence the Constitution says must be considered. Death qualification also results in the disproportionate exclusion of groups that are more likely to oppose the death penalty, including Black people, especially Black women, other people of color, women, and followers of certain religions. The racial divide in support for the death penalty is consistently demonstrated in over thirty years of social science research.1 The resulting capital juries, comprised predominantly of white men, are less likely to deliberate vigorously and more likely to convict and sentence a person to death, especially when the defendant is Black. [MORE]