Social Movements & the Law

"In Radical Reparations, this conversation shifter, social justice pioneer, change agent, and inventor of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, which redefined the global conversation on racism and social justice, offers a unifying and unconventional framework for achieving holistic and comprehensive healing of African American communities. Hunter reimagines reparations through a profound new lens as he defines seven types of compensation: political, intellectual, legal, economic, spatial, social, and spiritual, using analysis of historical documents, comparative international cases, and speculative parables"--

DEI programs bolster college students’ sense of identity and belonging. Without these programs, they stand to miss out on crucial learning and career opportunities.

In the United States, the Constitution recognizes three types of sovereigns: federal, state, and tribal. Each of these sovereign entities possesses the inherent

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples : Perspectives of Indigenous Students and the Faculty and Staff Who Serve Them-book

Reducing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls : Arizona's Statewide Study in Partnership with the HB2570 Legislative Study Committee-book

After Amanda Jones got death threats for speaking out against censorship, she sued her attackers and wrote a memoir

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica are investigating sexual violence in Alaska, and why the situation isn’t getting better.

Who is killing the indigenous women of Alaska? Spoiler alert, it is not that hard to figure out if proper investigations had been done, yet time and time again, these victims’ deaths are ignored, suspects are not questioned, evidence is not collected, autopsy reports are glossed over, known repeat offenders are not prosecuted, and on the rare occasions when they are prosecuted, judges are letting them go with less than a slap on the wrist. Joining us to discuss two such cases is victims’ advocate Antonia Unaqsiq Commack of Missing and Murdered In Alaska, a group that often focuses on violence against Alaska Natives. Antonia is Inupiaq from the Native Village of Shungnak. Antonia herself has had two close friends murdered by their intimate partners and since 2017 has devoted herself to shouting loudly to make the public aware of the injustices going on in her community. Antonia takes us through the deaths of two women in Kotzebue, Alaska - Jennifer Kirk and Sue Sue Norton -- who died under extremely suspicious circumstances and who need to get much more attention from those in power to deliver justice. Their stories are just the tip of the iceberg. Please go to the Lawless website to find out more. https://www.propublica.org/series/lawless

The Biden administration plans to immediately invoke an authority to shut off access to asylum for migrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally, senior officials said Tuesday, a significant attempt by President Joe Biden to address head on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.

President Biden has issued one of the most restrictive immigration policies ever declared under a recent Democratic administration. It will temporarily shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, deny asylum to most migrants who do not cross into the U.S. via ports of entry, and limit total asylum requests at the southern border to no more than 2,500 per day. The ACLU has threatened to sue the Biden administration over what reporter John Washington, who covers immigration in Arizona, calls an “excruciating and likely deadly” decision. “An illegal asylum seeker is a contradiction in terms,” Washington continues. “People have the right, according to U.S. law, to ask for asylum irrespective of how they crossed the border or where they are or what their status is. And this rule really flies in the face of that.”

Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-ytAs we mark Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United Stat...

Job hiring assessments can unfairly discriminate against individuals based on their protected characteristics. We outline how to strive for a future where skills and potential, not bias, determines our opportunities.

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BostonPL_We Are Pride 2024: 75 Books for Children, Teens & Adults by BostonPL_WeArePrideBooklist - a staff-created list : We Are Pride is a list of books published in the previous year for all ages concerning the diverse experience of the LGBTQ+ community. This printing is part of the Boston Public Library's annual observance of LGBTQ+ Pride Month since 2017. These titles may be available in other formats or languages. Check the catalog for availability. 2024 We Are Pride Committee Members: Jordan D. (she/they), We Are Pride Chairperson, Reader Services Specialist Allison H. (she/her), Children's Librarian Amy L. (she/her), Generalist Librarian Ayelet R. (she/her), Generalist Librarian Casey A., Generalist Librarian Dani C. (they/them), Children's Librarian Elise C. (she/her), Generalist Librarian Laura B. (she/her), Collection Librarian Michael B. (he/they), Workforce Development Librarian Morgan H. (they/them), Youth Services Librarian Nikki K. (she/they), Floater Librarian #BPLWeArePride #BPLPride

"Why We Vote is a bold and sometimes daring reconstruction of judicial doctrine giving expression to the democratic aspirations of the Constitution. It shifts the focus from equal protection to the freedom that democracy generates-the right of those who are ruled to choose their rulers. It explains why the protection of that right requires the extension of the franchise to all citizens. It provides the grounds for the rules that facilitate, as a purely practical matter, the exercise of the right to vote, ensure that the vote of one is equal to that of another, and guarantees feasible access to the ballot for independent candidates and new political parties"--

Toxic intent : environmental harm, corporate crime, and the criminal enforcement of federal environmental laws in the United States-book

"Terrorism on Trial examines the contemporary role that U.S. domestic courts play in the global war on terror and their use as a weapon of war. Retheorizing terrorism as political violence, Nicole Nguyen invites readers to carefully consider the role of power and politics in the making of armed resistance, addressing the root causes of political violence, with a goal of building toward a less violent and more liberatory world"--

"Grounded in the illuminating stories of immigrants facing deportation, the family members who support them, and the attorneys who defend them, this book invites readers to question matters of fairness and justice in immigration court and beyond"--

Increasingly fraught debates about sex, consent, feminism, justice, law, and gender relations have taken centre stage in academic, journalistic and social media circles in recent years. This has resulted in myriad new theories, debates and mediated movements including #MeToo and #TimesUp. In this book, Tina Sikka explores many of the contradictions and tensions that make up these debates and movements. She looks at those that draw together contemporary understandings of justice, violence, consent, pleasure and desire.

Self-Determination as Voice addresses the relationship between Indigenous peoples' participation in international governance and the law of self-determination. Many states and international organizations have put in place institutional mechanisms for the express purpose of including Indigenous representatives in international policy-making and decision-making processes, as well as in the negotiation and drafting of international legal instruments. Indigenous peoples' rights have a higher profile in the UN system than ever before. This book argues that the establishment and use of mechanisms and policies to enable a certain level of Indigenous peoples' participation in international governance has become a widespread practice, and perhaps even one that is accepted as law. In theory, the law of self-determination supports this move, and it is arguably emerging as a rule of customary international law. However, ultimately the achievement of the ideal of full and effective participation, in a manner that would fulfil Indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, remains deferred.

"Bringing together a remarkable group of scholars and experts, this volume confronts the beginning and end of the Constitutional right to obtain an abortion in the United States, from the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade to its shocking overturning in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health fifty years later. This is a critical moment in which to reflect on the past, present, and future of abortion regulations and legislation in the U.S"--

"Today, about one-half of all adults are unmarried. Many of them are in other kinds of significant relationships, yet the law offers them few protections. Although a few states have created nonmarital relationship statuses, they fall far short of the kind of comprehensive structures needed to recognize and protect. John Culhane offers a comprehensive approach to satisfying the needs of this vast population of unmarried adults. Using a narrative approach that resulted from in-depth interviews, he gives voice to the many couples inadequately served by existing law. Their stories provide living evidence of the need for the law to extend its reach to those who are inadequately protected-or not protected at all"--

"This book argues that punitive federal immigration policies in the United States lead to "medical legal violence" that unites criminal law, immigration enforcement, and healthcare policy in ways that undermine the health of many Latinx immigrants and implicate the safety-net healthcare institutions and personnel that provide their care"--;"An urgent study on how punitive immigration policies undermine the health of Latinx immigrants. Of the approximately 20 million noncitizens currently living in the United States, nearly half are "undocumented," which means they are excluded from many public benefits, including health care coverage. Additionally, many authorized immigrants are barred from certain public benefits, including health benefits, for their first five years in the United States. These exclusions often lead many immigrants, particularly those who are Latinx, to avoid seeking health care out of fear of deportation, detention, and other immigration enforcement consequences. Medical Legal Violence tells the stories of some of these immigrants and how anti-immigrant politics in the United States increasingly undermine health care for Latinx noncitizens in ways that deepen health inequalities while upholding economic exploitation and white supremacy. Meredith Van Natta provides a first-hand account of how such immigrants made life and death decisions with their doctors and other clinic workers before and after the 2016 election. Drawing from rich ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews in three states during the Trump presidency, Van Natta demonstrates how anti-immigrant laws are changing the way Latinx immigrants and their doctors weigh illness and injury against patients' personal and family security. The book also evaluates the role of safety-net health care workers who have helped noncitizen patients navigate this unstable political landscape despite perceiving a rise in anti-immigrant surveillance in the health care spaces where they work. As anti-immigrant rhetoric intensifies, Medical Legal Violence sheds light on the real consequences of anti-immigrant laws on the health of Latinx noncitizens, and how these laws create a predictable humanitarian disaster in immigrant communities throughout the country and beyond its borders. Van Natta asks how things might be different if we begin to learn from this history rather than continuously repeat it." -- Publisher's description

"On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland. Under the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks, and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state's Hospital for the Negro Insane. For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports readers behind the brick walls of a Jim Crow asylum. In Madness, Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried, and sometimes failed, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family's experiences with mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations. As Crownsville Hospital grew from an antebellum-style work camp to a tiny city sitting on 1,500 acres, the institution became a microcosm of America's evolving battles over slavery, racial integration, and civil rights. During its peak years, the hospital's wards were overflowing with almost 2,700 patients. By the end of the 20th-century, the asylum faded from view as prisons and jails became America's new focus. In Madness, Hylton traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people's bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. It is a captivating and heartbreaking meditation on how America decides who is sick or criminal, and who is worthy of our care or irredeemable"--

"Millions of Americans do not recognize their problems can be solved through legal tools. Law democratized offers a blueprint for expanding access to legal help for all regardless of resources. Building upon more than a decade of research about innovation in legal services around the globe, the book features stories of what works and what doesn't to craft a series of recommendations for solving the justice crisis"--

"Fighting Mad is a book about what "reproductive justice" means and what it looks like to fight for it. Editors Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger bring together many of the strongest, most resistant voices in the country to describe the impacts of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision and what it means for abortion access and care. The essayists and change agents in Fighting Mad represent a remarkable breadth of expertise: activists and artists, academics and abortion storytellers, health care professionals and legislators, clinic directors and lawyers, and so many more. They discuss abortion restrictions and strategies to provide care, the impacts of criminalization, efforts to protect the targeted, shortcomings of the past, and visions for the next generation. Fighting Mad captures for the social and historical record the vigorous resistance happening in the early post-Roe moment to show that there are millions on the ground fighting to secure a better future"--

"Extending Justice: Strategies to Increase Inclusion & Reduce Bias offers expert perspective and actionable tools for interrupting bias. The first book in this series, Enhancing Justice: Reducing Bias, was written to increase awareness of implicit bias and serve as a benchbook for judges. This book goes the next step to be useful to a wider audience with virtually every chapter offering thoughtful context and practical strategies for interrupting unintentional bias. Edited by two proven leaders in the field, with 26 chapters written by fifty highly-diverse authors, the voices here combine to provide wide-ranging and user-friendly science and tools. Perspective comes from authors who are diverse in gender, gender orientation, race and ethnicity, age, ability, education, and profession. Fields covered are also diverse, including law, health, education, artificial intelligence, nonprofits, education, the military, and disability. Thought-provoking essays and interviews on healthcare, extremism, courage, and the silence and invisibility of the Native American community further enrich the work. The chapters are written to stand alone but build on each other for a strong collective whole. Readers will find the book useful in their own disciplines and beyond. Teachers, students, judges, and professionals in all fields can use this work for inspiration and reference as they apply its strategies and thinking to enhance their accomplishments in achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion, individually and systemically"--

"Courage in the People's House tells the gripping stories of nine individuals who served in the US House of Representatives--the "People's House"--During a span of over one hundred years, from the 1870s to the 1990s. From the first African American to serve in the House, to immigrants elected at the dawn of the 20th century, all were trailblazers who made significant contributions to the country"--