We defend democracy by protecting protest and enforcing constitutional rights, in the courts and in the streets.
San José City Council OKs $3.35 Million Settlement for Five Racial Justice Protestors Attacked by San José Police
Racial justice protestors who were attacked and injured by the San José Police Department (SJPD) in May 2020 will receive $3.35 million in a settlement approved by the San José City Council. The agreement comes after three years of litigation by the protestors.
“The SJPD responded to the May 2020 racial justice protests by inflicting unlawful indiscriminate force on crowds, used dangerous impact munitions and batons to brutalize protestors for hours, and engaged in such massive deployment of munitions that they used up their entire supply on the first day,” Rachel Lederman, Senior Counsel with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) and its project, the Center for Protest Law & Litigation, said. “When police officers are allowed to shoot so-called ‘less lethal’ munitions into crowds, tragedies are sure to result. During the 2020 George Floyd protests nationwide, more than 115 people were shot in the head with impact munitions. Many were blinded in one eye like Mr. Acosta or suffered serious head injuries.”
Know Your Rights
The FBI has a long history of targeting, disrupting and criminalizing progressive social movements and oppressed communities. With any upsurge in social justice organizing in the U.S. there will be a corollary upsurge of FBI intervention against activists and organizers.
If the FBI comes to your door, you may feel scared, anxious, or pressured to answer their questions about your activities or those of your friends or neighbors. Read this short, quick reference guide to responding in that situation.
Our Litigation Makes a Difference
The Center for Protest Law and Litigation was launched by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund to bring a nationally coordinated and strategic fightback against the attacks on democracy and fundamental civil rights and liberties.
For more than 25 years, we have been leaders in bringing high impact, landmark civil rights and First Amendment litigation. Our work has forced systemic changes in law and policy governing police conduct. We have won groundbreaking cases enforcing constitutional rights. This transformative work is carried out in partnership with those most affected, centering the social and political demands of communities and activists that are the subject of the repression underlying the litigation.
A Turning Point in the Defense of Democracy, Free Speech & Protest: We Can Win This Fight
Now more than ever, the movements for racial, environmental and social justice are making the change society urgently needs and that our lives depend on. Millions of people are coming together, acting together. But these movements are facing unprecedented attack and grave threats.
This is a fight for the kind of world we leave to the next generation.
Join us as a Supporter and Sustainer
Never has the need been greater. Together we can win the fight for democracy and justice. We welcome you to join us at the Center for Protest Law and Litigation as a supporter and sustainer.
Jane Fonda on the repression of Water Protectors and the legal challenge we are mounting to defend their constitutional and human rights.
We are mounting a challenge to an extraordinary and dangerous new model of intense repression initiated against Water Protectors in Northern Minnesota that must be stopped before it becomes the nationwide model for movement and community suppression.
Small local Sheriffs' departments, and individual officers, were financially incentivized and paid to act against the opponents of Line 3 with huge sums of money flowing though the so-called "Public Safety Escrow Trust" funded by the Enbridge Corporation. The pipeline corporation paid more than $8.5 million dollars into funding not only Sheriffs’ departments but huge amounts of overtime for individual officers, paid only when they were acting in support of Line 3.
This financial structure essentially privatizes public police forces to act in service to the private pecuniary interests of this foreign corporation against its political opponents and the Indigenous community; to stop and disrupt peaceful organizing and expression that would educate the larger community and national audience about the environmental devastation being caused by the Line 3 pipeline.
We have been preparing the legal challenges to this structure in addition to our other affirmative litigation and defense support to protect and advance Water Protectors' constitutional rights.
Federal Lawsuit Filed Over D.C. Police Attack and False Arrest at Black Lives Matter Plaza
Lawsuit Challenges D.C. MPD’s December 12, 2020, Attack on Peaceful BLM Demonstrators While Proud Boys Were Allowed to Maraud Throughout D.C.
Read the full story here.
Victory! Court Rules MN Sheriff’s Blockade of Line 3 Water Protector Camp Was Illegal and Bars Ongoing Efforts to Obstruct Access
A Minnesota court issued a ruling protecting an Indigenous-led camp of Line 3 opponents from Hubbard County’s unlawful blockades and targeted harassment. This victory on the part of steadfast frontline climate justice activists is part of the crucial legal fight-back against oppressive police tactics as they place their bodies on the line to defend the planet.
The ruling comes after months of litigation on behalf of Indigenous water protectors, including Tara Houska and Winona LaDuke, and a successful temporary restraining order against Hubbard County, Sheriff Cory Aukes, and the local land commissioner in northern Minnesota for unlawfully blocking access to Giniw Collective’s Line 3 Camp Namewag in 2021.
