Reblaw2013

Hear Gene Fidell, Travis Crum Valerie Kaur and Muneed Ahmed (an all-star line-up!) speak about their recent visit to Guantanamo Bay and their experience on the island, conversations with soldiers, and the inside perspective from inside the Military Commissions.

Bearing Witness to Military Commissions at Guantanamo: Friday 2/19 4-5:30pm

That is Publishers’ Weekly description of The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy. 

Fellow Reblaw speaker, Ian Haney Lopez calls the book “a hymn of hope” for those who fear the future.

The authors of The Miner's Canary  - Lani Guiner and Gerald Torres  - are the Kerynote speakers on Saturday evening, February 20th! Come to RebLaw to hear more about this topic from the authors themselves! Register here.

In the book and their Keynote talk, Profs. Guinier and Torres will discuss how ignoring racial differences – color blindness – has failed. Race and power intertwine at every level of social interaction, from classrooms to courtrooms to congressional districts. Only cross-racial coalitions can expose these embedded hierarchies of privilege and – through innovative power sharing and democratic engagement – demolish them. Guinier and Torres call this concept of enlisting race to resist power political race. The methodology of political race has policy implications for affirmative action, racial profiling, criminal justice, access to educational opportunity, voting and democracy. It is a methodology for diagnosing systemic injustice and then organizing to resist it.

One of the speakers coming to RebLaw is Julia "Judy" Bonds, a coal miner's daughter and the director of Coal River Mountain Watch. Over the past six to eight years, Bonds has emerged as a formidable community leader against a highly destructive mining practice called mountaintop removal.

In 2001, Bonds and her family became the last residents to evacuate from her own hometown of Marfork Hollow where six generations of her family had lived. Marfork had been virtually destroyed by mountaintop removal mining, which involves completely blasting off the tops of mountains so that huge machines can mine thin seams of coal. Mountaintop removal mining completely annihilates streams and forests, and causes extensive flooding and blasting damage to homes. The pollution from mining and the toxic chemicals used in the preparation of coal for market have been linked to rising asthma rates and other serious respiratory ailments, particularly among children, including Bonds' grandson.

In 2003 she won the coveted Goldman Environmental Prize. The prize is awarded to one person from each continent and she was the North American winner.

Since winning the award Julia and others at Coal River Mountain Watch have embarked on a road show to educate America about the clean water act and to educate and motivate Americans about where their electricity comes from and who pays the true price. 

Come to RebLaw to see Judy Bonds in action!

Just yesterday, violent earthquakes rocked the nation of Haiti, leaving thousands dead and thousands upon thousands more in need of immediate help.  Haitian President Rene Preval says the situation is "unimaginable" and describes stepping over bodies in the street, and hearing cries for help from those trapped beneath the rubble. For those of us too busy to make any serious aid efforts during this humanitarian catastrophe, an easy way to do a small part is to contribute $10, right from your mobile phone, to the Red Cross' earthquake relief efforts. They have already raised over $800,000, but much more is needed. Just text "Haiti" to 90999, and the $10 is deducted from your cell phone bill. What are you waiting for?

For more opportunities to donate or volunteer, check out Hands On Disaster Response.

By now, pretty much everyone is exhausted of the American health care debate, even though the slog is going on, and on, and on.  It's hard to stay dogged and determined, even for something so essential, when dealing with ludicrous assertions by even such credentially-well-endowed folks as Art Laffer (inventor of the theoretically sound but catastrophically misapplied "Laffer Curve"). Laffer, a Stanford-trained economist, warned viewers on CNN to "just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government."  I know, right? Come ON. But rather than being able to steamroll these ill-informed objections, the current administration battles on to get something done in the realm of health care reform.  As the New York Times noted today, even if a bill is passed, many obstacles yet remain, including the naming and vetting of a health care "czar" -- and let's not even get in to how the Tea Party crew has had a field day preying on misunderstandings about modern American usage of the word "czar".

Imagine if you had THIS guy running health care. Beware the moustache panels!

As a proud canuck who grew up watching curling on my pappy's knee, I've always been particularly ruffled by the way Canadian socialized health care has been mischaracterized, derided, and dragged through the mud in the U.S. media and in the health care debate (this is a very mild example). Just talking to American friends of mine, many are mildly surprised to hear me speak favorably about the Canadian system- but ask just about any Canadian who has spent a while living in the U.S., and you will find out that we often fly back to the great white north when we get hurt or sick, just for the privilege of being treated there (and not just because it's free, the Ontario government will cover many health care costs incurred while living abroad in the U.S. as a student or for other reasons).

CHING CHING!

And before you laugh, that colorful money covered in polar bears, beavers and caribou is now at parity with the greenback.

While I won't deny that the Canadian system does, indeed, have many problems (it's actually a congolmerate of different systems across the provinces and territories), what it doesn't have is a shockingly large percentage of people who cannot afford any care, or are bankrupted by the care they receive.  Very few people in Canada shuffle off to the poor house paying for care to combat a disease bestowed upon them by grace of God(s), genetics, or chance. (On the flip side of the coin, according to a recent study, over 60% of USA bankruptcies in 2007 were medical in nature).  What we also don't have is waits for essential emergency service, which is provided immediately, just like in the U.S., regardless of one's insurance coverage or income level. While waits for nonessential services run somewhat longer than those in the USA, I can speak from personal experience that these waits are far from unreasonable. In the last 8 years, I have had three knee operations, all because I insist on playing a sport my body was clearly not designed to excel at, even though I have been told my skills are comparable to Michael Jordan. I could walk fine and participate in most athletic activities, but the particular planting and twisting demands of my sport of choice meant that surgery was preferable. For each elective procedure I had to wait a few months, but in return, I received world-class medical care, absolutely free of charge.

In fact, a recent popular show on national TV in Canada awarded the title of "the Greatest Canadian" to Tommy Douglas: founder of public health care in Canada, socialist, and Jack Bauer's grandaddy.

"Dammit Chloe, there's no time! Pull up the schematics on the Laffer curve."

In fact, truths, damned truths, and statistics, all demonstrate that we Canadians love our health care.  Stop the fear-mongering, America, and bring on health care that would make your northern neighbours proud.

 ALSO, register for RebLaw!!!!  Now new and improved registration system. We're so excited to have all of you here.

When Vanessa and I attended the Shaking the Foundations conference at Stanford in the fall, we heard many fascinating and inspiring stories about progressive lawyering on the west side.  Luckily, one of those stories has a video -- check out Vilma's story!