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"...to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."

The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system. Through its members -- lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers, and legal workers united in chapters and committees -- the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.

Our aims:
. to eliminate racism;
. to safeguard and strengthen the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends;
. to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them;
. to use the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.



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Current
Local
Litigation

The "M20" Case


Civil rights class action
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Before Judge Virginia M. Kendall
Case No.: 03-C-2463
Status: Class certification granted 4-17-06. Trial date TBA.

NLG Chicago Board President Emeritus James R. Fennerty (James Fennerty & Assoc.), member-attorney Joey Mogul (People's Law Office), and board members Janine Hoft (People's Law Office) and Melinda Power (West Town Community Law Office) represent the class of 800 to 850 persons who were illegally trapped and arrested en masse on March 20, 2003, near Michigan and Chicago Avenues.

The class includes persons marching to protest the start of the illegal Iraq War and passersby. J. Kendall certified sub-classes:

Subclass A-1 . All persons surrounded by the police for up to 3 hours before being allowed to leave.

Subclass A-2 . All persons arrested, brought to a police mass-detention site, and released without charge.

Subclass A-3 . All persons arrested, detained, and charged, and whose charges were later dropped.



The Case of Muhammad Salah


Click Here for Update

Federal criminal trial
U.S. District Court
Before Judge Amy St. Eve
Case No.: 03-CR-978
Status: Trial date: 10-12-06

NLG Chicago members and People's Law Office attorneys Michael E. Deutsch (Center for Constitutional Rights board member), Erica Thompson, and Ben H. Elson, and G. Flint Taylor (along with co-counsel Robert Bloom, Oakland, CA) represent Muhammad Salah, a Chicagoan and U.S. citizen of Palestinian birth, whose false confession under torture in Israel will be admitted in evidence against him.

The government accuses Mr. Salah of providing support to the Palestinian group known by the acronym Hamas, which stands for Islamic Resistance Movement. The charges arise from a January 1993 trip by Mr. Salah to Gaza and the West Bank, the purpose of which was to bring humanitarian aid to families of more than 400 alleged Hamas activists who had been deported or imprisoned. Mr. Salah denies working with Hamas.

During detention in Israeli custody for 74 days, Mr. Salah was hooded, bound, deprived of sleep, housed in a refrigerator cell, threatened, physically abused, held incommunicado, and denied access to a lawyer until he made oral and signed written statements in Hebrew, which he neither speaks nor understands.

In March 2006, Judge St. Eve ruled that most of these statements would be admitted against Mr. Salah over his objections.

In August, 2006, J. St. Eve denied without prejudice the government's motion for anonymous jurors .



Custody Death


of Algerian Woman in McHenry County Jail


Federal civil trial
U.S. District Court
Northern District of Illinois, Western Division (Rockford)

Case No.:

Status: Complaint filed

NLG Chicago board member Janine Hoft (People's Law Office) represents the surviving family of Hassiba BelBachir, a 28 year-old woman of Algerian birth, who died in March, 2005, in the McHenry County jail, Woodstock, Illinois.

Officials ruled the custody death a suicide. In their 42 U.S.C. 1983 action, plaintiffs allege deliberate indifference on the part of jail authorities.

BelBachir was awaiting an administrative hearing in an immigration case. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with the McHenry County sheriff to hold immigration detainees in the jail.

In other jurisdictions, this practice has led to problems, including allegations of excessive force and lack of access to medical and mental health care.

BelBachir was a multi-lingual educator who was traveling in search of work.

Excellent background article: http://www.thirdcoastpress.com/detained_immigrants_held_in_the_county_system.html .
Check back with nlgchicago.org for updates on this case.



Burge Torture Cases


being litigated by the People's Law Office



Diane Bond Case


Federal civil trial
In U.S. District Court
Before Judge Joan Lefkow
Case No.: 04-C-2617
NLG Chicago member-attorney Craig Futterman (University of Chicago School of Law's Mandel Legal Aid Clinic) represents Diane Bond, a 53-year-old African American woman who alleges that 5 white Chicago police officers terrorized her for nearly a year in and around her home in Stateway Gardens on South Federal Street.
Defendants The City et al. want reporter Jamie Kalven to turn over notes or go to jail: http://www.viewfromtheground.com/wp-content/media/2006/05/show_cause.pdf


Zolo Agona Azania Case

State criminal case; sentencing retrial
In Superior Court of Allen County (Indiana)
Before Judge Steve David
Case No.: 02D04-9-8109-CF-401
Status: Awaiting order of Indiana Supreme Court following oral arguments June 27, 2006.
In May 2005 Michael E. Deutsch and co-counsel Jesse Cook (Terre Haute, IN) won an Order Barring the State from Seeking the Death Penalty in a capital penalty-phase retrial. The Order cites .the State.s failure to comply with discovery orders..
Zolo Agona Azania was convicted and sentenced to death for the August, 1981 killing of a Gary police officer. The Indiana Supreme Court in 1993 vacated the sentence, holding that the state withheld exculpatory evidence, and that the defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel.

Mr. Azania was re-sentenced to death in a penalty-phase retrial. Holding that .the jury pool selection process was fundamentally flawed. for systematically excluding African-American potential jurors, the Indiana Supreme Court in November 2002 reversed the sentence and ordered a third penalty-phase trial.

The Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments on 6-27-06 on the state's appeal of J. David's order.

NLG Chicago
Recent Local Success Stories:

M1905 Cases
Melinda Power represented two of the eight persons arrested at the March 19, 2005, marches and demonstrations on the second anniversary of the illegal Iraq war, on disorderly conduct charges under the City of Chicago municipal code

After winning acquittals for both in separate Cook County Circuit Court proceedings in late 2005, she represented both as civil plaintiffs in District Court.

Plaintiffs alleged false arrest and conspiracy under 42 U.S.C. - 1983 and malicious prosecution under Illinois law.

Both cases were settled favorably with monetary damages.

Congratulations, plaintiffs and counsel!

NLG Chicago member-attorney Robert Ludemann defended a man arrested for protesting the white-supremacist organization "The Minutemen" during their May 2006 appearance in the largely-Hispanic Chicago neighborhood of Logan Square. The case was settled favorably.
In Cook County Circuit Court.

Steven Manning Case:
January 2005 - NLG Chicago member-attorney Jon Loevy (Loevy & Loevy) and associates persuaded jurors in Federal court that FBI agents framed a former Chicago police officer for capital murder, not once but twice. Steven Manning was awarded $6.6 million. More info: http://www.loevy.com/TPractice.html