Law

Which NYC Mayoral Candidates Think Spying on American Muslims is Unconstitutional?

On Sunday afternoon, seven mayoral hopefuls gathered for a forum co-hosted by the Arab American Association of New York (AAANY) and the Islamic Center at New York University. Community organizers hailed it as an historic moment. Nearly three weeks after the Boston bombings--and in the heat of the de ... More >>

Ray Kelly, Mike Bloomberg Facing Stiff Test In Upcoming Stop and Frisk Trial, Starting Monday

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has served the city for 11 years. Mayor Bloomberg is in the final year of his third term. Next week, the legacies of both men will be tested in a major trial starting Monday over the city's stop and frisk campaign. The case is a class action lawsuit filed in 2008 calle ... More >>

NYC Anti-Teen Pregnancy Campaign Targets Deadbeat Dads With Text Message Games

The New York City Department of Social Services launched a new campaign last week, filling bus stops and subways across the five boroughs with a torrent of anti-teen pregnancy propaganda. One subway poster reads," I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen." Another ... More >>

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Hears Arguments in NDAA Battle (We Barely Could)

It sounded like a panel of Federal Appeals Court judges drilled lawyers with a barrage of questions yesterday during a hearing of oral arguments in the high-profile lawsuit against the Obama administration over the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. Of course, that's a bit tough to confirm c ... More >>

The Rolling Jubilee Mails its First Debt Forgiveness Letters

When the debt activism group Strike Debt began planning its Rolling Jubilee, the goal was relatively modest: They would raise $50,000, use it to buy distressed medical debt on secondary debt markets, and then, rather than hounding the debtors like the collection agencies that buy most of this sort o ... More >>

[UPDATE]: Prop 8 and DOMA Head To The Supreme Court

UPDATE: According to the New York Times, the Supreme Court agreed this afternoon to decide on the constitutionality of the Proposition 8 appeal and the Defense of Marriage Act.It is, arguably, the most significant social battle in America's courts since Roe v. Wade or even Brown v. the Board of Educ ... More >>

The Loving Story

Racist Cop Michael Daragjati Sentenced to Nearly Five Years in Prison

Disgraced Staten Island cop Michael Daragjati, 32, was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Friday, after a sentencing hearing filled with so much racist doublespeak that it would make any decent human being cringe. Daragjati was charged after being caught on a FBI wiretap bragging about how he had ... More >>

The Stonewall Stop and Frisk Summit - Or, Al Sharpton, Chris Quinn and the NAACP Walk Into a (Gay) Bar...

An historic coalition of traditional race-oriented civil rights organizations, labor unions, and LGBT groups met yesterday at the Stonewall Inn to endorse the upcoming SIlent March to End Stop and Frisk on Father's Day, June 17. The "press conference" featured an impressive roster of speakers -- inc ... More >>

Is Google Censoring Links?

Not too long ago, there was talk that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the Recording Industry Association of America might sue Google, claiming that the web behemoth has used its search engine service to shape the online music market in a way trade groups do not like. T ... More >>

Chelsea Elliott to Pursue Civil Case Against the NYPD Over Pepper Spraying

Yesterday we reported that Chelsea Elliott, who along with Kaylee Dedrick was pepper-sprayed while protesting with Occupy Wall Street at Union Square on Saturday, September 24, had obtained legal counsel and would be pressing charges against Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, the NYPD officer identi ... More >>

Justice Department to Investigate Newark Police, Just After Chief Garry McCarthy, ex-NYPD, Gets Top Job In Chicago

​The Justice Department says it's going to probe misconduct and poor internal oversight in the 1,300-member Newark Police Department. The announcement came just a week after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he had selected Newark Police Chief Garry McCarthy, the former NYPD Deputy Commiss ... More >>

The Huffington Post Trademarks the Letter "H"

​For journalists, it's worth wondering what kind of document request Gawker reporter John Cook used to figure out that Arianna Huffington and her recently really rich website The Huffington Post successfully trademarked two variations on the capital letter "H." Maybe Cook just got a wacky tip ... More >>

Ray Kelly Hears It From Brooklyn Politicians Over Stop-and-Frisks

​Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was challenged on the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy in a recent meeting with Brooklyn politicians, the Voice has learned. In a meeting described as "somewhat tense," Kelly told a group of elected officials that the department is using stop and frisks--which have ... More >>

NYPD Tapes 5: The Corroboration

Another police officer secretly tapes his precinct—this time in the Bronx

Al Sharpton Attacks Rush Limbaugh, the Last White Guy He Isn't In Bed With

​Thank God for Rush Limbaugh. So long as he's calling George Steinbrenner a "cracker" who "made a lot of African-Americans millionaires," there's still a white guy with power in America that Al Sharpton is free to attack. So yesterday, "Silent Al" found his voice and called Rush "repugnant." ... More >>

Steven Mauriello, Subject of Voice Series "The NYPD Tapes" Is Out at Bed-Stuy

​In the wake of the Voice's 'NYPD Tapes' series, the commanding officer of Brooklyn's 81st Precinct has been reassigned to the Bronx. Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello, who was heard repeatedly haranguing his cops to hit quotas and sweep people off corners, has been moved to the Bronx transit ... More >>

Rap Sheet: Method Man Arraigned in Staten Island, Jim Jones Pleads Out in Manhattan

​Today "with obscene gesture, Method Man brushes past photographers at court," says the Staten Island Advance. The member of Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan was there to be arraigned for tax evasion. The Advance further reports MM "used an 'Ultimate X-Men' graphic novel to shield his face" as he ... More >>

Manhattan D.A. Endorsements: McCall for Vance, Koch for Snyder

In endorsements for the Manhattan D.A.'s race, as we noted before, it's been all about Richard Aborn. But the other candidates are starting to grab some big names, too. Cyrus Vance Jr. has just added former state comptroller and gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall to his roster, which includes David ... More >>

A Ban On Mormon Marriage And Their "Religious Fascism"!

This had to happen! The Universal Free Church is calling for a national petition drive to allow gay marriage and to ban Mormon marriage! (That should even things out. Otherwise, the chapels will be way overbooked.) Like so many people out there, they feel the Mormons have a right to say whatever t ... More >>

Morgenthau Nails Wire-Transfer Schemers; Bloomberg Yawns

LAST HURRAH

Goat Island gives its final performance

Revenge Served Courtside: The Christie Brinkley Divorce Settlement

Darfur Now

'There Is No Law Here'

A funny thing happened on the way to monarchy: a rare Supreme Court take-back

Rape: Now a Matter of Civil Rights

A crime against gender is a crime against freedom

Marching to Montgomery: The Cradle Did Rock

Graffiti vs. The City (Again)

Marc Ecko wins suit; will throw NYC graffiti block party tomorrow

Who Owns the Constitution?

With Republicans in power, equal protection under the laws will continue to diminish

Remembering a White Casualty of the Civil Rights Struggle

Bush's Other War

At the national labor relations board, the president's appointees change the rules

Bob Barr vs. the FBI

A conservative libertarian targets Ashcroft and Mueller for violating First Amendment

The Watchers

Protesting at the GOP convention? Legal observers have your back.

Civil Rights Rollback

The spread of racial profiling since 9-11

You Got Him? Get Out!

Capture of Saddam Doesn't Mean the Capture of Iraq

March on Washington Revisited

A Democratic Party Victory as the Dream

Playing Games

Title IX Was Always About More Than Sports. So Is the Fight.

Demonstrators Regroup, Plan MLK Day Actions

Activists Focus on the Mounting Costs of War

An Indispensable Gay Man

His 1963 March on Washington 'Woke Up America'

A Citizen Shorn of All Rights

A Case Vital to Future Americans, Too

Schwarz Silenced—Vinegrad Caves

Charles Schwarz Has the Edge

Bloomberg's Terminal Troubles

The Sorry Union History of a Mexican Tech Factory

Chilling Free Speech on Campuses

Sensitivity Above All?

Supremes Secretly Stiff the Press

We Could Be Heroes

Hatewatch.org Signs Off

Founder Decides to Go It Alone

Down By Law

When Movie Moguls Wage War to Protect Copyright, the First Amendment Ends Up on the Cutting Room Floor

Two Million and Counting

An Expert Analyzes the Prison Population Boom

Fade to Black

The Motion Picture Association Shuts Down Crypto Research

Bigger and Blacker

How the former mayor made Al Sharpton kosher and is winning back the hearts of African Americans

When the ACLU Supports Discrimination

'Diversity Cannot Continue by Crude Racial Categories'