#U.S. District Court (District of Minnesota)

[minnesotafollower]

U.S. Government Opposes Derek Chauvin’s Motion To Vacate, Set Aside or Correct His Judgment of Guilt and Sentence for Killing George Floyd 

As previously noted, on November 13. 2023, Derek Chauvin (without legal counsel) filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to vacate his conviction and sentencing by that court, which was based on his guilty plea, for the murder and manslaughter of George Floyd.[1] Federal Government’s Opposition to Chauvin Motion[2] On January 12, 2024, the Federal Government filed…

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#Derek Chauvin #George Floyd #U.S. District Court (District of Minnesota) #U.S. government

[vague-humanoid]

Hamdi Mohamud, then a 16-year-old refugee from Somalia, found herself caught up in that scheme in 2011, when one of Weyker's witnesses, Muna Abdulkadir, tried to attack her and her friends at knifepoint. Mohamud called the police, and Weyker intervened—on behalf of Abdulkadir. She arrested Mohamud and her friends for allegedly tampering with a federal witness, and Mohamud subsequently spent two years in jail before the trumped-up charges were dismissed.

While Mohamud lost those two years of her life, Weyker has not paid any price—not in spite of her position, but because of it. Since the officer conducted her investigation as part of a federal task force, she is entitled to absolute immunity and cannot be sued, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled last year.

It's not because the "sex trafficking" investigation—which consisted of Weyker conjuring fake information, editing police reports, fabricating evidence, and lying under oath, among other things—was legitimate. On the contrary, the court says it was "plagued with problems from the start" and notes that Weyker employed "lies and manipulation" to put people behind bars. Legally speaking, none of that matters.

What does matter is a line of Supreme Court jurisprudence that has made suing a rights-violating federal officer almost out of the question. Had Weyker acted in her capacity as a state or local cop, Mohamud would have been permitted to bring her claim before a jury of her peers. Yet the most powerful officers are held to the lowest standard of accountability.

Mohamud hopes to change that standard by asking the Supreme Court to hear her case, which she made official last week.

The problem here isn't qualified immunity, the doctrine that shields police officers and other state actors from federal civil suits unless the way the government violated your rights has been litigated almost exactly in a prior court precedent. That's an onerous standard to meet. It has, for example, protected two police officers who allegedly stole $225,000 while executing a search warrant, because no prior court ruling had said stealing in those circumstances is unconstitutional. The legal principle has been at the center of criminal justice reform efforts over the last year.

But Mohamud cleared that hurdle. The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota ruled that Weyker's actions so clearly made a mockery of the Constitution that she could not skirt the suit. The 8th Circuit then overturned that decision on appeal, citing Weyker's temporary federal badge, while in the same breath acknowledging the depravity of her actions.

"Qualified immunity makes it very, very difficult to sue government officials," says Patrick Jaicomo, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public interest law firm representing Mohamud. "This makes it impossible."

There's a Supreme Court decision that should, in theory, give Mohamud the avenue to redress she needs. In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1971), the high court allowed a victim to go before a jury after federal cops conducted a drug raid on his apartment without a warrant and later strip-searched him at the courthouse.

But since then the Court has undermined its own decision in almost comical ways. In 2017, the justices ruled in Ziglar v. Abbasi that lower courts should pinpoint "special factors counseling hesitation" when considering suits against federal cops. In practice, that has meant just about whatever a judge can cook up.

@chrisdornerfanclub @el-shab-hussein

[drbobbimorse]

It’s astounding to me that, even tough a fetus has no brain activity until 5-6 weeks, it is considered alive but patients with no brain activity are considered brain dead and we can “pull the plug”. Brain dead means a person is on artificial life support and has no brain functions; they will not regain consciousness or be able to survive without mechanical support. Even when their heart is still beating, we are within our rights to do this because, without brain activity, the person is legally dead. The same logic can be applied to a fetus with no brain activity: a fetus cannot live without our bodies acting as life support. But go on and tell half the country that a heartbeat determines life in order to further control and oppress them.

It’s astounding to me that no one can force me to be an organ donor or force me to give my blood, even if it means saving someone else’s life. I have that right. I have bodily autonomy over that. But I could potentially be forced to give birth to a child I don’t want, that I can’t afford, that puts my life directly in danger, that was conceived through sexual assault or incest or rape, etc. with no exceptions. A fetus could override my bodily autonomy and have more of a right to my body than I do. Hell, I have more bodily autonomy as a corpse then I would if I ever became pregnant if Roe v. Wade is overturned, because its illegal to even ask someone to give up their bodily autonomy once they've died, even if it means saving someone else's life. No one can take anything from your corpse -- donating your body to science or taking organs you no longer have a use for -- unless you have given specific, prior consent before you died.

It’s astounding to me that forced pregnancy is listed as both a war crime and a crime against humanity under the United Nations. Forced pregnancy is defined as when a person becomes pregnant without having sought or desired it, and abortion is denied, hindered, delayed or made difficult. The UN is international law and, to my understanding, international agreement is a self-executing treaty, which has the same effect in domestic courts as an act of Congress and therefore directly supersedes any inconsistent state or local law. If RvW is overturned and abortion is made illegal in some states, people all across the country would be subjected to forced pregnancy and be victims of a crime against humanity under UN law.

Here’s the breakdown on abortion rights at the time of the draft:

Expanded access: the right to abortion is protected by state statutes or state constitutions, and other laws and policies have created additional access to abortion care: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington

Protected access: the right to abortion is protected by state law but there are limitations on access to care: Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, and Rhode Island

Not protected: abortion may continue to be accessible but would be unprotected by state and district law. In some of these states, it is unclear whether the legislature would enact a ban if RvW is limited or reversed, but concern is warranted: New Hampshire, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Virginia

Hostile: these states and territories are extremely vulnerable to the revival of old abortion bans or the enactment of new ones, and none of them has legal protections for abortion so they could immediately prohibit abortion entirely: Alabama, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Guam, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, the Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming

A healthy reminder that getting rid of RvW only ends access to safe abortions. We can only hope that this draft is thrown in the dumpster. If it’s not, then the country will be divided almost in half into abortion havens, where care would continue to be available, and abortion deserts, where it would be illegal to access care. People had abortions for centuries before RvW, and people will find a way to have them again if it is overturned. But the problem is that the old methods, even herbal remedies, led to untold deaths and can have lifelong complications.

Again: you’re only getting rid of the right to safe abortions, not abortion itself.

#in case it wasn’t obvious: I’m pro choice motherfuckers #personal #roe v wade #abortion rights #if you're pro-life I'm sorry but idgaf #in my experience pro-life only means pro birth #once the baby is born y'all do nothing to support children #you don't rally for more medical protections or healthcare #and you sure af don't care about the thousands in fostercare

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[The Daily Don]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 26, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Today, on the anniversary of the creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1914, the FTC and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon for using “a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to maintain its monopoly power.” The FTC and the suing states say “Amazon’s actions allow it to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon.” 

The states suing are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

While estimates of Amazon’s control of the online commerce market vary, they center around about 40%, and Amazon charges third-party merchants for using the company’s services to store and ship items. Last quarter, Amazon reported more than $32 billion in revenues from these services. The suit claims that Amazon illegally overcharges third-party sellers and inflates prices.

This lawsuit is about more than Amazon: it marks a return to traditional forms of government antitrust action that were abandoned in the 1980s. Traditionally, officials interpreted antitrust laws to mean the government should prevent large entities from swallowing up markets and consolidating their power in order to raise prices and undercut workers’ rights. They wanted to protect economic competition, believing that such competition would promote innovation, protect workers, and keep consumer prices down. 

In the 1980s, government officials replaced that understanding with an idea advanced by former solicitor general of the United States Robert Bork—the man whom the Senate later rejected for a seat on the Supreme Court because of his extremism—who claimed that traditional antimonopoly enforcement was economically inefficient because it restricted the ways businesses could operate. Instead, he said, consolidation of industries was fine so long as it promoted economic efficiencies that, at least in the short term, cut costs for consumers. While antitrust legislation remained on the books, the understanding of what it meant changed dramatically.

Reagan and his people advanced Bork’s position, abandoning the idea that capitalism fundamentally depends on competition. Industries consolidated, and by the time Biden took office, his people estimated the lack of competition was costing a median U.S. household as much as $5,000 a year. 

On July 9, 2021, Biden called the turn toward Bork’s ideas “the wrong path” and vowed to restore competition in an increasingly consolidated marketplace. In an executive order, he established a White House Competition Council to direct a whole-of-government approach to promoting competition in the economy. 

“[C]ompetition keeps the economy moving and keeps it growing,” Biden said. “Fair competition is why capitalism has been the world’s greatest force for prosperity and growth…. But what we’ve seen over the past few decades is less competition and more concentration that holds our economy back.”

In that speech, Biden deliberately positioned himself in our country’s long history of opposing economic consolidation. Calling out both Roosevelt presidents—Republican Theodore Roosevelt, who oversaw part of the Progressive Era, and Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who oversaw the New Deal—Biden celebrated their attempt to rein in the power of big business, first by focusing on the abuses of those businesses, and then by championing competition. 

While still a student at Yale Law School, FTC chair Lina Khan published an essay examining the anticompetitive nature of modern businesses like Amazon, arguing that focusing on consumer prices alone does not address the problems of consolidation and monopoly. With today’s action, the FTC is restoring the traditional vision of antitrust action.

President Biden demonstrated his support for ordinary Americans in another historic way today when he became the first sitting president to join a picket line of striking workers. In Wayne County, Michigan, he joined a UAW strike, telling the striking autoworkers, “Wall Street didn’t build the country, the middle class built the country. Unions built the middle class. That’s a fact. Let’s keep going, you deserve what you’ve earned. And you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now."

Even as Biden was standing on the picket line, House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released a new budget plan that moves even farther to the right. Yesterday, former president Trump backed the far-right extremists threatening to shut down the government, insisting that holding the government hostage is the best way to get everything they want, including, he wrote, an end to the criminal cases against him. 

“The Republicans lost big on Debt Ceiling, got NOTHING, and now are worried that they will be BLAMED for the Budget Shutdown. Wrong!!! Whoever is President will be blamed,” Trump wrote on social media. “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN! Close the Border, stop the Weaponization of ‘Justice,’ and End Election Interference.”

McCarthy is reneging on the agreement he made with Biden in the spring as conditions for raising the debt ceiling, and instead is calling for dramatic cuts to the nation’s social safety net, as well as restarting construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, as starting points for funding the government. Cuts of more than $150 billion in his new proposal would mean cutting housing subsidies for the poor by 33%, fuel subsidies for low-income families by more than 70%, and funding for low-income schools by nearly 80% and would force more than 1 million women and children off of nutritional assistance. 

The “bottom line is we’re singularly focused right now on achieving our conservative objectives,” Representative Garret Graves (R-LA) told Jeff Stein, Marianna Sotomayor, and Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post. The Republicans plan to preserve the tax cuts of the Trump years, which primarily benefited the wealthy and corporations. 

At any point, McCarthy could return to the deal he cut with Biden, pass the appropriations bills with Democratic support, and fund the government. But if he does that, he is almost certain to face a challenge to his speakership from the extremists who currently are holding the country hostage. 

This evening, the Senate reached a bipartisan deal to fund the government through November 17 and to provide additional funding for Ukraine (although less than the White House wants), passing it by a vote of 77–19. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urged the House Republicans to agree to the measure, warning them that shutdowns “don’t work as bargaining chips.” Nevertheless, McCarthy would not say he would take up the bill, and appears to feel the need to give in to the extremists’ demands. Moreover, he has suddenly said he thinks a meeting with Biden could avert the crisis, suggesting he is desperate for someone else to find a solution. 

Former president Trump has his own problems this evening stemming from the civil case against him, his older sons, and other officers and parts of the Trump Organization in New York, where Attorney General Letitia James has charged him with committing fraud by inflating the value of his assets. Today New York judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and his company deceived banks and insurers by massively overvaluing his real estate holdings in order to obtain loans and better terms for deals. The Palm Beach County assessor valued Mar-a-Lago, for example, at $18 million, while Trump valued it at between $426 million and $612 million, an overvaluation of 2,300% (not a typo). 

Engoron canceled the organization’s New York business licenses, arranged for an independent receiver to dissolve those businesses, and placed a retired judge into the position of independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization. 

This decision will crush the heart of Trump’s businesses, and he issued a long statement attacking it, using all the usual words: “witch hunt,” “Communist,” “Political Lawfare” (ok, I don’t get that one),  and “If they can do this to me, they can do this to YOU!” Law professor Jen Taub commented, “It reads better in the original ketchup.” Trump’s lawyers say they are considering an appeal. The rest of the case is due to go to trial early next month.

Finally, today, the Supreme Court rejected Alabama’s request to let it ignore the court’s order that it redraw its congressional district maps to create a second majority-Black district. Alabama will have to comply with the court’s order. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from an American #Heather Cox Richardson #political #big money #corruption #anti-trust #the Public Good #TFG #FTC #government shutdown #Daily Don

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges.

Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was found guilty in March by a federal jury of seven counts involving “commercial sex acts” with five girls ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when Lazzaro was 30. The charges carried mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years with a maximum of life in prison.

Prosecutors had requested a 30-year sentence for Lazzaro. They likened Lazzaro to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then abusing them at his homes in Florida and New York. The defense asked for no more than 10 years.

“He’s a sex trafficker,” prosecutor Laura Provinzino said. “One who has shown absolutely no remorse. He has accepted no responsibility for his crimes.”

U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz came down in the middle and had harsh words for Lazzaro.

He said Lazzaro showed sympathy to only two people during the trial — “to himself and Jeffrey Epstein.” And the judge said he was struck by the “soulless, almost mechanical nature” of how Lazzaro exploited the girls.

“It’s almost as if Mr. Lazzaro set up a sex trafficking assembly line,” Schiltz said.

One of the victims called Lazzaro a child predator in court Wednesday and said she continues to be impacted by his actions.

“I still see him in my nightmares, in my panic attacks, in men in their thirties. … Putting Tony behind bars will save so many girls,” she said.

The mother of a different victim addressed Lazzaro directly.

“The damage you caused my daughter, mentally and emotionally, you didn’t just cause that damage to her. You caused it to me and my family and all these victims and all of their families,” she said. “You stand up here and you don’t even care. You’re justifying your actions. … I hope you rot in hell.”

The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sex crimes.

Lazzaro, who has said the charges against him were politically motivated, maintained his innocence, denying that he paid any of the girls explicitly for sex.

“I take a lot of offense to the government and court’s notion that I perjured myself in this trial. ... Grooming behavior is the word you used,” he said. “If that’s the case, then I suppose anyone who gives someone a gift, whether it be a cheap gift or a million dollars, is grooming their companion for sex. OK? If that’s the standard that we’re going to apply, then I don’t know how there’s any standard to apply.”

Defense attorney Daniel Gerdts said afterward that they were “looking forward to the appeal.”

Lazzaro’s indictment in 2021 touched off a political firestorm that led to the downfall of Jennifer Carnahan as Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

His co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, who was 19 at the time, formerly led the College Republicans chapter at the University of St. Thomas. She pleaded guilty to two counts last year. She testified against Lazzaro and faces sentencing in September.

Prosecutors argued during his trial that Lazzaro enlisted Castro Medina, who he initially paid for sex, to recruit other teenagers — preferably minors — who were white, small, vulnerable or “broken.” He often sent cars to take the girls to his luxury penthouse condo at the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, they said.

Gerdts had argued that the government’s “salacious” prosecution was based on “completely unfounded” allegations. Lazzaro has denied paying for sex, saying the government targeted him for political reasons and because of his wealth.

Carnahan, the widow of U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, of Minnesota, resigned a week after the charges against Lazzaro were unsealed. She denied knowing of any wrongdoing by Lazzaro beforehand and condemned his alleged crimes. But his arrest fueled outrage among party activists. Allegations surfaced that Carnahan created a toxic work environment and abused nondisclosure agreements to silence her critics.

Carnahan and Lazzaro became friends when she ran unsuccessfully for a legislative seat in 2016. He backed her bid to become party chair in 2017 and attended her 2018 wedding to Hagedorn. They hosted a podcast together for a few months.

Lazzaro also helped run the campaign of Republican Lacy Johnson, who failed to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, in 2020.

Pictures on Lazzaro’s social media accounts showed him with prominent Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. He gave more than $270,000 to Republican campaigns and political committees over the years.

Several recipients quickly donated those contributions to charity after the charges became public, including U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, of Minnesota, who received $15,600 but suffered no repercussions. Emmer became majority whip in January.

The sources of Lazzaro’s wealth have been murky. Defense filings have called him “an up-and-coming real estate owner and entrepreneur.” Items seized from him included a 2010 Ferrari and more than $371,000 in cash. The government put his net worth in a bond report at more than $2 million but said its calculations didn’t include his “extensive” but hard-to-trace cryptocurrency holdings. It noted that the search yielded multiple types of foreign currency, plus precious metals worth more than $500,000.

#us politics #news #the associated press #2023 #Anton “Tony” Lazzaro #anton lazzaro #republicans #conservatives #gop #Minnesota #child sex trafficking #child sex crimes #Jeffrey Epstein #Laura Provinzino #Judge Patrick Schiltz #Daniel Gerdts #groomers #Jennifer Carnahan #Gisela Castro Medina #rep. Jim Hagedorn #Lacy Johnson #Rep. Tom Emmer #every Republican accusation is a confession

[reasoningdaily]

The Associated Press: 22 attorneys general oppose 3M settlement over water systems contamination with 'forever chemicals'

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Twenty-two attorneys general urged a federal court Wednesday to reject a proposed $10.3 billion settlement over contamination of U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially dangerous chemicals, saying it lets manufacturer 3M Co. off too easily.

The deal announced in June doesn’t give individual water suppliers enough time to determine how much money they would get and whether it would cover their costs of removing the compounds known collectively as PFAS, said the officials with 19 states, Washington, D.C., and two territories. In some cases the agreement could shift liability from the company to providers, they said.

“While I appreciate the effort that went into it, the proposed settlement in its current form does not adequately account for the pernicious damage that 3M has done in so many of our communities,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leader of the multistate coalition.

3M spokesman Sean Lynch said the agreement “will benefit U.S.-based public water systems nationwide that provide drinking water to a vast majority of Americans” without further litigation.

“It is not unusual for there to be objections regarding significant settlement agreements,” Lynch said. “We will continue to work cooperatively to address questions about the terms of the resolution.”

The company, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, manufactures per- and polyfluorinated substances — a broad class of chemicals used in nonstick, water- and grease-resistant products such as clothing and cookware, as well as some firefighting foams.

Described as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally in the environment, PFAS have been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver and immune-system damage and some cancers.

3M has said it plans to stop making them by the end of 2025.

Some 300 communities have sued 3M and other companies over water pollution from the compounds. A number of states, airports, firefighter training facilities and private well owners also have pending cases.

They have been consolidated in U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina, where the proposed settlement was filed last month.

Although the company put its value at $10.3 billion, an attorney for the water providers said it could reach as high as $12.5 billion, depending on how many detect PFAS during testing the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered over the next three years.

The law firm representing the water providers did not immediately respond Wednesday to messages seeking comment.

EPA in March proposed strict limits on two common types, PFOA and PFOS, and said it wanted to regulate four others.

In addition to California, states urging Judge Richard Gergel to reject the deal included Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin. Also opposed were Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In a court filing, the attorneys general said it would force nearly all public water providers nationwide to participate unless they withdraw individually — even those that haven’t filed suits or tested for PFAS.

“Troublingly, they would have to make their opt-out decisions without knowing how much they would actually receive and, in many cases, before knowing the extent of contamination in their water supplies and the cost of remediating it,” the officials said in a statement.

A provision in the proposed deal would shift liability from 3M to water suppliers that don’t opt out, the statement said. That could enable the company to seek compensation from providers if sued over cancer or other illnesses in PFAS-affected communities, it said.

“As such, the proposed settlement is worth far less than the advertised $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion,” the attorneys general said.

The attorneys general did not take a position on a separate $1.18 billion deal to resolve PFAS complaints against DuPont de Nemours Inc. and spinoffs Chemours Co. and Corteva Inc.

#pfas #pfas settlement #Michigan #Water #Poison water #water #forever chemicals #22 attorneys general oppose 3M settlement over water systems contamination with 'forever chemicals'

[mariacallous]

BREAKING NEWS

A federal appeals court has temporarily halted President Biden’s student debt relief plan, preventing the government from moving forward.

Friday, October 21, 2022 7:40 PM ET

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted a temporary stay in response to an appeal filed by a group of attorneys general from Republican-led states after a district court judge dismissed their case on Thursday for lack of standing.

Read the latest

...

The Eight Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri and Arkansas, has the highest percentage of Republican-appointed judges of any circuit court in the nation. A full 10 of the 11 Eight Circuit judges were installed by Republicans, dating back to George H.W. Bush Administration. Only one – Jane Kelly of Cedar Rapids – was appointed by a Democrat (Barack Obama).

...

Freedomworks.org, a conservative judicial political network that tracks the courts across the country, touts the Eight Circuit as among the most right-leaning courts in the country.

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON — A divided federal appeals court on Monday ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision that contradicts decades of precedent and could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires political maps to include districts where minority populations’ preferred candidates can win elections.

The ruling applies to federal courts covered by the 8th Circuit, which includes Iowa as well as Arkansas, the state from which the appeal was filed. Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota also are in the court's territory.

The majority said other federal laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, make it clear when private groups can sue but said similar wording is not found in the voting law.

“When those details are missing, it is not our place to fill in the gaps, except when ‘text and structure’ require it,” U.S. Circuit Judge David R. Stras wrote for the majority in an opinion joined by Judge Raymond W. Gruender. Stras was nominated by former President Donald Trump and Gruender by former President George W. Bush.

The decision affirmed a lower judge’s decision to dismiss a case brought by the Arkansas State Conference NAACP and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel. The court had given U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland five days to decide whether to join the lawsuit.

Chief Judge Lavenski R. Smith noted in a dissenting opinion that federal courts across the country and the U.S. Supreme Court have considered numerous cases brought by private plaintiffs under Section 2. Smith said the court should follow “existing precedent that permits a judicial remedy” unless the Supreme Court or Congress decides differently.

“Rights so foundational to self-government and citizenship should not depend solely on the discretion or availability of the government’s agents for protection,” wrote Smith, another appointee of George W. Bush.

NAACP: 'a devastating blow to the civil rights of every American'

Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, called the ruling a “travesty for democracy.” She had argued the appeal on behalf of the two Arkansas groups.

“By failing to reverse the district court’s radical decision, the Eighth Circuit has put the Voting Rights Act in jeopardy, tossing aside critical protections that voters fought and died for,” Lakin said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether the groups would appeal. A statement from the ACLU said they are exploring their options.

Barry Jefferson, political action chair of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, called the ruling "a devastating blow to the civil rights of every American, and the integrity of our nation’s electoral system.”

The state NAACP chapter and the public policy group had challenged new Arkansas state House districts as diluting the influence of Black voters. The state’s redistricting plan created 11 majority-Black districts, which the groups argued was too few. They said the state could have drawn 16 majority-Black districts to more closely mirror the state’s demographics.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky noted there was “a strong merits case that at least some of the challenged districts” in the lawsuit violate the federal Voting Rights Act but said he could not rule after concluding a challenge could only be brought by the U.S. attorney general.

The Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in the case saying private parties can file lawsuits to enforce the Voting Rights Act but declined to comment on the ruling.

Another circuit court makes opposite ruling. Will Supreme Court decide?

It’s likely the case eventually will make it to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the issue was raised in a 2021 opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“I join the court’s opinion in full, but flag one thing it does not decide,” Gorsuch wrote at the time, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. “Our cases have assumed — without deciding — that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 furnishes an implied cause of action under section 2.”

Gorsuch wrote that there was no need in that case for the justices to consider who may sue. But Gorsuch and Thomas were among the dissenters in June when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in another Voting Rights Act case in favor of Black voters in Alabama who objected to the state’s congressional districts.

The Gorsuch and Thomas opinion was referenced less than two weeks ago in another federal court decision that came to the opposite conclusion of Monday's ruling by the 8th Circuit.

On Nov. 10, three judges on the conservative-dominated 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected arguments that there is no private right to sue under the Voting Rights Act. In a Louisiana congressional redistricting case, the panel said the U.S. Supreme Court so far has upheld the right of private litigants to bring lawsuits alleging violations of Section 2, as have other circuit appellate courts.

Fifth Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick, a nominee of ex-President George W. Bush, pointed to separate cases from 1999 and 2020 that reaffirmed that right.

Election law experts say most challenges seeking to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act are brought by private plaintiffs and that the Justice Department has limited resources to pursue such cases. Some voting rights experts also noted the apparent contradiction in the Alabama case decided by the Supreme Court last June and Monday's ruling by the appellate court.

“It doesn’t seem to make sense,” said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “If the laws were that private parties couldn’t bring these cases, then the Alabama case would have never even gotten off the ground.”

If ruling stands, voting rights challenges likely to be limited

Lawsuits under Section 2 have long been used to try to ensure that Black voters have adequate political representation in places with a long history of racism, including many Southern states. Racial gerrymandering has been used in drawing legislative and congressional districts to pack Black voters into a small number of districts or spread them out so their votes are diluted. If only the U.S. attorney general is able to file such cases, it could sharply limit their number and make challenges largely dependent on partisan politics.

It’s unlikely Congress will be willing to act. Republicans have blocked recent efforts to restore protections in the Voting Rights Act that were tossed out by the U.S. Supreme Court a decade ago. In the 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision, justices dismantled an enforcement mechanism known as preclearance, which allowed for federal review of proposed election-related changes before they could take effect in certain states and communities with a history of discrimination.

In a statement, the Congressional Black Caucus noted that private individuals and civil rights groups have been successful in giving Black voters better representation through recent challenges to congressional maps drawn by Republican lawmakers in Alabama, Louisiana and Florida.

“This decision by the appellate court is ill-advised, cannot stand, and should be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which we hope will reaffirm that citizens have a private right of action to bring forward lawsuits under Section 2,” the group said.

#nunyas news

[amostexcellentblog]

A Minnesota man has been indicted on charges that he stole a pair of the famed ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,” from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., the actress’s hometown, nearly 18 years ago.

The red-sequined pumps were recovered in a sting operation that ended in Minneapolis in 2018, but the authorities said at the time that their investigation was continuing and they did not name any suspects.

On Tuesday, a federal indictment in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota charged Terry Jon Martin of Minnesota with stealing an authentic pair of the slippers, which officials estimated have a market value of $3.5 million, from the museum sometime between Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 of 2005. Mr. Martin was indicted on one count of theft of a major artwork.

The one-page indictment did not provide any further details about the case. It was not immediately clear if Mr. Martin had a lawyer and he could not be reached at numbers listed under his name. Mr. Martin told The Minneapolis Star Tribune on Wednesday that he had to go to trial, and added: “I don’t want to talk to you.” The newspaper reported that Mr. Martin lived about 12 miles south of the museum.

#judy garland #the wizard of oz

[minnesotafollower]

Prosecution Opposes Derek Chauvin’s New Attempt To Overturn His Federal Conviction for Killing George Floyd 

In November 2023, Derek Chauvin (without legal counsel) filed a motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota for dismissal of the federal criminal charges against him for the killing of George Floyd or for a new trial. The asserted basis for this new motion was the opinion of a pathologist, Dr. William Schaetzel, who had never examined the Floyd corpse and never testified in any of…

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#Derek Chauvin #Dr. William Schaetzel #George Floyd #U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota #U.S. District Court (District of Minnesota) #U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division

[202247497caic223]

Politician or Gun-Influencer? A guessing-game brought to you by literally every Republican social-media account

People are shocked about the attack on Paul Pelosi and wonder how it could get this far. But honestly, after a bit of research I am merely surprised that it only happened now and not earlier. You only need to take one look at the social media accounts of Republican politicians, and you have your answer.

On the 26th of October 2022, only two days before the attack on Paul Pelosi, Tom Emmer, the U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 6th Congressional District, posted a tweet. The tweet which you can see at the beginning of this post.

Yes, I am as disgusted as you right now, but it gets even worse. When asked during an Interview he said it “wasn’t an ad” and continued with shifting the blame by saying that nobody asked democrat Politicians when Sanders-Supporter Hodgkinson opened fire on Republican lawmakers. Are you seeing a valid argument and answer to the interviewer’s question here? Yah, me neither.

But Emmer is not the only one posting ads with guns used against Pelosi’s work. US House Candidate Mike Collins shoots and then sets fire to a stack of papers titled “Nancy Pelosi’s plans for America” whilst playing recordings of her in the background. Tagged with #SaveAmerica.

US Senate candidate Blake Masters has a weekly post in which he shows his gun collection, tagging the products and says that the highly dangerous ‘ghost guns’ are “very legal & very cool” and that he recently built some himself. You ever asked yourself what becomes of the people from high school who thought that bullying is cool? Here you have your answer!

According to the NYT over 100 TV ads featured a gun this year.

Seems like the Republican views on what “cool” means, are just as upside down as Emmer in his Zoom call. Maybe a person who is too old use a simple Computer program shouldn’t use a gun and certainly not be a politician!

#caic2223

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

A Norfolk Southern Corporation train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed after an axle malfunction in East Palestine, Ohio. The 50-car train, which had been on fire for miles before it ran aground, produced clouds of noxious fumes that led to the evacuation of nearly 5,000 people, some of whom were extras in the film adaptation of White Noise, and the deaths of domestic and wild animals in the area. Norfolk Southern, which has paid its executives millions, spent billions on stock buybacks, and declined a shareholder demand to “assess, review, and mitigate risks of hazardous material transportation,” agreed to pay the city of East Palestine $25,000. 

Aid and rescue workers could not immediately reach victims of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks, some of which were nearly as big as the first quake, in Syria because of sanctions against the country, which were suspended by the U.S. government days after the disaster; more than 37,000 people across Turkey and Syria have died and tens of thousands have been injured by the quakes. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—who came to power over 20 years ago after a previous administration’s mishandling of an earthquake response, and has himself been criticized for slow rescue efforts as he faces an election in three months—announced that he would allocate more than $5.3 billion to relief. “It’s an issue that will take a coalition to solve,” said Microsoft, a computer manufacturer and software company worth $1.9 trillion, in response to a report outlining changes to small-scale cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is plagued by fatal cave-ins and child labor. Thirty-three members of Congress pushed for the U.S. Labor secretary to punish automotive companies whose Alabama factories have been employing children as young as 12, while lawmakers in Iowa and Minnesota have introduced legislation to allow minors as young as 14 to work in slaughterhouses, demolition, roofing, and other jobs that require the operation of heavy machinery. Missouri’s state house voted against prohibiting children from open-carrying firearms unless under adult supervision.

Attorneys for Richard “Alex” Murdaugh, the third consecutive member of his family to serve as South Carolina Lowcountry solicitor, who is accused of murdering his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul (who was implicated in the death of Mallory Beach in a drunken boating accident) and of diverting millions of dollars in damages-settlement money intended for his clients and their families, including the sons of the family’s maid, who died in a trip-and-fall accident at one of the Murdaughs’ residences, to a bank account he controlled, moved for a mistrial over hearsay, but were denied. The majority-white, Republican Mississippi House approved a bill that will create a new district court in the majority-black, Democratic city of Jacksonville, whose judges will be appointed rather than elected, and the mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, said she supported the police chief’s proposed community oversight board, whose members he would select. “People are scared, upset, & are believing crazy things being said on the internet,” tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, who carried a white balloon around the Capitol the day of the State of the Union address, as she questioned the timing of three downed unidentified aircraft over North America: “[T]here is a lack of transparency from the Biden admin and simple explanations are owed to the people.” The White House denied the existence of aliens and a report that the United States had blown up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. A farmer advocacy organization said that record-high egg prices are being caused by collusion among egg producers, who are exaggerating the effects of avian flu on their industry, and the McDonald’s corporation agreed to remove an advertisement for its McCrispy sandwich inside a bus shelter in Cornwall that is opposite a road sign for the area’s crematorium.

A decade-long study revealed that instant noodles were responsible for nearly a third of all hospital cases of scalded children. Scientists found that female orcas who support their sons into adulthood suffer. Eighty-one bales of cocaine, weighing three and a half tons in total, were discovered floating off the coast of New Zealand. Members of Oregon’s liquor and cannabis commission were found to have abused their power in order to get deeply discounted bottles of Pappy Van Winkle’s 23-year-old whiskey. A 24-year-old man who abducted monkeys from the Dallas Zoo to keep as pets told police he would do it again, and a Nashville man resisted arrest by thrusting his cat into an officer’s face. A robot escaped a Pennsylvania supermarket. King Charles III wore a holey sock to an appearance at a Brick Lane mosque. 

—Violet Lucca  :: [Harpers Magazine :: Weekly Review]

#Harpers Magazine #Violet Lucca #Weekly Review #current events #news

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 21 years in a federal prison for violating George Floyd's civil rights. Chauvin, who pleaded guilty in December, will also be required to pay restitution.

During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said that Chauvin "must be held responsible" for his actions, including destroying the lives of the other three officers involved in Floyd's death.

Chauvin's plea deal, which Magnuson accepted in May, called for a sentence of 20 to 25 years. Magnuson shaved seven months off of the 21-year sentence for time already served — last year, Chauvin was convicted in a state court on murder and manslaughter charges related to Floyd's May 2020 death and sentenced to 22 1/2 years. He will serve the state and federal sentences concurrently in a federal prison.

Chauvin, who is White, killed Floyd by pinning the unarmed Black man to the pavement with his knee for 9 1/2 minutes, despite Floyd's fading pleas of "I can't breathe." Floyd's death sparked protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning over police brutality and racism.

Prior to his sentencing Thursday, Chauvin wished Floyd's children "all the best in their lives" and that they have "excellent guidance in becoming good adults," CBS Minnesota reports. He did not offer an apology.

Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, asked the judge for a life sentence, adding that he has had nightmares since his brother's death, according to CBS Minnesota.

Prosecutors pushed for the former police officer to serve all 25 years on the grounds that his actions during Floyd's death were cold-blooded and needless. They also argued that he had a history of misusing restraints — Chauvin's plea included an admission that he violated the rights of a then-14-year-old Black boy whom he restrained in an unrelated case in 2017.

The defense instead asked for 20 years, saying Chauvin accepts responsibility for what he did and has already been sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison by a state court in Floyd's murder. Attorney Eric Nelson wrote that Chauvin's "remorse will be made apparent to this Court."

In pleading guilty to violating Floyd's civil rights, Chauvin admitted for the first time that he kept his knee on Floyd's neck — even after he became unresponsive — resulting in his death. The former officer admitted he willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer.

Chauvin is appealing his murder conviction, arguing that jurors were intimidated by the protests that followed and prejudiced by heavy pretrial publicity.

#us politics #news #cbs news #minnesota #minneapolis police #derek chauvin trial #derek chauvin #george floyd #justice for george floyd #2022 #civil rights violation #Judge Paul Magnuson #stop police brutality #police the police #police brutality

[petescholtes-blog-blog]

Early to rise: How to vote early in Minnesota in 2022

(This public service announcement is brought to you by Vinny, photographed in 2020 and still thriving in 2022!)

Here's how you can vote safely and early in the November 8 election in Minnesota, where early voting starts Friday, September 23. (See this guide for how to vote in every state.)

1. Request an absentee ballot now. Track your ballot status at MNVotes.org. Voters without email can print out and mail a paper application. Voters in special situations can have a previous acquaintance pick up and deliver a ballot. If you don't have Internet access, call [phone] for help.

2. Register to vote now if you haven't. You can register online by Tuesday, October 18, or by mail if your form is received by that date. You can also register in person at your county elections office by Monday, November 7 (and vote early while you're there), or at your polling place on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8. Bring a photo ID and proof of current address to register in person, and any time you vote (in case you need to re-register).

3. Look up your sample ballot. Research the record, policies, and endorsements of the candidates for school board, U.S. congress, district court, state legislature, governor, sheriff, or anything else. Make your "cheat sheet" now for when your ballot arrives.

4. Check your mailbox for your absentee ballot starting Friday, September 23. When it arrives, keep it someplace dry. Don't mark it until you show it to your witness, a Minnesota voter or notary from any state, whose signature is required for your absentee vote to be counted.

5. Vote absentee with your witness present. Before you begin, show your witness that your ballot is blank. Find the three smaller envelopes in the same ballot package, one brownish and two white. Have these ready, along with your "cheat sheet" and your Minnesota state ID or driver's license or social security number, if you have one.

Mark your ballot in private. You can also have an assistant mark it according to your directions. When done, put your ballot in the brownish "Ballot Envelope." Then, before your witness, put the "Ballot Envelope" in the white "Signature Envelope" and seal it. Complete and sign the "Signature Envelope" and have your witness do the same. If the witness is a notary, have them affix a notarization stamp.

6. Mail your ballot using the mail-in envelope. To be counted, your absentee ballot must reach officials by Election Day, Tuesday, November 8. I recommend mailing it Tuesday, October 25. Remember, no added postage is necessary: All Minnesota return envelopes for ballots come prepaid, with an election barcode putting it ahead of other first-class mail.

There are good reasons for confidence in this system: Despite changes slowing the mail in 2020, the U.S. Postal Service successfully delivered the general election that year, and Minnesota allows you to track your ballot online, and cancel it anytime before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 1, something you might consider if it's delayed (or if you wish to change your vote).

Even if your ballot is delayed and you miss the November 1 deadline to cancel, you can vote early again in person at your county elections office, or on Election Day at your polling place, just to make sure your vote is counted, because there's no way to accidentally vote twice in Minnesota. For example, if your mail-in ballot were processed while you were standing in line to vote, the system would recognize it, and reject the second ballot.

7. Or, if you prefer, drop off your sealed absentee ballot at any county or city elections office. You can do this between Friday, September 23, and 5 p.m. on Monday, November 7. Again, voters in special situations can have a previous acquaintance pick up and deliver a ballot instead.

Another possibility: Drop off your sealed and witnessed ballot at an outdoor walk-up or drive-through voting station. City elections offices in Duluth and Minneapolis have provided this service before, and may run such stations again, weather and staff permitting, from Friday, November 4, to Monday, November 7.

You can also drop off your sealed and witnessed absentee ballot before 3 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8, but be sure to deliver it to the office that sent it to you, not to your polling place, where (if you make this mistake, or even if you don't) you can still vote in person if you're in line before 8 p.m.

8. Track your ballot online to make sure it's been received and counted.

9. If all else fails, vote in person on Tuesday, November 8. Remember that your polling location may have changed from past years. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Consider wearing a mask to reduce spread of COVID-19.

10. Celebrate! Democracy means participation, liberty, equality, and majority rule. Just by participating, you made your community more democratic. That's reason enough to stay up with popcorn!

[mariacallous]

The senator tasked with overseeing federal antitrust enforcement is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether a Texas-based company’s price-setting software is undermining competition and pushing up rents.

Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, sent a letter to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division this month. It was also signed by two other Democrats, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

“We are concerned that the use of this rate setting software essentially amounts to a cartel to artificially inflate rental rates in multifamily residential buildings,” the letter said. It encouraged the DOJ to “take appropriate action to protect renters and competition in the residential rental markets.”

In mid-October, a ProPublica investigation documented how real estate tech company RealPage’s price-setting software uses nearby competitors’ nonpublic rent data to feed an algorithm that suggests what landlords should charge for available apartments each day. Legal experts said the algorithm may be enabling violations of antitrust laws.

ProPublica detailed how RealPage’s User Group, a forum that includes landlords who adopt the company’s software, had grown to more than 1,000 members, who meet in private at an annual conference and take part in quarterly phone calls. The senators raised specific questions about the group, saying, “We are concerned about potential anticompetitive coordination taking place through the RealPage User Group.”

RealPage did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

RealPage has said that the company “uses aggregated market data from a variety of sources in a legally compliant manner” and that its software prioritizes a property’s own internal supply and demand dynamics over external factors such as competitors’ rents. The company has said its software helps reduce the risk of collusion that would occur if landlords relied on phone surveys of competitors to manually price their units.

The DOJ declined to comment on the letter.

The department five years ago reviewed RealPage’s plan to acquire its biggest competitor in pricing software, but federal prosecutors declined to seek to block the merger, which doubled the number of apartments RealPage was pricing.

The senators noted that transaction, saying RealPage has made more than 10 acquisitions since 2016. They said in data-intensive industries, “the ability to acquire more data can result in the algorithms suggesting higher prices and can also increase the barriers to entry” for other competitors. The lawmakers encouraged the department “to consider looking back at RealPage’s past behavior to determine whether any of it was anticompetitive.”

The letter follows two others sent by lawmakers urging the DOJ or Federal Trade Commission to investigate RealPage. Since ProPublica’s investigation was published, three lawsuits have been filed on behalf of renters alleging that the software is artificially inflating rents and facilitating collusion. RealPage has denied allegations in a lawsuit filed in San Diego, and it has not responded to calls for comment about the other two legal actions, filed in federal district court in Seattle.

[beardedmrbean]

A 25-year-old Chinese music student in Boston has been arrested and charged with stalking over alleged threats to a woman who posted fliers calling for democracy in China.

The announcement of the arrest of Xiaolei Wu by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Massachusetts comes at a time of rising concern for U.S. authorities over Beijing's reach into the country to harass and intimidate opponents of China's ruling Communist Party, as reported by Newsweek in a recent investigation.

Wu targeted someone who had posted a flier around the campus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston that read "Stand with Chinese People", "We Want Freedom," and "We Want Democracy", the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Post more, I will chop your b****** hands off," was among the threats Wu had allegedly sent to the person, according to the charging documents.

He had told the victim that he had informed the public security agency in China about the victim's actions and that it would "greet" the family back home.

He had also tried to find out where the victim was living and had shared her email address to encourage online abuse, the statement said.

"We believe Mr. Wu stalked, harassed, and reported the victim's support for democracy to law enforcement in the People's Republic of China so it would launch an investigation into the victim and her family. This alleged conduct is incredibly disturbing and goes completely against our country's democratic values," Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, was quoted as saying.

"This case also highlight's the FBI's ongoing commitment to protecting the exercise of free speech for all citizens and our efforts to bring to justice anyone who tries to infringe on those rights," he said.

Newsweek was unable to reach either Wu or his lawyer for comment. The Chinese embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The alleged victim was not named in the statement. Newsweek knows her identity, but she declined to give her name or to comment.

Newsweek has reported on increased activity within the United States by alleged agents of China's Communist Party to target those – including U.S. citizens - who speak out against the party or ruler Xi Jinping.

Suspected Communist Party agents have been involved at a series of incidents at recent protests in the United States in solidarity with unprecedented demonstrations in China against Beijing's COVID policies, but the Chinese operational network in the United States is very much wider.

Newsweek identified nine confirmed or suspected Chinese proxy police stations and courts in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

It also found a further 10 "Chinese Support Centers" that are part of the United Front—the Communist Party's domestic and international influence apparatus—that offer unspecified support to overseas Chinese.

They are in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Houston, St. Louis, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey and the Carolinas.

In total, it counted at least 627 groups linked to CCP influence operations in the United States, many connected with so-called "hometown associations," "friendship associations," or chambers of commerce based on a shared place of origin in China.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has voiced concern at reports of Chinese overseas "police stations" in the United States. U.S. law enforcement agencies have recently pursued some high profile cases linked to alleged harassment or intimidation of opponents of the CCP.

In March, the Department of Justice announced it had arrested two men in New York for conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government to harass Chen Weiming, an artist living outside Los Angeles who was the target of alleged plot after he made a sculpture of Xi as a COVID-19 virus.

The DoJ announced more cases related to China in October against a total of 13 people. Seven of them were charged with trying to use threats and intimidation to force the repatriation of a Chinese citizen living in the United States.

#nunyas news #ya ok fbi you guys are really big on free speech my ass