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National Committee Against Repressive Legislation
Defending Rights & Dissent (DRAD) is a national not-for-profit advocacy organization in the United States, dedicated to defending civil liberties, exposing government repression, and protecting the right of political dissent. DRAD was formed as the merger of the Defending Dissent Foundation (DDF) and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC). DRAD is currently active in defending the right to protest, opposing political surveillance, and campaigning against the prosecution of national security whistleblowers. History NCA-HUAC In 1960, the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee (NCA-HUAC) formed as a group opposing the House Un-American Activities Committee (known popularly by the acronym "HUAC"). Frank Wilkinson founded the group after he came under HUAC suspicion. In his capacity working for the Los Angeles City Housing Authority on a public housing project, Frank Wilkinson was asked by opposing lawyer Felix McGinnis to disclose which organiz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in contrast with an entity that operates as a business aiming to generate a profit for its owners. A nonprofit is subject to the non-distribution constraint: any revenues that exceed expenses must be committed to the organization's purpose, not taken by private parties. An array of organizations are nonprofit, including some political organizations, schools, business associations, churches, social clubs, and consumer cooperatives. Nonprofit entities may seek approval from governments to be tax-exempt, and some may also qualify to receive tax-deductible contributions, but an entity may incorporate as a nonprofit entity without securing tax-exempt status. Key aspects of nonprofits are accountability, trustworthiness, honesty, and openness to eve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Bag Operation
Black bag operations or black bag jobs are covert or clandestine entries into structures to obtain information for human intelligence operations. Some of the tactics, techniques, and procedures associated with black bag operations are lock picking, safe cracking, key impressions, fingerprinting, photography, electronic surveillance (including audio and video surveillance), mail manipulation (flaps and seals), and forgery. The term "black bag" refers to the small bags in which burglars stereotypically carry their tools. History In black bag operations, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents entered offices of targeted individuals and organizations, and photographed information found in their records. This practice was used by the FBI from 1942 through the 1960s. In July 1966, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover allegedly ordered the practice discontinued. President Nixon in 1970 proposed the Huston Plan to reintroduce black bag jobs, but Hoover opposed this, and approval was rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habeas Corpus In The United States
In United States law, ''habeas corpus'' () is a recourse challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's confinement under color of law. A petition for ''habeas corpus'' is filed with a court that has jurisdiction over the custodian, and if granted, a writ is issued directing the custodian to bring the confined person before the court for examination into those reasons or conditions. The Suspension Clause of the United States Constitution specifically included the English common law procedure in Article One, Section 9, clause 2, which demands that "The privilege of the writ of ''habeas corpus'' shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." United States law affords persons the right to petition the federal courts for a writ of ''habeas corpus''. Individual states also afford persons the ability to petition their own state court systems for ''habeas corpus'' pursuant to their respective constitutions and laws when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antiterrorism And Effective Death Penalty Act Of 1996
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), , was introduced to the United States Congress in April 1995 as a Senate Bill (). The bill was passed with broad bipartisan support by Congress in response to the bombings of the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City. It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Controversial for its changes to the law of habeas corpus in the United States, the AEDPA also contained a number of provisions to "deter terrorism, provide justice for victims, provide for an effective death penalty, and for other purposes." Background On February 10, 1995, Senator Joe Biden introduced the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 to the United States Senate. Just as was the case with its successor, the bill omnibus bill was introduced on behalf of the Clinton Administration. In the two months that the bill was debated in the Senate, little progress was made towards passage. Following the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995, a n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Due Process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due process violation, which offends the rule of law. Due process has also been frequently interpreted as limiting laws and legal proceedings (see substantive due process) so that judges, instead of legislators, may define and guarantee fundamental fairness, justice, and liberty. That interpretation has proven controversial. Analogous to the concepts of natural justice and procedural justice used in various other jurisdictions, the interpretation of due process is sometimes expressed as a command that the government must not be unfair to the people or abuse them physically. The term is not used in contemporary English law, but t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some official and signed by numerous individuals. A petition may be oral rather than written, or may be transmitted via the Internet. Legal ''Petition'' can also be the title of a legal pleading that initiates a legal case. The initial pleading in a civil lawsuit that seeks only money (damages) might be called (in most U.S. courts) a ''complaint''. An initial pleading in a lawsuit that seeks non-monetary or "equitable" relief, such as a request for a writ of '' mandamus'' or ''habeas corpus'', custody of a child, or probate of a will, is instead called a ''petition''. Act on petition is a "summary process" used in probate, ecclesiastical and divorce cases, designed to handle matters which are too complex for simple motion. The parties in a case exc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pentagon Papers
The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. Released by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the study, they were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of ''The New York Times'' in 1971. A 1996 article in ''The New York Times'' said that the ''Pentagon Papers'' had demonstrated, among other things, that the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, Johnson Administration had "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress." The ''Pentagon Papers'' revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War with coastal raids on North Vietnam and United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps attacks—none of which were reported in the mainstream media. For his disclosure of the ''Penta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" , ) is a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and the collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" suspected of espionage or terrorism.50 USC §1801(b) "'Agent of a foreign power' means— (1) any person other than a United States person, who— (A) acts in the United States as an officer or employee of a foreign power, or as a member of a foreign power as defined in subsection (a)(4), irrespective of whether the person is inside the United States; (B) acts for or on behalf of a foreign power which engages in clandestine intelligence activities in the United States contrary to the interests of the United States, when the circumstances indicate that such person may engage in such activities, or when such person knowingly aids or abets any person in the conduct of such activities or knowingly conspires ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or violence, and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the federal government. Approximately 215 people were indicted under the legislation, including alleged communists and socialists. Prosecutions under the Smith Act continued until a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1957 reversed a number of convictions under the Act as being unconstitutional. The law has been amended several times. Legislative history The U.S. government has attempted on several occasions to regulate speech in wartime, beginning with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. During and following World War I, a series of statutes addressed a complex of concerns that included enemy espionage and disruption, anti-war ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Immigration And Nationality Act Of 1952
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (), also known as the McCarran–Walter Act, codified under Title 8 of the United States Code (), governs immigration to and citizenship in the United States. It came into effect on June 27, 1952. Before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, various statutes governed immigration law but were not organized within one body of text. According to its own text, the Act is officially entitled as just the Immigration and Nationality Act, but it is frequently specified with 1952 at the end in order to differentiate it from the 1965 law. Legislative history The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was debated and passed in the context of Cold War-era fears and suspicions of infiltrating Communist and Soviet spies and sympathizers within American institutions and federal government. Anticommunist sentiment associated with the Second Red Scare and McCarthyism in the United States led restrictionists to push for selective immigration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Drinan
Robert Frederick Drinan (November 15, 1920 – January 28, 2007) was a Jesuit priest, lawyer, human rights activist, and Democratic U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Drinan left office to obey Pope John Paul II's prohibition on political activity by priests. He was also a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center for the last twenty-six years of his life. Education and legal career Drinan grew up in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, the son of Ann Mary (Flanagan) and James John Drinan. He graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1938. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from Boston College finishing in 1942, and joined the Society of Jesus the same year; he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1953. He received an LL.B. and LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1950, and a doctorate in theology from Gregorian University in Rome in 1954. Drinan studied in Florence for two years before returning to Boston, where he was admitted to the bar in 1956. He served as dea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
