The Supreme Court and the Guild's Summer of 2004

(September 2004)

Urszula Masny-Latos, issue editor, writes:

The summer of 2004 has proven as exciting as predicted. In Boston, the Mass Chapter filed three lawsuits, prepared several legal assistance teams for the DNC protesters, and began pre-trial hearings for those arrested during the DNC. In Washington, DC, the Supreme Court has concluded another term and on balance, the news is reasonably good.
In this issue of Mass Dissent, Jeff Feuer and Jonathan Shapiro give us a report on two suits filed on behave of DNC protesters.
Monica Elkinton in her piece on the DNC week, describes how the city responded to non-violent activists. We will also hear from Michael Avery and Brenda Adams on a new MBTA policy to search bags of T riders and the Guild’s reaction to that policy. Brenda’s piece talks about a public awareness campaign launched by the Chapter on the news of the policy and Michael’s article discusses the lawsuit filed in the federal court against the policy.
As to the Supreme Court, the best news of all are the decisions on the rights of "enemy combatants" that soundly repudiated the Administration’s arrogant assumption that it could deny basic due process to U.S. and foreign citizens detained as part of the "war on terror." These decisions are discussed in Eleanor Newhoff’s article. It is heartening that many of the same justices who voted to end the Florida recount, thereby awarding Bush the presidency, are openly critical of his abuse of power.
Bonnie Tenneriello's article on McConnell v. FEC explores the holding and implications of the Court’s decision upholding the "soft money" restrictions of the McCain-Feingold law.
Jane Alper’s piece on Tennessee v. Lane applauds the Court’s cautious willingness to retreat from its wholesale attacks on federal laws authorizing suits against the state under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws.
Finally, Dave Nathanson discusses the Hiibel decision that upheld a law penalizing people for refusing to identify themselves and reassures us that we in Massachusetts may have little to fear from the decision.
In all, not a bad year for us Guild types and for our clients.

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