By Janet Varnell Board Member Paul Bland Executive Director In response to the economic devastation created by the COVID-19 crisis, Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) as part of the CARES Act. The PPP provides extremely low-cost loans, which will be forgiven if a qualifying applicant spends the proceeds on payroll and a few…
Ask your Senators and Representatives to support the Disaster Protections for Workers’ Credit Act By Paul Bland Executive Director In the weeks since the COVID-19 outbreak began, nearly 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits. The numbers are historic, the graphs on the front pages of newspapers are staggering and the pain that so…
By Paul Bland Executive Director Many people have reacted heroically during the COVID-19 crisis, caring for others (sometimes at great risk to themselves) and showing humanity and kindness. But, unfortunately, the crisis seems to have brought out the worst in some other people. Specifically, some have taken advantage of the crisis to engage in undesirable…
By Leah Nicholls Senior Attorney On Friday, Public Justice client the National Press Photographers Association filed an amicus brief in a case in Victoria, Texas, urging the local district court to hold that the Texas statute governing use of drones violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The statute—Chapter 423—prohibits capturing and disseminating images…
Appeals Court Deals a Blow to the Prison-Industrial Complex By Karla Gilbride Cartwright-Baron Staff Attorney On any given day in the United States, some 2.3 million people are locked up between state and federal prisons, local and county jails, and immigration detention centers. That’s more people behind bars than any other country in the world.…
By Leslie Brueckner Senior Attorney “[We] cannot say that Roundup does not cause cancer [because] we have not done carcinogenicity studies with Roundup.” That’s what Monsanto toxicologist and chief glyphosate spokesperson Donna Farmer said in 2009 about the risks of Roundup, Monsanto’s best-selling weedkiller. Six years later 70-year-old Edwin Hardeman was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,…