Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action

Amicus Brief for Supreme Court in Process

JALSA — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:28:52 +0000

Health Care is a Communal Responsibility

We are continuing our work on an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court which is considering our recent federal health care legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Faculty and students at Boston University Law School have asked JALSA consideration and cooperation on an amicus brief to be submitted that would deal with some of the libertarian issues underlining the suit. “Implicit in many of the lower courts’ opinions invalidating the individual mandate, including the Eleventh Circuit’s, is a concern that the mandate threatens individual liberty. This sense that the mandate represents a serious imposition on personal freedom has driven much of the popular and judicial debate on the mandate’s constitutionality under the Commerce Clause, but the government has not addressed the argument.”

JALSA will argue that health care is a communal responsibility and that the federal government is not taking away personal liberty when it allows citizens to select from a choice of health care options.

Transgender Bill Passed- Gender Identity to be Protected

JALSA — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:43:31 +0000

Transgender Bill PASSED!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE

A great victory. Massachusetts now protects gender identity in employment and education.

We still need to work on public accommodation. Next round!

Update on CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL

Criminal Justice Bill will wait until next session. Since different versions were passed by the House and Senate, bill will need to wait for January. JALSA is pleased that these versions have not been enacted into law. These are complex statutes with many provisions of concern.

These bills would result in three strikes sentences in MA mandating life without parole. H3811 is even harsher than the notorious California Three Strikes law, which permits parole after 25 years.

Significant changes to the Massachusetts wiretap statute, enhanced criminal liability in DNA collection, expansion of the habitual offender law, mandatory post-release supervision and new standards of whom shall be eligible for parole and when were maintained.

Areas of our conversations with legislators:

1) This Bill has been proposed in an extremely hurried way with no research on what these measures will cost.

2) Research has shown that 3 strikes bills do not reduce crime.

3) Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas, New Jersey, New York and Michigan have all taken a thoughtful look at costs and crime rates without locking up more people or enacting tougher new laws; all have saved money and reduced crime by providing more substance abuse treatment both in the community and in prison. MA spends only 2.4% of its budget on programming and by implementing effective parole practices that help parolees become tax paying, lawful citizens.

Alabama Anti-Immigration Law – JALSA Joins Letter to Napolitano

JALSA — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:08:53 +0000

Thank you for signing on to the letter to Secretary Napolitano regarding Alabama’s anti-immigrant law, HB 56. Over 350 organizations signed on demanding an end to unjust immigration enforcement policies and programs in Alabama. Yesterday, we mailed the letter to Secretary Napolitano and we plan to request a meeting with her to further press for our asks. Again, we thank you for signing on and we hope you will continue to distribute the letter widely.

To download a final copy of the letter, click here.

To read the press release about the letter, click here.

Thank you for your support.

Tong Lee
Rights Working Group
202-296-2300 x 123
tlee@rightsworkinggroup.org
www.rightsworkinggroup.org

Andrew Fischer letter on the nature of the debate in Brookline

JALSA — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:03:47 +0000

Andrew Fischer, as President of JALSA, writes in the Brookline Tab, deploring the arguments used in the debate over the Pledge of Allegiance in the Brookline Schools.

JALSA organizer Annie Fox on NPR

Sheila Decter — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:09:38 +0000

NPR reporting on the Sukkah at Occupy Boston

Annie Fox is an organizer with the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action. For her, both the occupy movement and the holiday of Sukkot are reminders of our fragility. “We remind ourselves of the people who are homeless, of the people who are struggling, of the people who are facing unemployment. We remind ourselves of the struggle of the past, and the struggle of the present.”

Well done, Annie