Thursday, February 04, 2021

Joining Powerful Finance Committee, Warren Vows to Introduce Wealth Tax as 'First Order of Business'

"It is time to make the ultra-rich pay their fair share."


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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) arrives at the U.S. Capitol for a vote on May 18, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) arrives at the U.S. Capitol for a vote on May 18, 2020

 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

After announcing that she landed a spot on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday said she plans to immediately introduce legislation to impose a wealth tax on individual fortunes above $50 million with the goal of reining in soaring inequality and funding "needed investments for working families."

"My first order of business on the Senate Finance Committee—the committee that leads tax and revenue policy in the Senate—will be to introduce legislation for a wealth tax on fortunes above $50 million."
—Sen. Elizabeth Warren

"I'm very pleased to join the Finance Committee, where I'll continue to fight on behalf of working families and press giant corporations, the wealthy, and the well-connected to finally pay their fair share in taxes," Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement. "I look forward to being a progressive voice at the table to secure meaningful relief and lasting economic security for struggling families, including as an aggressive advocate for accomplishing much of our agenda through the budget reconciliation process."

At the top of the Massachusetts senator's to-do list upon joining the finance panel—which has jurisdiction over the Internal Revenue Service—will be advancing a two-cent tax on every dollar of individual wealth over $50 million, a proposal that Warren pushed during her 2020 presidential bid. Warren's campaign estimated that the two-cent wealth tax would raise $3.75 trillion in revenue over the next decade.

"My first order of business on the Senate Finance Committee—the committee that leads tax and revenue policy in the Senate—will be to introduce legislation for a wealth tax on fortunes above $50 million," Warren tweeted Tuesday. "It is time to make the ultra-rich pay their fair share."

The Massachusetts Democrat said she also intends to work on other key priorities such as "reforming our trade practices, expanding Social Security, lowering drug prices, advancing racial equity, and enforcing our tax laws."

"And I will continue to fight on issues like college affordability, cancelling student loan debt, adequate funding for K-12 schools, and racial equity in education," said Warren. "There's a lot of work to do."

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday released a full list of Democratic committee assignments, which must be ratified by the full Senate.

Weeks into the new Congress, Senate committee memberships have yet to be finalized as Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) iron out the details of a must-pass organizing resolution, which the Kentucky Republican delayed in an effort to preserve the archaic legislative filibuster.

McConnell's slow-walking of the organizing resolution means Republicans remain in charge of several key committees and in a position to hold up some of President Joe Biden's nominees.

Schumer announced on the Senate floor Wednesday that he and McConnell have finally reached a deal on the organizing resolution, which is expected to pass in a matter of hours.

In a statement on Tuesday, incoming Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he is "thrilled to welcome" Warren to the panel and looks forward to "working with her on a range of issues, particularly fixing our broken tax code and ensuring billionaires and mega-corporations pay their fair share."

"Income inequality will be a major focus of my legislative and investigative work," said Wyden, "and Senator Warren will certainly play a significant role in advancing this agenda."

This story has been updated with news of Schumer and McConnell's agreement on the Senate organizing resolution.

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The Bombing of Civilians in Yemen's Civil War Involves Many Actors, Including Defense Contractors at Raytheon


It’s time to confront the powerful interests of the arms industry, stop arms sales to those who are indiscriminately bombing civilians, and end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen for good.


by Shayna Lewis Published on Thursday, February 04, 2021 by azcentral



Civilians, who fled from the ongoing civil war where numerous civilian killed, are seen during their daily lives despite many difficulties at Al-Raqah refugee camp in Amran province of northern Sanaa, Yemen on November 24, 2019. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)


The villagers of Arhab were in a celebratory mood before the bomb exploded. The small Yemeni town had just struck water on a new well when a precision-guided munition crashed into the site, killing 31 and maiming many more.


Among the death and debris, investigators would later find a bomb fragment with a serial code indicating it came from Tucson—home of Raytheon Technologies.

The U.S. government is providing the weapons that are destroying a country, and Arizonans are unwittingly involved. We all deserve better.

It’s time to confront the powerful interests of the arms industry, stop arms sales to those who are indiscriminately bombing civilians, and end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen for good.
Arms sales helped create a disaster

Since 2015, the United States has been militarily backing the authoritarian governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as they intervene in Yemen’s civil war, including by arming them with more than $85 billion worth of bombs, drones and fighter jets.

These sales have proven to be nothing short of a disaster. U.S.-sold weapons are regularly used to commit apparent war crimes, have repeatedly fallen into the hands of violent non-state actors, and have served only to prolong the conflict.

Yemen’s war rages on today, and the country is now the world’s largest humanitarian disaster—and U.S.-made bombs are partly to blame.

But despite the total failure of this strategy to bring peace or security, the sales continue. There’s a simple explanation for that: the weapons industry wants them to.
Raytheon, others aren't passive actors


While companies like Raytheon, whose missile program is headquartered in Tucson, pretend that they’re merely passive actors meeting their products’ demand, they actually have a large hand in the decision-making process.

Every year, Raytheon and the rest of the weapons industry spend millions of dollars influencing elections and lobbying for more arms sales—fueling horrific wars like Yemen’s for the sake of profits. The blood money from these sales isn’t going to everyday employees either: while Raytheon assembly workers receive about $37,000 per year, its CEO brings home more than 450 times that.

And it looks like the lobbying is paying off. Late last year, the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected legislation to block part of President Trump’s last-minute $23 billion weapons sale to the UAE when Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema defected from the Democratic party to vote “no.”

Understandably, Kelly and Sinema, along with other Arizonans, might worry that jobs depend on these sales. But the fact is, the arms industry is a poor job creator. Every government dollar spent on weapons manufacturing creates less jobs than the same spent on teachers, nurses, frontline pandemic responders, or green energy workers. Places like Huntsville, Ala.—former weapons hot spots that are successfully transitioning to green technology—can show us the way.
We'd be better off without these weapons

Arizonans don’t want their hard work to go toward massacring civilians halfway around the world, and they don’t want their senators voting to sell arms to dictators.

I should know. As a born-and-raised Arizonan and proud UofA alum, I care deeply about what’s best for my home state. And as the digital campaign director of one of the country’s leading anti-militarism advocacy organizations, I have seen Raytheon lobbyists in action as they trample the voices of everyday people from across the country, including our thousands of grassroots activists in Arizona.

With President Biden’s recent decision to pause arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia pending review, we’re closer than ever to ending this terrible practice for good. Now is the time to put the pressure on.

From Arhab to Tucson, the Arabian Desert to the Sonoran, everyday people would be better off without Raytheon’s weapons. It’s time for Arizona to say no to these disastrous arms sales and the corporate powers that back them.


© 2021 azcentral


Shayna Lewis grew up in Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ, and is digital campaigns director at Win Without War, a Washington D.C.-based group advocating progressive national security solutions. Reach her at shayna@winwithoutwar.org.
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Biden Boots 'Union Busters and Anti-Government Ideologues' From Key Labor Panel

Labor leaders called for replacements "with a background in labor-management relations who are not hostile toward unions."


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 Published on Wednesday, February 03, 2021 
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A sculpted bust of Cesar Chavez oversees a collection of personal framed photos on a table behind President Joe Biden's desk in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

In another early win for organized labor, President Joe Biden on Tuesday requested that all 10 members of a key federal panel—who were appointed by his predecessor—immediately resign, and then fired the two appointees who refused to do so.

As Government Executive noted, former President Donald Trump had stacked the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), which handles disputes between agencies and unions during collective bargaining negotiations, "with anti-labor partisans, most of whom lacked experience in labor-management relations or conflict resolution."

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees—which represents over 700,000 government workers and had accused the Trump appointees of improperly favoring agencies—told Bloomberg Law that "FSIP is a critical component in the federal negotiating process, and we look forward to President Biden's future picks issuing just decisions, unencumbered by political interference."

Although presidents have previously replaced all panel members, Bloomberg Law pointed out that Biden acted more quickly than his predecessors:

Trump dismissed all members of the FSIP in May 2017—about four months after he took office—and then moved that summer to begin installing a new panel. Former President Barack Obama dismissed the panel in March 2009 and began naming new members that September.

FSIP members are appointed by the White House and serve at the pleasure of the president; they don't require Senate confirmation and don't have defined terms.

National Treasury Employees Union national president Tony Reardon called Biden's overhaul of the panel "an extremely positive development."

Reardon expressed hope that "an FSIP made up of individuals with a background in labor-management relations who are not hostile toward unions or workers will help put federal employee unions and agency leadership back on equal footing, where disagreements can be resolved fairly and in a way that serves the interests of employees, agencies and taxpayers."

"The Trump-appointed panel was none of those things," he told Government Executive, "and its record of nearly always siding with agency management, notwithstanding the record before it, proved its bias."

International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers secretary-treasurer Matt Biggs also welcomed the development, saying in a statement Tuesday that "the FSIP members unilaterally installed by President Trump can best be described as a 'who's who' of union busters and anti-government ideologues."

"They spent the better part of the last four years unilaterally imposing draconian contracts on federal unions and their members," Biggs said. "These are contracts that were not the result of good faith bargaining and compromise. Rather, they were intended to pull the rug out from under the union from any realistic ability to represent their members."

The Senate Democratic Caucus backed union complaints about bad-faith negotiations "in a furious letter" to Andrew Saul, the Trump-appointed commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) who has not yet been removed by Biden, Mark Joseph Stern reported for Slate on Wednesday. He continued:

Employees at agencies throughout the executive branch have been scorched by Trump's impasses panel. Its treatment of employees at the Social Security Administration, which oversees the country's largest government program and operates the largest judicial system in the nation, provides a case in point. Shortly before the pandemic, the impasses panel rewrote the SSA union's contract to roll back the agency's teleworking program, which had increased employee efficiency. (Managers partially restored telework in 2020 several weeks after many other agencies switched to remote work.) It slashed the amount of time that workers could spend on union activities far beyond what management requested. And it abolished the agency's responsibility to inform union members of their right to representation. To lock in these anti-union changes, the panel also extended the agreement by four years—though Biden's new appointees should be able to reopen negotiations after overturning their predecessors' policies.

The panel's assault on the SSA union has implications for millions of Americans. Administrative law judges at the SSA hear claims for disability benefits, and because they exercise judicial powers, they are meant to be independent. Their union contract safeguards this independence from political interference. At the bargaining table, however, the SSA's leaders stripped these safeguards from the contract—and the impasses panel backed their decision. Melissa McIntosh, president of the agency's administrative law judge union, told me that the panel "took away our ability to protect our independence through the contract," thereby depriving disabled Americans of their due process right to a neutral arbiter.

"Biden's work is not yet finished: The Federal Labor Relations Authority, which houses the impasses panel, remains in Republican control," Stern added, while also pointing out that the FSIP overhaul is not the president's first action applauded by organized labor.

Shortly after taking office, Biden sacked Peter Robb, the Trump-appointed general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board blasted by critics as an "extreme, anti-union ideologue" and a "uniquely destructive figure."

Stern noted in addition to appointing "a labor-friendly replacement" to the NLRB post, the president "reversed executive orders that had severely limited federal unions' ability to organize and bargain."

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After 412 Years and 1,391 Executions, Virginia Poised to Abolish Death Penalty as Senate Passes Historic Bill


"We're going to look back 50 years from now, and that electric chair and that lethal injection table, they're going be sitting in a museum," predicted Sen. Scott A. Surovell.


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 Published on Wednesday, February 03, 2021

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Virginia is poised to become the first Southern state to abolish capital punishment. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia is home to the state's death row and execution chamber. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Death penalty abolitionists on Wednesday applauded the passage of a bill by the Virginia Senate that—if passed by the Democrat-controlled House and signed by the Democratic governor as expected—will end capital punishment in the commonwealth after a more than 400-year history. 

"Virginia has executed more people than any other state. The practice is fundamentally inequitable. It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent."
—Gov. Ralph Northam

The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports the Senate voted 21-17 along party lines to approve S.B. 1165, introduced by Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Mount Vernon), after a prolonged and charged floor debate. 

"We're going to look back 50 years from now, and that electric chair and that lethal injection table, they're going be sitting in a museum," Surovell predicted. "They're gonna be sitting next to the stocks in Jamestown and Williamsburg. They're going to be sitting next to the slave auctioneer block."

"This thing is going to be a museum piece, and people are going to look back and wonder how it was that we ever used these things," he added. 

During the floor debate, Sen. Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) spoke of the days of Black people were lynched while white spectators picnicked nearby.

"Lynchings were the precursor of the death penalty," said Locke. "In the 1940s and 1950s, they simply moved from outside to the inside—legal violence instead of vigilante justice. It is not lost on anyone—it's those states that have a high number of lynchings correlate with their support of the death penalty, including here in Virginia."

In fact, the very first execution to occur in the English colonies that became the United States happened in Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1608 when Capt. George Kendall was killed by a firing squad for treason. Four years later, colonial Gov. Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws, under which execution was the punishment for crimes including such minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indigenous people.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Virginia has executed nearly 1,400 people since then—more than any other state in the union. As in other states, there are troubling racial disparities in the application of capital punishment. While Virginia's population is about 20% Black, Black people make up nearly half of the people executed there since 1976. 

That was the year when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, reinstated the death penalty four years after it was deemed a violation of the Constitution's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" in Furman v. Georgia.

Since resinstatement, Virginia has trailed only Texas, which has put 567 people to death. 

Today, there are only two people on Virginia's death row, and the state has not executed anyone in nearly four years. If the House of Delegates—the state legislature's lower chamber—passes its version of the S.B. 1165 as expected, and if Gov. Ralph Northam signs the measure into law as he has promised, there will be no more executions in Virginia and the two death sentences will be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Virginia will then become the first Southern state and the 23rd in the nation to end capital punishment. 

Northam led abolitionists in Virginia and across the nation in hailing S.B. 1165's passage. 

"Today's vote in the Virginia Senate is a tremendous step toward ending the death penalty in our commonwealth," he said in a statement. "Virginia has executed more people than any other state. The practice is fundamentally inequitable. It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent."

"It's time for Virginia to join 22 other states and abolish the death penalty," Northam asserted. "I applaud every senator who cast a courageous vote today, and I look forward to signing this bill into law."

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'A Desperate Smear': Ilhan Omar Slams GOP Over Attempt to Distract From Bigotry of Marjorie Taylor Greene

"Republicans will do anything to distract from the fact that they have not only allowed but elevated members of their own caucus who encourage violence."

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 Published on Wednesday, February 03, 2021

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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) speaks during a press conference outside the DFL Headquarters on August 5, 2020 in St Paul, Minnesota. (Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota on Wednesday forcefully denounced House Republicans' effort to strip her of committee assignments as part of a bigoted smear campaign aimed at distracting attention from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who Democrats are attempting to remove from congressional panels for promoting violence against lawmakers and peddling vile conspiracy theories.

"It's time to stop whitewashing the actions of the violent conspiracy theorists, who pose a direct and immediate threat to their fellow Members of Congress and our most fundamental democratic processes."
—Rep. Ilhan Omar

"Let's be clear: this is a desperate smear rooted in racism, misogyny, and Islamophobia," Omar said in a statement responding to an amendment by House Republicans, which seeks to replace Greene's name with Omar's in the Democratic resolution calling for removal of the freshman Georgia Republican from the budget and education committees.

Led by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) and co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Ronny Jackson (Texas), Jody Hice (Ga.), and Jeff Duncan (S.C.), the GOP amendment accuses Omar of making "anti-Semitic comments"—alluding to a 2019 tweet in which the Minnesota Democrat said unwavering support for Israel in Congress is "all about the Benjamins," a reference to AIPAC's political influence.

Omar apologized for the tweet, while Greene has shown no regret for endorsing conspiracy theories about mass school shootings being staged or supporting the execution of Democratic lawmakers. The Georgia Republican is currently attempting to raise money off the efforts to remove her from congressional committees.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene has incited violence against her fellow members of Congress, repeatedly singling out prominent women of color," Omar said Wednesday. "She actively encouraged the insurrection on the Capitol that threatened my life and the life of every member of Congress, and resulted in multiple deaths. She ran a campaign ad holding an assault rifle next to my face. She came to the Capitol demanding that me and Rep. [Rashida] Tlaib swear in on the Christian bible instead of the Quran."

"The House Republican Caucus, instead of holding her accountable, is now fanning the flames," Omar continued. "Republicans will do anything to distract from the fact that they have not only allowed but elevated members of their own caucus who encourage violence. It's time to stop whitewashing the actions of the violent conspiracy theorists, who pose a direct and immediate threat to their fellow Members of Congress and our most fundamental democratic processes."

Tlaib (D-Mich.) voiced a similar message Wednesday, calling the Republican amendment a "false equivalency" and "a pathetically desperate smear."

"Marjorie Taylor Greene has incited violence against her fellow members of Congress," said Tlaib. "She's unfit to serve, even by today's GOP standards."

 "We applaud efforts to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from House committees, but that is not enough. She should be expelled from Congress."
—Scott Simpson, Muslim Advocates

Earlier Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that after speaking to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), "it is clear there is no alternative to holding a floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments."

"The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution tomorrow," added Hoyer.

During Wednesday's call with Hoyer, according to Politico, McCarthy "sought a commitment" from the House majority leader "to yank the resolution from the floor if Republicans agreed to move Greene from the House Education and Labor Committee to another panel." Hoyer refused the offer.

In a statement Wednesday, the rights group Muslim Advocates slammed the Republican "effort led by several anti-Muslim members of Congress" to strip Omar of her committee assignments and demanded that Greene be held fully accountable.

"Muslim members of Congress are facing legitimate threats on their lives because of the bigotry espoused by Rep. Greene and her allies in Congress," said Scott Simpson, the group's public advocacy director. "She has repeatedly singled out Muslim members of Congress because of their faith and broadcast multiple false, dangerous conspiracy theories about Muslims."

"Now that there is a chance that Rep. Greene may face some small consequence for her actions, she is hoping that bigotry will save her. Members of Congress must not let that happen," Simpson added. "We applaud efforts to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from House committees, but that is not enough. She should be expelled from Congress."

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'This Is Just the Beginning': Why Poland's War on Abortion Should Scare You
This is not just 'Poland being Poland.' These actions are illegal, inhumane and could spread across Europe.
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People demonstrate against restrictions on abortion law in Poland. Krakow, Poland on January 29, 2021. The protest was organized by Women Strike after Poland's highest court has officially published today the law that states that all abortions in Poland will now be banned except in cases of rape and incest and when the mother's life or health are considered to be at risk. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

People demonstrate against restrictions on abortion law in Poland. Krakow, Poland on January 29, 2021. The protest was organized by Women Strike after Poland's highest court has officially published today the law that states that all abortions in Poland will now be banned except in cases of rape and incest and when the mother's life or health are considered to be at risk. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Poland’s near-total abortion ban came into effect last week when it was published in the country’s official government gazette. Polish hospitals and medical practitioners are no longer allowed to carry out an abortion in the case of a foetal anomaly. Such cases made up the great majority of terminations performed in the country, which, even before the new ban, already had the harshest abortion law in Europe—now, abortions are only permitted in cases of rape and incest and when the mother’s life or health are endangered.  

What’s happening in Poland right now shouldn’t be seen as merely typical behaviour by the Polish state. This is not just ‘Poland being Poland’. These actions are illegal, inhumane and could infiltrate the rest of Europe—and this is just the beginning. 

It’s illegal

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which issued the anti-abortion ruling is itself of highly contested legitimacy. Putting aside the substance of the ruling, the current tribunal is the result of a political power play by the ruling PiS (Law and Justice) party that evicted the previous judges and replaced them with judges more amenable to the party’s political agenda. The former judges have not recognised their eviction nor their newly installed replacements. 

Thus, the Constitutional Tribunal itself is the subject of fundamental democratic contestation in Poland, and the European Commission has raised concerns about it in its ongoing proceedings about infringement of the rule of law in Poland. 

As for the recent anti-abortion decision, one of the newly appointed judges on the tribunal was herself, prior to being appointed, one of the parliamentarians who signed the parliamentary motion asking the Constitutional Tribunal to judge on the matter of the constitutionality of abortion in the case of foetal anomaly. 

It’s inhumane

The provisions of the judgement go beyond the philosophical question of ‘right to choose’ versus ‘right to life’. By banning abortion for foetal anomaly, the Constitutional Tribunal is interfering in medical decisions that should be left to a woman and her loved ones, in consultation with her medical provider. 

The blanket ban just enacted will force Polish women to carry a non-viable pregnancy to term, thereby creating untold physical and psychological damage. Other provisions of Poland’s draconian abortion law impose prison sentences on those assisting women who terminate their pregnancy, including doctors, partners and family members. 

There is already a case of a woman’s boyfriend being sentenced to six months in prison for having driven his girlfriend to hospital after she started bleeding heavily from taking an abortion pill at home. 

It’s just the beginning

The current abortion ruling is not the result of popular will, it is the result of an illegitimate Constitutional Tribunal that did what the PiS government failed to achieve in 2016 with its legislative proposal to ban abortion. The government shelved that legislation after massive protests. 

Behind these initiatives hides a powerful outfit called the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture. Ordo Iuris styles itself an independent conservative think tank; in reality, it is an extremist religious organisation and its leaders have created a web of reactionary organisations in Poland and beyond. 

Ordo Iuris lawyers drafted the text of the 2016 bill to ban abortion, as well as other legal texts, including arguments for leaving the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, and bills that criminalised comprehensive sexuality education, and restrict in-vitro fertilisation and a charter that created Poland’s now infamous ‘LGBT-free zones’. 

Ordo Iuris is able to make such progress because it has infiltrated the inner workings of the Polish state. For example, Ordo Iuris’s founder now sits on the Polish Supreme Court and other Ordo Iuris alumni occupy important positions in government ministries, academia, the judiciary and other public institutions including advising the Polish president.

It could spread to the rest of Europe

Poland is serving as a test bed for reactionary ideas to be exported to other countries. Investigative journalists have revealed how organisations under Ordo Iuris’s control have established tentacles in many EU member states. These organisations have started testing the waters in their own countries with the same ultra-conservative agendas. In Croatia, it was the Istanbul Convention, in Estonia it was a referendum on LGBT rights and in Lithuania abortion. 

The same investigative journalists found that Ordo Iuris spent millions of euros to set up these foreign affiliates—and each one will try to emulate what they see as accomplishments in Poland. And Ordo Iuris has further ambitions. On 29 January, the Polish government formally submitted Aleksander Stępkowski, the founder of Ordo Iuris, as one of Poland’s candidates for the European Court of Human Rights. 

What we are seeing in Poland is just the beginning. The beginning of the erosion of fundamental rights through pseudo-legal processes; first targeting women, then sexual minorities. Soon everybody will be concerned. 

It is also the beginning of exporting Poland’s ultra-conservatism beyond its borders. Thanks to Ordo Iuris’s international network, what happens in Poland will not stay in Poland. 

Unless Europeans take heed of the dramatic changes occuring in Poland and use all the tools at their disposal to uphold democracy and the rule of law—including by supporting the courageous movement within Poland that is fighting back against this democratic backsliding—then the same fate looms for many European countries.

Neil Datta is the secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights.

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US Supreme Court sides with Germany
 in Nazi-era art dispute

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court's ruling Wednesday in a multimillion-dollar dispute over a collection of religious artworks will make it harder for some lawsuits to be tried in U.S. courts over claims that property was taken from Jews during the Nazi era.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The justices sided with Germany in a dispute involving the heirs of Jewish art dealers and the 1935 sale of a collection of medieval Christian artwork called the Guelph Treasure. The collection, called the Welfenschatz in German, is said to now be worth at least $250 million.

The heirs argued that their relatives were forced to sell the collection of gold and silver artworks, including elaborate containers used to store Christian relics, intricate altars and ornate crosses, for below market value.

The heirs originally pressed their claims in Germany, but a German commission found the artworks’ sale was made voluntarily and for fair market value. A suit was then filed in the United States. Germany and the state-run foundation that owns the collection, which is on display in Berlin’s Museum of Decorative Arts, argued the case did not belong in American courts.

Foreign nations generally cannot be sued in U.S. courts, although there are exceptions spelled out in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

“The heirs have not shown that the FSIA allows them to bring their claims against Germany. We cannot permit them to bypass its design,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for a unanimous court

Germany argued that an exception permitting certain suits against foreign countries in the U.S. does not cover those countries' disputes with their own citizens over property. The Supreme Court agreed.

Roberts wrote that Americans would be “surprised ... if a court in Germany adjudicated claims by Americans that they were entitled to hundreds of millions of dollars because of human rights violations committed by the United States Government years ago.” He said Germans' reaction to this case might be expected to be the same.

In a statement, Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation that owns the collection, welcomed the decision. He said it was the foundation's “long-held belief that this case should not be heard in U.S. court."

Nick O’Donnell, who represented the heirs of the art dealers, said in a statement that his clients were “obviously disappointed.” The case now goes back to a lower court for additional arguments on remaining issues, and O'Donnell said the heirs are considering their next steps.

Because of the decision in the Guelph Treasure case, the justices also sent a different dispute involving a suit against Hungary back to a lower court for further consideration. That case was filed in 2010 by 14 survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust, including some who survived being sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. They are seeking to be compensated for property taken from them and their families when they were forced to board trains to concentration camps.

Both cases were argued in December. At the time, the Trump administration urged the justices to side with Germany and Hungary.

The cases are Hungary v. Simon, 18-1447, and Germany v. Philipp, 19-351.

Jessica Gresko, The Associated Press
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Feds ramp up efforts to help residents of Hong Kong immigrate to, stay in Canada


OTTAWA — The federal government is moving forward on efforts to help citizens of Hong Kong remain in Canada rather than return home amid China's clampdown on democracy.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

One of several new immigration programs designed to give Hong Kong residents a safe haven in Canada will open for applications on Monday.

The program is open to Hong Kong residents who've graduated with a Canadian post-secondary diploma or degree in the last five years or hold an equivalent foreign credential.

They'll be eligible to receive a work permit for up to three years, which could in turn open up the option for them to remain in Canada permanently.

While the program is available both to people living in Hong Kong and those already in Canada, given COVID-19 travel restrictions, it's expected the majority of those who will benefit initially are already here.

"With flexible open work permits and a fast-track to permanent residency, skilled Hong Kong residents will have a unique opportunity to develop their careers and help accelerate Canada’s economic recovery," Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said in a statement.

Details of the other two programs — one targeting residents with one year of work experience in Canada and the second for recent graduates coming directly from Hong Kong — are still being worked out.

All were announced last fall as demands grew for the Canadian government to do more in response to the Chinese government's move to implement new laws and measures in Hong Kong understood as efforts to suppress the freedom of people living there.

Word that the open work permit program will open on Feb. 8 comes as the Chinese government appears to be putting pressure on Canadians in Hong Kong.

China doesn't legally recognize dual nationality in Hong Kong, but as many as 300,000 people living there are believed to hold both Chinese and Canadian permanent residency.

Concerns are now rising that China will start enforcing the law on dual nationality more broadly which could cut Canadians off, for example, from consular access.

In recent weeks, reports have surfaced of people who hold both Chinese and Canadian passports being detained and forced to pick a nationality.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2021.

Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press
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