Portside

The right to criticize the powerful is a cornerstone of democracy. In Trump’s America, it’s cause for a prison sentence.

What to the Slave Is the Fourth July? by Frederick Douglass speaks to the frustrations spurred by the gap between the ideals of the United States and the reality we witness every day, and the threat of fascism. Read/listen to his brilliant speech.

The Second Amendment was intended in the first instance to protect slaveholders from the people they owned.

Instead of protecting defendants’ right to have their guilt or innocence decided by their peers, judges routinely punish defendants for exercising that right.

Medieval weapons laws, including a 1328 English statute prohibiting the public carry of edged weapons without royal permission, are at the center of dueling legal opinions in the most important gun rights before the Supreme Court since 2008.

We need to a new “people’s” military as a force that could truly defend the American republic, focused above all on supporting the Constitution, freedom of speech, the press, and assembly, the right to privacy and due process, justice for all.

It embeds into official U.S. policy a shockingly extremist view of law enforcement as the enemy of the American people

Reader Comments: A Fascist President; Refugees Result of U.S. Invading Central America; Mexican Artist Deported Before Exhibit Opening; Justice Kennedy Chicanery; U.S. Opposes Breast Feeding; Know Your Rights; Resources; Announcements; and more....

Reader Comments: MLK Vision Still Vital, Necessary; Trumpcare; End of US Empire; Activism-Learning from the Past; Resources: Jubilee Haggadah; Bill of Rights Briefing; Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks; Announcements: Solidarity Rally B&H Workers; Tax Marches April 15; Peoples Climate Movement-April 29; and more...

An ACLU map of anti-Muslim activity shows, Muslims across the country, from California to New York, to Texas to Ohio, have faced vandalism or other criminal acts targeting their places of worship or refusals by local officials to issue necessary zoning permits. Preventing Muslims or any other group from practicing their faith is unAmerican. Religious freedom is one of America's most fundamental liberties and a central principle upon which this country was founded.