National

Cris Ericson - Alan Dershowitz Speaks in Favor of Allowing Donald Trump on Facebook 10/21/2021

Cris Ericson reads a letter filed by Alan Dershowitz in favor of allowing Donald Trump on Facebook.

From Cris:

"Famous Democrat & Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz filed his statement, which appeared on the Court Docket on Oct. 20, 2021, in support of former President Donald Trump's right to freedom of speech on Facebook. This case is currently before the Federal Court in Miami, Florida, Trump v. Facebook & Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg's attorneys are arguing that the case should be moved to California. Meanwhile, Trump's attorneys are filing statements by various people, the most surprising to many people is that Democrat and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz is still in favor of freedom of speech, even for former President Trump. This was mentioned by many news sources on Oct. 20, 2021."

In this video, Cris Ericson reads the entire statement of Alan Dershowitz as submitted to the Court.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
CASE NO. 21-22440-CIV-WILLIAMS/MCALILEY
DONALD J. TRUMP, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
FACEBOOK, INC. and
MARK ZUCKERBERG,
Defendants.

VICII: Habeas Corpus - The Legal Meaning of This Ancient Right 10/20/2021

Habeas Corpus, "you have the body," is a directive to the state to produce the body of a person who may have been falsely imprisoned in order for that person to challenge the legality of that arrest and detention. Based on the presumption of innocence, habeas is a guarantee that a person will not 'disappear' into the black sites of the correctional system and lose his or her liberty without a finding by a court that due process of the law has been afforded to the person and that probable cause has been established to detain or arrest the person and if probable cause is not established to release him or her.

Vermont Institute of Community and International Involvement presents Sara George Esq., State's Attorney and Chief Prosecutor of Chittenden County, who leads a community discussion on the legal meaning of Habeas Corpus, an ancient right in our law to challenge unlawful detentions and the importance of that right to preserve our basic freedom from arbitrary and false imprisonments. Ms. George is a graduate of Vermont Law School. She was appointed by Governor Phil Scott to be the State’s Attorney of Chittenden County in January 2018 and was officially elected to the post in November 2018. Ms. George’s mission is to “do her part to overhaul a racist and classist legal system” and to “make her job unnecessary.”

For more information: vicii.org

Education and Enrichment for Everyone: Doing and Undoing 10/15/2021

Xusana Davis, Executive Director of Racial Equity, State of Vermont

What's Going On?: The Biden Presidency 9 Months In 10/13/2021

Sandy Baird and Guest Kurt Mehta talk about Biden's first 9 months in the White House.

NAAG Conference - The Surveillance Economy: Privacy in the Information Age - Legislative and Policy Approaches 10/08/2021

The passage of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, followed by California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in 2018, ushered in a new age of privacy rights for individuals’ personal information. Recently, other states have adopted similar legislation, with more states soon to follow. This panel discusses new and innovative legislative and policy approaches to enhancing privacy in the digital age and the prospects of a comprehensive federal privacy bill becoming law.

Moderator
Letitia James, New York Attorney General

Panelists
Pam Dixon, Executive Director, World Privacy Forum
Tom Galvin, Executive Director, Digital Citizens Alliance
Tim Sparapani, Founder, Strategic Government Relations Consultancy and Privacy Expert, SPQR Strategies
Jennifer Ubran, Professor, University of California, Berkley and Chair, California Privacy Protection Agency

NAAG Conference - The Surveillance Economy: Peter Welch Keynote 10/08/2021

Throughout his career in public service, Rep. Peter Welch has served the people of Vermont with distinction, both in the Vermont Senate and, since 2006, in the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves on the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and has offered bold ideas, such as creating a new regulatory agency to oversee Big Tech. Rep. Welch offers his views on key technology issues and ways Congress can strike an appropriate balance between regulation and innovation.

Representative Peter Welch, House Committee on Energy and Commerce

Education and Enrichment for Everyone: The Dysfunctional Congress - How It Got This Way and Why It Matters 10/08/2021

Linda Fowler, Professor of Government, and Frank J. Reagan, Chair in Policy Studies, Emerita, Dartmouth College

NAAG Conference - The Surveillance Economy: Fireside Chat 10/07/2021

Join New York Times Tech Reporter Kashmir Hill and District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine as they discuss the profound and often unforeseen ways new and emerging technologies are changing our concepts of privacy and impacting our lives.

Opening Remarks by TJ Donovan, VT Attorney General and NAAG Eastern Region Chair

Karl A. Racine, District of Columbia Attorney General and NAAG President
Kashmir Hill, The New York Times, Technology Reporter

NAAG Conference - The Surveillance Economy: The Surveillance Economy 10/07/2021

Using Prof. Shoshanna Zuboff’s landmark economic concept - surveillance capitalism – as the foundation for this discussion, experts analyze the ways in which this emergent economic reality claims “human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data” and impacts our daily lives. Panelists address ways regulators and enforcers can use their authorities to protect individual privacy and autonomy.

Moderator
William Tong, Connecticut Attorney General

Panelists
Shawn Davis, Director of Digital Forensics, Edelson PC
Clare Garvie, Senior Associate, Center on Privacy & Technology, Georgetown Law
Maureen Mahoney, Senior Policy Analyst, Consumer Reports

NAAG Conference - The Surveillance Economy: The Supreme Court and Evolving Legal Principles of Privacy, AI, and Racial Disparities 10/07/2021

New technologies offer the promise of enhancing social welfare but can also exacerbate existing social inequalities and biases. They complicate our understanding of the very idea of privacy. Meanwhile state attorneys general have to navigate how states use technology and how to ensure the public they serve is not oppressed by it. Georgetown Law School Professor Heidi Li Feldman and former Federal District Court Judge Katherine Forrest examine some specific new technologies with an emphasis on how they affect our thinking about justice, welfare, and privacy more generally. This session helps those who work in state attorneys general offices begin to grapple with the challenges posed when potentially controversial legal ideals and powerful technologies collide.

Moderated by Maura Healey, Massachusets Attorney General

Heidi Li Feldman, Professor of Law, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University Law Center
Katherine Forrest, Partner, Litigation, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

Featured Story

Applications Now Open for the Spring 2025 Cohort of the Neighborhood Community Media Internship Program

Town Meeting TV is excited to announce that applications are now open for the Spring 2025 cohort of the Neighborhood Community Media Internship program. Join up to 8 other youth to engage in interesting media making projects! This paid media internship opportunity is designed for youth aged 16-20 who are eager to gain professional experience in the audio-visual field and develop a deeper understanding of their local community. The group will meet under the leadership of Town Meeting TV's Travis Washington from the end of January 2025 to the beginning of June 2025, on a schedule agreed upon by the whole cohort. Click here to apply!