Discrimination

SPLC Demands Action to Address

Surge of Hate Crimes 

October Designated as Hate Crimes Awareness Month

    WASHINGTON — (SPLC)  — 9/29/2024 — The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently responded to the release of the FBI 2023 Hate Crime Statistics Act report by, once again, calling for Congress to expand community-based, prevention efforts and make hate crime reporting mandatory by law enforcement agencies across the country. The SPLC issued its statement on 9/24/24.

    The 2023 report documented 11,862 total hate crimes, including significant increases in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim crimes. Hate crime reporting came from 16,009 participating law enforcement agencies — out of more than 18,800 federal state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide — reversing a five-year trend of declining police participation. 

    “One hate crime is too many in our country,” SPLC President and CEO Margaret Huang said. “While today’s report shows a welcome uptick in the number of law enforcement agencies that are participating in the FBI’s data collection, the picture is still incomplete. Far too many agencies, including many in the Deep South that serve large populations, do not report credible data, which puts many people — especially Black, Latinx, Asian, Jewish, LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities — at risk."

 The SPLC has designated October as Hate Crimes Awareness Month to bring more attention to the prevalence of hate crimes and press for urgent action. This annual effort is prompting national conversation and action to prevent hate and foster an inclusive democracy where each of us feels safe and welcome in our communities. 

    “At a time when bigotry, conspiracy theories and disinformation are being mainstreamed and are influencing individuals to engage in hate crimes, we need an accurate understanding of where bias-motivated crime is most prevalent so that we can create coordinated responses that keep communities safe. And, to truly stamp out hate, those responses must incorporate strategies that prevent those susceptible to being influenced by the fringes of society from moving down the dark path of radicalization,” Huang said. 

Environmental Law

Judge Rules Trump International 

Violated Illinois Environmental

Protection Act

Hotel and Tower Found Liable on All Counts

    CHICAGO - (SIERRA CLUB) – 9/12/24 - Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson ruled recently that the Trump International Hotel & Tower violated and is in violation of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act and committed a continuing public nuisance through a series of failures to comply with state and federal law dating back to 2008. The judge ruled that the evidence was uncontested that Trump Tower, operating as 401 N. Wabash, is liable on all remaining counts brought by Friends of the Chicago River, the Sierra Club Illinois Chapter, and the State of Illinois in this long-running litigation.

    Friends, the Sierra Club, and the Illinois Attorney General filed the lawsuit in 2018 after Friends and the Sierra Club discovered the Trump Tower cooling water intake permit violations during a routine permit review. The Trump Tower can draw in up to about 21 million gallons of water from the Chicago River every day to cool the building. Trump Tower ignored and violated federal and state laws and regulations that require buildings using systems like Trump Tower’s to be designed to minimize impacts on aquatic life, secure permits, operate with protective measures that minimize damage to fish and other aquatic organisms from water intake structures, and prevent harmful heat pollution from its discharges back to the river. A 2018 Chicago Tribune survey found no other cooling intake permits holders had similarly violated the applicable rules.

    The Trump Tower is one of the largest users of water from the Chicago River for cooling and failing to follow the permit requirements resulted in the death of thousands of fish and other aquatic organisms which were sucked into the building cooling system by the intake structure or trapped against its screens. The Trump Tower also failed to accurately compute and report the rate at which the skyscraper’s cooling system withdraws water by approximately 44 percent for more than 10 years. By ruling on the summary judgment, Judge Wilson found that the Trump Tower could not even genuinely dispute that it was in violation of the applicable laws and creating a public nuisance.

    “Judge Wilson’s decision brings us close to the end of a six-year journey to bring justice to the wildlife for whom these laws were designed to protect and the people who enjoy this wildlife,” said Margaret Frisbie, Friends of the Chicago River’s executive director. “The Trump Tower’s complete disregard for the rules carelessly killed countless creatures and degraded the value of the significant public investments over decades to bring about the healthy transformation of the river for people, fish, and other aquatic wildlife.”

     Friends of the Chicago River and Sierra Club Illinois Chapter are represented in this action by Albert Ettinger; the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School; and the Environmental Advocacy Center at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Rob Weinstock of the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law argued the case for Friends of the Chicago River and Sierra Club.

    “The recovery of the Chicago River into the healthy heart of our downtown is a major accomplishment for the people of Chicago and the Clean Water Act,” Sierra Club Illinois Director Jack Darin said. 

    Friends of the Chicago River was founded in 1979 to protect and restore the Chicago-Calumet River system for all people, water, and wildlife. Supported by 43,000 members, volunteers, and online activists and recognized by more than 50 awards in 45 years, Friends of the Chicago River is at the forefront of the river’s recovery and renaissance and is the only organization exclusively dedicated to the river and its watershed. For more information, vision chicagoriver.org

    “Trump Tower openly violated the Clean Water Act for years, putting the river and the wildlife that call it home at risk. We’re proud to hold these scofflaws accountable, and applaud our pro bono attorneys and the Attorney General for stepping up to protect our river and its recovery. Friends and Sierra Club look forward to further proceedings that will determine how best to restore and protect the Chicago River and uphold the Clean Water Act and the Illinois Environmental Protection Act,” Frisbie said.

  

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.

Religion and Politics

Baseless IRS Lawsuit Highlights 

Massive Christian Privilege

    (FFRF) - Sept. 5, 2024 - A group of Christian broadcasters wants to mix religion and politics so badly that they have sued the IRS, hoping a federal judge will permit them to ignore a law they don’t like.

    The law at issue here is the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofits (both secular and religious) from engaging in electoral activity. The Freedom From Religion Foundation strongly supports the Johnson Amendment and expects to see the judge in this case quickly dismiss the baseless lawsuit.

    Keeping tax-exempt work separate from electoral action has been widely popular, including among churchgoers, and has prevented millions of dollars in dark money from flowing into U.S. elections. Polls routinely reveal that a majority of Americans think religious institutions should stay out of politics.

    FFRF sued then-President Trump in 2017 after he signed an executive order that he claimed had “gotten rid of the Johnson Amendment.” Once in court, Trump’s lawyers admitted that he had no authority to overturn a federal statute by fiat.

    Unfortunately, the IRS has been woefully lax in enforcing the Johnson Amendment. Many churches that subscribe to Christian nationalist beliefs flagrantly violate the rule, daring the IRS to take action. (FFRF regularly reports such instances to the IRS.) The new lawsuit asks a judge to declare that the Johnson Amendment does not apply to them, even though they claim not to have engaged in any electoral activity and have no reason to think the IRS would take any action against them.

    In other words, they have suffered no harm and there is no case here, says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker, who adds: “The hubris of these plaintiffs is incredible. They insist their religious beliefs give them a free pass to ignore laws they don’t like and that the rest of us tax-exempt organizations must follow.”

    Tax-exempt status is a privilege. Churches already receive favored treatment over secular nonprofits, but they are not entitled to ignore the other rules and statutes that apply equally to all 501(c)(3) educational nonprofits. The Johnson Amendment helps to ensure that nonprofits are engaged in actual nonprofit work, while simultaneously promoting election integrity.

    Churches are uniquely exempted from filing tax returns with the IRS to prove their tax-exempt expenditures, which makes them financial black holes. Overturning the Johnson Amendment would open the floodgates for dark money to be funneled to political campaigns through churches. The Johnson Amendment is a wise and equitable rule that preserves the integrity of both nonprofits and churches, and as such must be protected and enforced.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 40,000 members across the country. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.