Stop Solitary Confinement: Join us May 12 for virtual oral arguments in Ashker v. Governor of California

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Join us Tuesday, May 12 as arguments are heard in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on whether the state of California violated the settlement in our case, Ashker v. Governor of California, a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of prisoners held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison who have spent a decade or more in solitary confinement.

Tune in May 12 at 9:00 a.m. PST to watch the arguments first hand and join our tweetstorm, as we reject #solitarybyanothername. To take part in the conversation, take a look at our social media toolkit, and feel free to use visuals and sample messaging.

Arguments will likely start between 9:00 and 9:30 a.m. PST, depending on the length and order of arguments. You can find the link to the livestream on the court’s website.

Stay tuned for an online briefing following oral arguments i Ashker v. Governor of California

Following oral argument in Ashker join us at 11:30 a.m. PST for a community-centered online briefing with attorneys Jules Lobel and Samuel Miller.

The legal team will share their thoughts about how the hearing went, you will get the opportunity to ask questions, and we will highlight action items to move forward.

For more information, and to receive the Zoom link and password, please RSVP on Eventbrite.

Latest from the blog: Government COVID-19 failures are unsurprising--the system is built to fail.

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The latest post on our blog is the second piece in a series about the movement response to the COVID-19 pandemic, penned by Advocacy Associate maya finoh. This blog post explores how systemic discrimination and public policy has shaped the U.S. government’s poor response to COVID-19. It reads:

In this moment of tens of thousands of lives lost, anti-Asian racism, and inequitable access to COVID-19 testing, many of the systemic social problems of the United States have been laid bare—specifically, the ways in which this country has always worked for the wealthy elite, while marginalized people suffer or are forced to put their health on the line to uphold and preserve the unequal status quo.

Dozens of celebrities were able to quickly get tested for COVID-19, while the majority of the country is either told to wait or simply unable to get the test due to rationing. Many of these same people who are denied access to testing are also those whose labor has been elevated to “essential,” an overdue appreciation that has tragically made them far less safe as they continue to work outside of their homes. And our essential healthcare workers, farmworkers, garment workers, domestic workers, sanitation workers, construction workers, and service workers, are more often than not undocumented, Black, Latinx, Native, Asian, queer, trans, poor, or living with disabilities...

Read the full piece on our blog.