PCJF Welcomes Senior Counsel Rachel Lederman to Lead West Coast Operations

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, and its Center for Protest Law & Litigation, welcomes Rachel Lederman as Senior Counsel to lead its new West Coast office based in Oakland, Calif.

Rachel has defended hundreds of progressive protestors in court and has obtained significant landmark victories in impact litigation to stop police and government repression and civil rights violations. She was recently lead counsel on NAACP v. City of San José, seeking compensation and reforms for racial justice protesters shot or beaten by the San José Police in May 2020, and she is leading the PCJF’s efforts to drop the charges against the 113 Dolores Park children and young people who were wrongly arrested en masse in July 2023.

Jane Fonda on the repression of Water Protectors and the legal challenge we are mounting to defend their constitutional and human rights

We are mounting a challenge to an extraordinary and dangerous new model of intense repression initiated against Water Protectors in Northern Minnesota that must be stopped before it becomes the nationwide model for movement and community suppression.

Small local Sheriffs' departments, and individual officers, were financially incentivized and paid to act against the opponents of Line 3 with huge sums of money flowing though the so-called "Public Safety Escrow Trust" funded by the Enbridge Corporation. The pipeline corporation paid more than $8.5 million dollars into funding not only Sheriffs’ departments but huge amounts of overtime for individual officers, paid only when they were acting in support of Line 3.

This financial structure essentially privatizes public police forces to act in service to the private pecuniary interests of this foreign corporation against its political opponents and the Indigenous community; to stop and disrupt peaceful organizing and expression that would educate the larger community and national audience about the environmental devastation being caused by the Line 3 pipeline.

We have been preparing the legal challenges to this structure in addition to our other affirmative litigation and defense support to protect and advance Water Protectors' constitutional rights.

Please visit our project the Center for Protest Law and Litigation to learn more about the Line 3 struggle and to support this work.

San José City Council OKs $3.35 Million Settlement for Five Racial Justice Protestors Attacked by San José Police

Racial justice protestors who were attacked and injured by the San José Police Department (SJPD) in May 2020 today will receive $3.35 million in a settlement approved today by the San José City Council. The agreement comes after three years of litigation by the protestors.

DA Jenkins: Drop the Charges Against the Dolores Park Children and Youth

On August 11, 2023, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and allied organizations sent a letter to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins demanding all charges against the 113 children and youth arrested near Dolores Park on July 8 be definitively dropped.

Federal Court Ruling: Protestors Attacked by San José Police Will See Their Day in Court

Drop the Charges Against the Dolores Park Youth

Join the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a national civil rights organization with offices in Washington, DC, and the Bay Area, in calling for San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to drop all charges against the 113 youth arrested near Dolores Park on July 8, 2023.

PCJF Demands San Francisco Police Be Held Accountable for Attacking Children at Community Gathering and that All Charges Be Dropped

PCJF Files Federal Lawsuit Over D.C. Police Attack and False Arrest at Black Lives Matter Plaza

PCJF Files Federal Lawsuit Against DC for MPD’s Indiscriminate and Violent Use of Less Lethal Weapons Against Racial Justice Protests

PCJF Files Federal Lawsuit Against DC for MPD’s Indiscriminate and Violent Use of Less Lethal Weapons Against Racial Justice Protests

PCJF Sues D.C Police Department for Withholding Information on Police Violence Against Racial Justice Protests

PCJF Exposes Records on Trump's Unlawful 2020 Use of the Lincoln Memorial Chamber for FOX Interview; Secret Service Email Called it a "$#!t show"

In May 2020, Trump violated the rules governing the use of Lincoln Memorial in order to use the solemn chamber for his own vanity project: a prime time interview with FOX News. PCJF obtained FOIA records documenting this abuse of the Lincoln Memorial.

Major Free Speech Win by PCJF and CAIR: Court Rules Georgia’s Anti-BDS Law is Unconstitutional

A federal court in Georgia has ruled that the state’s anti-BDS law violates the First Amendment in the case the PCJF brought on behalf of journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin.