The Northwest Regional meeting will take place in Eugene on April 18-19, 2015.  Apart from regional elections and a social event in the evening, we will have panels addressing privacy/security issues, representing activists and the Ferguson protests, as well as a networking event to work on NextGen organizing.  Contact us for carpool information.

Seattle NLG will be holding its next meeting on Tuesday, March 10, 2015, at 6:30 PM at the Labor Temple, located at 2800 First Ave. We'll be meeting in Hall 90, which is in the north end of the basement. To get to Hall 90, go down the stairs at the north end of the building.  The topic will be recent issues related to the Seattle Police Department Intelligence Auditor.  Speakers will include Ansel Herz from The Stranger and a representative of Kshama Sawant's office.

Please join us at our next chapter meeting on Wednesday, January 8th, at 6:30 p.m., at Seattle University Law School, Room 309.  The main focus of the meeting will be about on-going developments with the Keystone XL Pipeline, whose possible construction will cause environmental disaster in both Canada and the United States.  Find out how the Guild can help out.  See you soon.

The Seattle University chapter of the NLG is hosting a legal observer training on Wednesday, November 13th, at 6:30 PM. The event will be at Seattle University School of Law in room C5. This is a great way to learn about getting more involved with the Guild and to learn about how to help protect people's rights at demonstrations

In lieu of our regular meeting this month, we'll be hosting an event featuring Steven Goldberg from Portland NLG at the UW Law School. The event will be in room 117 at 6:30 PM. The talk is called: “Roadblocks to Justice: How Courts Have Evaded Ruling on the Legality of the ‘War on Terror’” In 2006, a challenge to the NSA warrantless surveillance program was filed by an Islamic charity in southern Oregon, the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation. A ruling by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker holding the government liable, and awarding over $2.5 million in damages and attorney fees, was ultimately overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, finding that the government was immune from suit under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Procedural defenses – state secrets privilege, sovereign immunity, qualified immunity, lack of standing – have repeatedly been used to insulate the government from suits challenging some of the government’s most egregious programs from warrantless surveillance to rendition to the use of drones to detentions at Guantanamo Bay. What viable strategies can be used to allow challenges to such programs to proceed? How does this tie into the current NSA spying revelations?