Shahid Buttar
Shahid Buttar is a civil rights lawyer, hip-hop MC, grassroots community organizer, and independent journalist. His commentary has appeared in various print and broadcast outlets, including The Washington Post; The New York Times; Bloomberg; Hannity & Colmes on FOX News; The Laura Flanders Show on Air America; TomPaine.com; Common Dreams; and Democracy Now! on NPR, which named one of his public addresses among "The Best of 2004."
Articles by this author
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Views Friday, February 15, 2019 National Emergencies: Constitutional and Statutory Restrictions on Presidential Powers When a president threatens to exercise the power to declare a national emergency, our system of checks and balances faces a crucial test. With President Trump threatening such a declaration in order to build his proposed physical border wall, that test could be an important one that could quickly... Read more |
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Views Sunday, April 23, 2017 A Municipal Vote in Providence for Police Reform Carries National Implications After three years of sustained community mobilization and advocacy, the Providence City Council in Rhode Island voted this Thursday to unanimously approve among the most visionary set of policing reforms proposed around the country to protect civil rights and civil liberties, including digital... Read more |
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Views Thursday, December 11, 2014 What Ferguson, Eric Garner, and CIA Torture Have in Common There’s no better way for Washington to commemorate Human Rights Day than by letting the public finally learn the truth about torture. And there’s no better way for concerned Americans to do so than by raising our voices to challenge the compounding crimes of our lawless agencies. Washington... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Subsidizing Corporate Crime and Rewarding Constitutional Abuses Government handouts to corporations might seem untenable at a time when more and more Americans suffer every day from the impacts of a mounting economic crisis . Yet efforts to bolster the economy have largely taken the form of corporate welfare -- much like an appalling effort, in the closing days of the Bush administration, to subsidize corporate violations of the rule of law and individual liberties. Read more |
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Views Saturday, February 16, 2008 Musharraf's Playbook is the Same as the Bush Administration's This post was informed by Shahid's participation in a National Lawyer's Guild-led delegation to Pakistan last December. The delegation, which consisted of four lawyers and four law students from around the U.S., visited several areas across Pakistan in early January and interviewed over 50 engaged participants in Pakistani government and civil society throughout the country, including jurists, elected officials, lawyers, journalists, civil servants, political party representatives, candidates for public office, international diplomats, students and activists. Read more |
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Views Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Fire Gonzales or the Whole Junta? A steady stream of disappointing news from the Justice Department has left the nation increasingly critical of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Offering inaccurate congressional testimony while evading questions about U.S. attorneys being fired for political reasons, he has tried in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee - but failed in spectacular fashion - to justify his ongoing service. Read more |