Sep 20, 2016
My guest today is Yolanda Rondon (@yolandarondon)—Staff Attorney for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). Her work focuses on immigration and on issues related to the surveillance, racial profiling, employment discrimination and hate crimes committed against Arab Americans.
Prior to joining ADC, Yolanda worked for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and as a clerk for Chief Administrative Judge Charetta Harrington at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While in law school, she served as a law clerk in Israel, working on cases involving Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees.
Yolanda has written numerous briefs and appeared in an amicus brief before Supreme Court of the United States in EEOC v. Abercrombie and Fitch: This was the case in which a devout Muslim woman applied for a job at clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch and didn’t get the job—she was told it was because she wore a headscarf and the company had a no caps policy.
Yolanda is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Buffalo and received a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. She earned her Juris Doctor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 2013.
In this episode, we discussed:
- Historical examples of the surveillance of Arab Americans pre- and post-September 11th.
- How incidental data collection practices circumvent Constitutional due process and Fourth Amendment requirements.
- Key policy considerations policymakers should consider regarding the surveillance of Arab-Americans and other people of color.
Resources:
Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted by Ian Millhiser
THE NEWS
Michael Shear at the New York Times reported that last week that DCLeaks.com released Colin Powell's emails to the public, and the Democratic National committee was hacked into once again, an act many officials still believe was committed by the Russian government.
Powell's emails revealed how he *really* feels about Donald Trump and the Clintons. He wrote that Trump embraced a QUOTE "racist" movement when he questioned President Obama's nationality. About Hillary, Powell wrote about his resentment towards Clinton "minions", as he called them, who sought to QUOTE "drag" Powell into the Clinton email controversy by revealing the fact that Powell himself kept at least some of his official communications off the State Department’s servers when HE served as State Secretary. He said he had to QUOTE “throw a mini tantrum” in the Hamptons to get Clinton staffers to keep him out of it.
Powell also called Dick Cheney an idiot in one of the emails and referred to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as “the idiot Rummy”.
But Powell saved his worst vitriol for Bill Clinton, suggesting that Clinton still cheats on Hillary.
Also, William Cummings at USA Today reports that Guccifer 2.0 hacked into the DNC once again last week, this time revealing information on the DNC’s finances as well as personal contact info, including Clinton running mate Tim Kaine’s personal mobile phone number.
Interim DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile is urging DNC staffers not to visit Wikileaks for fear the site would install malware on their computers.
---
Nicholas Fandos at The New York Times reports that the 14th Librarian of Congress took the helm last week when she was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. Dr. Carla D. Hayden is the first African American and first woman to serve in the role
Previously, Dr. Hayden was the Chief Librarian for the City of Baltimore, where she overhauled the library system.Dr. Hayden kept a branch of the library open during the violent aftermath of the police involved killing of Freddie Gray. Two protected the library while stores in the area were looted and burned.
Dr. Hayden plans to improve digital access to the Library of Congress. She is the first new Library of Congress since 1987, but Congress passed a bill last year imposing a ten-year term limit on the position.
----
Ben Sisario over at The New York Times reported thatsongwriters are now suing the Justice Department for the DOJ’s decision last month to uphold the 1941 consent decree the agency entered into with music rights clearinghouses ASCAP and BMI.
The songwriter want what is known as fractional licensing whereby, if multiple songwriters contribute to a song, they can all get paid royalties based on their individual contribution. But the Department of Justice basically said, listen, that’s too complicated -- each license is a 100% license and we’re not going to cut up the license into little pieces. We’re gonna do it the way we’ve always done it: ASCAP and BMI must have a 100% right to license the song--anything less and the music can’t be included it in the blanket licenses broadcasters and streaming music services rely on to play the music.
The songwriters say this arrangement has them earning a pittance for songs they wrote.
----
Facebook and Israel are working together to reduce incitement
on the social media site. The
Associated Press in Jerusalem reports the collaboration comes
amidst the Israeli government pushing for new anti-incitement
legislation. Some advocates say this is a slippery slope towards
censorship.
----
For the first time, theCity of New York coordinated with the Office of Emergency Management to send out a city-wide emergency alert to millions of New Yorkers that described the suspect responsible for the bombs that detonated in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and in New Jersey, Ahmad Khan Rahami. The text contained a description of Rahami and is credited with putting the entire city on high alert, leading to Rahami’s apprehension on Monday morning. An FCC working group released a report recommending improvements to the nation’s Emergency Alert System on Monday. Kavell Waddell has the full story in the Atlantic.
----
Chris Isidore at CNN Money reports that, apparently,AT&T was charging customers in poor areas $30 or more per month for shoddy broadband speeds below 3 megabits per second, even though customers whose speeds were just a couple of megabits higher got it for as little as $5. The average high speed internet in the U.S. is 15 megabits per second.
ATT’s discounted prices for customers getting at least 3 megabits per second were part of the company’s merger conditions when the FCC approved its acquisition of DirectTV. AT&T first said it was sticking to the strict parameters of that condition, but then when it got some negative press for jacking customers with even slower speeds, the company said, “Ok, ok, ok, ok … we’ll change the policy.”
----
Oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that oversees .com and .net registrations, is set to transfer from the U.S. to a multistakeholder model on October 1st. Conservatives are trying to prevent that from happening while progressives and leading tech companies wrote in a letter to Congress QUOTE “a global internet is essential for our economic and national security” END QUOTE Dustin Volz at Reuters has the story. Senator Ted Cruz held up the government funding bill on Monday in an attempt to delay the transition.
——
Finally, Senior White House Official Valerie Jarrett visited San Quentin state prison to acknowledge the efforts of the Last Mile, which teaches prison inmates how to code. Jessica Guynn at USA Today reports that Jarrett said the program is critical for preventing recidivism rates by ensuring inmates can find a job once they’re released. Last Mile co-Founder Beverly Parenti has appeared on this podcast, which you can find on ... episode Episode 33.
Michael Shear at the New York Times reported that last week that DCLeaks.com released Colin Powell's emails to the public, and the Democratic National committee was hacked into once again, an act many officials still believe was committed by the Russian government.
Powell's emails revealed how he *really* feels about Donald Trump and the Clintons. He wrote that Trump embraced a QUOTE "racist" movement when he questioned President Obama's nationality. About Hillary, Powell wrote about his resentment towards Clinton "minions", as he called them, who sought to QUOTE "drag" Powell into the Clinton email controversy by revealing the fact that Powell himself kept at least some of his official communications off the State Department’s servers when HE served as State Secretary. He said he had to QUOTE “throw a mini tantrum” in the Hamptons to get Clinton staffers to keep him out of it.
Powell also called Dick Cheney an idiot in one of the emails and referred to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as “the idiot Rummy”.
But Powell saved his worst vitriol for Bill Clinton, suggesting that Clinton still cheats on Hillary.
Also, William Cummings at USA Today reports that Guccifer 2.0 hacked into the DNC once again last week, this time revealing information on the DNC’s finances as well as personal contact info, including Clinton running mate Tim Kaine’s personal mobile phone number.
Interim DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile is urging DNC staffers not to visit Wikileaks for fear the site would install malware on their computers.
---
Nicholas Fandos at The New York Times reports that the 14th Librarian of Congress took the helm last week when she was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. Dr. Carla D. Hayden is the first African American and first woman to serve in the role.
Previously, Dr. Hayden was the Chief Librarian for the City of Baltimore, where she overhauled the library system.Dr. Hayden kept a branch of the library open during the violent aftermath of the police involved killing of Freddie Gray. Two protected the library while stores in the area were looted and burned.
Dr. Hayden plans to improve digital access to the Library of Congress. She is the first new Library of Congress since 1987, but Congress passed a bill last year imposing a ten-year term limit on the position.
----
Ben Sisario over at The New York Times reported that songwriters are now suing the Justice Department for the DOJ’s decision last month to uphold the 1941 consent decree the agency entered into with music rights clearinghouses ASCAP and BMI.
The songwriter want what is known as fractional licensing whereby, if multiple songwriters contribute to a song, they can all get paid royalties based on their individual contribution. But the Department of Justice basically said, listen, that’s too complicated -- each license is a 100% license and we’re not going to cut up the license into little pieces. We’re gonna do it the way we’ve always done it: ASCAP and BMI must have a 100% right to license the song--anything less and the music can’t be included it in the blanket licenses broadcasters and streaming music services rely on to play the music.
The songwriters say this arrangement has them earning a pittance for songs they wrote.
----
Facebook and Israel are working together to reduce incitement on the social media site. The Associated Press in Jerusalem reports the collaboration comes amidst the Israeli government pushing for new anti-incitement legislation. Some advocates say this is a slippery slope towards censorship.
----
For the first time, the City of New York coordinated with the Office of Emergency Management to send out a city-wide emergency alert to millions of New Yorkers that described the suspect responsible for the bombs that detonated in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood and in New Jersey, Ahmad Khan Rahami. The text contained a description of Rahami and is credited with putting the entire city on high alert, leading to Rahami’s apprehension on Monday morning. An FCC working group released a report recommending improvements to the nation’s Emergency Alert System on Monday. Kavell Waddell has the full story in the Atlantic.
----
Chris Isidore at CNN Money reports that, apparently, AT&T was charging customers in poor areas $30 or more per month for shoddy broadband speeds below 3 megabits per second, even though customers whose speeds were just a couple of megabits higher got it for as little as $5. The average high speed internet in the U.S. is 15 megabits per second.
ATT’s discounted prices for customers getting at least 3 megabits per second were part of the company’s merger conditions when the FCC approved its acquisition of DirectTV. AT&T first said it was sticking to the strict parameters of that condition, but then when it got some negative press for jacking customers with even slower speeds, the company said, “Ok, ok, ok, ok … we’ll change the policy.”
----
Oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that oversees .com and .net registrations, is set to transfer from the U.S. to a multistakeholder model on October 1st. Conservatives are trying to prevent that from happening while progressives and leading tech companies wrote in a letter to Congress QUOTE “a global internet is essential for our economic and national security” END QUOTE Dustin Volz at Reuters has the story. Senator Ted Cruz held up the government funding bill on Monday in an attempt to delay the transition.
——
Finally, Senior White House Official Valerie Jarrett visited San Quentin state prison to acknowledge the efforts of the Last Mile, which teaches prison inmates how to code. Jessica Guynn at USA Today reports that Jarrett said the program is critical for preventing recidivism rates by ensuring inmates can find a job once they’re released. Last Mile co-Founder Beverly Parenti has appeared on this podcast, which you can find on ... episode Episode 33.