Federal law enforcement agents confront protesters Sunday in Portland, Ore. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

Federal law enforcement agents confront protesters Sunday in Portland, Ore.

A group of six U.S. mayors on Monday penned a letter to Congress asking that it pass legislation to block the Trump administration from deploying federal law enforcement to cities without their officials' consent.

The mayors of Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Albuquerque, N.M., Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, Mo., signed on to the letter that criticized the administration for sending "unidentified federal agents to operate with impunity" in cities where demonstrations against police brutality and racism continue.

"Over the last several weeks, Americans have responded to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others by protesting the structural racism embedded in our country. We are encouraged that so many of our residents are exercising their First Amendment rights to stand up against these injustices. At the same time, we are outraged that the administration has responded to these First Amendment-protected gatherings by authorizing the deployment of riot-gear clad forces to Washington, D.C., Portland, Seattle and other communities across the country without the consent of local authorities," the group wrote.

"This administration's egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen."

President Trump in recent weeks has made extinguishing the anti-racism and police brutality protests a top priority as Americans' views on his ability to manage ongoing social and public health issues slip, according to recent opinion polls.

Citing an interest in protecting public property, which in some instances has been damaged, including instances of protesters tearing down Confederate monuments, Trump has vowed to continue deploying federal law enforcement agents to cities where he says progressive leadership has failed.

Critics said this move is an example of federal overreach and that the agents only worsen the likelihood of violent interactions between police and protesters.

In Portland particularly, officers in military gear have grabbed protesters off the street and thrown them into unmarked vehicles to take them away for questioning.

Last week, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who signed the Monday letter, called the federal agents' presence an "unconstitutional occupation." Federal officers later tear gassed him and others in a crowd.

Excerpt from:

Mayors Demand Congress Block Trump From Deploying Federal Agents To Cities - NPR

Alf Clausen, who spent 27 years as the animated show's lead composer, says Fox is being deceitful about the motivations for his firing.

As the old saying goes, no business is like show business. For one thing, show business is speech business. But what acts by an entertainment producer are legitimately free speech? And what acts are plain ol' discrimination? That's not always clear. Just look at the ongoing case of Alf Clausen, the 79-year-old who was fired as Simpsons composer after 27 years of celebrated work on the animated classic. As his lawsuit heads towards an important hearing next week, Clausen looks to undercut Fox's positioning that this dispute relates to an important First Amendment issue.

Clausen is suing Disney and its Fox divisions with the claim that his termination was due to age and disability discrimination. The musician says he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he objects to how Simpsons producers dumped him in favor of Hans Zimmer's company.

In April, in an attempt to defeat the suit, Fox gave a different side of the story. According to the defendant's court papers, Clausen was fired after producers raised concerns about his work in connection with one particular hip-hop themed episode of the animated show. Simpsons producer James L. Brooks wondered if Clausen was the right person to prepare rap music while others allegedly were disturbed by the discovery that Clausen had been delegating some of the work of composing music for The Simpsons to others, including his son Scott Clausen. Overall, according to declarations by other top producers on the show, the feeling was that the music could be improved by replacing Clausen.

"Defendants have presented evidence that the decision not to use Clausen as composer in future episodes of The Simpsons had speech-related motivations," wrote an attorney for the Simpsons defendants.

"Lies and deceit," responds Clausen's just-filed opposition. (Read in full here.)

"Mr. Clausens evidence... demonstrates that, since at least 2008, Fox had known he regularly delegated the composition of music to members of his team," states the brief. "This fact is confirmed not only through Fox's own cue sheets, but emails between Matt Selman, Al Jean, Carol Farhat and even James Brooks, wherein discussions about Scott Clausen and others composing cues are undeniable."

The plaintiff's attorneys then add, "The notion that Mr. Clausen was unable to capture the showrunners vision is equally ludicrous... Mr. Clausen won two Emmys, five Annie Awards and became the most nominated composer in Emmy history, amassing a record 23 Emmy nominations for his work on The Simpsons. The mere fact that Al Jean and Matt Selman routinely skipped the recording sessions suggests how much faith and confidence they had in Mr. Clausen delivering their vision."

As for whether Clausen is capable of doing hip hop, the composer says Brooks is only unveiling telling "discriminatory ageist beliefs that Mr. Clausen was only good at old styles of music, rather [than] up-to-date genres, such as rap, electronic, etc.even though the evidence and his work history prove otherwise."

At an Aug 5 hearing in Los Angeles Superior court, the issue for the judge won't necessarily be whetherSimpsons producers were justified in replacing Clausen, who also says he's worked within budget parameters. Instead, the question may be: Was the firing about the music? Because if it's about the music, Fox stands a very good chance of prevailing on its anti-SLAPP motion. Clausen implies that his firing wasn't about the music.

California's SLAPP statute is intended to swiftly dispense with frivolous lawsuits interfering with someone's free speech. Under the first prong of SLAPP analysis, a judge examines whether a legal action arises from an act furthering a defendant's First Amendment activity in connection with a public issue. That analysis gets somewhat complicated with regards to entertainment and media companies. Courts don't want to overlook discrimination, but on the other hand, judges are mindful that these entities produce speech as a regular function. That sometimes means that a controversial decision by an entertainment or media defendant can be connected to a significant issue of speech. No wonder the topic has been the subject of very recent appellate opinions (like this one or that one).

So was Clausen's firing motivated by a desire to improve the music on The Simpsons as Fox contends or is that reasoning just pretextual? And how does a judge weight the evidence? Here, Clausen's attorneys Thomas Girardi and Ebby Bakhtiar attempt to convince the judge that Fox's prior knowledge about work delegation, among other things now in submission, add up to an inference that Fox is being deceitful with respect to the decision to terminate the show's longtime composer.

If Clausen doesn't prevail on this point, then L.A. Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern will then turn towards an analysis of the merit of Clausen's claims. Under the second prong of the SLAPP statute, a plaintiff must establish a probability of prevailing before moving any further in the case. Clausen's lawyers translate this as meaning the suit need only show "minimal merit" (which they believe they have met), although Fox is likely to argue the screen is higher, particularly given the legitimate rationale they have offered forClausen's termination.

See more here:

A 79-Year-Old Doing Hip Hop? 'The Simpsons' Is Where Free Speech Battles Age Bias Claims - Hollywood Reporter

Hitler had his Brown shirts and Mussolini had his Black shirts, now Donald Trump has his camouflage shirts. Thus began a statement signed by 15 distinguished interdenominational religious leaders in Chicago that I joined, including ministers, priests, and rabbis.

Comparisons to Hitler are always explosive, but the comparison is apt. Hitlers bullyboys, the statement continues, operated on the fringes or outside of the law to violently intimidate Germanys leftists and finally to exterminate Jews. Trumps bully boys are operating on the fringes or outside the law to violently intimidate Americas progressives and people of color who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest racial injustice.

Portland, Oregon, provides the model. Trump dispatched untrained, unidentified, camouflage-wearing, military-uniformed, no name-tagged bullyboys who are literally kidnapping protesters, stuffing them in unidentified vans, taking them to unknown locations without charges and against the wishes of local law enforcement officers the mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon.

Trump has announced that he will send similar teams to Chicago, New York, Detroit, Atlanta, Baltimore and other liberal Democrat-run cities, to use his phrase. The excuse is to defend federal property. The reality is that this is a cynical re-election ploy. As Portland shows, Trumps gambit will spark a large, hostile reaction which The excuse is to defend federal property. The reality is that this is a cynical re-election ploy.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has warned Trump not to try this in Chicago. [N]o troops, no agents that are coming in outside of our knowledge, notification, and control that are violating peoples constitutional rights. Lightfoot told CNNs Jake Tapper on Sunday during an appearance on State of the Union. We cant just allow anyone to come into Chicago, play police in our streets, in our neighborhoods, when they dont know the first thing about our city. Thats a recipe for disaster. And thats what youre seeing playing out in Portland on a nightly basis.

We support her resistance and the opposition expressed by the Pentagon, members of Congress, former U.S. military officials, historians and constitutional scholars to Trumps effrontery.

We dont need the presidents thugs in Chicago, but we would like real federal assistance. While overall crime has decreased compared to last year, violent crime particularly murders and shootings has soared.

Chicago has no gun shop and no gun range. The guns come from outside of Chicago, generally across the border from Indiana. We need common sense regulations on guns to stop the pipeline into Chicago. Trump could help because it is Republicans and the gun lobby that stands in the way.

Real federal assistance wouldnt be dispatching bullyboys to terrorize citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. It would help with jobs and training for the young. It would help with rent and mortgage forgiveness during the pandemic lockdown when people cant work. If Trump and Senate Republicans dont act immediately, literally millions will be on the verge of eviction.

We need real investment in our schools, so the savage inequality with suburban schools can be reduced. We need health care to be a right, not a privilege, and at the very least for the federal government to cover all medical expenses related to COVID-19. In a pandemic, we all have a stake in ensuring that the sick can afford to get the treatment they need.

Our sons and daughters volunteer to serve in the military. When Vladimir Putin puts a bounty on the heads of our soldiers, we need Trump to defend them, not to ignore the attack.

Trump scorns real assistance to cities. He scorns meeting with our elected leaders before announcing that he plans to dispatch his thugs to our city. And he disgraces our democracy with this cynical and dangerous campaign ploy.

Black Lives Matter Chicago and other organizations are going to court to get an injunction to prohibit Trumps agents from interfering in or otherwise policing lawful and peaceful assemblies and protests in Chicago.

The religious leaders who issued the statement pledged that if Trump dispatched bullyboys to Chicago without the permission of the mayor, they would be met with a massive, disciplined, nonviolent ... march of resistance. We will not let the president trample our Constitution, suppress our rights, and terrorize our citizens with impunity.

Follow Rev. Jesse Jackson on Twitter @RevJJackson

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com

See the article here:

We dont need Trumps thugs in Chicago - Chicago Sun-Times