Jacobin Radio: Black Lives Matter LA; Geoffrey Berman

Suzi talks to two student activist/leaders of #StudentsDeserve, Sarah Djato at Dorsey high school, and Asia Bryant, who just graduated from Hamilton High, about their organizing, in partnership with Black Lives Matter LA, to defund school police and reallocate the money ($70 million of the LAUSD budget) to bring in counselors, services, and programs that serve black and brown youth as “students, not suspects.” That idea has now been endorsed by UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles), and will be taken up at the LAUSD School Board meeting this week. Suzi then talks to Los Angeles Times legal affairs columnist, former US Attorney Harry Litman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Litman) to discuss AG William Barr and President Trump against Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Friday night Barr announced Berman would resign, but Berman refused, and Saturday afternoon Trump fired Berman. But it doesn’t stop there, and Harry Litman (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-20/berman-barr-trump-firing-attorney) helps us understand the dizzying array of legal and practical questions this raises. We also talk to Harry (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-19/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-bostock-gay-transgender-civil-rights) about the surprising decision on the Bostock v. Clayton Country Georgia case announced last week that saw our very conservative Supreme Court come to an unexpected rule, by a vote of 6-3 that says Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status — a hugely significant result.