Today, we kick off a two-part series featuring constitutional and public interest lawyer, public speaker, political activist and educator Daniel Sheehan. Sheehan is currently Chief Counsel of the Romero Institute, where his focus is the Lakota People's Law Project. He also teaches at UCSC (the University of California Santa Cruz) on topics such as U.S. politics, climate change, the potential impeachment of Donald Trump and the Standing Rock Movement against the Dakota Access pipeline, among others.
Today, you will hear Part 1 of Sheehan's Trajectory of Justice course offered in 2019 at UCSC, focusing on oil, money and power and their impact on Indigenous and environmental struggles. Across the United States as well as in Canada, efforts are being made to criminalize protests against the construction of oil and gas pipelines that harm the environment. As of June 2019, seven U.S. states have passed laws that worsen punishments for environmental activists planning or participating in protests against such pipelines. These laws elevate misdemeanors to felonies while significantly escalating civil and criminal penalties. Since 2017, Republican lawmakers have proposed laws criminalizing these protests in at least 18 states. At least six more states are considering such laws. Sheehan also dives into the role of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin's governments in tapping into oil reserves on the Arctic shelf and its environmental consequences.
