From “stand your ground” to the “border surge”

The fundamental danger (by @aurabogado)

George Zimmerman’s acquittal for Trayvon Martin’s murder has been considered by many, including myself, as an outrage for our legal system. How can a neighborhood vigilante who regularly profiled black males as “suspicious” be allowed to walk free after shooting to death a teenager who was walking home in his own neighborhood armed only with Skillets and iced tea? Within hours of the acquittal, the NAACP began circulating a petition requesting the Department of Justice to take on the case.

Pundits and other legal experts will continue discussing the trial, the prosecutor’s case and jury’s composition, speculating as to the causes for the verdict. Yet, behind the court proceedings lies a more disturbing element, the very existence of so called “stand your ground” laws that ultimately gave Zimmerman legal authority to execute Trayvon Martin with impunity. And crucial to our understanding of these laws is what Reuter’s Joanne Dorshow called upon the verdict “The secretive corporate outfit behind ‘Stand your ground’”: the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC.

From Moyers & Company

Founded four decades ago and officially registered as a non-profit, tax-exempt educational agency, ALEC successfully lobbied and developed much state and local legislation without gaining public notoriety until Trayvon Martin’s assassination in February 2012. It was then, when “stand your ground” laws began to be actively questioned, that this organization and its power came to the national attention. Soon thereafter Bill Moyers and Company aired “United States of ALEC”, its first nationally televised exposé.

Since, this show has kept a careful eye on the organization, airing a series of episodes addressing different aspects of ALEC’s projects and techniques. The group’s activities have also been actively tracked by the Center for Media and Democracy’s ALEC Exposed Wiki and by Common Cause. The former, is a treasure of information. Its site describes the organization as follows:

a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC’s operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills.

The range of legislation written and promoted by ALEC is impressive. “United States of ALEC” lists some of them (the parenthetical notes indicate the time in the documentary when the issues are mentioned):

• Vote suppression (8:30)
• Limit rights of people hurt or killed by corporations
• Limit rights to unionize
• Block climate change legislation
• Preempt living wage legislation (10:50)
• Privatize Medicare
• Oppose Health Care Mandate
• Limit malpractice liability
• Defund public education (32:30)
• Lengthen prison sentences
• Privatize prisons

A major success in ALEC’s strategy has come out of its emphasis on local politicians, away from Washington DC’s limelight. Thus, rather than focus on debating “stand your ground” laws at the national level, ALEC worked with state legislatures (39:50). Scott Walker’s campaign and legislative agenda in Wisconsin also bears ALEC’s imprint (35:10) as does much of radical legislation promoted in Arizona, called in the documentary “practically an ALEC subsidiary” (38:10). On October 2010 NPR ran a story called “Prison Economics Help Drive Arizona Immigration Law”, focusing on the economic interests, orchestrated by ALEC, behind the state’s infamously aggressive anti-immigrant legislation.

As ALEC’s success has been at the local level, it is incumbent upon citizens to be aware of the organization’s regional affiliates. Fortunately, the ALEC Exposed wiki provides a rather comprehensive list of them.

The time is now. Outrage over “stand your ground” assassinations and pork-barrel “border surges” should be an inspiration to expose and face organizations like this one that have been stealthily defining our legal system.