Blog & Press Releases
Become a Sustaining Member – Get a CLDC Shirt
We are offering a free CLDC t-shirt to any new sustaining member. In troubled political times like these, Civil Liberties Defense Center is called upon to provide expert legal support to a wide variety of social and environmental movements with unprecedented...
Water Protector Undeterred One Year After Standing Rock Police Brutality
Sophia Wilansky was just 21 years old when she gathered with other Water Protectors on the Backwater bridge north of the Standing Rock encampment in North Dakota. She had come to the Oceti Sakowin camp in solidarity with the indigenous led movement to stop the Dakota...
Valve Turner Appeals Court Refusal to Allow the Climate Necessity Defense
November 9, 2017 Mount Vernon, WA — An appeal was filed today in the Washington Court of Appeals challenging a Superior Court ruling that denied climate activists the ability to present a necessity defense to a jury. Ken Ward, a climate activist from Corbett, Oregon,...
Announcing CLDC’s Winter Know Your Rights Training for Trainers Series!
Become a trainer for the immigrant and/or activist community! English and Spanish speakers needed! In Lane County, across the state and the nation, our immigrant and activist communities are being targeted and suppressed by the Trump administration and law...
Advanced GPG Email Encryption: Self-Study Guide
So, you're set up to use GPG email encryption using Thunderbird+Enigmail in one of our trainings or using our online guide. The following exercises will help reinforce key concepts and teach you some advanced tricks. Importing (and fingerprinting) public keys Now...
GPG email encryption guides
Because the confidentiality of your encrypted email relies also on others' settings, for maximum safety until this flaw is patched, please use encrypted instant messengers like, Keybase, Wire or Signal for the most sensitive communications. We recommend people use...
Introduction to Digital Security for Activists (Training Slides)
Activists who do not encrypt their communications put themselves and others at risk of surveillance. Encryption is more important than ever, but also much easier to use than it once was. We will give an overview of state-of-the-art secure communications tools,...
Dress for the Northwest: Use Layers of Encryption to Stay Safe from Unknown Vulnerabilities and Exploits
Vulnerabilities and exploits to Internet-enabled devices are constantly being discovered (and stockpiled). This is one reason why you'll hear us say "there is no such thing as perfect digital security" and "don't bet your life and liberty on this [digital security]...
Update from North Dakota Climate Trial
Greetings from Cavalier, North Dakota where we are currently defending the North Dakota Valve Turners, Michael Foster and Sam Jessup. It’s day 3 of trial today. We spent a day and a half picking a jury in this rural, conservative farming community on the outskirts...
CLDC Seeking Interns!
Here at the CLDC we are falling over with gratitude for the interns and law clerks who have helped, and continue to help, us carry the load. Our intern program continues, year after year, to bring us awesome, like-minded folks who are giving with their time and energy...
Trump Xenophobia Loses Again: Federal Court Rejects Trump’s Attack on Sanctuary Cities
Last week, the Trump Administration lost again in court. This time, the court rejected Trump’s attempt to withdraw federal funding from “sanctuary cities.” Sanctuary cities are those cities that do not require their local police departments to act as de facto...
The importance of authenticity
Short of meeting face-to-face with a person you really know, it is sometimes impossible to know if the person you are communicating with is who you think it is.
Defend DACA
Yesterday, organizers of the Latinx community in Eugene brought together nearly two hundred members of the Eugene community to stand against the Trump administration’s repeal of the DACA program.
Signal: Activist Best Practices
Signal isn't perfect and we're not certain it's designed with activists in mind--for instance, you and your friends can't use it without all using real phone numbers. But still, Signal takes almost zero time or training and equips activists with 5-star end-to-end...
What is Doxing? Can it Be Prevented?
Doxing is the practice of collecting personal info (public or private) and publishing it online. It has been used as a means of intimidation and harassment and CLDC has been asked more than once “what if it happens to me?”
Take Yourselves Seriously: Document Retention and Destruction Policies
In light of the CLDC’s desire to educate activists and organizations regarding law-related topics, we will be presenting a series of informational primers that are particularly important in times of government repression and corporate attacks on dissent. This series,...
Trump’s Climate Bullies
If you troll the internet these days, you might think that SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) and RICO (racketeering) cases may seem to be growing in regularity against environmental activists. In reality, if you compare the tiny number of SLAPP...
More thoughts on Charlottesville
As a devout Jewish child who grew up attending synagogue and Hebrew School, from a very young age I was constantly surrounded by stories of the Holocaust – how Hitler took advantage of economic conditions, found an easy-to-identify “other” for a scapegoat, and rose to...
Digital Security Action Items
So our goal isn't perfect digital security. That's impossible what the woods are for! But what is our goal? I say, let's make it hard for nazis, cops, and mercenaries to get all internal movement comms and adorable puppy photos. Make it so they need Seth Green from...
Anti-Racist Statement
Adopted June 1, 2017 Civil Liberties Defense Center Anti-Racist Statement The Civil Liberties Defense Center affirms its commitment to recognizing, addressing, and eradicating all forms of racism and ethnic oppression. We focus on engaging and collaborating in...
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