Hashtags and Habeus Corpus

Here are some articles about the most successful #activism campaigns from the last four years. In my next post I will evaluating the evolution of #activism by discussing the relative success of some of the campaigns from each year. Then the next posts will discuss a where are they now of some of these campaigns, I will include some of these campaigns posts with other posts throughout the semester. Without further adieu, here they are: 2014:  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/tasha-mitchell/top-10-social-activism-ha_b_6331648.html 2015:  http://www.adweek.com/digital/2015s-top-5-social-activism-campaigns-blacklivesmatter-lovewins-more/ 2016:  https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/12/29/507392744/what-hashtagged-in-2016-womens-rights-pollution-and-pokemon-go 2017: https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2018/01/top-7-moments-of-hashtag-activism-in-2017/ And another more cumulative list of the early days of #activism:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-swit...

I apologize for the gap between posts, I'll be posting two today to make up for my failure to post due to the crazy week I've had! First I wanted to call you all's attention to the #LadyLawyerDiaries, which come are calling the law communities' equivalent of the #MeToo movement. For example the American Lawyer recently interviewed the creator's about this very thing:  https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/sites/texaslawyer/2018/02/15/women-lawyers-join-metoo-movement-with-hashtag-of-their-own/?kw=Women%20Lawyers%20Join%20%23MeToo%20Movement%20with%20Hashtag%20of%20Their%20Own&et=editorial&bu=The%20American%20Lawyer&cn=20180215&src=EMC-Email&pt=Afternoon%20Update They now have their own twitter handle as well, @LadyLawyerDiaries , where they post anonymous submissions. I found the fact that they had demand for anonymous posts unsurprising and indicative of the need to continue the dialogue about gender disparity in the legal community and...

Continuing with the theme of explaining the name of the blog, this post we’re going to talk about Habeus Corpus. Here the black’s law dictionary definition: “ A writ employed to bring a person before a court, most frequently to ensure that the person's imprisonment or detention is not illegal ( habeas corpus ad subjiciendum ). • In addition to being used to test the legality of an arrest or commitment, the writ may be used to obtain judicial review of (1) the regularity of the extradition process, (2) the right to or amount of bail, or (3) the jurisdiction of a court that has imposed a criminal sentence.” It’s basically the mechanism by which you appear before the court to say that you have been wrongfully held in custody. It’s a right with a long history in the common law system and one that our founding fathers were determined to protect in the Constitution. Article I, Section 9, Clause 2 states: “The Privileges of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended unless...

So I was going to post about the origins of the term “hashtag activism” but it seems pretty universally accepted that it began being used to describe the #occupywallstreet movement and that the original use of the term in news article from the Guardian on Sept. 29, 2011. This is an excerpt from that article. "The advent of "hashtag activism" has been greeted with breathless claims about the birth of a new form of technology-based social movement. While such technologies can be extremely useful tools, they do not represent alternatives to the exhausting, age-old work of meeting people where they are, hearing their concerns, reaching common ground, building trust and convincing them that it is in their interests to act politically to change their circumstances. There are no shortcuts here; or to put it another way, it's not the protests that matter, but what happens in the time in between." I think this entire blog may become an exercise in dissecting the ...

I want to uncover the history of #activism, analyze its effectiveness, and discuss how it might be used as a tool for public interest litigation organizations. Hopefully these posts will add some value to your understanding of these topics as well as my own. I welcome comments and will likely be trying some posts that require online community participation, so I hope I get some!

  I often think in today’s society Wikipedia is a pretty good measure of relevance. If “pictures or it didn’t happen” is a thing, then certainly it is also true that “Wikipedia or it doesn’t exist” is also a thing. If someone asks a question about a place, topic, event, or often even a person, and google doesn’t return a Wikipedia page in the first few results you start to wonder: if that pace or event is real, wouldn’t it be on Wikipedia? But I digress, the point is while this is often how we think, that does not mean it is always a valid thought, especially when it comes to emerging trends or ideas. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Hashtag Activism does in fact have its own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag_activism , and it is pretty informative. It includes information on the history, stating “the oldest known mention of the term is from The Guardian  in 2011,” noteable examples, including #BlackLivesMatter, #IdleNOMore, #NODAPL and #Yes...