On Tuesday, April 22, the Los Angeles courtroom was packed with attorneys, both prosecutors and public defenders, and nine supporters who came to stand with Luna at her hearing on the unjust charges she is facing for standing up against the overturning of Roe v. Wade. For two days before this hearing, fliers about Luna’s case and about serious charges faced by other revcoms for standing up against Trump/MAGA fascism had been passed out en masse in front of the courthouse—and people around the court house were talking about Luna’s case. 

The charges against Luna stem from 2022 and the courageous actions she and others took in the face of the fascist decision by the Supreme Court, striking down the right to abortion. Luna, a member of THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity, Los Angeles, and a leader at that time of the LA Chapter of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, was arrested for carrying out two nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to call attention to this outrageous attack on women’s fundamental rights to control their own lives and bodies. She was arrested in June of 2022 at the Summit of the Americas where Biden was speaking and at Los Angeles City Hall in July 2022, where four women chained themselves to City Hall after washable red paint was poured down the steps.

While all four women who took part in this righteous City Hall action were arrested, only Luna was charged—with four misdemeanors! The purpose of the April 22 hearing was to hear a motion to dismiss the charges against Luna (called a Murgia motion) on the basis that she had been singled out and selectively prosecuted because of her political affiliations. 

The motion was denied by the judge, and the case was set for trial on May 28. 

Attention had been drawn to Luna’s case because her attorney had subpoenaed the former head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the LA City Attorney to testify about the fact that she had been fired for defying the orders from the City Attorney to bring criminal charges against a pro-Palestine protester who had in fact not even been charged by the LAPD. This was part of a whole pattern which had come to light of the City Attorney choosing to prosecute or not prosecute based on a defendant’s political leanings. The firing of this prosecutor had been covered by the local press, and buzz had been spreading about this airing of outrageous and illegal actions by the Democratic LA City Attorney. Attorneys came out to Luna’s hearing to see what would happen. 

It was exactly this pattern of prosecuting people on the basis of their politics which Luna’s attorney was attempting to demonstrate in this hearing in order to give further evidence about the unfair treatment Luna was being subjected to. In an earlier hearing, evidence had been presented that the LAPD has a history of singling out the revcoms and Refuse Fascism, including having sent an informant into a Refuse Fascism meeting in 2017 and having carried out surveillance on the Revolution Club. All of this illegal behavior by the LAPD had been brought to the light of day during the prosecution in 2019 of Luna and 10 others who protested against the first Trump regime. Those 11 protesters were either found NOT guilty at trial or their charges were dropped prior to trial due to these revelations. This history had been brought before the court to make clear that Luna had in fact been singled out in these 2022 charges because of her politics and past history of resistance. 

Then on Tuesday, the testimony of the former prosecutor about the whole pattern of selective prosecution being practiced by the City Attorney’s office brought further evidence to reinforce the argument that the charges against Luna were unjust and should be dismissed. The prosecution’s only argument in response was that this former prosecutor had not herself been involved in Luna’s case, completely obscuring the whole reality being brought to light about the unjust actions of the LA City Attorney’s office! Despite all the evidence presented that the City Attorney and the LAPD had clear intent to go after Luna because of her politics, the judge summarily denied the motion and remanded the case to trial. 

As we wrote on April 7: 

Luna was arrested and charged for sounding the alarm that taking away the basic rights and humanity of women is part of the rise of Christian fascism in this country being spearheaded by Trump and the Supreme Court he appointed, which was responsible for the overturning of Roe. Everything that has happened in society since then has shown how Luna and the people who participated in these actions were right. They were right to call people out in the streets. They were right then to sound the alarm that the revoking of women's right to abortion was a battering ram for a broader fascist remaking of society. Now with Trump 2.0 this has taken a dramatic and horrifying leap: Women in Texas like Maria Margarita Rojas being the first woman to be arrested under Texas fascist anti-abortion laws, and another woman in Georgia being arrested for having a miscarriage (under suspicion that this was self-induced). Trump is declaring war on all the protections people have in “blue” states like California. And yet the LA city attorney, a Democrat, is aiding and abetting this fascism by choosing to prosecute people who stood up to stop this. People who sounded the alarm and led people to defend this basic right to abortion should be celebrated and not criminalized. 

It is an outrage that this trial is now going forward. 

This trial of Luna is coming at a time when revcoms in Chicago and San Francisco are also facing charges—targeted for their righteous political protest against the Trump/MAGA fascist regime. This is a time when decent people from all different political perspectives and affiliations need to stand together and have the backs of all who are targeted for standing up and resisting fascism and standing up for the fundamental rights of the people.

Everyone who recognizes the grave danger we are facing with Trump/MAGA fascism, and the importance of mobilizing millions to defeat this, should demand: HANDS OFF! DROP THE CHARGES!

STAND WITH LUNA! BE THERE IN COURT MAY 28!

Call the Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto—(213) 978-8100—and demand that all charges be dropped on Elise “Luna” Kelder.