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Court Bars Corrections Department From Sending More Women To Inhumane Conditions In NJ Men's Prison (07/24/2008)
TRENTON – In three separate opinions today totaling 77 pages, the New Jersey Superior Court stopped the Department of Corrections (DOC) from transferring any more women prisoners to the New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), a men's Supermax prison, for the duration of an ongoing legal battle over previous unlawful transfers. The court also granted the women's request to pursue their claims as a class action. In addition, the court denied a motion by the DOC, brought on five separate legal grounds, to dismiss the women prisoners' complaint, and also rejected the DOC's motion to terminate the case.

ACLU Urges Congress to Define Medical Privacy as Patient Control of Electronic Health Records (07/23/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today urges the House Energy and Commerce Committee to require patient control of medical records and compensation for privacy breaches to be a part of the standards set for converting to electronic patient records. The ACLU cautions that H.R. 6357, the “Protecting Records, Optimizing Treatment, and Easing Communication through Healthcare Technology Act of 2008” or the PRO(TECH)T Act, has insufficient privacy provisions and leaves patients vulnerable to bad, lost, stolen or misused data.

Congress Should Demand Answers from Attorney General (07/23/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union urges the House Judiciary Committee to demand accountability from Attorney General Michael Mukasey during the Department of Justice oversight hearing scheduled for today.

Federal Court Once Again Upholds Ban On Unconstitutional Internet Censorship Law (07/22/2008)
PHILADELPHIA - In a clear victory for free speech today, a federal court once again upheld a ban on a law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the unconstitutional Child Online Protection Act (COPA) on behalf of a broad coalition of writers, artists and health educators who use the internet to communicate constitutionally protected speech.

ACLU Applauds Federal Court Decision To Toss Fine In "Wardrobe Malfunction" Case (07/21/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded a federal appeals court decision to uphold free speech by throwing out a $550,000 indecency fine leveraged against CBS for the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” that exposed her breast at the 2004 Super Bowl.

ACLU Asks FCC to Scrutinize ISP Surveillance of Customers’ Internet Habits (07/21/2008)
Washington, DC – Today as part of the FCC field hearing at Carnegie Mellon University on broadband and the digital future, the American Civil Liberties Union will submit written comments about how Deep Packet Inspections (DPI) and other practices threaten Americans’ online privacy and a neutral Internet.

ACLU Challenges Alabama Voter Disenfranchisement Laws In Court (07/21/2008)
MONTGOMERY, AL – The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Alabama filed a lawsuit today challenging the state's voter disenfranchisement laws and practices as unconstitutional. According to its state constitution, Alabama may deny voting rights to individuals who have been convicted of felonies involving "moral turpitude." Although this term is not defined, the constitution clearly states that only the legislature can decide which felonies qualify under this category. In its lawsuit today, the ACLU charges that the state is disfranchising thousands of Alabamians under a much broader category of convictions than is permissible under the constitution, relying in part on an unlawful opinion issued by Alabama's attorney general.

Mukasey Calls On Congress to Subvert Constitution (07/21/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – In an enormous executive branch power grab, Attorney General Michael Mukasey called on Congress today to authorize indefinite detention through a new declaration of armed conflict. Mukasey also proposed that Congress subvert the right of habeas corpus with a new scheme of procedures that will hide the Bush administration’s past wrongdoing – an action that would undermine the constitutional guarantee of due process and conceal systematic torture and abuse of detainees.

ACLU Calls for Probe of Secretary Chertoff’s Use of Terrorist Watch List (07/17/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union calls on the committee to exercise vigorous oversight of the many DHS programs that endanger U.S. citizens’ privacy and civil liberties without increasing security. DHS’s unchecked detention and deportation powers have resulted in abusive interrogations of families with children at checkpoints, creation of militarized zones within the U.S. and widespread fear in immigrant communities facing natural disasters. Collectively, these practices illustrate how DHS has mismanaged its authority and wasted resources.

ACLU Seeks Answers on Torture from Former Attorney General Ashcroft (07/17/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union calls on former Attorney General John Ashcroft, in today’s House Judiciary hearing, to provide Congress and the American people with answers to questions about when, why and how the use of torture was authorized. Ashcroft presided over the Department of Justice (DOJ) during President Bush’s first term in office, when the legal rationale for using torture and abuse during interrogations of detainees held by the United States was first articulated in a series of legal memos. The notorious memos, known as the “torture memos,” were produced by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), a DOJ office that assists the attorney general in his function as legal advisor to the president and all executive branch agencies.

ACLU Warns Against Intrusive Deep Packet Inspection (07/17/2008)
Washington, DC – Americans’ online privacy was discussed today at a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. The hearing, titled “What Your Broadband Provider Knows About Your Web Use: Deep Packet Inspection and Communications Laws and Policies,” was meant to shed light on the practice of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) by Internet service providers (ISPs). DPI allows ISPs to track users’ Internet browsing activities and can be data mined for targeted marketing purposes. The ACLU urges members of the committee to be wary of the privacy landmines inherent in DPI.

Federal Court Rules Unconstitutional Guantánamo Trial Of Salim Hamdan Can Proceed (07/17/2008)
NEW YORK – Despite acknowledging questions about the constitutionality of the Guantánamo military commission system, a D.C. federal district judge ruled today that the military trial of Yemeni national Salim Hamdan can proceed.

Lesbian Appeals Firing From Publicly-Funded Baptist Group Home In Kentucky (07/17/2008)
The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a brief today in a federal appeals court urging the court to allow a discrimination lawsuit to go forward on behalf of a lesbian who was fired from her job at a publicly-funded Baptist group home in Kentucky. The home for vulnerable children required the woman to observe its religious belief that being a lesbian is sinful. The brief also charges that taxpayers should be able to challenge the state of Kentucky's decision to give public funds to a home that imposes its religious beliefs upon the children in its care.

ACLU Sues Government Over Citizenship Delay For Iraq War Hero (07/16/2008)
KANSAS CITY, MO – The American Civil Liberties Union sued the government in a federal court in Kansas for unlawfully delaying the citizen application of Julian Polous Al Matchy, a highly decorated U.S. Army war hero. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court with the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri in cooperation with the McCrummen Immigration Law Group, LLC against Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FBI Director Robert Mueller and two officers of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

CA Supreme Court Rules On Bennett v. Bowen (07/16/2008)
SAN FRANCISCO - Today, the California Supreme Court issued an order in Bennett v. Bowen, S164520, denying a petition to remove Proposition 8, the proposed marriage ban, from the November ballot.

Demanda contra el alguacil Arpaio por el uso de perfiles raciales contra los latinos en el Condado de Maricopa (07/16/2008)
PHOENIX - El día de hoy, cinco individuos y Somos América, una coalición de latinos de la comunidad, demandaron al alguacil del Condado de Maricopa, Joe Arpaio, a la Oficina del Alguacil del Condado de Maricopa (MCSO, por sus siglas en inglés) y al Condado de Maricopa, con la acusación de que los miembros de su organización eran obligados a detenerse y luego maltratados por las fuerzas del orden público debido a que eran latinos. La demanda de acción de clase, la cual se sustenta en una denuncia hecha el pasado mes de diciembre, se encuentra ante el Tribunal de Distrito del fuero federal en Arizona.

Proposed Bush Regulations Jeopardize Women’s Health (07/16/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today expressed its outrage at draft regulations proposed by the Bush administration that could jeopardize access to basic health care for millions of American women, and possibly compel women’s health clinics to hire individuals unwilling to perform everyday job duties.

Sheriff Arpaio Sued Over Racial Profiling Of Latinos In Maricopa County (07/16/2008)
PHOENIX – Today, five individuals and Somos America, a Latino community-based coalition, sued Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office (MCSO) and Maricopa County, charging that they or their members were unlawfully stopped and mistreated by law enforcement because they are Latino. The class action lawsuit - which builds upon a complaint filed last December - is before the U.S. District Court in Arizona.

ACLU At Guantánamo For Military Commission Hearings This Week (07/15/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union is at Guantánamo Bay this week observing the military commission hearings of Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose trial is scheduled to begin next week. Separately, a federal judge is holding a hearing on Thursday to decide whether to delay Hamdan's trial and allow lawyers to continue challenging the legality of the commission system. A ruling in favor of Hamdan could bring the unlawful military commissions to a halt.

As Guantánamo Video Is Made Public, ACLU Calls On Government To Release Wrongfully Withheld Documentation Of Detainee Abuse (07/15/2008)
NEW YORK – Despite vigorous attempts by the Bush administration to block the release of footage showing the policies inside Guantánamo, lawyers made public a video today documenting the interrogation of Omar Khadr, a Canadian captured in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was 15 years old.