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Americans United For Separation Of Church And State And ACLU File Brief Objecting To Government Promotion of Prayer In Texas' "Moment Of Silence" Law (06/09/2008)
NEW ORLEANS - Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas submitted a friend-of-the-court brief today to a federal appeals court urging the court to rule against a religiously motivated 2003 amendment to Texas' "Moment of Silence" statute. The amendment added "pray" to the statute's list of activities for students during the moment of silence.

ACLU Announces $335 Million Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Fundraising Campaign, Largest In American History (06/09/2008)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the public phase of the largest fundraising campaign on behalf of civil rights and liberties in American history. The $335 million "Leading Freedom Forward: The ACLU Campaign for the Future" is an unprecedented effort to build the organization's infrastructure by increasing funding to key state affiliates nationwide, dramatically enhancing advocacy capabilities and securing the ACLU's financial future for generations to come.

ACLU Statement on President Bush’s Directive Mandating Employment Verification for All Governmental Contracts (06/09/2008)
Late last week, President Bush issued a National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive that requires all governmental contracts to go through an employment verification process, checking potential employees against their Social Security file. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has been plagued with errors for individual records, resulting in massive backlogs in SSA field offices for the elderly and disabled. Adding employment verification to the SSA’s duties would only exacerbate problems the agency is already facing.

ACLU Announces Rights / Camera / Action (06/06/2008)
NEW YORK - Rights / Camera / Action, a new program of the American Civil Liberties Union that uses the arts and popular culture as a platform for civil liberties discussions, kicks off this Sunday, June 8 with a panel discussion at the 2008 ACLU Membership Conference in Washington, D.C. Rights / Camera / Action will bring together artists and entertainment professionals, civil liberties experts, activists and public audiences of all ages to talk about the wide range of civil liberties issues addressed in film and the arts historically and currently.

ACLU Statement on Airport Body Scanning Machines (06/06/2008)

U.N. Committee Decries Military Treatment Of Youth At Home And Abroad (06/06/2008)
GENEVA – A United Nations committee of human rights experts today issued a strongly worded critique of the United States' record on the detention and treatment of youth in U.S. military custody abroad. The committee also urged the U.S. to make sweeping policy changes regarding domestic military recruitment practices that target juveniles. The committee reviewed reports and testimony from the U.S. government as well as "shadow reports" by the American Civil Liberties Union and other non-governmental organizations before issuing the report.

ACLU At Guantánamo Today to Attend Military Commissions (06/05/2008)
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - As part of a $15 million commitment to provide adequate legal defense for several Guantánamo detainees, attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union are present for the arraignment today of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on terrorism-related charges before the Bush administration's military commissions. Earlier this week, attorneys David Nevin and Scott McKay met for several hours with Mohammed as part of the John Adams Project, a partnership between the ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) to supplement the under-resourced military defense teams that have been assigned to the detainees.

ACLU Says No Deal on an Unconstitutional FISA Compromise (06/05/2008)
Washington, DC – As news continues to trickle down from Capitol Hill regarding a deal on surveillance legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union once again voiced its fervent opposition to any attempt to undercut the Fourth Amendment or allow the telecommunications companies to gain blanket immunity for illegal spying. Before the Memorial Day recess the ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) floated what he claims is a compromise on surveillance legislation that will allow for sham court proceedings, virtually guaranteeing immunity to telecommunications companies. The ACLU strongly opposes this unconstitutional proposal.

ACLU Statement On Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Rejection Of Legal Defense (06/05/2008)
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - At his arraignment today before a Guantánamo military commission on terrorism-related charges, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees accused of participating in the 9/11 attacks refused legal representation by military and civilian defense attorneys.

ACLU Secures End To Overcrowding At San Diego Correctional Facility (06/04/2008)
SAN DIEGO - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) agreed today to keep the number of immigration detainees housed at the San Diego Correctional Facility (SDCF) within the facility's design capacity.

ACLU Urges Congress to Investigate Role of Top State Department Officials in Torture (06/04/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today urged members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Human Rights Subcommittee to use its hearing this morning to start an investigation into the role of current top U.S. Department of State officials in approving the use of torture on detainees. The Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee about the recently released Office of the Inspector General report of the FBI’s role in the interrogation of detainees held by the U.S.

ACLU Urges Congress to Maximize Medical Privacy of Electronic Health Records (06/04/2008)
Washington, DC—The American Civil Liberties Union urges the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health at today’s hearing to develop privacy and security standards at the same time the health care industry converts from paper to electronic patient records. The ACLU warns that without real patient controls and compensation for misused data, American medical records are extremely vulnerable to being lost or stolen from these systems.

9/11 Victims' Families Send Letter Decrying Politicization Of Guantánamo Military Commissions (06/03/2008)
NEW YORK – Family members of 9/11 victims have sent a letter today to Susan Crawford, Convening Authority of the Guantánamo military commissions, sharply criticizing the politicization of the system. According to news reports, a Pentagon representative secretly invited an outspoken supporter of the military commissions to Guantánamo Bay for Thursday's arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees on terrorism-related charges, but did not make this option available to family members who have expressed criticism of the commissions. This type of politicization is symptomatic of the unconstitutional and biased tribunal system, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

La ACLU felicita al Subcomité Judicial (06/03/2008)
Washington, DC—La Unión Americana de los Derechos Civiles, o ACLU, por sus siglas en ingles, felicitó al Subcomité Judicial de la Cámara de Representantes sobre Inmigración, Ciudadanía, Refugiados, Seguridad Fronteriza y Derecho Internacional, por haber convocado para mañana [4 de junio] una muy necesitada audiencia para supervisar los problemas de atención médica de las personas detenidas por quebrantar las leyes de inmigración. La ACLU exhorta al Congreso a efectuar una investigación concienzuda acerca del incumplimiento de la autoridades de inmigración y aduanales (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, o ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) en cuanto a brindar atención médica básica, lo cual ha conllevado al sufrimiento innecesario e incluso la muerte de los detenidos.

Mentally Ill Man Receives Life Sentence After 18 Years On Tennessee Death Row (06/03/2008)
NASHVILLE – A severely mentally ill man who spent 18 years on death row and whose conviction and death sentence were reversed by a Tennessee appeals court in March was sentenced to life imprisonment today. Richard Taylor, twice forced to stand trial despite his severe mental illness, agreed to the sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to the 1981 murder of a Tennessee prison guard – a crime committed only after prison officials stopped giving Taylor his anti-psychotic medication.

Court Blocks Local Arizona Anti-Solicitation Law (06/02/2008)
PHOENIX - The U.S District Court in Phoenix issued a preliminary order today stopping the town of Cave Creek, Arizona from enforcing an anti-solicitation ordinance that infringes on the free speech rights of day laborers in that town. Pending a final ruling in the case, the order ensures that day laborers will be able to exercise their constitutional rights by expressing their availability to work by standing in public areas without fear of being cited under the ordinance.

El tribunal suspende ley local que prohíbe solicitar empleo en Arizona (06/02/2008)

Judge Orders Children Returned To Their Families (06/02/2008)
AUSTIN, TX - Judge Barbara Walther ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services today to return more than 400 children removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas to their families. The order follows a Texas Supreme Court decision last week holding that Judge Walther erred when she initially granted the state temporary custody of the children without requiring the state first to submit, in accordance with Texas law, evidence of a continuing threat of physical harm to the children.

Abrupt Dismissal Of Judge Is More Evidence Of Military Commissions' Illegitimacy (05/30/2008)
NEW YORK - Providing more evidence of the illegitimacy of the Bush administration's fundamentally flawed military commission system, the Pentagon abruptly dismissed judge Army Col. Peter Brownback without explanation late yesterday from the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee. According to Khadr's lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, the timing of the judge's removal was suspicious because Brownback had recently threatened to suspend the case if prosecutors refused to hand over important records about Khadr's confinement to the defense lawyers. Just last week, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the legal system under which Khadr was detained and prosecuted at Guantanamo violated international law.

ACLU Urges Court to Correct Constitutional Errors (05/30/2008)
AUSTIN -- The ACLU is encouraged by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther’s scheduling of a hearing for 2 p.m. today to address yesterday's Texas Supreme Court decision that the state's removal of over 400 children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch (YFZ) in Eldorado was unwarranted. The Supreme Court decision let stand an appellate ruling that Judge Walther must vacate her order granting custody of all of the YFZ children to the Department of Family and Protective Services.