The first time I saw those signs, with their vivid neon colors and crude images of stick figures, was 16 years ago. "Fags Die, God Laughs." "No Tears for Queers." "God Hates Fags." Like most people seeing a Westboro Baptist Church picket for the first time, I was shocked, then outraged. It happened at the funeral of a friend who had died of AIDS. Seeing those signs left me in tears.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, patent law was the last thing on my mind. Then again, I didn’t know that one company could have an exclusive right to the genetic information that could save my life.
The right to peacefully assemble, enshrined both in the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law, is an intrinsic element of the democratic fabric of the United States. Yet according to a report released Friday by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an international organization of which the U.S. is a member, America is failing to uphold this fundamental right. The report is the first comprehensive OSCE report on violation of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly that covers the U.S.
The First Amendment guarantees what some might consider the most fundamental freedoms that define our nation.
The ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest is spreading from the streets of New York to cities and towns all across America, and the right to protest and dissent is a key part of this important national conversation.
As long as the ACLU has existed, we've been defending the rights of demonstrators to speak their minds and assemble together. Because we believe dissent is a form of patriotism. We believe all people have the right to free speech and the freedom to stand up for what they believe in.
By Mitra Ebadolahi, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project at 10:24am
The ACLU is appearing today before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to argue on behalf of our client, Nick George.
In August 2009, Nick went to the Philadelphia International Airport to catch a flight to California and begin his senior year at Pomona College. At the airport, he was detained, abusively interrogated, handcuffed, and jailed for several hours in a holding cell – solely because he was carrying a set of Arabic-English flashcards for his language studies, and a book critical of U.S. foreign policy.
By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 5:21pm
The New York Times has an interesting story on the police seizure of witnesses’ cell phones after the shooting of a knife-wielding man in Times Square on Saturday. I wrote about that issue a few weeks ago, and how the DC police department issued a first-of-its-kind policy on how officers should deal with evidence in citizens’ phones.
By Linda Lye, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Northern California at 6:22pm
In a victory for free speech on the Internet, social network giant Facebook last week corrected a mistake that had the unfortunate consequence of blocking political speech and affirmed its commitment to serving as a neutral platform for political advocacy.
By Robyn Greene, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:19am
On February 23, Rolling Stone reported that Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops, commanded his Information Operations (IO) cell to target congressional delegations visiting his base as part of a campaign to manipulate the perceptions and opinions of U.S. senators and representatives through psychological operations (PSYOP).
