Blog of Rights
Gabe
Rottman

Gabe Rottman is a legislative counsel/policy advisor in the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, focusing on the First Amendment. Gabe served as an attorney in private practice before coming back to the ACLU. Prior to law school, Gabe worked in the WLO as a senior writer and communications specialist. Gabe has a J.D. magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a notes editor of the Georgetown Law Journal, and a B.A. from McGill University in political science and history, where he was on the dean’s honors list.

03/01/2007
Guantánamo

A Warm Welcome

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:07pm
First off, let me welcome you to the inaugural of our habeas blog. Thank you for joining us, and I hope you'll continue to come back for the latest news and analysis on the ongoing campaign to restore habeas rights to their historical scope and vigor. Two (or three) words about me: I'm nobody, really. I used to work as a senior writer at the
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07/22/2005

Zero Hour, Minus One

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:09pm

This morning, the news is all about last night's House vote on Patriot Act reauthorization. Lawmakers voted 257-171 to make permanent 14 of the expiring provisions, and to extend two others for an additional decade…which is a very long time.

The news, unfortunately, is not about the Senate Judiciary Committee's legislation, which passed unani

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07/18/2005

FBI Dossiers and the Patriot Act

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:19pm
Opponents of Patriot Act reform chant a common refrain: "show me the abuse." This is, of course, a red herring. Because of the inherent secrecy in the law, finding out how the law is being used;let alone abused;is something of a tall order.

Yet, for the abuse naysayers, take note of this story in
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11/21/2012
Internet Free Expression

Hamas, Twitter and the First Amendment

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:25pm

With one major exception, the Roberts Court has been quite protective of unpopular (and even revolting) speech under the First Amendment. That exception, however, is a doozy. It involves a statute criminalizing “material support” for terrorism, and the danger of the law was on stark display this week with reports of a petition to hold Twitter responsible for allowing Hamas to use the service.

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08/01/2012
Freedom of Expression

Constitution Doesn’t Need Purple Heart After Narrower Stolen Valor Bill Approved

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:46pm

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a revamped version of the so-called Stolen Valor Act. The revamp responded to a Supreme Court decision that declared an earlier version of the legislation—which made it a crime to falsely claim to have a military medal—unconstitutional. Sponsors of that bill failed to learn the lesson of that decision (which was written, not incidentally, by the radical leftist Justice Anthony Kennedy, and joined by card-carrying ACLU member, Chief Justice Roberts). If the original Stolen Valor Act were a seven on the scale of unconstitutionality, the revamped version in the House went to 11. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the initial H.R. 1775 was replaced by a far preferable version introduced by Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR).

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06/14/2012
Freedom of Expression

Selective Leaks Worst of All Worlds for Free Speech

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:21pm

As the election summer heats up, Republicans in Congress are making hay with what they claim are selective leaks by the Obama administration, designed to bolster the president’s national security cred. At a Senate Judiciary hearing yesterday, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) went so far as to call for Attorney General Holder’s resignation in part because of the leak issue. While the jury is decidedly out on the merits of these claims, these questions do need to be asked. If there is one thing more dangerous than over-classification of government information, it’s selective declassification for political gain.

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09/07/2007
Detention

Mr. Addington Gets Called Out

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:10pm
When the historians get their mitts on the Bush presidency, the one essential book that probably will never be written is a biography of David Addington, Vice President Cheney's former top lawyer and current chief of staff (the replacement, of course, for Scooter). Of all of the executive supremacy guys, Mr. Addington is the most prodigious, the most zeal
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08/01/2007

As the President Plays the Fear Card, Gonzales' Shoe Looks Likelier to Drop

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:54pm
Between the tussle over subpoenas, the possibility of contempt or perjury charges, and criticism from both parties over no less than three separate scandals, it's no surprise that the press has begun to tack on "embattled" to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' name.

And the Hill's restlessness over the AG and his programs may also be the reason President Bush is n
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06/15/2007
Detention

Happy Birthday Habeas- Human Rights

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:49pm
Dear Habeas, Happy Birthday! It has been pointed out that even during the most dismal periods of the Dark Ages in Europe that Habeas Corpus was still always upheld. The United States is quickly becoming a rogue nation that represents fear and does not protect human rights - even for its own people - instead of a model for leadership and freedom in t
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06/07/2007
Detention

Breaking News

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:09am
And this is actually "breaking news," not CNN-style "breaking news," where the story broke a week ago. The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted for the Specter/Leahy habeas restoration bill. The committee sent it to the floor with no amendments, no debate and on almost a party line vote (with the GOP sponsor, Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania voting
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