Blog of Rights
Mitra
Ebadolahi

Ebadolahi is a graduate of UCLA, the London School of Economics, and NYU School of Law. Prior to joining the ACLU, she clerked for the Hon. Betty B. Fletcher, U.S. Circuit Judge for the 9th Circuit; completed a thesis-based LL.M. in International Legal Studies; and clerked for the Hon. Margaret M. Morrow, U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California. Her areas of expertise include: “extraordinary rendition” and torture; racial, ethnic and religious profiling of minorities & immigrants, and other post-9/11 civil rights infringements; local, state, and national surveillance; FOIA requests and litigation; constitutional and administrative law and litigation; and international human rights law.

 

10/29/2012
FISA

Today at the Supreme Court: The Right to Challenge Warrantless Wiretapping

By Mitra Ebadolahi, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project at 6:26pm

The ACLU appeared before the Supreme Court to argue for the right of Americans to challenge a law that instituted a far-reaching and unconstitutional surveillance regime. 

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02/22/2013
U.S. Torture

"Did You Kiss the Dead Body?"

By Mitra Ebadolahi, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project at 10:47am

Artist's Work Keeps Human Realities of Torture Alive

Last autumn, Rajkamal Kahlon, a Berlin-based American artist, joined the ACLU as an artist-in-residence. Working out of our New York headquarters, Kahlon furthered an on-going project of hers called Did You Kiss the Dead Body? Visualizing Absence in the Archive of War. This week, she launched a new website compiling her stunning original images as well as texts and interviews with ACLU staff: DidYouKissTheDeadBody.com.

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10/05/2012
TSA

In Court Today: The Constitution Also Lives in Airports

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.

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10/03/2012
U.S. Torture

Seeking the Truth About the CIA's Detainee Abuses

By Mitra Ebadolahi, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project at 10:55am

In April 2011, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking a narrow yet critically important set of government documents: internal CIA reports detailing the use of unauthorized interrogation techniques at its secret overseas prisons, also known as “black sites” (you can read the request here). Investigative news coverage and earlier FOIA requests had alerted us to the potential existence of many such reports. Most notably, in August 2009 – in connection with a separate ACLU FOIA request – the government had released a partially-redacted version of one report, the Special Review: Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities (September 2001–October 2003).

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