Blog of Rights
Steve
Gosset
Steve Gosset is manager of media relations. He joined the ACLU from Columbia Law School, where he served as press officer. He has also worked at CBS News as a writer, editor and producer for radio and TV. Steve also served as a reporter at The Record in Hackensack, N.J., The Journal-News in West Nyack, NY, and a reporter and editor for United Press International in Albany, N.Y.
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01/09/2013
Search And Seizure

ACLU Lens: ACLU Tells Supreme Court Warrantless Blood Tests of DWI Suspects Not Justified

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 3:33pm

The ACLU told the U.S. Supreme Court today that warrantless blood tests of drunken driving suspects should not be allowed, especially when a search warrant could be obtained in a timely fashion.

The ACLU represents Tyler McNeely, the respondent in the case, Missouri v. McNeely. He was pulled over in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 2010 on suspicion of drunk driving. After refusing a field sobriety test, he was taken to a local hospital where blood was forcibly drawn to obtain a sample to test his blood-alcohol content. The arresting officer did not obtain a warrant prior to the blood draw. Two Missouri courts later ruled the blood evidence could not be used against McNeely.

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11/29/2012
Online Privacy

ACLU Lens: Get Off My Cloud! Senate Bill Requires Warrants for Government to Spy on Email, Digital Communications

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 5:00pm

The Senate Judiciary Committee today passed an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Among its provisions, is a requirement that law enforcement agencies obtain a warrant before they can take a peek at your email, private social network posts and other information stored in the cloud.

ECPA would replace legislation dating back to 1986—when the Internet was still taking baby steps and privacy considerations were not paramount. Any way you slice it, it’s an analog measure in a digital world and badly in need of replacement.

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10/02/2012
Challenges to Voter Suppression Laws

No Pictures Please: Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Put on Hold

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 7:30pm

In a victory for Pennsylvania voters, a state judge today halted the enforcement of the state’s voter ID law, which threatened to disenfranchise thousands of elderly residents, students, the homeless and communities of color this November. 

Judge Robert Simpson Jr. ruled that he was “not convinced” that the requirement to show photo ID at polling stations would not lead to voter disenfranchisement, as the state had argued.

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09/20/2012
HIV/AIDS Discrimination in Prisons

"Y'all Will Not Walk My Halls and Spread HIV."

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 10:09am

For 25 years, the ACLU has been a forceful advocate to end discrimination against prisoners living with HIV. We've worked to end their segregation from the rest of the prison population and ensure they are afforded access to vital services and programs.

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05/18/2012
Anti-Immigrant Laws

ACLU Lens: Alabama Governor Signs New Anti-Immigrant Measure into Law

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 11:08pm

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley late Friday signed a measure that makes small changes to the state’s anti-immigrant law. The move came a day after he signaled he might veto the measure because he found two key parts unacceptable, including a "scarlet letter" provision that would have branded many law-abiding immigrants as criminals.

Despite his reservations, Bentley said he signed the measure to “remove the distraction of immigration” from a special session of the Legislature he called this week, and allow what he called “progress made in the legislation to move forward.”

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05/03/2012
Military Commissions

Orwell Comes to the Guantanamo Tribunal

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 1:07pm

The government wants to censor any statements the defendants have made about how they’ve been treated while in U.S. custody.

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04/23/2012
Organization News and Highlights

"I'll Take the ACLU for $600, Alex"

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 12:51pm

The ACLU loves Double Jeopardy. Really.

A quick explanation is in order. We're not talking about the prohibition in the Fifth Amendment against double jeopardy—being tried again for the same crime after being acquitted. Trust us, we're down with that. Have been. Always will be.

The version we're more enamored with can be seen five nights a week on the second round of Jeopardy, the venerable game show that featured the ACLU as a category on Friday.

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03/06/2012
Voter Suppression

Colbert: Voting Advocates Destroying America

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 9:53am

Did you hear the one about the Florida teacher who registered students to vote but was fined $1,000 when she didn’t turn the forms in right away?

Actually, it’s no joke. Then again, it might be, as Stephen Colbert was good enough to show us last week on The Colbert Report.

What are raising his hackles, according to the ACLU of Florida, are do-gooders like this teacher who have the temerity to lead by example. In a segment on the program, Colbert, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, found truthiness in attempts by Sunshine State officials to sunset various ways to make it easier to vote there.

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02/09/2012

The Lovings: A Couple That Changed History

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 2:46pm

Mildred and Richard Loving never set out to have their marriage become the subject of one of the most famous civil rights cases of the last century.

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01/16/2012
FBI

The FBI's War against Dr. King Revisited

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 10:17am

Over the course of two decades, the FBI went to war against Dr. Martin Luther King, even though the civil rights leader never knew he was under attack.

As Dr. King’s political power, stature and influence grew, the FBI, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, grew increasingly obsessed with King. In turn, they used various tactics in the ‘50s and ‘60s to try and discredit him, such as mounting a full-court press to portray him as a Communist provocateur, attempting to disrupt tributes after Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and repeatedly bugging his hotel rooms.

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