By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Dena Sher, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:04pm
On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held an important hearing on workplace discrimination experienced by those who are or perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). The hearing addressed the need for federal legislation, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), to create uniform protections for LGBT people in the workplace. The sad reality remains that it is legal to fire or refuse to hire workers based on sexual orientation in 29 states and gender identity in 34 states.
By Michael Tan, Staff Attorney, Immigrants' Rights Project, ACLU at 2:23pm
Adriana Sanchez, whose story was recently reported by the Associated Press, was brought from Mexico to Central California at age twelve by her parents, who are both farm workers. The family overstayed their visas. As the AP explained:
Even though Sanchez excelled in high school, she was in the country illegally, lacked a Social Security number and work permit, and didn’t qualify for financial aid. But she volunteered hundreds of hours and paid her way through college and graduate school with a dozen internships. Now 24, Sanchez graduated last week from California State University, Fresno with a master’s degree in International Relations, a full-time job [as an independent contractor] and no loans to repay.
Yesterday, voters across North Dakota wisely rejected Measure 3, a proposed amendment to the state constitution that could have undermined crucial health, safety, and civil rights protections in the state. Measure 3, the so-called “Religious Liberty Restoration Amendment,” would have created a new, vastly expanded constitutional right to invoke religious freedom as an excuse to discriminate, ignore existing state and local laws, and claim an entitlement to taxpayer funds and other state benefits. The vote was a victory for all North Dakotans, the great majority of whom recognize that religious freedom need not come at the expense of other cherished rights and values.
Jocelyn came to the United States when she was six years old, brought by a single mom who wanted her to go to school and have a better life than she did. Today, at age 14, Jocelyn is an honors student in Alabama, where she hopes to become the first in her family to graduate from high school, and to one day become a doctor. Jocelyn is striving to live the American Dream.
By Devon Chaffee, Legislative Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:37am
Yesterday 22 Members of Congress sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice urging him to launch an investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's improper recording and dissemination of information about the First Amendment-protected activities of American Muslims. Several of the members who joined the letter-including Representatives Pete Stark (D-CA-13), Anna Eshoo (D-CA-14), Sam Farr (D- CA-17), Mike Honda (D- CA-15), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-16), and Barbara Lee (D-CA-09) -represent districts in Northern California in which FBI memoranda document the use of community outreach for intelligence purposes.
On this day in 1965, the Supreme Court first protected the right to contraception. A 7-2 decision, Griswold v. Connecticut was joined by justices appointed by Republicans and Democrats alike. It opened the door to a world in which people are free to form intimate relationships, lead healthy sexual lives, pursue educational and employment opportunities, and decide whether and when to become parents.
And yet now, 47 years later, contraception has become a hot button issue. Much of the recent discussion has consisted of rhetoric such as then-Presidential contender Rick Santorum’s statement that birth control is “not OK, because it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be”, or the Alliance Defense Fund’s assertion that providing insurance coverage for contraception “propel[s] [us] down an anti-pregnancy path”. On this anniversary, let’s celebrate with the facts:
Texas Judge Lanny Moriarity's decision to "make of an example" of 17-year old honor student Diane Tran succeeds only in highlighting the insensitive and counterproductive treatment of Texas juveniles in the state's criminal justice system. Judge Moriarty fined Diane and sentenced her to spend 24 hours in jail with adults charged with serious criminal offenses. The crime? Truancy. Tran is a straight-A student taking difficult college courses and missed classes because she has been working two jobs to help support a family torn apart by divorce and her mother's abandonment. Tran should, in fact, be made an example of, but not because of the number of school days she missed; Tran exemplifies the triumph of determination and hard work over serious adversity.
Every few weeks, opponents of birth control manage to garner some media attention by objecting – again – to the federal contraceptive coverage rule, which ensures that millions of women will have affordable insurance coverage for contraception without extra out-of-pocket costs. But time after time, it’s just more of the same.
By Mitra Ebadolahi, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project at 1:39pm
Yesterday, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) introduced a resolution — the first of its kind — condemning the New York Police Department's unjustified surveillance and unlawful profiling of American Muslim communities. The NYPD's illicit surveillance — documented in an extensive, Pulitzer Prize-winning series of news reports by the Associated Press — targeted law-abiding American Muslims in their places of worship, small businesses, and student- and community-based organizations. The surveillance occurred not only in New York, but as far afield as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Several other members of Congress joined Holt in introducing the resolution, including Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Michael Honda (D-Calif.) and Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.).
By Devon Chaffee, Legislative Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 7:16pm
This morning, Danger Room’s Spencer Ackerman continued to shock readers by exposing some of the most vehemently anti-Muslim training documents used by the U.S. government that have come to light to date. (See our past analysis of biased FBI materials.) The newly released military training materials not only contained erroneous stereotypes and derogatory remarks about Muslims and Arabs, they included a four-phase plan for transformation of Islam that would reduce Islam to a “cult status” and possibly result in “total war” against Islam.
