By Diana Scholl, Communications Strategist, ACLU at 12:45pm
Another day, another amendment to the Senate immigration reform legislation from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that would harm immigrants' civil liberties. Amendment 17, which will be up for consideration this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee's markup of the immigration reform bill, would unwisely (and unconstitutionally) restrict the ability of immigrants to correct erroneous denials of legalization by barring the courthouse door to them.
By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:46am
Earlier this week, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), held a hearing on campaign finance law enforcement. We submitted comments highlighting a few areas of common ground between the ACLU and proponents of campaign finance reform.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:11pm
It’s official! Next week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a landmark congressional hearing on the discriminatory so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and how it harms tens of thousands of married gay and lesbian couples and their families each and every day. This will be the first congressional hearing since the law came into being in 1996 to examine the law with a critical eye.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:30pm
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on legislation that would fully repeal the discriminatory and unconstitutional so-called Defense of Marriage Act.
By Sam Milgrom, Washington Legislative Office at 5:12pm
Hooray! With your help, we prevented the Senate from authorizing the president to engage in worldwide war.
For months, we have been pushing to prevent Congress from passing legislation that would give this president (and any of his successors) the authority to engage our country in a worldwide war without a defined enemy.
A couple of weeks ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012 (NDAA), H.R. 1253. The committee recently released the official language — and the worldwide war authority provision was nowhere to be found!
