This Week in Civil Liberties

07/08/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 3:20pm

President Obama's Twitter Town Hall was a big news item this week. We had a few of our own questions for the president — unfortunately, he didn't get around to answering them. But an interesting tidbit: Raw Story reported that questions about marijuana legalization were the most retweeted of any questions directed at the president, and he didn't address the issue at all. Which is disappointing, because as we pointed out last week, his administration's drug policy — specifically on medical marijuana — is confusing and cruel.

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07/01/2011
E-Verify

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Jessica Monaco, ACLU at 6:22pm

The theme this week was "without": combating the spread of AIDS without actual tools and information to combat the spread of AIDS, searches without warrants, protections for business without protections for everybody else, government bureaucracy without privacy or security, accessing medical marijuana without federal government interference, sentencing without (or at least with a lot less) unfairness. That last one is good, the rest not so much....

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06/24/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Jessica Monaco, ACLU at 6:10pm

Our weekly round-up of popular blog posts includes some real food for thought: Should we be locking up children? Should federal money be spent on schools that discriminate? And perhaps most puzzling, should we look to Texas for an enlightened approach to the war on drugs?

Lift Children Out of the Criminal Justice System – Don't Lock Them Away
What kind of person looks into the face of a child and sees no hope? What kind of society locks up children as if they were adults — and sometimes even throws away the key? Unfortunately, ours does. As a case in point, Kansas City prosecutors are currently mulling over whether to charge a 5-year-old child for the murder of an 18-month old.

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06/17/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 6:25pm

Despite all the distractions of the week (and by distractions, we mean that weird case of possible voter fraud—let's focus on civil liberties, people!) it was still a busy week here at the ACLU.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the day President Richard Nixon declared the “war on drugs,” a failed and unfair war that has helped make the U.S. the nation’s largest incarcerator. To mark this day, we debuted a new infographic that shows some startling statistics about America’s addiction to incarceration, a byproduct of this failed war on drugs. Check out the infographic here.

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06/10/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Jessica Monaco, ACLU at 5:26pm

Another busy week! We filed a lawsuit seeking declassification of the State Department cables released by Wikileaks, appealed the dismissal of our lawsuit on behalf of Jose Padilla against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, got a Louisiana school board to stop denying children equal educational opportunities in the classroom and more.

"If the Law Does Not Protect Jose Padilla . . . It Protects No One"
In February, a federal district court in South Carolina dismissed our lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld and other current and former government officials for their roles in the detention and torture of American citizen Jose Padilla. This week we appealed that dismissal.

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06/03/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 5:57pm

It's LGBT Pride month! We're celebrating with a weekly blog series featuring diverse voices from the LGBT community.

This month also reminds us of something definitely not worth celebrating: the War on Drugs, which turned 40 this year. To mark the occasion, we'll be blogging daily throughout June about the failed war, and how it's created bloated prisons, cost billions in wasteful spending, ravaged communities of color and hasn't changed the demand for drugs one iota.

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05/27/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 9:00pm

TGIF, because it's been a busy week! We fought an authorization for war without end, advocated for an end to the ridiculous prohibition of abortion care for women in the military who have been raped, testified against a bill that proposes to lock up immigrants forever and fought the good fight for Patriot Act reform. And that was just in Congress.

Elsewhere, the Supreme Court handed down a game-changing win for prisoners' rights, and a national software company made good for LGBT students. And while some states are trying to restrict your right to vote, we're fighting to safeguard it.

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05/20/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Jessica Monaco, ACLU at 6:30pm

This week, a lot of you found it hard to believe that Congress wants to give up its constitutional obligation to declare war.

New Authorization of Worldwide War Without End?
A hugely important provision for Congress to authorize a new worldwide war was tucked away inside the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), making its way through our legislature. First there was: Unchecked Executive War Power Could Slip Through the House. Then we brought you: House Gets Ready to Vote on New Worldwide War. And finally there was More Eyes Needed on Congress as they Prepare to Vote on Worldwide War Authorization. Today's: House to Vote on Endless Worldwide War Next Week

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05/13/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Jessica Monaco, ACLU at 6:43pm

This week, lots of government spying, tracking and other abuses of your civil liberties.

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04/29/2011
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Jessica Monaco, ACLU at 5:34pm

The ACLU butted heads with big companies this week: Wal-mart and medical marijuana. Apple and privacy. Sony and privacy. Signal and human trafficking. In other news, Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU and Larry Siems of PEN American Center gave us a new perspective and a timely reminder in a New York Timesop-ed: Torturers and their apologists are not heroes, men and women who stand up for what's right are heroes. And more...

ACLU Appeals Medical Marijuana Case on Behalf of Cancer-Stricken Wal-Mart Employee
The ACLU filed a brief urging a federal appeals court to reinstate a 2010 lawsuit about the wrongful firing of Wal-Mart employee Joseph Casias for using medical marijuana in accordance with state law. In February, a U.S. district judge dismissed the case, but the ACLU is appealing.

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