Washington Markup
05/03/2013
ENDA

The LA Times Agrees – ENDA’s Religious Exemption Must Be Narrowed

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:08am

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times published a powerful editorial arguing that a blank check for religiously affiliated organizations – far beyond houses of worship – to discriminate in employment against LGBT people should not be the price paid to enact the long-sought and critically important Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

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12/31/2011
NDAA

President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Into Law

By Amanda Simon at 4:20pm

President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) today, allowing indefinite detention to be codified into law.

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08/09/2012
Mandatory Minimum Sentences

One Year After Simmons: ACLU Sends Letter to DOJ to Help Release People Wrongly Languishing in Federal Prisons

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:53pm

Yesterday, USA Today reported on a letter the ACLU sent to top officials at the Department of Justice, urging immediate action to identify and possibly release dozens of wrongfully imprisoned federal inmates.

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05/07/2013
ENDA

Senator Portman, ENDA's Religious Exemption Is Already Too Broad

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:18pm

At an event hosted by BuzzFeed on Monday night, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said that he totally supports the concept of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) because, "This is about discrimination in the workplace. And there should be no discrimination and there ought to be a law in place, in my view."

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11/29/2012
NDAA

Don't Be Fooled by New NDAA Detention Amendment

By Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:14pm

The Senate is once again debating the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and is within a day or two of voting yet again on the issue of indefinite detention without charge or trial in the United States itself.

Last year, Congress passed the NDAA and made permanent very broad authority for the military to throw civilians into prison without charge or trial. While military detention without charge or trial is illegal in the United States, some key senators urged that even American citizens and others picked up in the United States could be detained under NDAA.

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04/17/2013
CISPA

Thank You Mr. President – In Big Win for Privacy, Administration Issues CISPA Veto Threat!

By Robyn Greene, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:32pm

Over the last few months, more than 50,000 ACLU supporters signed our petition to the president urging him to veto CISPA if it made it to his desk. Not only did the president hear your calls – yesterday, he answered them with a resounding win for your privacy and civil liberties and threatened to veto CISPA, the dangerous privacy-busting cybersecurity bill.

The president's veto threat echoed many of our concerns, and those that he raised last year when he threatened to veto CISPA 1.0. We have long warned that CISPA threatens Americans' privacy and civil liberties by allowing for companies to share our private information, like our internet records and the content of our emails, with the government. Yesterday's veto threat makes it clear that in spite of recent amendments, CISPA still fails to adequately protect our privacy. As the veto threat states:

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04/12/2013
CISPA

CISPA Remains Fatally Flawed After Secret Committee Markup

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:20pm

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday marked up CISPA, the controversial cybersecurity bill that allows companies to share their customers' sensitive internet information with each other and the government. The bill's sponsors and corporations are not only declaring victory, but aggressively arguing that all privacy and civil liberties problems have been solved.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

We have flagged four general categories of problems in CISPA that have to be fixed before it is passed, and the markup only substantially fixed one of them:

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04/25/2013
Abortion Legislation

It's Time to Extend Abortion Coverage to the Women of Peace Corps

By Elayne Weiss, Washington Legislative Office at 12:41pm

When John F. Kennedy signed the executive order creating the Peace Corps over fifty years ago, he said, "Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary, and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs." It's true that life in the Peace Corps isn't easy, but unfortunately, our government is failing to live up to the rest of this promise when it comes to providing for the reproductive health needs of Peace Corps volunteers, who selflessly give their time and energy to help communities in developing countries.

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04/18/2013
SNDA

The Single Most Important Step Congress Could Take to Improve the Lives of LGBT Students

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:48am

For those who work each and every day to secure basic fairness and equality under the law for LGBT Americans, the pace of positive...

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12/28/2012
Using Religion to Discriminate

The Sweeping License to Discriminate Hidden in the NDAA

By Dena Sher, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:58pm

With Congress having recently approved this year’s NDAA, we think it is important to draw attention to a provision (Section 533(a)(1)), which, though hidden away, is unprecedented, sweeping, and could invite dangerous claims of a right to discriminate against not just lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members, but also women, religious minorities, and in the provision of health care.

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