Washington Markup
12/11/2012
First Amendment

Selling Drugs and the First Amendment

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:46pm

A few folks have asked me about the recent Second Circuit decision in United States v. Caronia, in which the court found that criminalizing the promotion of “off-label” pharmaceutical uses by a drug company sales representative violated the First Amendment. I cover a lot of commercial speech issues in the legislative context, so let me try to explain why I think the decision is probably right (“probably” being the operative term), and significant.

Read More»
12/11/2012
Juvenile Detention

Groundbreaking Senate Hearing Shines a Light on the School-to-Prison Pipeline

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Kimberly Humphrey, Washington Legislative Office at 10:23am

Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights will hold a landmark hearing entitled, Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline. It is the first time a congressional panel will look at this disturbing national trend where children are pushed out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems because of an overreliance on punitive school discipline policies.

Read More»
12/06/2012
ECPA

Who Controls Your Texts?

By Sandra Fulton, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:58pm

Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved with bipartisan support a sweeping update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The bill would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant to access all electronic communications, including email, Facebook posts, photos and cell phone communications. It was a long-fought battle and a huge step forward in updating our privacy laws.

Read More»
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.

Read More»
11/29/2012
Immigration Detention

President Obama: Close the 10 Worst Immigration Detention Facilities

By Tyler Ray, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:07am

The post-election immigration policy focus has rightly been on the pressing need to establish a path for aspiring Americans to become full members of their communities.

However, one of the most dire aspects of the immigration system is the ongoing crisis in mass immigration detention. Detained immigrants face widespread abuse and denial of basic rights, at enormous taxpayers’ expense. The number of detainees is unnecessarily high and must be drastically reduced.

As part of Detention Watch Network’s Expose and Close campaign calling for the immediate closure of the10 worst Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, the ACLU and its allies have sent a letter to President Obama  urging him to take these vital first steps toward reforming a detention system where immigrants suffer in deplorable conditions.

Read More»
11/19/2012
LGBT News

Highlighting Our Heroes in the Fight for Transgender Rights

By Shawn Jain, ACLU & John Knight, LGBT Project at 5:11pm

As Transgender Awareness Week 2012 (November 12-19) concludes, today we feature three of our heroic clients who’ve made our work to end discrimination against transgender people possible. Not only have our clients been willing to stand up against discrimination, but they’ve also taken on the challenge of teaching others – legislators, judges and the general public – what it means to be transgender and the challenges transgender people face. The following people have helped make our transgender rights work possible in the areas of employment discrimination and identification documents. The LGBT community has seen astounding progress, but a great deal of work still needs to be done to secure greater understanding and acceptance along with basic legal protections for transgender Americans for whom discrimination is still commonplace.

Read More»
11/19/2012
Immigration Detention

ACLU to President Obama: Tackle the Homeland Security Budget in Your Plan to Avert Fiscal Cliff

By Shawn Jain, ACLU at 4:22pm

Much attention has turned to the so-called “fiscal cliff” of spending cuts and increases in taxes that could take effect in early 2013 barring congressional action. According to  The Wall Street Journaland others, the president met last Friday with congressional leaders to avert falling off the cliff, and the Obama administration is planning to unveil an alternative that would replace the cuts for 6-12 months with more-targeted reductions and revenue increases. Immigration policy is an important consideration to keep in mind during these negotiations. Specifically, we encourage the president’s forthcoming plan to include specific cuts that right-size the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by cutting wasteful and unnecessary immigration enforcement spending.

Read More»
11/15/2012
Freedom of Expression

Blocked Leaks Bill More About Message Discipline Than National Security

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:36pm

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) deserves significant credit for placing a hold today on a draft intelligence spending bill that would place enormous new obstacles in the path of journalists trying to report on government illegality, fraud and waste in the intelligence community.  Although it is true that national security sometimes requires secrecy, restrictions on freedom of the press would do little to benefit the national security while significantly insulating government wrongdoing from public scrutiny. 

Read More»
11/14/2012
Predatory Lending

When a Dream House Becomes a Nightmare

By Tyler Ray, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:30am

For years, Rita Winters envisioned spending her golden years of retirement at her dream house in Southern Maryland.  However, as a result of events outside of Rita’s control, her dream home placed her in a nightmare situation. Federal action is needed to stop the nightmare that Rita and millions others faced while attempting to achieve their dream of home ownership.

Rita Winters’ Story

Read More»
11/08/2012
Voter Suppression

Who Really Won the Election? Democracy Did.

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:00pm

On Tuesday, despite the massive hurdles put in front of voters since 2010 – citizens nonetheless, fought through voter suppression tactics, misinformation, long lines, then longer lies, and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to have their voices heard and votes count.

For the last two years, there was a wave of voter suppression laws passed in states. As the ACLU, has long argued many of the laws took different forms -- voter ID and citizenship requirements, limitations on early voting, restrictions on third-party voter registration, purging, and criminal disfranchisement laws -- but their impact and intent are the same:  a cynical attempt to push certain constituencies out of the electorate in advance of an election.  This is particularly true for voters of color, students, voters with disabilities and the elderly.

Read More»