Home : Affiliates

ACLU Applauds Committee Passage of National Security Letter Reform (06/24/2008)
Washington, DC – Today, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties approved legislation that would greatly reduce the scope of the National Security Letter (NSL) statute. NSLs are secret government requests for information that are used to collect private records without judicial oversight. The FBI’s gross misuse and abuse of the NSL statute has led to consecutive and embarrassing reports issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General. In March, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU also uncovered abuses of the NSL statute by the Department of Defense.

ACLU Urges Congress to Do the Right Thing for Young Americans (06/24/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union urges both the Senate and House of Representatives to act in the best interest of young people and eliminate funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. It will be a critical week as two of the largest federal funding streams for such programs are slated for consideration. In the Senate, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies marked up the FY09 appropriations bill today, including an allocation for the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program; the Senate Appropriations Committee will meet on Thursday, June 26th. In the House, the Appropriations Committee will also meet this Thursday to ratify the subcommittee recommendations, which last week included flat-funding for CBAE.

House Approves Unconstitutional Surveillance Legislation (06/20/2008)
Washington, DC – Following a vote in the House of Representatives sanctioning warrantless wiretapping and handing immunity to telecommunications companies for their role in domestic spying, the American Civil Liberties Union expressed outrage at representatives who voted for the unconstitutional legislation. The bill, H.R. 6304, or The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed the chamber by a vote of 293-129, and is expected to be voted on in the Senate next week.

ACLU Condemns FISA Deal, Declares Surveillance Bill Unconstitutional (06/19/2008)
Washington, DC – With news that a surveillance bill may be voted on in the House of Representatives as early as tomorrow, the American Civil Liberties Union sternly warned members against voting for the legislation. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has worked closely with the White House and has led the effort to gut the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and give the telephone companies what amounts to a pardon for breaking the law.

Journalists Win Appeal In FBI Brutality Case (06/19/2008)
SAN JUAN, PR - A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that an unprovoked attack on journalists by FBI agents would clearly violate the Fourth Amendment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed an earlier decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of journalists who were kicked, punched and pepper sprayed by FBI agents as they attempted to report on the search of a San Juan apartment.

Súplica del Triunfo de los Reporteros en Caso de la Brutalidad del FBI (06/19/2008)
SAN JUAN, PR - Una corte federal de apelación dictaminó ayer que un ataque no provocado contra periodistas por los agentes del FBI violaría claramente la Cuarta Enmienda. La Corte de Apelación de los E.E.U.U. para el Primer Circuito revocó una decisión de desestimación en un pleito traído por la ACLU a nombre de los periodistas que fueron golpeados a patadas y puños y rociados con gas pimienta por los agentes del FBI mientras intentaban cubrir un allanamiento en un apartamento en San Juan.

Subcommittee Votes to Continue Funding Disproven Abstinence-Only Programs (06/19/2008)
Washington, DC – The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies today voted to continue funding the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program, an abstinence-only-until-marriage funding stream that supports programs that include inaccurate and misleading information.

ACLU Applauds House Judiciary Subcommittee on Continuing Its Examination into Torture Approval (06/18/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union applauds Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on holding the second in a series of three hearings to determine who authorized or ordered torture and abuse during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and in secret government torture cells around the world. In today’s hearing the subcommittee will hear from three former high-level officials in the Bush administration.

ACLU Challenges Government's Stigmatizing Of Mainstream Muslim Groups In Holy Land Case (06/18/2008)
DALLAS - The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas filed a legal challenge today to clear the names of two mainstream Muslim organizations labeled by the government as "unindicted co-conspirators" in its criminal case against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Government attorneys publicly identified the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) as co-conspirators before the HLF trial, even though neither organization was the subject of a criminal investigation or charged with any crimes.

ACLU Monitoring Unconstitutional Guantánamo Military Commissions This Week (06/18/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union is at Guantánamo monitoring the military commission hearings scheduled to take place this week. The hearings of Omar Khadr and Mohammed Jawad are the first since the Supreme Court ruled last week that the Constitution applies to Guantánamo and that all 270 prisoners there can challenge their indefinite detention in federal court. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at every commission hearing since 2004 and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

ACLU Sues Old Dominion Freight Lines Over Firing Of Transgender Trucker (06/18/2008)
KNOXVILLE, TN - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a sex discrimination lawsuit today against Old Dominion Freight Lines for illegally firing a truck driver for impersonating a female after she informed the company that she was transitioning from male to female. A prior EEOC investigation into the firing sided with the driver, Kaylee Seals, finding there was reasonable cause to believe that Old Dominion discriminated against Seals based on sex and sex stereotyping.

ACLU Urges Congress to Reform Department of Justice Grant Program (06/18/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union calls on Congress to reform a Department of Justice grant program as part of today’s markup of HR 3546, reauthorizing the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. This program funds hundreds of regional anti-drug task forces that perpetuate racial disparities, police corruption, over-incarceration and civil rights abuses in large and small towns across America.

ACLU Applauds Governor Napolitano (06/17/2008)
WASHINGTON - Today, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano signed into law legislation that would prohibit the state from complying with the Real ID Act of 2005, a federal mandate imposing a national ID card on all Americans through their state drivers' licenses. The measure passed both the Arizona House and Arizona Senate with overwhelming support: 51 to 1 and 21 to 7 respectively.

ACLU Applauds Senate Committee Investigation Into Personal Privacy Protections (06/17/2008)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) applauds Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs for holding a hearing to explore whether the federal government is doing enough to protect personal information.

ACLU Hosts Weeklong Online Symposium On LGBT Pride (06/16/2008)
NEW YORK – In celebration of LGBT Pride, several of the nation's top lesbian gay bisexual transgender writers, leaders and supporters will participate in an online symposium beginning today on the ACLU Blog of Rights (http://blog.aclu.org) and on the Get Busy, Get Equal blog (www.aclu.org/getequal) featured on the ACLU's LGBT activist toolkit. Participants will be discussing a wide range of issues affecting the LGBT community ranging from the first marriages of lesbian and gay couples in California to the need for a federal law barring workplace discrimination based gender identity and sexual orientation to censorship of LGBT students in the nation's schools.

ACLU Welcomes U.N. Independent Expert On Extrajudicial Executions To U.S. (06/16/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed a fact-finding mission to the U.S. by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston's mission includes reporting on alleged killings in the U.S. and overseas for which U.S. government and military officials may be responsible, and the failure to prosecute and punish those responsible. The ACLU calls on the U.S., state and local governments to fully cooperate with the special rapporteur.

ACLU Urges Congress Not to Legalize Warrantless Wiretapping (06/13/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union comments on a reported deal on gutting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office

ACLU Challenges Solitary Confinement And Unwarranted Strip Searches Of Girls Held In Texas Youth Prison (06/12/2008)
AUSTIN, TX - The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas filed a class action lawsuit today on behalf of five girls – all of whom have histories of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse – held in the Brownwood State School. Brownwood is a "high security" youth prison located in central Texas and operated by the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), the state's juvenile corrections agency. The ACLU charges that TYC subjects the girls to unwarranted solitary confinement, routine strip searches and brutal physical force.

ACLU Opposes Expansion of Federal DNA Program to Arrestee Testing (06/12/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union urges Congress to oppose an amendment sponsored by Representative Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) that is designed to test arrestees as part of an expansion of the federal DNA program. Schiff’s amendment, which recently passed the House Judiciary Committee, will provide incentives for state law enforcement officials to create a permanent DNA database of arrestees that includes people who are detained on misdemeanor charges, wrongfully arrested and others.

ACLU Sues For Documents Collected By Inspector General In Prisoner Abuse Investigation (06/12/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit today for documents related to an investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Last month, the OIG released a report on the investigation, which was launched after internal government documents – uncovered by another ACLU lawsuit – revealed that FBI agents at Guantánamo raised concerns about abusive techniques used by military interrogators.