This Week in Civil Liberties (8/25/2011)

Which state enacted a drug testing welfare benefit application law that costs more than it saves?

What can you do to protect your private info on Facebook?

Who are the NYPD and FBI spying on?

Who spent over half his life on death row before he was released because he was wrongfully convicted?

Told You So: Florida's New Drug Testing Policy Already Costing Taxpayers More
We've said a few times about Florida's horrible new law that drug tests all families applying for cash benefits. The law, which went into effect July 1, makes applicants front the cost of the drug test and reimburses individuals if they test negative. The ACLU and others predicted this program would be a failure and cost the state of Florida much more money than they would save. Guess what? In just the few weeks that the program has been in effect, we have been proven right.

By the way, if you want to know more about the costs of this program, watch Lawrence O'Donnell or Rachel Maddow explain.

ACLU Guide to New Facebook Privacy Controls
This week Facebook is rolling out a series of changes to its privacy controls. We reviewed the changes in detail on Tuesday and showed you how to take advantage of them.

Who's Spying on You? Might Depend on Your Race.
Two important news stories demonstrated this week how new unchecked surveillance programs we've highlighted in our Spy Files campaign are violating the constitutional rights of innocent Americans.

Another Death Row Inmate Freed Due to Innocence — And Another Unsolved Case
Twenty years ago, teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were the talk of the Memphis tri-state area as they stood accused of brutally killing three Boy Scouts. Folks seemed particularly titillated by the news reports and rumors of Satanism and struck by Damien's devilish name (remember Damien from The Omen?), wiccan connections and alleged "evil-worship." The so-called "West Memphis Three" were released last week.

Blogging for Women's Health and Economic Rights at Moms Rising
This week, MomsRising hosted a blog-a-thon that focused on women's health and economic rights to commemorate the anniversaries of the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment and the 1963 March on Washington. We contributed four posts to the blog-a-thon, about domestic violence survivor Jessica Lenahan, insurance coverage of abortion care for military women, the threat to abortion rights and our gene patent lawsuit.

A Blog of Rights Service Announcement
Soon we'll be rolling out some exciting new changes to our website. While we work on this, we may turn off blog comments for a short period next week. But they'll be back up ASAP, so hold that thought and you'll be able to submit your comment soon.

This is your week in civil liberties. Let us know if this is useful or if you'd like to see changes. Share your thoughts: ideas@aclu.org

Learn more about your rights: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.