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California Supreme Court Grants Review In Prop 8 Legal Challenges (11/19/2008)
SAN FRANCISCO — Today the California Supreme Court granted review in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, which passed by a narrow margin of 52 percent on November 4. In an order issued today, the Court agreed to hear the case and set an expedited briefing schedule. The Court also denied an immediate stay.

Documents Obtained By ACLU Provide Further Evidence That Abuse Of Iraqi Prisoners Was Systemic (11/19/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union released Department of Defense documents today that provide further evidence that prisoner abuse in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq was systemic. The documents, obtained as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, also show that Army investigations of abuse in Iraq were compromised by missing records, flawed interviews and problems with witness recollection.

Military And Civilian Attorneys Challenge The Military Commissions Act In Second Round Of Guantánamo Pretrial Motions For 9/11 Detainees (11/18/2008)
WASHINGTON – For the second time this month, a group of military defense lawyers and a team of civilian attorneys assembled by the American Civil Liberties Union and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) as part of the John Adams Project filed several pretrial motions in Guantánamo challenging the constitutionality of the military commission prosecutions. The defense is protesting the legality of these ad hoc tribunals, which may rely on coerced confessions and expressly preclude prisoners from invoking the Geneva Conventions. The John Adams Project is a partnership between the ACLU and the NACDL that sponsors expert civilian counsel to assist the under-resourced military defense counsel for several Guantánamo detainees.

Documents Reveal U.S. Knowingly Transfers Detainees To Countries That Torture (11/18/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union and Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic released documents today revealing for the first time details of the U.S. government's process for transferring individuals to countries where they face a significant risk of being tortured. The documents, which were uncovered as the result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the two organizations, shed new light on the fundamentally flawed practice of "diplomatic assurances" or secret promises obtained from foreign governments that they will not torture the returned individuals.

ACLU Joins Lawsuit Challenging Trafficking Of Indian Guestworkers (11/17/2008)
NEW ORLEANS - The American Civil Liberties Union today charged that workers brought to the United States from India to work in shipyards after Hurricane Katrina were misleadingly recruited, exploited and mistreated. The ACLU and the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP joined a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of over 500 guestworkers charging the workers were trafficked into the U.S. through the federal government's H-2B guestworker program with dishonest assurances of becoming lawful permanent U.S. residents and subjected to squalid living conditions, fraudulent payment practices and threats of serious harm upon their arrival.

ACLU Praises Obama's Plan To Close Guantánamo (11/17/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union strongly praises President-elect Barack Obama's promise on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday night to close down Guantánamo and its unconstitutional military commissions being used to prosecute detainees.

ACLU Report Reveals Arrests At Hartford-Area Schools On Rise (11/17/2008)
HARTFORD, CT – Police arrests of students at Hartford-area schools are on the rise, according to a new American Civil Liberties Union report released today, a trend that disproportionately impacts children of color.

Bush Administration Blocks Medical Services For Immigrant Teens In U.S. Care (11/17/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today asked a federal court to order the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to release documents outlining U.S. policy limiting refugee and undocumented teenagers' access to important reproductive health services, including contraceptives and abortion. The ACLU filed today's legal papers after ACF ignored a Freedom of Information Act request from the ACLU dated August 19, 2008.

Women's Health Organizations Urge Oversight Agency To Hold Bush Administration Accountable (11/17/2008)
Washington, DC — Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget urging OIRA to take its responsibilities seriously with respect to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is moving forward with a final regulation that will allow health care providers to withhold vital health care information and services from patients.

Problematic E-Verify Program Expanded to Include All Federal Contractors (11/14/2008)
WASHINGTON - Today, President Bush issued a final rule requiring all federal contractors to use E-Verify, a flawed governmental system to check the citizenship status of the workforce, as a condition of doing business with the federal government. This rule would also require re-verification of some current federal contracts. This unprecedented expansion will require the compliance of millions of governmental contractors, for which the systemic infrastructure simply does not exist.

ACLU Warns Alabama School District That Its Mandatory Sex Segregation Program Is Illegal And Discriminatory (11/12/2008)
MOBILE, AL – After hearing from outraged parents of students who, without notice, were involuntarily segregated by sex at Hankins Middle School in Mobile, Alabama, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama sent a letter to the Mobile County School System today warning that mandatory sex segregation in public schools is illegal and discriminatory. The civil liberties organization also asked, under the Alabama Open Records Act, that the school district make public any and all documents relating to sex segregation policies in Mobile County schools from the past two years.

ACLU Calls On Obama To Close Guantánamo On Day One Of Presidency (11/10/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union launched a new campaign today calling on President-elect Barack Obama to close the Guantánamo Bay prison and end the military commissions on Day One of his presidency.

No Special Court System Necessary For Guantánamo Detainees, Says ACLU (11/10/2008)
NEW YORK – News reports today indicated that President-elect Barack Obama's team was preparing a plan to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay and possibly create an alternative court system to try some of the detainees. Obama's transition team later clarified that no decisions have yet been made about detainee prosecutions.

ACLU Commends Obama-Biden Ban on Discrimination Against LGBT Applicants for Jobs in the New Administration (11/07/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union commends the Obama-Biden Transition team for including sexual orientation and gender identity in its non-discrimination policy as it prepares to assume power in January. Although President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 11478, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, there are no explicit federal protections from gender identity bias in government hiring.

ACLU Reacts to Extortion of Private Medical Records (11/07/2008)
WASHINGTON – In response to today’s news that the FBI is investigating an extortion letter threatening the release of millions of private medical records, the ACLU reiterates its demand for the protection of individual privacy for all electronic medical records. Express Scripts, a medical benefits management company, said it has been investigating the threat since October, when the extortion letter was received containing the names, dates of birth and social security numbers of approximately 75 clients. Express Scripts then notified the FBI, and has since ruled out the possibility of an internal breach.

Bush Administration Once Again Attempts To Block Release Of Prisoner Abuse Photos In ACLU Lawsuit (11/07/2008)
NEW YORK – The Bush administration petitioned a full appeals court late Thursday to reconsider a decision ordering the Defense Department to release photographs showing detainee abuse by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In September, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the government to release the photos as part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

Federal Court Upholds Exclusion Of Denver Residents From Bush Speech Based On Political Expression (11/07/2008)
DENVER – In a blow to free speech, a federal district court judge found that no constitutional rights were violated when Leslie Weise and Alex Young were ejected from one of President Bush's speeches in Denver in March 2005. The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Colorado, charged that Weise and Young, two of the so-called "Denver 3," were ejected simply because they arrived at the event in a car with the bumper sticker reading "No More Blood For Oil."

Legal Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Proposition 8, Should It Pass (11/05/2008)
SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court today urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8 if it passes. The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution's core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.

Military And Civilian Lawyers Petition Guantánamo Military Commission To Address Fundamental Flaws (11/03/2008)
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba – A coalition of military and civilian lawyers, assembled as part of the American Civil Liberties Union's John Adams Project, filed pretrial motions in a Guantánamo military commission today requesting legal relief for some of the worst of the constitutional flaws plaguing the commission system. The ACLU's John Adams Project is a partnership with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers sponsoring expert civilian counsel to assist the under-resourced military defense counsel for several Guantánamo detainees.

San Bernardino County Agrees To Allow Religious Head Scarves In County Jails (11/03/2008)
ORANGE, CA -- San Bernardino County agreed today to institute policies that accommodate the First Amendment right to wear religious head scarves in jail.