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Dropped Charges Against Guantánamo Detainees Are Evidence Of Failed Policies, Says ACLU (10/21/2008)
NEW YORK – The government's decision to drop charges against five detainees held at Guantánamo Bay underscores the complete failure of the indefinite detention system and the need to shut down the prison and the military commissions system, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. According to news reports, the charges were dropped after a prosecutor for another detainee resigned, alleging the military was suppressing evidence favorable to the defense.

Voting Rights Groups Warn Prosecutors About Investigating Ohio Voters (10/21/2008)
CINCINNATI – The American Civil Liberties Union and other voting rights groups sent a letter to Hamilton County Special Prosecutor Michael O'Neill today urging him to suspend investigations of voters where there is no specific, credible evidence of fraud. According to news reports, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Deters began an investigation into voters who took advantage of Ohio's five-day window in which a person may simultaneously register to vote and cast a ballot. Deters declined to give any specific evidence of voter fraud that would have triggered an investigation and local elections officials confirmed they received no reliable reports of voter fraud.

ACLU Calls On Broadcasters To Stop Stifling Political Discourse On YouTube (10/20/2008)
SAN FRANCISCO - Television networks should stop silencing political speech on the Internet, according to a letter the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Northern California and a coalition of public interest groups sent to four major television networks today. Several broadcasting companies have sent letters to YouTube demanding that they take down videos containing short clips of news coverage even when those clips are "fair use" and therefore legally posted.

Constitutional Law Scholar Susan Herman Elected As New ACLU President (10/18/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union Board of Directors today elected constitutional law professor Susan Herman as its new president. Herman is a Centennial Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and has served on the ACLU's National Board for 20 years, on the Executive Committee for the last 16 and acted as the Board's General Counsel for the last ten.

ACLU And Rights/Camera/Action Announce Festival Premiere Of "The End Of America" (10/17/2008)
EAST HAMPTON, NY – The American Civil Liberties Union and Rights/Camera/Action will co-host the premiere of "The End of America," a new documentary from award-winning filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg at the Hamptons International Film Festival tonight. The ACLU and Rights/Camera/Action will also co-host a private reception on Saturday and the film's online premiere on SnagFilms next Tuesday, October 21.

ACLU Challenges Destruction Of Evidence In Indefinite Detention Case (10/17/2008)
CHARLESTON, SC – The American Civil Liberties Union today appealed a court decision allowing the government to destroy and obstruct evidence depicting the brutal interrogations of Ali al-Marri, who has been detained in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina since June 2003. Just last week, newly released military documents obtained by the ACLU and Yale Law School's Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic showed that the Navy applied lawless Guantánamo protocols in detention facilities on American soil, including the brig where al-Marri is held.

U.S. Supreme Court Protects Newly Registered Ohioans' Voting Rights (10/17/2008)
WASHINGTON – In a major victory for voting rights, the U.S. Supreme Court today issued an order protecting voters in Ohio from attempts to challenge their registrations based on small inaccuracies in government databases. The order reverses an appeals court decision that required Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to provide all 88 county Boards of Elections with lists of mismatched voters that had discrepancies between the information on their registration forms and other government databases. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief early this morning in support of Brunner's position.

ACLU Demands Halt To Intimidation Of Lawful Voters (10/16/2008)
CLEVELAND – In order to protect the integrity of Ohio's elections, the American Civil Liberties Union today called on the Ohio Republican Party to stop intimidating lawful voters. On Wednesday, the party asked all of the state's 88 county Boards of Elections to hand over information about all newly registered voters and those who have legally registered and cast an absentee ballot on the same day. These records will likely be used to challenge innocent voters, according to the ACLU.

ACLU Demands NSA And DOJ Turn Over Spying Policy Records (10/15/2008)
NEW YORK – The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Justice Department should disclose any policies and procedures pertaining to how the NSA protects Americans' privacy rights when it collects, stores and disseminates private U.S. communications, according to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The NSA has not released a public version of its procedures for protecting the privacy of U.S. communications since 1993.

ACLU Investigation Reveals Grossly Inadequate Conditions On Federal Death Row (10/15/2008)
TERRE HAUTE, IN – Existing conditions on federal death row are grossly inadequate, fail to meet constitutional standards and jeopardize the health and safety of the men who live there, according to an American Civil Liberties Union investigation.

Memos Show White House Endorsed CIA Waterboarding (10/15/2008)
NEW YORK – The White House issued two secret memos endorsing the CIA's use of waterboarding and other forms of torture on detainees, according to a news report published today in the Washington Post. The memos, which show that senior Bush administration officials expressly endorsed the CIA's abusive practices, should have been turned over in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

Judge Rules Michigan Voter Purge Program Violates Federal Law (10/13/2008)
DETROIT – In a major victory for voting rights, a judge today ruled that Michigan's voter removal program violates federal law and ordered the state to stop illegally purging voters from the rolls. The decision comes in a lawsuit filed last month by Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP.

Lesbian And Gay Couples Win Freedom To Marry In Connecticut (10/10/2008)
HARTFORD, CT – The Connecticut Supreme Court today ruled that barring same-sex couples from marriage violates that state's constitution. The American Civil Liberties Union, which was co-counsel in the case along with Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, applauded the decision.

ACLU Challenges Threat By Government To Designate Charity As "Terrorist" (10/09/2008)
TOLEDO, OH – The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio and several civil rights lawyers today asked a federal court to block the government from blacklisting an Ohio-based charity, KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc., without due process. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) froze the group's assets more than 31 months ago, without notice or a hearing, based simply on the assertion that KindHearts was "under investigation." OFAC has since threatened to designate KindHearts as a "specially designated global terrorist" based on classified evidence, again without providing KindHearts with a reason or meaningful opportunity to defend itself.

Court Blocks Government From Designating Charity As "Terrorist" (10/09/2008)
TOLEDO, OH – A federal judge today blocked the government from blacklisting an Ohio-based charity, KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc., without further judicial review. In response to a request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio and several civil rights lawyers on behalf of KindHearts, Judge James G. Carr of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Western Division blocked the government from designating the organization as a specially designated global terrorist "without first affording KindHearts with constitutionally adequate process," including notice and a meaningful opportunity to contest the basis for such a designation.

Due To Unlawful Practices In Nine States, Hundreds Of Thousands Of Voters Could Be Disenfranchised (10/09/2008)
NEW YORK – In response to a news report showing that tens of thousands of eligible voters are being illegally removed from voter rolls or blocked from registering to vote, the American Civil Liberties Union calls on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to require states to comply with federal law. The New York Times reported today that election officials in at least nine states are violating federal law by either improperly using Social Security data to screen newly registered voters or removing thousands of voters after the federal deadline expired.

NSA Monitored Personal Conversations Of Innocent Americans, Report Says (10/09/2008)
NEW YORK – National Security Agency (NSA) officials have intercepted, listened to and passed around the phone calls of hundreds of innocent U.S. citizens working overseas, according to an ABC News report out today. The new information shows the government has misled the American public about the scope of its surveillance activities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

New Documents Reveal Unlawful Guantánamo Procedures Were Also Applied On American Soil (10/08/2008)
NEW YORK – According to newly released military documents, the Navy applied lawless Guantánamo protocols in detention facilities on American soil. The documents, which include regular emails between brig officers and others in the chain of command, uncover new details of the detention and interrogation of two U.S. citizens and a legal resident – Yaser Hamdi, Jose Padilla and Ali al-Marri – at naval brigs in Virginia and South Carolina.

NYCLU, ACLU Warn NYPD about Illegal Arrests of Schoolchildren (10/08/2008)

Attorney General To Reconsider Rules Protecting Immigrants From Lawyers' Mistakes (10/07/2008)
NEW YORK – In a radical departure from years of legal precedent, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is considering ending the practice of allowing immigrants to reopen cases that they lost because of their lawyers' mistakes or incompetence. Mukasey announced that he was considering the issue late this summer and then imposed the unrealistic deadline of October 6 for interested parties to submit briefs, preventing organizations opposing the change, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Bar Association (ABA), from providing a meaningful response.