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Newly Unredacted Documents Confirm Lack Of Oversight Of Military's Domestic Surveillance Powers (04/01/2008)
NEW YORK - On the heels of an internal report criticizing the FBI for abusing its power to issue National Security Letters (NSLs), newly unredacted documents released today as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit reveal that the Department of Defense (DoD) is using the FBI to circumvent legal limits on its own NSL power and may have overstepped its authority to obtain private and sensitive records of people within the United States without court approval.

Secret Bush Administration Torture Memo Released Today In Response To ACLU Lawsuit (04/01/2008)
NEW YORK — A secret memo authored by the Department of Justice (DOJ) asserting that President Bush has unlimited power to order brutal interrogations to extract information from detainees was declassified today as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The memo, written by John Yoo, then a deputy at the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), was sent to the Defense Department in March 2003.

Dismal High School Graduation Rates Violate Florida Constitution, Says ACLU Lawsuit (03/18/2008)
WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Charging that shamefully low high school graduation rates demonstrate a violation of students’ constitutional right to a high quality education, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit today against the Palm Beach County School District. It is estimated that as many as one in three Palm Beach County students does not graduate on time with a regular diploma, a figure that is well below both the state and national averages. This case is the first legal challenge in the country that focuses on the issue of low graduation rates and that requires a school district to graduate more of its students.

ACLU Appeals Dismissal Of Extraordinary Rendition Lawsuit Against Boeing Subsidiary (03/14/2008)
SAN JOSE, CA - The American Civil Liberties Union today announced it will appeal a federal court decision to throw out a lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan for its role in the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program. Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen, filed by the ACLU on behalf of five victims of the rendition program, was dismissed in February after the government intervened, once again misusing the “state secrets” privilege to avoid legal scrutiny of an unlawful program.

ACLU Asks Appeals Court To Affirm Decision Striking Down Patriot Act ”National Security Letter” Provision (03/14/2008)
NEW YORK - In a brief filed under seal on Monday and unsealed yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union urged a federal appellate court to uphold a lower court decision striking down the National Security Letter (NSL) provision of the Patriot Act. The provision gives the FBI the authority to issue letters demanding private information about people within the United States, and to place the recipients of the letters under indefinite gag order. A report released on Thursday by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) revealed widespread, systemic abuse of the NSL power by the FBI.

ACLU Sues To Uncover Records Detailing Torture And Abuse Of Guantánamo Prisoners (03/13/2008)
WASHINGTON – Decrying the U.S. government’s failure to comply with its records request, the American Civil Liberties Union is filing a federal lawsuit today to force the government to release un-redacted transcripts in which 14 prisoners now held at Guantánamo Bay describe abuse and torture they suffered in CIA custody. The ACLU’s lawsuit, which raises claims under the First Amendment and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), follows a FOIA request seeking the uncensored transcripts from Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs) that determine if prisoners held by the Defense Department at Guantánamo qualify as “enemy combatants.”

ACLU Continues Monitoring Illegitimate Guantánamo Hearings This Week (03/12/2008)
NEW YORK – Continuing its role as vigilant monitor of the U.S. Military Commission hearings, the American Civil Liberties Union will be at Guantánamo Bay this week to observe the proceedings of Afghan national Mohammed Jawad, Saudi national Ahmed Mohammad al-Darbi, and Canadian national Omar Ahmed Khadr. The ACLU has attended every military commission proceeding since the system’s inception in 2004 and has seen no indication that the tribunals are fair, impartial or legitimate.

Death Sentence Of Mentally Ill Man Reversed (03/11/2008)
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed the conviction and death sentence of Richard Taylor, a severely mentally ill man who has twice been forced to stand trial despite his mental illness and likely incompetence. Taylor was represented during the appeal of his conviction by the American Civil Liberties Union and Kelly Gleason, then a private attorney and now with the Office of the Tennessee Post-Conviction Defender.

ACLU Condemns Bush Veto Of Intelligence Bill Preventing Torture (03/08/2008)
WASHINGTON - In a brazen move signaling a callous disregard for human rights, President Bush today vetoed the 2008 Intelligence Authorization Act largely due to a provision that would have applied the Army Field Manual (AFM) on Interrogations to all government agencies, including the CIA. The AFM, which currently applies only to the Department of Defense, prohibits specific acts of torture and abuse, including waterboarding, and specifically authorizes an array of time-tested interrogation methods. During recent congressional testimony, CIA Director Michael Hayden admitted the agency has waterboarded detainees.

ACLU of Oklahoma Challenges Anti-Civil Rights Ballot Measure (03/07/2008)
OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma voters filed a protest today before the state Supreme Court challenging irregularities and questionable practices in the collection of signatures by the so-called Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative. The initiative is one of a series of anti-affirmative action ballot measures that California businessman Ward Connerly and his organization known as the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) have spearheaded across the country.

Supreme Court Refuses To Review Warrantless Wiretapping Case (02/19/2008)
NEW YORK – The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to review a legal challenge to the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations who say that the unchecked surveillance program is disrupting their ability to communicate effectively with sources and clients. The court’s decision today lets stand an appeals court’s ruling on narrow grounds that plaintiffs could not show with certainty that they had been wiretapped by the National Security Agency.

Court Decision Denies Extraordinary Rendition Victims Their Day In Court (02/14/2008)
SAN JOSE, CA - A federal court yesterday bowed to pressure from the Bush administration and dismissed a case against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. for the company’s role in the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program. The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, charged that Jeppesen knowingly aided the program by providing flight planning and logistical support services for aircraft and crews used by the CIA to transport victims to U.S.-run prisons or foreign intelligence agencies overseas, where they were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques and torture.

House Stands Up to Threats from the White House on Domestic Surveillance (02/14/2008)
Washington, DC – The Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives stared down the White House today and decided to stick with their version of revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The House voted to adjourn without letting the phone companies off the hook for breaking the law by helping the government spy on Americas. The House is leaving town and allowing the unconstitutional Protect America Act to expire this weekend.

Charges Dismissed Against Reporter Who Was Victim of NYPD Racial Profiling as Figures Show Hundreds of Thousands of Innocent Black New Yorkers Were Stopped-and-Frisked in 2007 (02/13/2008)
NEW YORK – A Bronx Criminal Court judge has dismissed charges against a black New York Post reporter who was the victim of racial profiling by NYPD officers. The dismissal came on the same day that the NYPD quietly released figures showing that police made nearly half a million stops in 2007, most of which were of black and Latino New Yorkers.

ACLU Says “Clean Teams” Cannot Wash Away Dirty Interrogation Tactics (02/13/2008)
NEW YORK – Just days after the Bush administration announced its intention to seek the death penalty for six men allegedly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Justice and the Pentagon confirmed the existence of “clean teams” of agents and investigators who allegedly conducted traditional law enforcement interviews with the prisoners after they had already been subjected to torture or “dirty” interrogation practices. The effort began in 2006 when the administration became concerned over legal challenges based on the abuse of these former CIA prisoners.

MCLU Denounces Senate Vote to Expand Warrantless Surveillance (02/12/2008)
PORTLAND- The MCLU expressed strong disappointment with Maine’s two Senators after they backed the Bush Administration’s extension of a law that would vastly expand the government’s ability to spy on Americans without a warrant. The Senate bill, which passed on Tuesday in a 68-29 vote with both Maine’s Senators voting in favor, would extend the government’s power to bypass the safeguards that have been part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, (FISA), which was enacted after the Watergate scandal to provide a court check on government surveillance. Several amendments that would have safeguarded civil liberties were defeated as was an amendment that would have stripped telecom immunity from the bill. Telecom immunity could possibly bring to a close the Maine Public Utilities Commission inquiry into whether Verizon violated Mainers’ privacy by collaborating with the National Security Agency.

Nightspot with Racially Discriminatory Policy Settles Case with DOJ; ACLU Lawsuit Pending (02/12/2008)
Virginia Beach, VA—The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement resolving allegations of racial discrimination against the owner of Kokoamos Island Bar, Grill and Yacht Club in Virginia Beach. Kokoamos at one point banned patrons who wore braids, twists, cornrows, or dreadlocks.

Military Prosecutors Plan To Use Flawed Commissions System To Seek Death Penalty For Guantánamo Detainees (02/11/2008)
NEW YORK - The United States military has announced its intention to prosecute and seek the death penalty for six detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, despite a flawed military commissions system there that has yet to try a single case. The Bush administration’s military commissions have been riddled with ethical and legal challenges, including a 2006 Supreme Court decision that struck down the first version of the system as unconstitutional. Among other things, the commission proceedings allow the admission of coerced evidence that may have been obtained through practices condemned throughout the world as torture. Last week, CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed that one of the men who will be tried, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was waterboarded by CIA agents during interrogations.

Mukasey to Defend Statements on Waterboarding Before the House Judiciary Committee (02/07/2008)
WASHINGTON – Today, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee’s Department of Justice oversight hearing. Expected to be discussed is the attorney general’s refusal to firmly state his position on waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, which were heavily debated in Mukasey’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. The American Civil Liberties Union has long pointed to the historic position of the United States that those methods are torture. The Administration should prohibit their use by any American personnel.

ACLU of North Carolina Files “Friend of the Court” Brief in Case Where Police Shot Hispanic Homeowner After Search Based on Racial Profiling (02/05/2008)
RALEIGH – The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief last week in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a case where police officers admitted under oath that while trying to locate a man named Rudelfo Gonzales who had escaped from his probation officers, Clayton police officers searched the property surrounding the home of Manuel Peña, an Hispanic man, in part because he happened to be Hispanic.