Home : Newsroom

ACLU In Court Today In Lawsuit Against Boeing Subsidiary That Aided CIA “Torture Flights” (02/05/2008)
SAN JOSE, CA - The American Civil Liberties Union will argue in federal court today for the continuation of its case against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. for the company’s role in the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program. The ACLU is opposing the government’s attempt to throw out the case by misusing the “state secrets” privilege in an effort to avoid legal scrutiny of the unlawful and shameful program.

ACLU To Monitor Military Commission Hearings At Guantánamo Bay This Week (02/04/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union will be at Guantánamo Bay this week to monitor the military commission hearings of Canadian national Omar Ahmed Khadr and Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan. In each hearing, a U.S. military judge will determine whether the commission has proper jurisdictional authority to hear the U.S. government’s case. Khadr and Hamdan are two of only four Guantánamo detainees to face charges since Congress’ 2006 reinstatement of the commissions after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the system established by the Bush administration.

MCLU Applauds Public Utilities Commission Order On Sale Of Verizon To FairPoint (02/04/2008)
PORTLAND, ME - The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) today released an order that will allow its investigation into Verizon’s alleged abuses of customer privacy to continue. The order requires that, as a condition of the sale of Verizon assets to FairPoint Communications, the PUC retain jurisdiction over the telecomm giant even after the transaction with FairPoint has been completed.

ACLU Urges Congress to Stand for a Constitutional FISA (01/30/2008)
Washington, DC – As both the Senate and House consider legislation on government spying on Americans, the ACLU urges members of Congress not to cave in to White House requests for immunity for telecommunications providers and asks for a no vote on any bill with warrantless wiretapping.

House Hearing a Step Towards Progress on State Secrets Privilege (01/29/2008)
Washington, DC –The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Oversight heard today from witnesses giving testimony on the state secrets privilege. Historically, the privilege has been used to give the government an opportunity to prevent the disclosure of evidence that would legitimately harm national security. In the hands of the Bush administration, it has been used as an alternative form of immunity that is increasingly being used to shield the government and its agents from accountability for systemic violations of the Constitution. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) has introduced legislation in the Senate that would go a long way in narrowing the scope of the privilege.

ACLU Encourages Senate Rebellion on Spy Law (01/28/2008)
Washington, DC – Today in a procedural vote, Senate Democrats and key Republicans are set to stand firm against the administration’s attempt to widely expand warrantless wiretapping. A motion to end debate and prevent future amendments from being offered to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s version of the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 will likely be blocked this afternoon. This will set up the Senate for a much more productive procedure and will allow senators the chance to fix the fatally flawed bill.

ACLU Calls Civil Rights Act of 2008 Vital to Restoring Equal Protection Under the Law (01/25/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union cheers the introduction of S. 2554, the “Civil Rights Act of 2008” by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). The companion bill, H.R. 5129, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) on January 23, 2008.

ACLU Asks Federal Appeals Court to Lift Ban on Renowned Scholar (01/23/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union appealed a federal judge’s ruling today to challenge the government’s exclusion of renowned Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan from the U.S. The ACLU continues to believe that the government’s stated reason for barring the scholar is a pretext and that Ramadan, a leading European academic whose work addresses Muslim identity and the role of Islam in democratic societies, remains banned from the country because of his political viewpoints.

Federal Judge Orders CIA and Defense Department to Produce Documents for Court Review (01/17/2008)
NEW YORK - A federal judge today ordered the CIA and the Department of Defense (DoD) to provide him with documents related to the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York ordered the government to make the documents available to him so he can determine for himself whether they should be made public pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations.

ACLU in Federal Court Today Arguing for CIA Contempt for Destroying Interrogation Tapes (01/16/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today asked a federal judge to hold the CIA in contempt of court for destroying videotapes depicting the abusive interrogations of two detainees in its custody. The ACLU also argued for the release of other government documents relating to the abuse of prisoners including Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos authorizing the CIA and the Defense Department to use harsh interrogation methods, documents relating to the CIA Office of Inspector General investigations into prisoner abuse, and Defense Department videotapes believed to depict "Forced Cell Extraction" teams abusing Guantánamo prisoners.

ACLU Announces “Close Guantánamo” Campaign (01/08/2008)
NEW YORK – To coincide with the six-year anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, the American Civil Liberties Union today announced its Close Guantánamo campaign. The ACLU is hosting more than 20 events across the country this week from Washington, DC to Boise, Idaho. In addition, the ACLU is calling on Americans to wear orange this Friday as an expression of opposition to indefinite detention at the U.S.-run prison and torture. Orange, the color of the jumpsuits worn by the first Gitmo detainees in photographs released by the Department of Defense in 2002, was chosen to represent torture tactics and prisoner abuse.

ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Strike Down Kentucky's Lethal Injection Procedures (01/07/2008)
WASHINGTON – Describing the three-drug cocktail used in most states’ lethal injection executions as unnecessarily cruel, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the U.S. Supreme Court to halt its use in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in Baze v. Rees, which is being argued today. The lethal injection procedures as practiced in Kentucky amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, the ACLU charged.

Supreme Court Review of Lethal Injection Case Encouraging, Says NYCLU (01/07/2008)
NEW YORK - The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in a case challenging the use of lethal injection to execute people. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Court’s decision to take the case is an encouraging development in the campaign to abolish the death penalty in the United States.

ACLU Asks Full Spy Court to Reconsider Refusal to Release Legal Rulings (12/21/2007)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a motion with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) asking the full court to reconsider a recent decision by Judge John D. Bates refusing to disclose orders and legal papers pertaining to the scope of the government's authority to engage in the secret wiretapping of Americans and the court's interpretation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Federal Judge Wrongly Allows Exclusion of Renowned Muslim Scholar (12/20/2007)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union strongly criticized a federal judge’s ruling today that allows the government’s exclusion of renowned Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan from the U.S. The ACLU continues to believe that Ramadan, a leading European academic whose work addresses Muslim identity and the role of Islam in democratic societies, remains banned due to his political viewpoints.

House Judiciary Committee Discusses Detainee Interrogations (12/20/2007)
Washington, DC – As the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing today to examine whether federal criminal laws apply to the interrogations of detainees, the American Civil Liberties Union reiterates its call that Attorney General Mukasey appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any violations of federal criminal laws, including possible obstruction of justice, that resulted from these interrogations.

ACLU Demands Records of CIA Tape Destruction From White House, FBI (12/19/2007)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today filed papers asking a federal judge to order the White House, the FBI, and other government agencies to produce all records in their possession relating to the destruction of two videotapes by CIA operatives in 2005 as well as transcripts and summaries of the tapes. The ACLU’s filing comes in the wake of revelations that administration officials took part in discussions with the CIA about whether to destroy the tapes, which show the harsh interrogations of two prisoners in U.S. custody, Abu Zubaida and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Today’s filing is an addendum to a motion to hold the CIA in contempt of court filed by the ACLU last week.

ACLU Demands Disclosure of Legal Memos Justifying Illegal Spying (12/18/2007)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Security Archive and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) today filed papers urging a federal judge to compel the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to disclose legal and policy memos relating to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless wiretapping program. Two years after the media’s disclosure that the NSA was secretly intercepting the phone calls and emails of people in the United States without a warrant in direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the government continues to withhold documents that could shed light on its legal justification for the program.

Military Commission Judge Rebuffs Bush Administration and Applies Geneva Conventions to Guantánamo Detainee (12/18/2007)
NEW YORK – In a rebuke to Bush administration policy, a military commission judge found Monday that Guantánamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan is entitled to a determination of whether he is a prisoner of war protected by the Geneva Conventions, which govern the rights and treatment of captives in wartime.

ACLU Says New Jersey's Historic Rejection of Death Penalty Reflects Shift in Public Opinion (12/17/2007)
NEW YORK – Today Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a bill that ends capital punishment in the state of New Jersey. The measure, which passed the state legislature last week with bipartisan majorities, replaces the death penalty with life imprisonment for the most serious offenders. New Jersey becomes the first state since 1965 to legislatively repeal the death penalty, generating forward momentum in the campaign to end capital punishment nationwide, said the American Civil Liberties Union.