Civil Liberties // Current

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22 days ago

Court Upholds Right To Challenge Gene Patents

A federal district court ruled today that patients and scientists can challenge patents on human genes in court, allowing a lawsuit challenging patents on two human genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to move forward.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a not-for-profit organization affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The groups charge that the patents are illegal and restrict both scientific research and patients' access to medical care, and that patents on human genes violate the First Amendment and patent law because genes are "products of nature."

"We hope this challenge is the beginning of the end to patents on genes, which limit scientific research, learning and the free flow of information," said Chris Hansen, a staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group. "No one should be able to patent a part of the human body."

The lawsuit, Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, et al., was originally filed on May 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of breast cancer and women's health groups, individual women, geneticists and scientific associations representing approximately 150,000 researchers, pathologists and laboratory professionals. The lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as well as Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, which hold the patents on the BRCA genes. The defendants asked the court to dismiss the case but today's ruling allows the lawsuit to proceed.

Because the ACLU's lawsuit challenges the whole notion of gene patenting, its outcome could have far-reaching effects beyond the patents on the BRCA genes. Approximately 20 percent of all human genes are patented, including genes associated with Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy, colon cancer, asthma and many other illnesses.

More @ link

http://www.aclu.org/free-speech_womens-rights/court-upholds-right-scientists-and-patients-challenge-gene-patentsA federal district court ruled today that patients and scientists can challenge patents on human genes in court, allowing a... more

Future_America
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1 month ago

Stop CitiBank/ Close your accounts

Did you get this letter too? Open ALL of your mail from banks and credit cards and read it! If you can, Close your credit... more

twodee
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23 days ago

Justice who refused to wed interracial couple resigns

A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday.... more

Future_America
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36 comments

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26 days ago

115 Arrested in 18 Cities this Week

115 arrested in 18 cities this week despite Pelosi's announcement on a public option bill. Hey Nance, public option... more

JonRaymond
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28 days ago

Doctor arrested at CIGNA Sit-In Protest for Healthcare

Dr. Matt Hendrickson, MD MPH was arrested Thursday 10/28/2009 in Glendale for joining with others at a CIGNA sit-in, while Grigor... more

JonRaymond
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27 days ago

Judge rules Feds can search e-mail without notice

No matter how much of our personal lives exist in e-mail services such as Gmail, a U.S. District Court judge says if the... more

riverratt50
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57 comments

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26 days ago

Nataline Sarkisyan: Killed by CIGNA

Hilda Sarkisyan holds a picture of her daughter, Nataline Sarkisyan, killed by CIGNA when they denied treatment for her condition... more

JonRaymond
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4 comments

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27 days ago

Sit-In Protesters Spend the Night at Humana

“We’ll stay here. I guess we’ll just stay overnight. I think this is a life and death issue,” she says.... more

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27 days ago

Barack Obama lifts HIV/AIDS US travel ban

Barack Obama said that a US travel ban against people infected with the HIV virus will be overturned early next year.

The order will be completed on Monday, Obama said, finishing a process begun during the administration of George Bush.

The United States is one of about a dozen countries that bar entry to travellers based on their HIV status. The ban has been in place for more than 20 years. Obama said it will be lifted just after the new year, after a waiting period of about 60 days.

"If we want to be a global leader in combating HIV/Aids, we need to act like it," Obama said at the White House before signing a bill to extend the Ryan White HIV/Aids programme. Begun in 1990, the program provides medical care, medication and support services to about half a million Americans with HIV or Aids, mostly low-income people.

The bill is named for an teenager who contracted Aids through a blood transfusion at age 13. Ryan White went on to fight Aids-related discrimination against him and others like him in the late 1980s and to help educate Americans about the disease. He died in April 1990 aged 18.

His mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, attended the signing ceremony, as did several members of Congress and HIV/Aids activists.

In 1987, at a time of widespread fear and ignorance about HIV, the department of health and human services added the disease to the list of communicable diseases that disqualified a person from entering the United States.

The department tried in 1991 to reverse its decision but was opposed by Congress, which in 1993 went the other way and made HIV infection the only medical condition explicitly listed under immigration law as grounds for inadmissibility to the country.

The law effectively has kept out thousands of students, tourists and refugees and complicated the adoption of children with HIV. No major international Aids conference has been held in the United States since 1993 because HIV-positive activists or researchers could not enter the country.

Obama said lifting the ban "is a step that will save lives" by encouraging people to get tested and to get treatment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/30/obama-ends-hiv-travel-banBarack Obama said that a US travel ban against people infected with the HIV virus will be overturned early next year. The order... more

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28 days ago

Scholars reject Obama's Stance on Warrantless Cellphone Recording

The Obama administration’s position that the government can force mobile carriers to hand over cellphone tower location information on their customers without a warrant is wrong, two legal scholars say.

"Because CSLI acquisition is hidden, indiscriminate and intrusive, and because it reveals information over a period of time, it should be subject to the highest level of Fourth Amendment oversight (the same procedures used for wiretapping and video surveillance)," the scholars wrote late Friday.

The scholars are Susan Freiwald, of the USF School of Law, and Peter Swire, of Ohio State University.

Their words, published by the American Constitution Society, came a month after the Justice Department made its claim in a little-noticed case that the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures did not apply.

Most Americans have or will carry a mobile phone in their lifespan, so the outcome could have wide-ranging privacy ramifications. Smartphones, like the iPhone, use cell-tower information to power geo-location applications like Google Maps.

In a case pending before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the government maintains it can require federal judges to order mobile phone companies to release historical cell-tower information of a phone number without probable cause — the standard required for a search warrant.

While judges have differed on the issue, the resulting evidence can be used in a criminal prosecution. The case on appeal concerns a Pennsylvania judge who rejected the government’s position in a drug prosecution that the new administration inherited.

Mobile-phone providers keep cell-site information for up to 18 months. Historical cell-site location information includes the tower connected at the beginning of a call and at the end of the call. The government does not claim a warrantless right to cell-site information for future calls, only for calls already dialed.

"Cellular providers could, if they wanted, keep track of your cell phone’s location every seven seconds," the scholars wrote, "because your phone ‘registers’ that often with the nearest tower."The Obama administration’s position that the government can force mobile carriers to hand over cellphone tower location... more

asherp
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1 month ago

Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within

This is a synopsis of the 28 minute French film by Pascale Bourgau who interviewed US military women raped on duty. It's been seen on European TV but not in the US.

Pascale, a reporter for the Belgian channel RTBF (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon), while six months pregnant, along with Anne Barrier, toured the United States to meet these women and tell of their pain, rebellion and today, their struggle.

The documentary was selected for the New York Independent Film Festival and will be shown Monday evening, October 26 at 5:45pm at the City Cinema East, 181 2d Ave, NYC.
Following the showing of "Rape in the Ranks", there will be a panel to discuss rape in the US military at the Telephone Bar and Grill, 149 2nd Ave (212-529-5000).
See http://nyfilmvideo.info/2009-new-york-october-film-schedule-tickets/monday-october-26th-film-schedule-tickets-scree-2.htm

Filmmaker Pascale Bourgaux is available for interviews. Her telephone is 212-982-0684 and 646-2638402.
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Here is the synopsis:

Raped by their comrades, Tina, Jessica, Suzanne and Stephanie have been ignored by U.S. military officials in seeking justice. Though the Pentagon acknowledged receiving 3,000 reports of sexual assault in 2006 alone, and had launched a rape prevention program in 2004, the number of reported sexual assaults has since skyrocketed, but not the number of convictions. Only 2% of accused rapists are ever brought before a courts martial. Very few women have been willing to speak out, with the exception of these four brave women. Unable to stand the nightmarish daily rapes by her commander in Iraq, 21 year old Suzanne refused to report back for mission and was brought before a courts martial. 25 year old Jessica was raped in the U.S. and Korea, yet still dreams of going back to active service and seeing her attackers brought to justice. Stephanie has come to regret never reporting her own rape and perpetuating the law of silence. 20 year old Tina, who was raped in Iraq, is no longer around to recount her nightmare. She supposedly "killed herself." Her mother claims she was murdered. This report tells the story of their pain, revolt, and uphill battle for justice.

Image captions: Left: Pascale Bourgaux interviewing Ann Wright, a former colonel who resigned before the war in Iraq; now a pacifist and defender of the cause of raped female soldiers (Washington, outside the White House).
Right: Jessica and her husband Brendan Brinkman.
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En Francais: http://www.capatv.com/?p=2609
Visit the Stop War Project: http://stopwar.lafilmonline.comThis is a synopsis of the 28 minute French film by Pascale Bourgau who interviewed US military women raped on duty. It's been... more

JonRaymond
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1 month ago

Legalize Drugs Now!

by Conor Friedersdorf The raids on Mexican drug cartels and the violence in Rio are just the latest examples of America’s... more

Future_America
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8 comments

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1 year ago

Subway fires gay porn employee.

I find it funny that the gay porn actor handles meat in both jobs, but still, it's a strange reason to be fired. Especially... more

AceHardchester
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1 month ago

Oklahoma abortion law to put women's details online

A new law to take effect in will require doctors provide detailed information about women who have abortions, information to be... more

Future_America
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1 month ago

Sam Pullen Arrested at Health Care Sit-In Remains in Jail to End Insurance Abuse

Washington DC – Chanting “patients not profits,” citizens and health care providers held rallies and sit-ins at health insurance company offices in New York, Washington, Phoenix, Palm Beach, Portland, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Reno. (Full list of cities and arrests below.) 54 were arrested to support an end to insurance abuse and win health care for all. 14 arrested in New York have not yet been released. Sam Pullen, 31, arrested in Los Angeles is refusing to give information to police, vowing to stay in jail until Blue Cross, where he protested yesterday, stops denying care to those who need it most. Another round of sit-ins and rallies is planned for Wednesday, October 28.

Pullen was inspired to action by his mother, who was denied coverage for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant by Blue Cross when he was a teenager. Weakened by her cancer treatments, Pullen’s mother staged a one-woman sit-in at the insurance company office, resulting in the approval of the transplant that extended her life for years. Thanks to the transplant, she lived long enough to see Pullen reach 18 years of age.

“I am honoring my mother’s sprit by refusing to leave custody until Blue Cross ceases its practice of denying doctor-requested treatments for patients with life-threatening conditions,” said Pullen, who is being supported by Mobilization for Health Care for All and other groups. “We will not back down until profit-driven insurance companies no longer stand between the American people and the health care they deserve!”
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The above was copied from the Mobilize for Health Care website, which updates the article daily. Sam Pullen organized the Los Angeles financial district sit-in at the Anthem Blue Cross offices. 12 were arrested there as seen here: http://current.com/items/91210625_single-payer-is-not-off-the-table.htm.

Rallies and more such protest actions are planned for future events and will continue, not until a public option is passed, but until a universal fair affordable health care system is agreed upon, a system such as medicare for all or a single payer system. A silent rage has been awakened in Americans across the country and this will only escalate as the right and the insurance industry push back.

Pelosi has stated that single payer is off the table. But the doctors, health care professionals and other activists who continue to stand up for universal health care will not acknowledge Pelosi's statement. Single payer is not off the table. It's the people's table, not Congress'.

Good luck to Sam and the other American heroes who remain in jail to protest our corrupt monopolistic socialized corporate welfare state insurance industry that preys upon all Americans for it's very survival.Washington DC – Chanting “patients not profits,” citizens and health care providers held rallies and sit-ins at... more