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Can You Find Me Now?
Today the ACLU sued the Justice Department to force it to reveal its policies for tracking the location of cell phones. As anyone who watches Law & Order: SVU knows, all cell phones double as tracking devices.They send cell phone networks information that provides a pretty accurate idea of where they are physically located. This means that if you go for a walk around town with a cell phone in your pocket, it is possible for your cell phone provider to trace your route.
At least today, your cell phone provider does not have a business reason to keep such close track of you. But the government has plenty of reasons to want to do so. The question is under what circumstances the government is going to be able to access such information.
The ACLU’s position is that people have a reasonable expectation that their movements will not be tracked, especially when they are in private places such as homes, and that the government should have to get a warrant from a court to obtain cell phone location information. The government disagrees. News reports and court decisions (PDF) indicate that the Justice Department has been asking courts to authorize it to get this information without producing evidence sufficient to get a warrant, and sometimes without any court involvement at all.
Sometimes the government wins, sometimes it does not. But the few cases that garner press attention or result in court opinions are likely to be a small subset of the number of times the government engages in such tracking.
The purpose of the lawsuit the ACLU filed today is to get the Justice Department to reveal its policies for when it tracks the location of people’s cell phones. The public has the right to know how widespread such monitoring is, so that they can fairly evaluate the privacy risks of carrying a cell phone. Today the ACLU sued the Justice Department to force it to reveal its policies for tracking the location of cell phones. As anyone who ... more -
Court Strikes Down Internet Censorship Law
We just received word today that the Third Circuit struck down a federal Internet censorship law as unconstitutional. The law, called the Child Online Protection Act, imposed civil and criminal penalties on those who place “harmful to minors” material on the Web. Under this law, no adult, no matter how mature or responsible, would have been allowed to see material that is deemed unfit for a child. The law would have forced vast swaths of constitutionally protected speech off of the Web.
Today’s victory is a huge win that comes as a result of 10 years of litigation by a dedicated group of ACLU clients. All of our clients—from award-winning, established publications such as Salon to individuals such as Heather Corinna, who works largely on her own to provide valuable sexual health information geared toward teenagers—put up with a great deal of hassle and inconvenience and stress. By standing up for their own right to engage in free speech on the Web, they helped protect the rights of all Americans. They deserve our thanks.
Whether today’s opinion is the last to address COPA is up to the government and, ultimately, to the Supreme Court. The government has some time to decide whether it wants to ask the Court to review this case. Hopefully it will conclude that 10 years of litigation is enough. We just received word today that the Third Circuit struck down a federal Internet censorship law as unconstitutional. The law, called ... more -
Strip Search of 13-Year-Old for Ibuprofen Ruled Unconstitutional
If you have a problem with school officials strip searching 13-year-olds for Advil – or if you care about the government’s standards for informant use and invasive searches – you can take relief in yesterday’s ruling by a full panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled 6-5 that students cannot be strip-searched based on the uncorroborated word of another student who is facing disciplinary punishment.
“A reasonable school official, seeking to protect the students in his charge, does not subject a thirteen-year-old girl to a traumatic search to ‘protect’ her from the danger of Advil,” the federal appellate court wrote in today’s opinion. “We reject Safford’s effort to lump together these run-of-the-mill anti-inflammatory pills with the evocative term ‘prescription drugs,’ in a knowing effort to shield an imprudent strip search of a young girl behind a larger war against drugs.”
“It does not take a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old girl is an invasion of constitutional rights. More than that: it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity,” the court continued.
In addition to finding the strip search unconstitutional, the court held that the school official who ordered the strip search, Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, is financially liable in the case and cannot claim qualified immunity. The ACLU co-represented the student, Savana Redding, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which decided to reconsider the case after a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the strip-search was legal.
For a case like this, it’s hard to understand how the unconstitutionality of strip searching Redding could even be up for debate. Consider how flimsy the government’s case was:
* No physical evidence suggested that Redding – an honor roll student with no history of substance use or abuse – might be in possession of ibuprofen pills or that she was concealing them in her undergarments.
* The strip search was undertaken based solely on the uncorroborated claims of a classmate facing punishment, who was caught with prescription strength ibuprofen – the equivalent of two over-the-counter pills of Advil. (And why on earth might a teenaged girl have ibuprofen?)
* No attempt was made to corroborate the classmate’s accusations among other students or teachers.
* The classmate had not claimed that Redding currently possessed any pills, nor had the classmate given any indication as to where they might be concealed.
* No attempt was made to contact Redding’s parents prior to conducting the strip search.
If you want to get some background information on the abundance of scientific literature describing the serious psychological repercussions of being strip-searched at age 13, you should check out the briefs of support that were also filed by the National Association of Social Workers and the Rutherford Institute.
“The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had,” said Redding in a sworn affidavit following the incident. “I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.”
As Reason’s Jacob Sullum insightfully observed in his article on the case, “The School Crotch Inspector”:
“There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it’s perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible … Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between drug warriors and child molesters.”
The same safeguards and regulations on informant use that we have been advocating in the context of criminal drug proceedings apply even more so to the context of school, where young people are particularly vulnerable to unsubstantiated rumors and finger-pointing by vindictive peers. If you have a problem with school officials strip searching 13-year-olds for Advil – or if you care about the government’s standards f... more -
Kucinich to investigate police surveillance of protest groups
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has figured prominently in recent political news for his attempts to begin impeachment hearings against President George W. Bush, today announced that the congressional subcommittee he chairs will look into reports of peace groups being surveilled by police and private investigators.
"[M]ost people would be upset to know that police were spying on lawful citizens and infiltrating peaceful organizations, rather than chasing down real criminals," said Kucinich in a press release delivered to RAW STORY. "At a minimum, such police spying is clearly a waste of taxpayer dollars and a diversion from the mission of protecting and serving the people.
"I want the subcommittee to determine how widespread these activities are and who ordered them," the Ohio Democrat and former presidential candidate said.
Kucinich chairs the House Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The press release referred to reports that Maryland state police officers infiltrated peace and anti-death penalty groups and that private investigators working on behalf of "several large corporations" had surveilled environmental groups.
Such surveillance is apparently not limited to law enforcement and private investigators. In January 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report showing "widespread Pentagon surveillance of peace activists."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has figured prominently in recent political news for his attempts to begin impeachment hearings again... more -
Terrorist watch list hits one million names
“America’s new million record watch list is a perfect symbol for what’s wrong with this administration’s approach to security: it’s unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources, treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought, and is a very real impediment in the lives of millions of travelers in this country,” said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program. “It must be fixed without delay.”
“Putting a million names on a watch list is a guarantee that the list will do more harm than good by interfering with the travel of innocent people and wasting huge amounts of our limited security resources on bureaucratic wheel-spinning,” said Steinhardt. “I doubt this thing would even be effective at catching a real terrorist.” “America’s new million record watch list is a perfect symbol for what’s wrong with this administration’s approach to security: it’s un... more -
ACLU Sues Over Unconstitutional Dragnet Wiretapping Law
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a landmark lawsuit today to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked power to intercept Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls. The case was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose ability to perform their work - which relies on confidential communications - will be greatly compromised by the new law.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress on Wednesday and signed by President Bush today, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program the president approved in late 2001, it gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications.
"Spying on Americans without warrants or judicial approval is an abuse of government power - and that's exactly what this law allows. The ACLU will not sit by and let this evisceration of the Fourth Amendment go unchallenged," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Electronic surveillance must be conducted in a constitutional manner that affords the greatest possible protection for individual privacy and free speech rights. The new wiretapping law fails to provide fundamental safeguards that the Constitution unambiguously requires."
In today's legal challenge, the ACLU argues that the new spying law violates Americans' rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The new law permits the government to conduct intrusive surveillance without ever telling a court who it intends to spy on, what phone lines and email addresses it intends to monitor, where its surveillance targets are located, why it's conducting the surveillance or whether it suspects any party to the communication of wrongdoing.
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by the American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union filed a landmark lawsuit today to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wire... more -
US blocking payment to Guantanamo Bay attorneys
The U.S. government is blocking the American Civil Liberties Union from paying attorneys representing suspected terrorists held here, insisting that the ACLU must first receive a license from the U.S. Treasury Department before making the payments.
ACLU director Anthony Romero on Tuesday accused the Bush administration of "obstruction of justice" by delaying approval of the license, which the government argues is required under U.S. law because the beneficiaries of the lawyers' services are foreign terrorists. The U.S. government is blocking the American Civil Liberties Union from paying attorneys representing suspected terrorists held here, ... more -
Billy Warsoldier - Indian Artist and Philosopher
Check out this documentary video of our old friend Billy Soza Warsoldier.
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A short doc about the painter Billy Warsoldier. Commissioned by the Riverside Metropolitan Museum (Riverside, CA) 2006.
DV/Sound/For Monitor Loop in Gallery.
Contact Billy Warsoldier: http://warsoldierartwork.com/
Contact Riverside Metropolitan Mueseum: http://riversideca.gov/museum/
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From TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com
where we've known Billy Warsoldier and his art since
Charleen Touchette was relentless to get Billy's art
included in the book THE SWEET GRASS LIVES ON
in the late 1970s. Check out this documentary video of our old friend Billy Soza Warsoldier. __________________________ ... more -
ACLU Investigates Hippie Arrests-Pelleting and Pepper Balling
The Rainbow Family is a group of hippie types and eccentrics who organize a weeklong national gathering on public land, each year. About 7,000 members were camping this year on Forest Service, near Big Sandy.CHEYENNE, Wyoming
The American Civil Liberties Union plans to investigate how federal law enforcement officers treated members of the Rainbow Family during their annual gathering this year in western Wyoming. {source http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8623449&am...
The federal Forest Service said a mob of about 400 members of the Rainbow Family... threw rocks and sticks at Forest Service officers who tried to arrest a member of the group. The agency would not give a reason for the original arrest.
About 60 federal and local officers responded, Forest Service officials said, and fired pepper balls — pellets that disperse a pepper solution — at the crowd.
{source http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/06rainbow.html?ref...
More than 100 participants in the annual Rainbow Family of Living Light "Gathering of the Tribes" near Big Sandy made appearances at a temporary federal court at the fire station here this week.Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes signed the unusual order to create the temporary courtroom because the closest federal courtrooms to the gathering are in Green River, Lander and Jackson, he said Thursday.The court will remain as long as Rainbow gathering participants are in the area.
About 40 participants appeared in court Wednesday, and an unknown number appeared Thursday, according to the clerk of federal court in Casper. One defendant on Wednesday apparently got out of hand and was zapped with a Taser.
U.S. marshals brought out a case of bottled water for the defendants lined up at the tent where security personnel conducted searches.
There, too, Rainbows made nice with the government.
One Rainbow asked a marshal how he kept a straight face.
"I'm smiling on the inside," he responded. {source http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/07/04/news... The Rainbow Family is a group of hippie types and eccentrics who organize a weeklong national gathering on public land, each year... more -
Protest zone too far away says ACLU
The Democratic National Committee established a protest zone for the National Convention in Denver that is "two football fields away." The ACLU is suing, claiming first amendment free speech rights are restricted since delegates will not be able to hear the protests. The Democratic National Committee established a protest zone for the National Convention in Denver that is "two football fields away."... more
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Which Gender Is Not Important ?
The battle to redefine marriage is essentially one that has as its ultimate outcome the belittling of gender.
In other words, in California, the Supreme Court has effectively said that at least one of the genders does not matter in a marriage. The question that must then be asked of the opponents of marriage must be, "Which one?"
Which gender is not important? Is the female gender in a marriage more important than the male? In matters of public accommodation, is the male gender to be given more privacy and protection over the female? To the children that will be affected by the decisions of judges and governors, will the opponents of marriage kindly identify whether a mother or father is more important?
Ultimately, the redefinition of marriage strikes at every single person, if for no other reason than they must answer that simple question, "Does gender matter?" Those who support marriage do so because they answer that question with a resounding, "YES!"
Men have something to contribute that, biologically and otherwise, women do not. Women are blessed with that certain something that cannot be described that men are not given. Those gender differences are vital in the development of our marriages, our children, families, and societies - and have been throughout time.
Government should not impose policies that knowingly deprive children of a Mom or Dad. When kids grow up in homes without their married mom and dad, they are more likely to drop out of school, abuse alcohol, do drugs, and lead lives of increased crime. Mom and Dad matter.
The next time someone tries to convince you that marriage should be redefined in the name of "tolerance," with love and grace, ask them, "Which gender does not matter?"
The battle to redefine marriage is essentially one that has as its ultimate outcome the belittling of gender. ... more -
McCain backs California Gay Marriage Ban
The sponsors of a ballot initiative that seeks to ban same-sex marriage in California say Republican presidential candidate John McCain has endorsed the measure.
The ProtectMarriage.com campaign says it received an e-mail from McCain Thursday in which the Arizona senator expressed his support for the group's efforts "to recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman."
McCain has previously said that while he does not back banning same-sex marriage at the federal level, he thinks it is appropriate for states to do so.
The sponsors of a ballot initiative that seeks to ban same-sex marriage in California say Republican presidential candidate John McCai... more -
Obama says NO and YES to same-sex marriage depending who he talks to !!!
Earlier this week, Senator Obama said during an interview with ABC"s Jake Tapper, " Ibelieve marriage is between a man and a woman," shortly after being asked if he opposed same-sex marriage, to which he responded "yes"
This positioning is not new for Sen. Obama. He has uttered those words plenty- during a debate with Alan Keys in 2004, on the Senate floor in 2006, even in his 2007 Human Rights Campaign candidate questionnaire.
When talking to Gays on the Logo Network,(see youtube video below) Obama' s belief on marriage between one man and one woman basically comes out as just as a strategy of convenience.
Just another slick Willy. He is not a trusworthy leader.
If elected, he will hurt African Americans deeply.
Earlier this week, Senator Obama said during an interview with ABC"s Jake Tapper, " Ibelieve marriage is between a man and a woman," s... more -
ONE Million Lawyers in the U.S. !!!
"When there are too many policemen, there can be no liberty.
When there are too many soldiers, there can be no peace.
When there are too many lawyers there can be no justice."
Lin Yutang (1895-1976). Chinese-American writer, translator and editor
There is one lawyer for every 300 Americans ! One million lawyers looking for someone to sue ?
"Sue onto others before they sue unto you".
The US has 70% of the world lawyers but only 5% of the world population. They are over 200 law schools
U.S. industry spends hundred of billion dollars annualy on ligitation cost and efforts to avoid liability.
The health care industry, one of the trial lawyers favorite targets has costs that are spiraling out of sight leaving many Americans underinsured or ininsured.
The rule of law has been replaced by the rule of lawyers.
ACLU Lawyers are even suing God out of this Land of promise and codifying immorality.
All we will have left is law against law.
The survival of the fittest.
A darwinist world
"When there are too many policemen, there can be no liberty. When there are too many soldiers, there can be no peace. ... more -
Religion and Its Role Are in Dispute at the Service Academies
Three years after a scandal at the Air Force Academy over the evangelizing of cadets by Christian staff and faculty members, students and staff at West Point and the Naval Academy are complaining that their schools, too, have pushed religion on cadets and midshipmen.
The controversy led the Air Force to adopt guidelines that discourage public prayers at official events or meetings. And while those rules do not apply to other branches of the service, critics say the new complaints raise questions about the military’s commitment to policies against imposing religion on its members.
Religion in the military has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, especially because the close confines of military life often put two larger societal trends — the rise of evangelicals and the rise of people of no organized faith — onto a collision course.
At the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., nine midshipmen recently asked the American Civil Liberties Union to petition the school to abolish daily prayer at weekday lunch, where attendance is mandatory. The midshipmen and the A.C.L.U. assert that the practice is unconstitutional, based in large part on a 2004 appellate court ruling against a similar prayer at the Virginia Military Institute. The civil liberties group has threatened legal action if the policy is not changed.
But the academy is not persuaded.
“The academy does not intend to change its practice of offering midshipmen an opportunity for prayer or devotional thought during noon meal announcements,” Cmdr. Ed Austin, an academy spokesman, said in an e-mail message. Three years after a scandal at the Air Force Academy over the evangelizing of cadets by Christian staff and faculty members, students ... more -
Chuck Norris roundhouse kicks Constitution
Chuck Norris is a dangerous member of the Religious Right and he doesn't deserve our admiration any longer.
He is a supporting member of the "National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools" - a group that wishes to force all public school children to read the Bible and ultimately turned into Christians on tax dollars.
He doesn't believe in the Separation of Church and State and supported Mike Huckabee for president and Rick Perry for governor of Texas. Perry is a far-right conservative who is against any and all gay rights, people of other religions, and the Constitution in general.
To see more of Chuck kicking the Constitution into the dirt:
http://www.bibleinschools.net/Videos Chuck Norris is a dangerous member of the Religious Right and he doesn't deserve our admiration any longer. ... more -
Disclosure of classified documents reveal total dismissal of U.S. Constitution
The American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered details pertaining to a secret Justice Department memo from October 2001 that reveals the Bush administration effectively suspended the Fourth Amendment where domestic counter terrorism operations are concerned.
The ACLU reports that the memo states the "Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations." after 9/11. In other words, the DOJ gave the White House a green light to effectively shelve Constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures in the wake of the terror attacks.
The memo was written by then deputy assistant attorney general John Yoo, also the co-author of the PATRIOT Act and author of the now notorious torture memos.
It is almost certain that Yoo's memo was written to provide a legal basis for the NSA, a military intelligence agency, to begin its warrantless wiretapping program, which was initiated in the same month.
Just days after the memo's delivery to the White House, Dick Cheney and other administration officials briefed four House and Senate leaders on the NSA's secret terrorist surveillance program for the first time.
The existence of the 2001 memo came to light via a newly declassified March 2003 document from the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) entitled Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States, which makes reference to the previous memo. The American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered details pertaining to a secret Justice Department memo from October 2001 that reveal... more -
Children raped by American soldiers in front of their mothers - Pentagon has tapes
From Daily Kos' partial transcript of a video (link to REAL stream) of Seymour Hersh speaking at an ACLU event. He says the US government has videotapes of children being raped at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
" Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."
Link (via Warren). There's also a piece worth reading in this week's Newsweek about new allegations of rape and sexual torture at Abu Ghraib. Feature includes details on the identities of the Iraqi prisoners shown in those widely-circulated photographs -- including Satar Jabar (charged with carjacking, not terrorism), whose iconic hooded figure with wires attached is derisively described by many Iraqis as the "Statue of Liberty." From Daily Kos' partial transcript of a video (link to REAL stream) of Seymour Hersh speaking at an ACLU event. He says the US governm... more -
ACLU Sues Denver For Information On Weapons Use During DNC
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the city of Denver after an open records request for information about the purchasing of security equipment for the Democratic National Convention was denied. The group wants to know what weapons the city is buying for crowd control during protests.
"Aren't you asking the police to reveal their tactics?" CBS4 asked.
"No, we're not asking the police to reveal tactics, we're asking the police to reveal how they are spending the public's money," said Mark Silverstein of the ACLU.
The city has allocated millions of dollars for security equipment purchases. Officials said they are planning for a peaceful event, but are ready for "contingencies."
The protest group Recreate 68 believes the city is buying high tech weaponry.
"We could save them a whole lot of money by just talking with us and de-escalating the confrontational situation that would cause them to use this weapon technology," said Glenn Spagnuolo of Recreate 68.
Spagnuolo thinks the city is looking at weapons like a stun gun which fires 20 seconds of pain from a shotgun. He also pointed to the LRAD, a long range acoustic device that emits a tone to disable people.
The city responded to CBS4's inquiries by saying it will not discuss tactics and that weapons use is part of that.
"It is important to keep that part of the planning confidential," said David Fine, a city attorney.
A court date is set for June on another lawsuit the ACLU filed against the city. That case concerns the routes protesters will be allowed to march during the convention.
-Rick Sallinger The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the city of Denver after an open records request for information about the p... more -
ACLU sues Denver And Secret Service to protect First Amendment Rights at DNC
This lawsuit, filed against Denver and the United States Secret Service on behalf of twelve national and local advocacy organizations, seeks to protect the First Amendment rights of individual and organizations that wish to express their views about issues of public concern during the time of the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008.
The suit asks the court to order Denver to process pending requests for permits for parades and demonstrations that will use the City streets. It also seeks disclosure and judicial review of the anticipated regulations affecting expression at or near the Convention site, including disclosure of the details of the anticipated “demonstration zone.”
ACLU This lawsuit, filed against Denver and the United States Secret Service on behalf of twelve national and local advocacy organizations,... more
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