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The ACLU is working tirelessly to ensure that the upcoming Presidential election is a fair process with no unconstitutional restrictions on voting rights or access. Below are some examples of our voting rights efforts around the country as the election approaches:
| October 17 , 2008 Last week, ABC News reported that NSA officials have intercepted, listened to and passed around the phone calls of hundreds of innocent U.S. citizens working overseas -- including soldiers, journalists and human rights workers from organizations like the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders -- even after it was clear that the calls were not in any way related to national security. NSA officials regularly passed around salacious calls such as the private "phone sex" calls of military officers calling home, according to the report. This week, the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests demanding that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Justice Department disclose any policies and procedures pertaining to how the NSA protects Americans' privacy rights when it collects, stores and disseminates private U.S. communications. The NSA has not released a public version of its procedures for protecting the privacy of U.S. communications since 1993. "The American public needs to know whether the NSA's procedures are sufficiently protective of our privacy rights," said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Unfortunately, there is often no meaningful court oversight of the NSA's surveillance activities, and the NSA is left to police itself." In July 2008, Congress enacted the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), giving the NSA unprecedented power to spy on Americans without warrants. The law was passed over the strong objections of not only the ACLU and other civil liberties groups, but many members of Congress and the American public. The FISA Amendments Act permits dragnet, suspicionless surveillance of Americans' international communications -- precisely the kind of invasive and ineffective monitoring that was reported last week. The ACLU filed a landmark lawsuit to stop the government from conducting surveillance under the new wiretapping law, arguing that the law violates the Fourth Amendment by giving the government 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. "The FAA shows the danger of Congress choosing to legislate before it investigates," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "We now know that whistleblowers approached the Senate Judiciary Committee last year with claims of NSA malfeasance and that efforts to bring them to light went nowhere. Congress should have been much more aggressive while investigating those allegations. If it had, the FISA Amendments Act may have had the safeguards needed to prevent this kind of abuse in the future. As it stands now, the privacy rights of Americans are as protected as any given NSA analyst allows them to be." >>Read more about NSA surveillance gone amok on the ACLU’s blog. >>Learn more information about the ACLU's ongoing FAA lawsuit. Ballot Initiatives Put Freedom on the Line this Election Season
With Election Day less than three weeks away, the ACLU’s Constitution Voter campaign is shifting into high gear. The ACLU is taking a stand on crucial initiatives that will appear on November’s ballot in 11 different states. The ACLU doesn’t take sides when it comes to candidates for office. But, when people try to use ballot initiatives to undermine freedom, it is our job to be at the center of the action, doing everything we can to protect the Constitution. We’re working hard -- committing millions of dollars and enormous amounts of energy -- to defeat the November 4th ballot initiatives aimed at undermining your constitutional rights. >>Check out all the ballot initiatives we’re campaigning on, and then send an eCard to friends and family in these states. Update: US Supreme Court Denies Troy Davis, Georgia Sets Execution Date
Once again, Troy Anthony Davis has been issued a date for execution by the Chatham County Superior Court. He is scheduled to be executed on October 27, 2008. On Monday, October 13, 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review his appeal, and a warrant of execution has been issued. Mr. Davis is about to be executed for the murder of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. He will be executed even though no murder weapon was found and no physical evidence was discovered. He was convicted based on eyewitness identification by nine non-police witnesses. Seven of those witnesses have now recanted or given contradictory statements prior to the trial. Several of the witnesses say that they were coerced into giving false statements. One of the witnesses that has not recanted is an alternative suspect in the crime and has been heard claiming that he killed an off-duty police officer. None of the evidence about the recanted testimony or Mr. Davis’s possible innocence has been heard by a court. Please make your voice heard. Tell the world that evidence of innocence must trump court procedure. No one should face the ultimate punishment while evidence of innocence goes unexamined. Make your voice heard on behalf of justice. >> Send a letter to the editor on behalf of justice and Mr. Davis. >> Email the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, and ask them to reconsider this case and stop this execution. New Law Restores Rights to Americans with Disabilities In a victory for civil rights, the ACLU celebrated President Bush signing into law last month the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA). The legislation rolls back two decades worth of legal decisions that have thwarted the original intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The ADA was landmark legislation when first passed in 1990 with strong bipartisan support. The original legislation sought to protect individuals treated unfairly due to an actual or perceived disability. Like other historic civil rights laws, the ADA was designed to promote equal opportunity, economic independence and full participation in American society. But, in the past two decades, legal decisions have limited the ADA's protections. Courts have held that individuals with impairments who function well due to their use of "mitigating measures" - such as medication, hearing aids, and prosthetics - are not covered by the ADA, even if they are discriminated against because of that impairment. Judges have also interpreted the definition of "disability" so strictly that they have created an overly demanding standard for qualifying as disabled. The courts also have placed an overly heavy burden of proof on the victims by requiring individuals who allege their employer regarded them as disabled to show that their employer believed them incapable of performing a broad range of jobs, not just the job they were denied. "The courts have gradually diminished important civil rights protections for employees with disabilities," said Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Legislative Counsel. "The ADAAA restores the original promise of the ADA -- that individuals with disabilities, who are willing and able to work, should be able to do so free from discrimination." The End of America
The End of America, a new documentary from award-winning filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (The Trials of Darryl Hunt, The Devil Came on Horseback), based on Naomi Wolf’s 2007 book of the same name, details the ten steps a country takes when it slides from an open to a closed society. It’s an historical look at trends in once-functioning democracies from modern history that are being repeated in our country today. It gives any reader (or viewer of the lecture or film) a much-needed history lesson and constitutional refresher. Most importantly, it puts the recent, gradual loss of civil liberties in the U.S. in a historical context. The average American might not be alarmed at AT&T selling our private information to the Bush administration, but when this action is seen as part of a larger series of erosions and events, a pattern emerges with unfortunate consequences that become disturbingly clear. On Tuesday, October 21, the film will premiere online via SnagFilms and will include a special introduction from ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero. The film in its entirety and Anthony's remarks will be available to watch on SnagFilms.com for free. Following our virtual premiere on the 21st, Rights / Camera / Action will continue to host a "multiplex" on Snag with civil liberties related films on an ongoing basis. Stay tuned for the new official site of Rights / Camera / Action -- to launch Tuesday, October 21 -- which will have more information on The End of America (including exclusive footage from its premiere at the Hamptons Film Festival tonight) and other important civil liberties films and exciting new projects. School District Punishes Kindergarten Student Because Of Family's Religious Beliefs, ACLU Sues The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Houston, TX two weeks ago against the Needville Independent School District (NISD) for punishing a five-year-old American Indian kindergarten student for practicing and expressing his family's religious beliefs and heritage by wearing his hair long in violation of school rules. School officials have forced the student into isolated in-school suspension since September 3, 2008 because he and his family refuse to abide by a district mandate that he stuff his long hair, part of his American Indian religious and cultural heritage, down the back of his shirt while at school -- a requirement that would cause A.A.(the child) shame, embarrassment and physical discomfort. "NISD is trying to force A.A. and his parents to choose between practicing and expressing his religion and identity and obtaining a public education," said Fleming Terrell, staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas. "But Texas law and the First Amendment both prohibit the district from forcing parents and students to make this choice." >>Read more. |
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