http://www.aclu.org/newsroom/index.html Visit ACLU.org to learn more and get involved. en-us 10 http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/40120prs20090702.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – After agreeing three times to release an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report on the CIA's interrogation and detention program and then reneging, the government announced today it will not release a reprocessed version of the report before August 31. The CIA had agreed to release the OIG report by June 19, 2009. It then requested two extensions – to June 26 and then July 1. 2009-07-02T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/reproductiverights/abortion/40109prs20090702.html?s_src=RSS PHOENIX - The American Civil Liberties Union late yesterday asked an Arizona court to prevent Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio from requiring inmates to prepay transportation costs before they can obtain an abortion. 2009-07-02T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/40095prs20090701.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today asked a federal court to suppress all evidence obtained through torture and other coercion in the habeas corpus case challenging the unlawful detention of Guantánamo detainee Mohammed Jawad. The judge in Jawad's military commission proceedings previously suppressed statements made by Jawad to Afghan and U.S. officials following his arrest, finding that they were the product of torture. However, the government continues to rely on those same statements in Jawad's habeas corpus challenge. 2009-07-01T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/reproductiverights/abortion/40100prs20090701.html?s_src=RSS COLUMBUS, OH – The Ohio Supreme Court today moved to protect the privacy of minors' medical records when the minor is not a party in a lawsuit. The case involves a lawsuit against an Ohio Planned Parenthood and attempts by a teenager's parents to obtain the medical records not only of their own daughter but of all teenagers seen at that clinic over a ten year period. 2009-07-01T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/transgender/40092prs20090701.html?s_src=RSS WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Justice decided not to appeal a federal court ruling awarding transgender veteran Diane Schroer the maximum compensation for the discrimination she suffered after being refused a job with the Library of Congress. The deadline for seeking an appeal was June 30. The American Civil Liberties Union has represented Schroer in her case. 2009-07-01T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/racialjustice/40069prs20090630.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – Widespread racial profiling by law enforcement agents as a result of Bush-era policies remains a pervasive problem throughout the United States, according to a report out today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rights Working Group (RWG). Government policies are a major cause of the disproportionate stopping and searching of racial minorities by law enforcement agencies, according to the report, which was submitted today to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). 2009-06-30T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/40056prs20090629.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – According to The Wall Street Journal, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued guidance to the Obama administration on reviving the military commissions system to try Guantánamo detainees. The Journal reports that the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel advised the administration that detainees can claim some constitutional rights if they are tried in military commissions within the United States. 2009-06-29T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/scotus/2008term/40059prs20090629.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – The Supreme Court concluded its 2008 Term today, clearing the stage for the confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, which are scheduled to begin in the Senate on July 13. It also marks the end of Justice David Souter's distinguished career on the Supreme Court. 2009-06-29T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/gen/40058prs20090629.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that the City of New Haven, Connecticut wrongly threw out a promotion examination for the city's firefighters, saying there was not sufficient evidence that the exam's impact on minorities violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 2009-06-29T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/aa/40052prs20090627.html?s_src=RSS JEFFERSON CITY, MO – A Missouri circuit court judge late Friday struck down a proposed ballot initiative aimed at amending the state's constitution to outlaw equal opportunity programs in the state. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last December charging that an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative proposed by Timothy Asher and the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative should not be circulated for signatures because it violates the Missouri Constitution by seeking to trick and defraud the state's voters in attempting to ban an array of equal opportunity programs. 2009-06-27T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/40051prs20090626.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK - According to news reports, the Obama administration is considering issuing an executive order that would reassert executive authority to imprison terrorism suspects without charge or trial. 2009-06-26T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/gen/40047prs20090626.html?s_src=RSS McALLEN, TX –The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has agreed to implement new procedures designed to ensure the fair and prompt review of U.S. passport applications by Mexican Americans whose births in Texas were attended by midwives. Under the agreement, no eligible applicant should be denied a passport. 2009-06-26T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/search/40033prs20090625.html?s_src=RSS WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old Arizona girl when they strip searched her based on a classmate's uncorroborated accusation that she previously possessed ibuprofen. The American Civil Liberties Union represents April Redding, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, whose daughter, Savana Redding, was strip searched by Safford Middle School officials six years ago. 2009-06-25T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/nationalsecurity/40028prs20090625.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – Human rights groups today asked two U.N. Special Rapporteurs to investigate the case of Abou Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen and victim of the CIA's unlawful "extraordinary rendition" program who is currently held in a Moroccan prison based on a confession coerced from him through torture. The American Civil Liberties Union and Alkarama for Human Rights requested that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism investigate the circumstances of Britel's forced disappearance, rendition, detention and torture, and raise his case with the governments of the United States, Morocco, Pakistan and Italy. 2009-06-25T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/40044prs20090625.html?s_src=RSS WASHINGTON – President Obama today met with lawmakers to discuss upcoming action on immigration reform. Leading up to the meeting, Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chair Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) Wednesday proposed a biometric-based employer verification system as a key element of comprehensive immigration reform. The ACLU welcomes reform of our nation’s broken immigration system, but not at the cost of cherished fundamental liberties and privacy protections. 2009-06-25T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/40021prs20090624.html?s_src=RSS NEW YORK – Former detainees have alleged they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, according to a new BBC report based on interviews with former detainees held at Bagram between 2002 and 2006. Hundreds of detainees are still being held in U.S. custody at the Bagram prison without charge or trial. 2009-06-24T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/40023prs20090624.html?s_src=RSS WASHINGTON – In the wake of strong criticism by the American Civil Liberties Union and members of Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday the end of the National Applications Office (NAO), which maintained a troubled program created to share domestic satellite imagery for homeland security and law enforcement purposes. DHS had put the program under review at the request of House Intelligence Committee members Jane Harman (D-CA) and Norman Dicks (D-WA). 2009-06-24T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/discrim/40022prs20090624.html?s_src=RSS WASHINGTON – Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) announced the introduction of a bill today that would make workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity illegal. As a long time defender of the civil rights and civil liberties of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, the American Civil Liberties Union urges Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). If the group of bipartisan co-sponsors, including the Chairmen of the Judiciary and Education and Labor Committees successfully pass this legislation, it would become the first-ever ban on employment discrimination of LBGT people. 2009-06-24T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/39953prs20090623.html?s_src=RSS MIAMI – The most respected Florida and national children’s health, welfare and legal advocacy groups filed seven friend-of-the-court briefs before a Florida appeals court Monday urging the court to strike down a Florida law barring lesbians and gay men from adopting. The briefs were filed in support of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that resulted in a Florida juvenile court judge striking down the law and granting the adoptions of two brothers to a gay man who has been raising the boys with his partner for more than four years. 2009-06-23T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.aclu.org/prison/restrict/39954prs20090623.html?s_src=RSS WASHINGTON – The bipartisan National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) released a report today finding that a law intended to reduce frivolous lawsuits by prisoners denies victims of prison rape and other abuse access to the federal courts. The report proposes national standards to eliminate prison rape and calls on Congress to reform key provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), passed in 1996. In its report, the commission also recommends reduction in prison overcrowding; improved training for prison and jail employees for better detection of sexual assault; improved classification of vulnerable prisoners to protect them from abuse; and better psychological and medical treatment for sexual abuse victims. 2009-06-23T12:00:00-05:00 CrownPeak CMS