More than two years have passed since the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law. Considered in its totality, this legislation represents a perverse inversion of the principle on which America’s justice system is based: innocent until proven guilty.
As a result of two years of sustained public education efforts by the ACLU, people around the country and across the political spectrum are questioning the necessity of many of the most troubling provisions of the Patriot Act and heeding our call to take action to restore rights lost to this ill-conceived legislation.
However, far from repealing sections of the PATRIOT Act that many agree have gone too far too fast, the Bush administration is demanding even more powers. In the House of Representatives, legislation has already been introduced that would:
* Allow the government to seize records and compel testimony in terrorism cases without prior review by a court or grand jury.
* Allow the government to deny bail, without proving danger or flight risk, for a laundry list of federal crimes said to be terrorism-related.
* Expand use of the death penalty for crimes of “domestic terrorism” as defined by the PATRIOT Act – a definition so broad that it could cover acts of civil disobedience by protest groups.
These proposals go far beyond what is necessary to fight terrorism and infringe on basic civil liberties.
But the ACLU’s call to reconsider and repair the PATRIOT Act is also being heard.
Legislation to repeal sections of the PATRIOT Act that authorize “sneak and peek” searches and allow the FBI to access secretly all private records of any American is awaiting action from the House of Representatives. In the Senate, a bipartisan bill was introduced late last year to protect First Amendment activities by restoring a sensible definition of “domestic terrorism” by providing greater judicial oversight of federal investigations involving highly private and sensitive data.
We are also encouraged by two recent federal court decisions – one rejecting the White House’s assertion that the President can unilaterally detain American citizens as “enemy combatants,” and another ruling that the non-citizen enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are entitled to habeas corpus reviews to determine the propriety of their detention. Both of these decisions affirm the basic American commitment to checks and balances on Executive Branch power.
The ACLU believes that most Americans think that it is a mistake to give unchecked surveillance, investigative and detention powers to any government official – elected or appointed, current or future. We are determined to turn that belief into effective grassroots action – an irresistible force for liberty that will overcome not just one ill-conceived law, but all threats to freedom.
Learn more about the USA PATRIOT Act at:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12126&c=207&MX=1098&H=0
Learn more about the ACLU’s continuing work against the unchecked government surveillance and the continuing attacks on civil liberties at:
http://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/?MX=1098&H=0
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ARE CIVIL LIBERTIES UNDER ATTACK IN YOUR COMMUNITY?
The ACLU’s Keep America Safe and Free Organizer Tool Kit gives you the resources you'll need to start a conversation with your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors about the threats to civil liberties in your own community: postcards, wallet cards, sign-in forms and more. Get involved and spread the word!
Download the Tool Kit here:
http://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/toolkit/index.html?MX=1098&H=0
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ACLU SAYS NEW BORDER FINGERPRINTING SYSTEM LIKELY TO SOW CONFUSION
The ACLU warned that a new immigrant tracking program, known as US VISIT, can only increase confusion among immigrants to the United States in terms of when, where and how they have to register with the government, and will do nothing to end discriminatory tracking of Arabs and Muslims based on national origin and religion.
The program, launched January 5th, has been billed - inaccurately - as a replacement for the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, also known as NSEERS or special registration, which was roundly derided for its blatantly prejudicial design and shoddy implementation.
"The US VISIT program is an addition to -- not a substitute for -- the notorious special registration program that singled out Arab and Muslim men because of their national origin and that continues to subject them to special and confusing requirements," said Timothy Edgar, an ACLU Legislative Counsel.
In fact, the government is quietly continuing NSEERS along with its efforts to deport nearly 14,000 predominantly Arab and Muslim men and boys who reported for registration under that program.
"By announcing this program while maintaining the confusing and discriminatory NSEERS requirements, the government is continuing to trap unwary immigrants who have made every effort to comply with the law and who have not been provided meaningful and accurate information about their obligations," said Robin Goldfaden, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.
The program is also highly questionable from a national security standpoint because in addition to excluding certain countries' visitors from its requirements, US VISIT still lacks an effective mechanism for tracking departures.
Read more on the ACLU’s warnings about the US VISIT program at:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=14649&c=206&MX=1098&H=0
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NEWS
RUTGERS LAW SCHOOL AND ACLU CHALLENGE DENIAL OF VOTING RIGHTS IN GROUNDBREAKING LAWSUIT
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers Law School have filed a groundbreaking lawsuit challenging the denial of voting rights to persons on probation or parole in New Jersey.
The lawsuit, the first of its kind nationwide, maintains that because minorities are vastly over-represented in the criminal justice system, state laws denying probationers and parolees the right to vote result in a denial of the New Jersey Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection under the law.”
“It is now well documented that, as a consequence of racial profiling, members of racial minority groups have been investigated, arrested, prosecuted and convicted in New Jersey in numbers totally disproportionate to their propensity to commit crimes,” said Professor Frank Askin, Director of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic.
The ACLU has a long-standing interest in felony disenfranchisement and voting rights issues, noted Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey. “Not only is it an injustice that minorities are disproportionately affected by felony disenfranchisement in New Jersey, but the state needs to give serious consideration to what interest it serves by denying these individuals the right to vote,” Jacobs said.
Read more about this groundbreaking lawsuit at:
http://www.aclu.org/VotingRights/VotingRights.cfm?ID=14681&c=32&MX=1098&H=0
Read the complaint in the case at:
http://www.aclu.org/VotingRights/VotingRights.cfm?ID=14680&c=167&MX=1098&H=0
ACLU.ORG LAUNCHES NEW FEATURE: MULTIMEDIA ARCHIVES
Do you want to catch the online audio chat with Anthony Romero that you missed or revisit our revisit our interactive piece on ACLU Supreme Court cases? A new multimedia section on the ACLU Web site offers archived files of all online audio chats, interactive features, video clips, speeches, and broadcast and print ads.
Now you can easily access these and other archived multimedia files at:
http://www.aclu.org/multimedia/multimediamain.cfm?MX=1098&H=0
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THANK YOU FOR BEING A CARD-CARRYING MEMBER OF THE ACLU! Your membership is the life-blood of our organization, and makes possible all that we do to defend our most basic liberties. If you'd like to make an additional gift to support the ACLU, please click below:
http://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?slp=y&cid=16&orgid=N&MX=1098&H=0
Please tell your friends and family about the ACLU by sending them an e-postcard at http://www.aclu.org/team/tell.cfm?action=87&MX=1098&H=0
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American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, New York 10004-2400
http://www.aclu.org?MX=1098&H=0
Phil Gutis and Gerri Engel, Editors
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