American Civil Liberties Union

Court Backs “State Secrets” Claim in Challenge to CIA Kidnapping U.S. Holds Immigrant Children Illegally in Prison-Like Conditions Real ID Regulations Fail to Address Privacy and Civil Liberties Concerns Domestic Violence Victim Goes Before International Human Rights Commission to Sue U.S. All March: Highlighting the History and the Progress of Women’s Rights ACLU Supports Free Speech Rights of Servicemembers at Walter Reed Arkansas Bill Would Bar Adoption and Foster Care by LGBT Couples, and Many Heterosexuals "A country isn't free because its government grants its citizens freedom. It is free when the government is bound by laws against doing its own choosing. This is truer now than ever." - William S., Louisiana >> Read more member quotes >> Share your own story YOU CAN HELP PROTECT OUR BASIC FREEDOMS by joining with over 550,000 card-carrying members of the ACLU. Our rights as individuals—the very foundation of our great democracy—depend on our willingness to defend them, and as an ACLU member, you'll be doing your part. Click now to safeguard our Bill of Rights by becoming an ACLU member. ACLU Supports Free Speech Rights of Servicemembers at Walter Reed As the nation confronts startling reports of neglectful treatment for injured service men and women at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, the ACLU applauds efforts underway in Congress to get answers and fair treatment for our veterans. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and Congressman John Tierney (D-MA), Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, are holding hearings to investigate the mistreatment of patients at the Medical Center. "There are no negative national security implications when those who bore the battle simply ask that their government provide them with the care they were promised when they enlisted,” states Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “We urge Congress to conduct robust oversight on veterans’ medical care to ensure that our government is meeting the needs of our injured service men and women." Arkansas Bill Would Bar Adoption and Foster Care by LGBT Couples, and Many Heterosexuals A bill introduced this week to the Arkansas State Legislature would ban gay people and most unmarried heterosexual couples who live together from adopting or serving as foster parents. The bill was introduced just months after the state Supreme Court unanimously struck down a ban on fostering by gay people. The legislation, SB 959, would categorically ban lesbian and gay Arkansans from adopting or serving as foster parents, even if they’re relatives of the children in question. It would also ban unmarried heterosexual couples who live together unless they’re related to the child, which could prevent godparents or family friends from caring for a child if the parents die or cannot keep the child. The Arkansas Supreme Court ended a prior battle with the ACLU when it overturned a ban on fostering by gay people, stating that "(T)he driving force behind adoption of the regulation was not to promote the health, safety, and welfare of foster children, but rather based upon the Arkansas Child Welfare Agency Review Board’s view of morality and its bias against homosexuals." "The proponents of this bill only care about singling out gay people and unmarried couples at the expense of children in need of good homes," said Rita Sklar, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arkansas. According to a 2005 poll conducted by the University of Arkansas, nearly two thirds of the respondents favored allowing placements with gay people if they pass the screening requirements that apply to everyone else. >> Click here to learn more about the ACLU victory over the earlier ban. Vote for the ACLU on the Working Assets Donations Ballot! Do you know somebody who would be interested in getting news about the ACLU and what we're doing to protect civil liberties? Help us spread the word about ACLU Online — forward this newsletter to a friend. March 9, 2007 Court Backs “State Secrets” Claim in Challenge to CIA Kidnapping El-Masri with two of his children "I am not a state secret" An excerpt from an op-ed in the LA Times by Khaled El-Masri "Although I did not understand all of the arguments made by the lawyers, I was impressed by the dignity of the proceedings and by the respect for the rule of law that I have always associated with America. I'm deeply disappointed to find that this same legal system denies me the chance to fully present my case." >> Read the full article Last week, a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of the case of innocent kidnap victim Khaled El-Masri, who was abducted and tortured as part of the CIA’s "extraordinary rendition" program. Even though El-Masri’s case has been investigated and publicized in detail throughout the world, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals barred discussion or review in an American court because of the government’s invocation of the “state secrets” privilege. "The appeals court gave the CIA complete immunity for even its most shameful conduct," said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who argued El-Masri’s case last November. "Depriving Khaled El-Masri of his day in court on the ground that the government cannot disclose facts that the whole world already knows only compounds the brutal treatment he endured." The lawsuit charges former CIA director George Tenet, and other CIA officials and U.S.-based aviation corporations, with violations of United States and universal human rights laws. El-Masri was on vacation in Macedonia when he was kidnapped, abused and rendered to a CIA-run "black site" in Afghanistan. After several months of confinement in squalid conditions, he was flown from Afghanistan and abandoned on a hill in Albania with no explanation, never having been charged with a crime. According to the Washington Post, at least eight U.S. officials have confirmed that El-Masri spent months in a squalid CIA-run prison because "a couple of CIA officials in Washington had a hunch he was someone he was not" and "did not move fast enough when they found out he wasn't." To date, El-Masri’s case has been the subject of numerous investigations and reports by intergovernmental bodies, including the European Parliament. Most recently, prosecutors in El-Masri’s adopted country of Germany formally requested indictments against 13 CIA agents and contractors for their role in his kidnapping, abuse, and detention. Learn more about Khaled El-Masri and extraordinary rendition at www.aclu.org/rendition U.S. Holds Immigrant Children Illegally in Prison-Like Conditions Drawing by a child detained at Hutto The ACLU filed lawsuits on behalf of ten immigrant children this week, who are being held illegally in a Texas medium-security prison which has been converted into a “Family Residential Facility.” Approximately 400 people are currently detained at the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas, half of them children. The lawsuits filed against Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as six officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), charge that these children are being imprisoned under inhumane conditions while their parents await immigration decisions. In a facility that is still functionally and structurally a prison, children are required to wear prison garb, detained in small cells for 11-12 hours each day where they cannot keep food and toys, and denied all privacy, even when using the toilet. According to legal papers, some children did not go outdoors in the fresh air during the whole month of December 2006. Despite urgent needs, many children lack access to adequate medical, dental, and mental health treatment, and are denied meaningful educational opportunities. Guards frequently discipline children by threatening to separate them permanently from their parents, and children are prohibited from having contact visits with non-detained family members. "The choice is not between enforcement of immigration laws and humane treatment of immigrant families. There are various alternatives under which both can exist," said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas. To read messages from the children of Hutto, hear audio podcasts from ACLU attorneys and learn more about the case, go to: www.aclu.org/hutto Real ID Regulations Fail to Address Privacy and Civil Liberties Concerns Read the new Real ID regulations Hear an expert teleconference on Real ID Read the ACLU’s Real ID scorecard The Department of Homeland Security released regulations last week for the implementation of the Real ID Act. The regulations, a real nightmare for America, will lead to a national identity card system that violates personal privacy, and creates bigger bureaucratic messes, longer lines, increased identity theft and higher fees. The Real ID Act, a national system to federalize and standardize state driver’s licenses, was forced through Congress in 2005 as part of a must-pass military appropriations bill. It will require every person in the country to have a Real ID-compliant identification document in order to fly on commercial airlines, enter government buildings, open a bank account, and more. "The Real ID Act is the marriage from hell these regulations marry the efficiency of those who ran the Katrina recovery with the people who brought you long lines at the DMV they will make getting a driver’s license a real ordeal," said Timothy D. Sparapani, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Real ID creates huge burdens for Americans, places a massive unfunded mandate on state governments and fails to provide real security. We urge lawmakers instead to pursue proposals to restore privacy protections." In Congress, Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI), John Sununu (R-NH) and Representative Tom Allen (D-ME) have introduced legislation to add important privacy and civil liberties safeguards to the Real ID Act. Their similar bills would eliminate most of the requirements that laid the foundation for a National ID card. Their bills also call for more flexible "standards" instead of the current uniform mandates. The bills would prohibit the use of license data by third parties, require data encryption and preserve any state privacy laws that may provide greater protections. For more on the ACLU’s concerns with the Real ID Act, go to: http://www.realnightmare.org/ Domestic Violence Victim Goes Before International Human Rights Commission to Sue U.S. Jessica Gonzales with picture of her daughters In a history-making human rights challenge against the United States, Jessica Gonzales, spoke out publicly last week in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Gonzales lost her three daughters after they were kidnapped by her estranged husband, and later killed in his standoff with Colorado police. Her domestic violence protection claims were then rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Gonzales, who was represented by the ACLU, is the first victim of domestic violence to bring an individual complaint against the United States for international human rights violations. "I brought this petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because I have exhausted all avenues in the United States and still there has been no justice for my little girls,” said Gonzales. “Police must be required to enforce restraining orders or else these orders are meaningless. We need to hold the U.S. government accountable." Gonzales was living in Colorado when her three young daughters, Rebecca, age 10, Katheryn, age eight and Leslie, age seven, were killed after local police failed to enforce a restraining order against her estranged husband. The girls were abducted by their father and although Gonzales repeatedly called the police, telling them of her fears for the safety of her daughters, the police failed to respond. Several hours later, Gonzales’ husband drove to the police station with a gun and opened fire. The police shot and killed him, and then discovered the bodies of the three girls in the back of his pickup truck. "In domestic violence cases such as Jessica’s, international bodies provide access to redress when the home country fails to act," said Steven Watt, an attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program. Gonzales filed a lawsuit against the police, but in June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court found that she had no constitutional right to police enforcement of her restraining order. To learn more about the Gonzales case, go to: www.aclu.org/womensrights/violence/gonzalesvusa.html All March: Highlighting the History and the Progress of Women’s Rights 20-year-old Annie Tabor, lathe operator, machines parts of aircraft engines at a supercharger plant in 1942. Last year we saw important victories in the pursuit of gender equality: In July, a federal jury ruled in Lochren v. Suffolk County that the county's police department discriminated against its pregnant female police officers, forcing them to take vacation time or unpaid leave during their pregnancies instead of assigning them to non-patrol jobs. In August, a ruling in Selden v. Livingston Parish School Board prevented a Louisiana school board from segregating students on the basis of sex. And in September, the jury decision in Espinal, et al v. Ramco et al reaffirmed the rights of three Latina workers who suffered repeated incidences of severe sexual harassment by their employer. Several important cases will unfold during 2007. Despite being denied justice by the entire United States court system, Jessica Gonzales continues to fight for human rights and women’s rights with her testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The ACLU also recently urged this Commission to cite the U.S. for violation of universal human rights obligations in its failure to protect millions of undocumented workers from exploitation and discrimination in the workplace. Two female New York City corrections officers have sued the Department of Corrections for its failure to address their sexual and physical assault complaints. And in Sabbithi, et al v. Al Saleh, et al, a Kuwaiti diplomat faces charges for trafficking three Indian women and forcing them to work as domestic employees in conditions that included physical and psychological abuse, threats, and slave wages. To learn more about these cases and the ACLU’s ongoing fight for equality, go to www.aclu.org/womenshistory Privacy Statement This mail is never sent unsolicited. You, or someone on your behalf, has subscribed to receive this information from the American Civil Liberties Union. 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