Docket | January 2010

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Important Links from the January 2010 issue:

Transportation Security Agency Violated Rights of Rastafarian Baggage Screener at Logan Airport
ACLU says TSA cared more about appearance of its client than safety.
News Release | Interim Decision

Privacy and Intelligence Experts Join Call for Oversight of Massachusetts Domestic Surveillance Operations
As Massachusetts legislature considers bill to prevent intelligence abuses, ACLU briefing highlights need to protect political, religious, and other activity.
News Release | "Sunlight on Surveillance" Background

Promise and Practice: The Obama Administration So Far
Restoring the Rule of Law Scorecard

Massachusetts Civil Liberties Roundup:

ACLU Condemns Efforts at Censorship at UMass, Calls upon Governor Patrick to Uphold Free Speech
The ACLU of Massachusetts applauds efforts by student and faculty leaders at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to ensure that a planned talk by Raymond Luc Levasseur goes forward despite calls for censorship.
News Release

SJC To Consider Challenge to Broad Police Power to Search
ACLU argues that authority to conduct searches in absence of a lawful stop reduces constitutional protections in minority neighborhoods
News Release | Amicus Brief

Supreme Judicial Court Strikes Down Criminal Provisions of Lowell Juvenile Curfew
ACLU of Massachusetts applauds decision that locking up kids for being out late is unconstitutional.
News Release | Brief

ACLU Petitions Court for Release of Richard Hatch
The ACLU of Massachusetts today filed a habeas corpus petition asking a federal court to release Richard Hatch, winner of the original "Survivor" television series, from jail in Barnstable County.
News Release | Memo of Law (PDF) | Habeas Petition (PDF)

Inconsistent School Policing Policies Feeding Students Into Criminal Justice System
ACLU Paper Highlights Need to Both Ensure School Safety and Respect Students' Rights
News Release | White paper

Marchers show ACLU support to tens of thousands at Pride
The Boston Globe used the ACLU contingent for its main photo accompanying this year's Pride coverage. To see more photos, check our online photo gallery on Facebook. (You don't have to be a Facebook member, but please note that Facebook's privacy policies differ from ours.)

Brookline Rejects Homeland Security Surveillance Cameras
ACLU worked with Brookline PAX, local residents on risks of increased government surveillance of lawful activities
News release (PDF)

ACLU Honors Capt. James Yee, Muslim former U.S. Army Chaplain at Guantanamo
28th Annual Bill of Rights Dinner speaker lineup includes Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation; comedian Baratunde Thurston; and human rights activist Kerry Kennedy
News Release (PDF) | 2009 Bill of Rights Dinner

ACLU Files Suit Demanding Documents About Double-Bunking at Maximum Security Prison
Doubling up at prison in Shirley, Mass., is reportedly leading to violence.
News release (PDF) | Legal documents

ACLU of Massachusetts Condemns Cancellation of "Controversial" Speakers at Massachusetts Campuses
Following talk-radio criticism, Boston College cancelled a lecture by University of Illinois education professor William Ayres scheduled for March 30, 2009. And in April, Clark University in Worcester cancelled a talk by Norman Finkelstein, a scholar of the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Letter to Boston College, March 30, 2009 | Letter to Clark University, April 10, 2009

How did your state senator vote on CORI and sentencing reforms?
Find out here.

Previous Issues:

April 2009

November 2008

April 2008