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ACLU Applauds House Judiciary Subcommittee on Continuing Its Examination into Torture Approval (06/18/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union applauds Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on holding the second in a series of three hearings to determine who authorized or ordered torture and abuse during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and in secret government torture cells around the world. In today’s hearing the subcommittee will hear from three former high-level officials in the Bush administration.

ACLU Challenges Government's Stigmatizing Of Mainstream Muslim Groups In Holy Land Case (06/18/2008)
DALLAS - The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas filed a legal challenge today to clear the names of two mainstream Muslim organizations labeled by the government as "unindicted co-conspirators" in its criminal case against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Government attorneys publicly identified the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) as co-conspirators before the HLF trial, even though neither organization was the subject of a criminal investigation or charged with any crimes.

ACLU Monitoring Unconstitutional Guantánamo Military Commissions This Week (06/18/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union is at Guantánamo monitoring the military commission hearings scheduled to take place this week. The hearings of Omar Khadr and Mohammed Jawad are the first since the Supreme Court ruled last week that the Constitution applies to Guantánamo and that all 270 prisoners there can challenge their indefinite detention in federal court. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at every commission hearing since 2004 and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

ACLU Sues For Documents Collected By Inspector General In Prisoner Abuse Investigation (06/12/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit today for documents related to an investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Last month, the OIG released a report on the investigation, which was launched after internal government documents – uncovered by another ACLU lawsuit – revealed that FBI agents at Guantánamo raised concerns about abusive techniques used by military interrogators.

Supreme Court Restores Rule Of Law To Guantánamo (06/12/2008)
NEW YORK - In a stunning blow to the Bush administration's failed national security policies, the Supreme Court ruled today 5-4 that the U.S. Constitution applies to the government's detention policies at Guantánamo. The Court concluded that detainees held at Guantánamo have a right to challenge their detention through habeas corpus.

Judge Approves Agreement Struck By ACLU And Civil Rights Lawyers To Desegregate Hartford Public Schools (06/11/2008)

ACLU Urges Congress to Examine White House National Security Council as Central Decision-Maker on Torture (06/10/2008)
WASHINGTON - On the day of two important congressional hearings, Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office said, "It is time to get to the bottom of this administration's torture regime Congress and the American public have looked at all of the supporting cast, but not at the lead roles."

ACLU Announces $335 Million Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Fundraising Campaign, Largest In American History (06/09/2008)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the public phase of the largest fundraising campaign on behalf of civil rights and liberties in American history. The $335 million "Leading Freedom Forward: The ACLU Campaign for the Future" is an unprecedented effort to build the organization's infrastructure by increasing funding to key state affiliates nationwide, dramatically enhancing advocacy capabilities and securing the ACLU's financial future for generations to come.

ACLU At Guantánamo Today to Attend Military Commissions (06/05/2008)
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - As part of a $15 million commitment to provide adequate legal defense for several Guantánamo detainees, attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union are present for the arraignment today of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on terrorism-related charges before the Bush administration's military commissions. Earlier this week, attorneys David Nevin and Scott McKay met for several hours with Mohammed as part of the John Adams Project, a partnership between the ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) to supplement the under-resourced military defense teams that have been assigned to the detainees.

ACLU Statement On Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's Rejection Of Legal Defense (06/05/2008)
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA - At his arraignment today before a Guantánamo military commission on terrorism-related charges, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees accused of participating in the 9/11 attacks refused legal representation by military and civilian defense attorneys.

ACLU Urges Congress to Investigate Role of Top State Department Officials in Torture (06/04/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today urged members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Human Rights Subcommittee to use its hearing this morning to start an investigation into the role of current top U.S. Department of State officials in approving the use of torture on detainees. The Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee about the recently released Office of the Inspector General report of the FBI’s role in the interrogation of detainees held by the U.S.

9/11 Victims' Families Send Letter Decrying Politicization Of Guantánamo Military Commissions (06/03/2008)
NEW YORK – Family members of 9/11 victims have sent a letter today to Susan Crawford, Convening Authority of the Guantánamo military commissions, sharply criticizing the politicization of the system. According to news reports, a Pentagon representative secretly invited an outspoken supporter of the military commissions to Guantánamo Bay for Thursday's arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees on terrorism-related charges, but did not make this option available to family members who have expressed criticism of the commissions. This type of politicization is symptomatic of the unconstitutional and biased tribunal system, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Abrupt Dismissal Of Judge Is More Evidence Of Military Commissions' Illegitimacy (05/30/2008)
NEW YORK - Providing more evidence of the illegitimacy of the Bush administration's fundamentally flawed military commission system, the Pentagon abruptly dismissed judge Army Col. Peter Brownback without explanation late yesterday from the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee. According to Khadr's lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, the timing of the judge's removal was suspicious because Brownback had recently threatened to suspend the case if prosecutors refused to hand over important records about Khadr's confinement to the defense lawyers. Just last week, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the legal system under which Khadr was detained and prosecuted at Guantanamo violated international law.

ACLU Obtains Heavily Redacted CIA Documents Regarding Waterboarding (05/27/2008)

Canadian Supreme Court Rules Guantanamo Detention And Prosecution Of Prisoner Violated U.S. And International Law (05/23/2008)
NEW YORK - The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruled today that Canadian officials violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - analogous to the U.S. Bill of Rights - by turning over interrogation records of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr to the United States. The court reached this result after finding that, at the time Canadian officials interrogated him, Khadr was being detained and prosecuted at Guantanamo in violation of U.S. and international law.

ACLU Lawsuit Challenges Racial Discrimination In Alabama School District (05/22/2008)
MONROEVILLE, AL – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama filed a complaint in a class-action lawsuit last night charging Monroe County school officials with subjecting African American students at Monroeville Junior High School to the widespread use of racial epithets and slurs, racially-motivated discipline, and racially segregated classrooms, practices that deny African American students their constitutional right to equal educational opportunities.

ACLU To Observe Unconstitutional Guantánamo Military Commissions This Week (05/21/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union will be at Guantánamo Bay this week to observe the U.S. military commission pre-trial hearing of Sudanese national Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi and the arraignment of Afghan national Mohammed Kamin. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at every commission hearing since 2004 and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

ACLU Online Symposium To Feature Leading Writers On Torture (05/20/2008)
NEW YORK – Several of the nation's top writers and experts on the subject of torture will participate in an online symposium beginning today in conjunction with the launch of the American Civil Liberties Union's new blog, the ACLU Blog of Rights. The symposium will be a recurring feature on the ACLU Blog of Rights, bringing together ideologically diverse groups of bloggers to focus on pressing civil liberties issues. The guest writers in this week's symposium include writers from some of the Web's most widely read blogs.

Justice Department Report Reveals Senior Government Officials Knew Early On Of Interrogation Abuse But Did Not Stop It (05/20/2008)
NEW YORK - The results of an internal Justice Department investigation released today reveal that officials at the highest level of government — including the White House - received reports on the abuse of prisoners in U.S. military custody overseas as early as 2002. Congress called on the department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to conduct the investigation after documents made public through an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed FBI agents at Guantánamo had raised concerns about methods used by military interrogators. Today's government report is the first to identify that then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice received complaints of torture.

U.N. Independent Expert On Racism Begins Fact-Finding Mission In U.S. (05/19/2008)
WASHINGTON - Several national civil liberties and human rights groups today welcomed a fact-finding mission to the U.S. by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The American Civil Liberties Union, Global Rights, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, the U.S. Human Rights Network, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Rights Working Group and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty call on the U.S., state and local governments to fully cooperate with the special rapporteur