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Court Orders Justice Department To Submit NSA Wiretapping Memos For Judicial Review (10/31/2008)
WASHINGTON – A federal judge today said that he would review in chambers a set of Justice Department memos relating to the National Security Agency's (NSA) illegal warrantless wiretapping program. The judge found for the second time in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that the government had failed adequately to explain why the memos should be kept secret in their entirety.

Federal Court Allows Bush Administration To Withhold Records Detailing Torture And Abuse Of Guantánamo Prisoners (10/29/2008)
WASHINGTON – A federal judge today allowed the Bush administration to withhold unredacted transcripts in which 14 prisoners now held at Guantánamo Bay describe abuse and torture they endured in CIA custody. The decision comes in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed in March to enforce a Freedom of Information Act request for records from Combatant Status Review Tribunals that determine if prisoners held by the Defense Department at Guantánamo qualify as "enemy combatants."

Guantánamo Judge Rejects Evidence Obtained Through Torture In Jawad Case (10/28/2008)
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba – A military judge ruled today that the government cannot use statements made as a result of torture in the military commission case against Afghan national Mohammed Jawad. The judge held that Jawad's alleged confession to throwing a grenade at two U.S. service members and an Afghan interpreter was obtained after armed Afghan officials threatened to kill Jawad and his family. The government had previously told the judge that Jawad's alleged confession while in Afghan custody was central to the case against him.

Mainers Granted Intervenor Status in Warrantless Spying Case (10/28/2008)
PORTLAND – A California court has granted the motion of the Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation to intervene in a case involving National Security Agency wiretapping of potentially millions of Americans. Under the new ruling, James D. Cowie and twenty-one other Mainers have been given formal legal status in a consolidated case against the telephone companies for their role in the NSA warrantless surveillance program.

ACLU Releases Presidential Transition Plan To Restore Civil Liberties (10/27/2008)
WASHINGTON – In anticipation of the presidential election, the American Civil Liberties Union today released a set of detailed recommendations on steps that the new president should take to “clean house,” renew freedom, and restore the nation’s reputation.

ACLU Monitoring Unconstitutional Guantánamo Military Commission Trial This Week (10/27/2008)
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba – The American Civil Liberties Union is at Guantánamo to monitor the military commission trial of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul scheduled to begin today. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at nearly every military commission hearing since 2004 and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

Former U.S. Attorney General, Senior Justice Officials And Top Military Officers Urge Supreme Court To Review Indefinite Detention Case (10/23/2008)
WASHINGTON – Former United States Attorney General Janet Reno, Former FBI Director William Sessions, Major General Antonio M. Taguba and other former government and military officials today are joining the American Civil Liberties Union in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the president's authority to indefinitely imprison a legal resident of the U.S. without charge or trial. Several former top government and military leaders are signing on to friend-of-the-court briefs in the ACLU case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who has been detained in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina since June 2003.

ACLU Monitoring Unconstitutional Guantánamo Military Commissions This Week (10/22/2008)
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba – The American Civil Liberties Union is at Guantánamo monitoring the military commission hearings of Omar Khadr and Mohammed Kamin and the arraignment of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani scheduled to take place this week. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at nearly every commission hearing since 2004 and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

Dropped Charges Against Guantánamo Detainees Are Evidence Of Failed Policies, Says ACLU (10/21/2008)
NEW YORK – The government's decision to drop charges against five detainees held at Guantánamo Bay underscores the complete failure of the indefinite detention system and the need to shut down the prison and the military commissions system, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. According to news reports, the charges were dropped after a prosecutor for another detainee resigned, alleging the military was suppressing evidence favorable to the defense.

ACLU Demands Information On Military Deployment Within U.S. Borders (10/21/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today demanded information from the government about reports that an active military unit has been deployed inside the U.S. to help with "civil unrest" and "crowd control" – matters traditionally handled by civilian authorities. This deployment jeopardizes the longstanding separation between civilian and military government, and the public has a right to know where and why the unit has been deployed, according to an ACLU Freedom of Information request filed today.

Congress Cannot Grant Wholesale Immunity to Telecoms (10/17/2008)
CHICAGO - Congress and the Bush White House overstepped their constitutional authority and violated the rights of millions of customers when they passed and approved legislation granting sweeping immunity to telecoms that collaborated in illegal spying. That assertion is contained in a court filing today by three California affiliates and the Illinois affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with other interested parties in cases consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The ACLU lawsuits filed on behalf of dozens of plaintiffs - including renowned Chicago journalist Studs Terkel, former California Congressman Tom Campbell, journalist Robert Scheer and actor Richard Belzer - challenge the unlawful collaboration of major telecommunications' companies - including AT&T - with the Bush Administration's warrantless dragnet surveillance of electronic communications and records.

ACLU Challenges Destruction Of Evidence In Indefinite Detention Case (10/17/2008)
CHARLESTON, SC – The American Civil Liberties Union today appealed a court decision allowing the government to destroy and obstruct evidence depicting the brutal interrogations of Ali al-Marri, who has been detained in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina since June 2003. Just last week, newly released military documents obtained by the ACLU and Yale Law School's Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic showed that the Navy applied lawless Guantánamo protocols in detention facilities on American soil, including the brig where al-Marri is held.

ACLU Demands NSA And DOJ Turn Over Spying Policy Records (10/15/2008)
NEW YORK – The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Justice Department should disclose any policies and procedures pertaining to how the NSA protects Americans' privacy rights when it collects, stores and disseminates private U.S. communications, according to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The NSA has not released a public version of its procedures for protecting the privacy of U.S. communications since 1993.

Memos Show White House Endorsed CIA Waterboarding (10/15/2008)
NEW YORK – The White House issued two secret memos endorsing the CIA's use of waterboarding and other forms of torture on detainees, according to a news report published today in the Washington Post. The memos, which show that senior Bush administration officials expressly endorsed the CIA's abusive practices, should have been turned over in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

ACLU Challenges Threat By Government To Designate Charity As "Terrorist" (10/09/2008)
TOLEDO, OH – The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio and several civil rights lawyers today asked a federal court to block the government from blacklisting an Ohio-based charity, KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc., without due process. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) froze the group's assets more than 31 months ago, without notice or a hearing, based simply on the assertion that KindHearts was "under investigation." OFAC has since threatened to designate KindHearts as a "specially designated global terrorist" based on classified evidence, again without providing KindHearts with a reason or meaningful opportunity to defend itself.

Court Blocks Government From Designating Charity As "Terrorist" (10/09/2008)
TOLEDO, OH – A federal judge today blocked the government from blacklisting an Ohio-based charity, KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc., without further judicial review. In response to a request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio and several civil rights lawyers on behalf of KindHearts, Judge James G. Carr of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Western Division blocked the government from designating the organization as a specially designated global terrorist "without first affording KindHearts with constitutionally adequate process," including notice and a meaningful opportunity to contest the basis for such a designation.

NSA Monitored Personal Conversations Of Innocent Americans, Report Says (10/09/2008)
NEW YORK – National Security Agency (NSA) officials have intercepted, listened to and passed around the phone calls of hundreds of innocent U.S. citizens working overseas, according to an ABC News report out today. The new information shows the government has misled the American public about the scope of its surveillance activities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.