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ACLU Asks Inspector General to Investigate Abuses of FBI Guidelines (09/23/2008)
Washington, DC – The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hear testimony today on proposed changes to the attorney general guidelines. The guidelines govern FBI investigations and were adopted in the mid-1970’s after it was discovered that the agency was engaged in widespread abuses and violations of constitutional rights – including politically-motivated spying on figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. FBI Director Robert Mueller also answered questions about the guidelines last week during hearings before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to investigate whether the FBI violated previous guidelines before the new guidelines are put into place.

Appeals Court Orders Defense Department To Release Detainee Abuse Photos In ACLU Lawsuit (09/22/2008)
NEW YORK – A federal court today ordered the Department of Defense to release photographs depicting the abuse of detainees by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the government's appeal of a 2006 order directing the Defense Department to release the photos. Today's decision comes as part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

Defense Lawyers For 9/11 Detainees Challenge Bias And Political Influence At Guantánamo Proceedings This Week (09/22/2008)
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba – Appearing before a Guantánamo military commission today, military attorneys and civilian lawyers sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union's John Adams Project sought to interject a degree of fairness into the deeply flawed system. Among several requests, defense lawyers are asking that all charges be dismissed against the detainees accused of crimes related to the 9/11 attacks because of a history of political interference from Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a top Pentagon general.

ACLU Urges Supreme Court To Review Landmark Indefinite Detention Case (09/19/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Bush administration's authority to indefinitely imprison a legal resident of the United States without charge or trial. The case was filed on behalf of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who has been detained in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina since June 2003. The ACLU is asking the Court to reverse a federal appeals court decision that gave the president sweeping power to deprive individuals in the United States of their most basic constitutional rights.

ACLU Urges Senate Judiciary to Subpoena Interrogation Documents (09/18/2008)
The American Civil Liberties Union calls on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote to authorize a subpoena for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to produce the legal opinions that approved harsh interrogations of detainees held by the United States. The committee has repeatedly requested these documents and has seen very little cooperation from DOJ. The Justice Department has provided some heavily redacted documents, which Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA) have called inadequate. If authorized, the subpoena would legally require DOJ to comply with the committee’s request.

ACLU Launches Constitution Voter Campaign To Restore Lost Liberties In ‘08 (09/17/2008)
The American Civil Liberties Union launched a new campaign asking Americans to pledge to be Constitution Voters. The “I’m a Constitution Voter” campaign is a nonpartisan initiative to encourage activists to let candidates – including those running for president – know that the Constitution will be the first thing on their minds when they step into the polling booth this November. In addition to asking voters to sign a pledge to help make the Constitution a central issue in this campaign season, ACLU affiliates from coast to coast are holding events to commemorate Constitution Day and educate people about the rights and freedoms the Constitution protects.

ACLU Reaffirms Opposition To Unconstitutional FBI Guidelines (09/17/2008)
Following testimony before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees this week, FBI Director Robert Mueller failed to dispel unease regarding new internal FBI guidelines governing investigations. Yesterday and today, members of both committees sought reassurances that the guidelines – which give overly broad authorities to agents – would not be abused by the bureau. Director Mueller said the guidelines would not be rewritten to include more safeguards but that protections would instead be written into overarching FBI policies.

FBI Director Faces Interrogation by Congress (09/16/2008)
With FBI Director Robert Mueller set to testify in front of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees this week, the American Civil Liberties Union calls upon committee members to ask tough questions about the agency’s new internal guidelines and past abuses. The ACLU is deeply concerned with revisions to FBI internal guidelines governing investigations that allow agents to use an array of intrusive measures without evidence. The original guidelines were adopted in the mid-1970’s after investigations showed widespread abuses and violations of constitutional rights by the FBI.

New FBI Guidelines Open Door to Further Abuse (09/12/2008)
Washington, DC - Following a briefing today at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the American Civil Liberties Union reiterated its deep concern over new guidelines that would govern FBI investigations. The new guidelines would lower standards for beginning "assessments" (precursors to investigations), conducting surveillance and gathering evidence, and would replace existing guidelines for five types of existing guidelines: general criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorders and demonstrations.

ACLU Asks Court To Strike Down Unconstitutional Spying Law (09/12/2008)
NEW YORK – The FISA Amendments Act is the most sweeping surveillance bill ever enacted by Congress and should be struck down as unconstitutional because it utterly fails to protect U.S. residents' privacy and free speech rights, according to a brief filed in federal court today by the American Civil Liberties Union. This is the first legal brief challenging the constitutionality of the new wiretapping law and is part of the ACLU's landmark lawsuit to stop the government from conducting surveillance under the law.

Federal Judge Orders Justice Department To Turn Over Memos Authorizing Torture Or Justify Withholding Them (09/02/2008)
NEW YORK – A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to turn over three memos that authorized the extremely harsh treatment of prisoners in CIA custody or explain by October 3 why these memos can lawfully be withheld. The American Civil Liberties Union called for the immediate release of the May 2005 OLC memos as part of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit requesting information on the treatment and interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody overseas.

FISA Court Denies Public Access To Spy Law Proceedings (08/29/2008)
WASHINGTON - In a decision issued late Thursday, a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) judge denied a motion from the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to bring a measure of transparency to the court's legal review of the Bush administration's new spying law.

ACLU Asks Appeals Court To Affirm Decision Striking Down Patriot Act's "National Security Letter" Provision (08/27/2008)
NEW YORK – In oral arguments today, the American Civil Liberties Union urged a federal appeals court to uphold a decision striking down the national security letter (NSL) provision of the Patriot Act. This provision gives the FBI the authority to issue letters demanding private information about people within the United States, and to place the recipients of the letters under indefinite gag orders. Recent reports issued by the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) have revealed the FBI's widespread, systemic abuse of its NSL power.

Guantánamo Military Lawyers Request Extension In 9/11 Cases To Prepare Adequate Defense (08/25/2008)
Guantánamo Bay – Military defense lawyers representing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees charged with 9/11 terrorism-related crimes filed a motion with the Guantánamo military commissions seeking more time to provide an adequate defense in a system that is unfair and biased in favor of the prosecution. The motion asks that the current due date for the filing of legal motions, August 29, be extended to November 25 so that proper investigation, research and communication with clients can be achieved. The motion comes after months of procedural and logistical obstacles that have hamstrung the ability of lawyers to wage a robust defense in these cases.

ACLU Sues Governor For "Knowing And Willful" Violation Of Open Records Law (08/20/2008)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The R.I. ACLU today filed a lawsuit charging Governor Donald Carcieri with a "knowing and willful" violation of the Access to Public Records Act, and seeking imposition of a $1,000 fine against him for the violation. The suit, filed in R.I. Superior Court by RI ACLU volunteer attorney Kathleen Managhan, argues that the Governor has failed to turn over records that are clearly public under the law.

FBI Improperly Obtains Reporters' Phone Records (08/09/2008)
NEW YORK -- The FBI admitted late yesterday to improperly obtaining telephone records from New York Times and Washington Post reporters by issuing "emergency" records demands that allowed the agency to bypass even the extremely limited safeguards that ordinarily apply to national security letters (NSLs). The American Civil Liberties Union has successfully challenged the national security letter statute in federal court and says this breach confirms the inadequacy of safeguards on the FBI's intrusive surveillance powers.

President Carter Supports ACLU And NACDL Guantánamo Defense Project (08/07/2008)
NEW YORK – Former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement in support of the American Civil Liberties Union's John Adams Project, a partnership with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) that provides civilian legal teams to assist under-resourced military counsel of Guantánamo detainees who have been charged in the military commissions.