This Week in Civil Liberties

It's LGBT Pride month! We're celebrating with a weekly blog series featuring diverse voices from the LGBT community.

This month also reminds us of something definitely not worth celebrating: the War on Drugs, which turned 40 this year. To mark the occasion, we'll be blogging daily throughout June about the failed war, and how it's created bloated prisons, cost billions in wasteful spending, ravaged communities of color and hasn't changed the demand for drugs one iota.

Also this week, we lost in the Supreme Court, but we hope to win some transparency with a new Freedom of Information Act request.

Supreme Court: Ashcroft Not Responsible for Illegal Detention of U.S. Citizen
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled in Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd that former Attorney General John Ashcroft cannot be held responsible for the wrongful arrest and detention of U.S. citizen Abdullah al-Kidd under the material witness law. The ACLU represented al-Kidd before the Supreme Court in March 2011, charging that al-Kidd’s arrest was part of a pattern of pretextual material witness arrests that occurred after 9/11, pursuant to a nationwide policy instituted by Ashcroft.

Unmasking "Secret Law": New Demand for Answers About the Government's Hidden Take on the Patriot Act
After the Patriot Act was reauthorized last Friday without a single additional privacy protection, two senators raised the alarm that the government isn't actually being forthcoming about how it's using the Patriot Act. Which had us wondering. So while everyone was enjoying beaches and barbecues Memorial Day weekend, ACLU attorneys drafted a Freedom of Information Act request demanding that the Justice Department release information about the government's use and interpretation of Section 215, perhaps the most controversial of the provisions that Congress reauthorized.

Can Your School Punish You for Being Raped?
No, but many high schools haven't gotten the message, and many students don't know their rights at school include the right to an equal education free from gender-based violence, dating violence and sexual harassment and assault. Get the facts: Download the ACLU's Know Your Right fact sheet.

The 40-Year War on Drugs: It's Not Fair, and It's Not Working.
June 2011 has the unfortunate distinction of marking the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" — a war which has cost $1 trillion but produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs.

ACLU Files Brief Arguing Warrantless GPS Tracking Is Unconstitutional
Last Friday, the ACLU of Delaware filed a brief with the Delaware Supreme Court arguing that law enforcement agents should not be permitted to attach a GPS device to a car without getting a search warrant. Sounds reasonable, right? Let's hope the court agrees.

Gov. Bentley: Veto Racial Profiling Law, or We'll Sue
Last night, the Alabama legislature passed a racial profiling law inspired by—you guessed it—Arizona's S.B. 1070. We just filed a lawsuit challenging Georgia's S.B. 1070 copycat yesterday. We've also challenged similar bills in Utah and Indiana. We have a message for Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley: Save your state some cash. Avoid the cost of defending this law in federal court and veto this unconstitutional bill.

This is your week in civil liberties. Let us know if this is useful or if you'd like to see changes. Share your thoughts: ideas@aclu.org

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