This Week in Civil Liberties (8/24/2012)

In which state did a school force students to attend a religious rally during which a minister gave a sermon to students, Christian rapper B-SHOC performed religious songs, and students were asked to fill out a form saying that they had accepted Jesus as their savior?

Which U.S. Representative’s comments on rape and abortion are emblematic of sentiment in many state legislatures?

At what upcoming political events should you watch out for First Amendment violations by law enforcement?

To what government agency did the ACLU release a report on single-sex education programs in public schools that violate the Constitution and Title IX?

The International Association of Chiefs of Police approved recently guidelines on what surveillance tool?

Standing Up for What You Believe In

In late 2011, the ACLU and ACLU of South Carolina brought a lawsuit against Chesterfield County School District on behalf of student Jordan Anderson and his father, Jonathan Anderson. The lawsuit sought to put a stop to the school district’s widespread religious freedom violations, including official prayer at school events, school-day assemblies featuring preaching, and displays of religious symbols such as crosses and the Ten Commandments. The lawsuit resulted in a consent decree restoring religious freedom to all district students. Jordan writes about how he felt when his school violated his religious freedom.

State Legislatures Full of Akins

So much has been said about Rep. Todd Akin in the past few days and yet there’s so much more I still want to say. But I won’t (except for a little bit at the end) because, Todd Akin is just a piece of the story. If you’re mad about Akin, you should also be upset about Michigan and Virginia—states that continue to move closer and closer to shutting down every single abortion clinic throughout each state, making it nearly impossible for the women in those states to obtain abortions. There’s no rape exception to that either, you know.

First Amendment Violations to Watch for at the RNC and DNC

We know that photographers have been having problems all over the country with police harassment, and that demonstrators’ free speech rights have also been under assault. But with the Democratic and Republican political conventions coming up, we have all too much reason to expect that free speech rights will be swallowed up in the vortex of those events, which have become constitutional black holes in recent years.

When Anne Frank’s Perspective Isn’t Good Enough For Your Students, It’s Time To Get A New Program

This week, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project issued a preliminary report to the federal Department of Education, detailing the preliminary findings of our Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes campaign. After studying documents from single-sex classes in public schools in 11 states, the report explains that a significant percentage of these schools overwhelmingly base their programs on discredited science rooted in sex stereotypes, and don’t offer parents any reasonable alternative, in violation of the Constitution and Title IX.

Police Chiefs Issue Recommendations on Drones; A Look At How They Measure Up

The International Association of Chiefs of Police recently approved “Recommended Guidelines for the use of Unmanned Aircraft.”

The IACP is to be applauded for addressing this issue, and for issuing recommendations that are quite strong in some areas. Based on what the chiefs support, it should now be seen as a broad consensus and starting point for further conversation that warrants are necessary for the use of drones where subjects have a reasonable expectation of privacy, the public should be given meaningful notice of drone use, and weapons should not be placed on domestic drones.

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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