Home » ACLU Insider » Archives » December 2009 Archives December 2009 Archives Body scanners coming to O'Hare December 31, 2009 Colleen Connell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois, spoke to channel 5 and 7 news regarding privacy concerns of full body scanners said to arrive at O'Hare the first quarter of next year. Watch the broadcast that aired on December 30, 2009. read more » Update in the *ACLU v. White* lawsuit regarding excessive lobby fees December 28, 2009 Illinois recently raised the registration fee for lobbyists from $350 to $1,000, for each person who lobbies, and for each organization that employs such a person. Thus, for a non-profit organization that employs one lobbyist, the registration fee has jumped from $700 to $2,000. The ACLU of Illinois, with two full-time legislative advocates, must now pay $3,000. In this regard, Illinois is an anomaly: in 42 states, the lobby registration fee is $150 or less for a non-profit group and its lobbyist employee; and in the other 7 states, that fee is less than $365. The federal government charges no lobby registration fee at all. Moreover, Illinois exempts from this fee media organizations, and certain lobbying by religious groups. On December 11, the ACLU filed a lawsuit, alleging that the Illinois lobby registration fee violates the First Amendment rights to speech, association, and petition, for two reasons. First, the government cannot prove a proper nexus between the large size of the fee, and the government's actual and reasonable costs in administering the lobby registration rules. Second, the exemption for media and religious groups are unlawfully discriminatory. The ACLU asked the Court for a temporary restraining order ("TRO"), enjoining the government from requiring non-profit organizations, and their employees, from paying any registration fee. On December 23, the Court granted plaintiffs' TRO motion. That TRO will last until mid-January, when the Court holds a hearing on plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. The Court on December 23 also issued an 11-page memorandum stating the reasons for the TRO order. The memo explained that plaintiffs' have a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that the new lobby fee is excessive in size, and that it unlawfully privileges religious speech over non-religious speech. The Court also rejected the government's assertion that jurisdiction was barred by the federal Tax Injunction Act. We are pleased by the Court's decision today and look forward to seeking a permanent injunction in the new year. _______________________________ Download: The Court's Memorandum Granting the TRO The ACLU of Illinois' Complaint read more » D.C. Council approves same-sex marriage bill December 18, 2009 From Ellyn Fortino: All that is needed for same-sex marriage to be legalized in D.C. is a final signature by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty after the D.C. council passed the legislation allowing gay couples to marry 11-2 on Tuesday. According to an ABC article, "the legislation passed [Tuesday] would allow same-sex couples to be married in D.C., along with five other states, but not require clergy or religious organizations to provide services, accommodations, or facilities for the services." This is a fundamental step to ensure all Americans receive equal civil rights in our country, but the work is far from over. We have 45 more states to go! Keep contacting your legislators and push for equality of marriage in Illinois. Send a free fax to your state legislators in support of the Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act. Update:D.C.'s Mayor signs the bill read more » 'Tis the season to celebrate the First Amendment December 16, 2009 The holidays are here. Have you thanked the First Amendment lately? The Springfield Chapter of the ACLU of Illinois recently featured a display in the rotunda of the Illinois State Capitol celebrating the First Amendment. The rotunda is a classic example of an open public forum, allowing the display of competing views. Some religious groups are displaying a nativity scene in the rotunda, there is a menorah celebrating Hanukkah and even a "natural world" poster showcasing an atheist group. The Springfield Chapter took advantage of the viewpoints shared in the public forum to celebrate the First Amendment. Because of the First Amendment, all these viewpoints are acceptable in a public space like the capitol rotunda. We thank Springfield Chapter President Don Hanrahan and Julie Hubbard, who was responsible for the creation and organization of the display, for defending and celebrating the rights of all Americans to express their views freely this holiday season (and always!). The inspiring display includes memorable quotes about the importance of the first amendment from religious leaders and presidents, as well as multiple cases where the ACLU has defended the freedom of religion. read more » Obama Administration Announces Plans to Move Guantanamo Detainees to Illinois Prison December 15, 2009 Creating A 'Gitmo North' An Alarming Step, Says ACLU NEW YORK - The Obama administration announced today that it will purchase the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois for the purpose of holding some of the detainees currently remaining at Guantanamo. Though the administration is leaving unsaid which detainees will be moved there and for what purposes, the information it has provided indicates that some detainees might be held for military commission proceedings in Illinois while others might be held at Thomson indefinitely without charge or trial. The administration has stated that "any detainees at Guantanamo who continue to be held, and for whom no prosecution is planned, will be held only under authority granted by Congress in 2001 under the Authorization for Use of Military Force, as informed by the law of war." However, the so-called war on terrorism is not a traditional war, having no temporal or geographical boundaries. Read the statement by Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU: read more » Your Facebook page may not be as private as you think December 14, 2009 After Facebook's privacy revamp on Dec. 9, my most recent login left me feeling more confused than secure. For those who felt the same about Facebook's new privacy transition tool, check out this great resource the ACLU's Demand Your dotRights campaign put together to make the privacy transition more smooth for users. Overall, the ACLU is pleased to see Facebook put privacy front and center, and hopes other companies will follow suit, but we do still have concerns about their new system. There's more "publicly available information" that you can't control: Before the recent changes, you had the option of exposing only a "limited" profile, consisting of as little as your name and networks, to other Facebook users -- and nothing at all to Internet users at large. Now your profile picture, current city, friends list, gender, and fan pages are "publicly available information," which means you have no way to prevent any other Facebook user from viewing this information on your profile, and you can only prevent Internet users from viewing this information by disabling search entirely (which you can't do through the Transition Tool). Facebook is "recommending" that you loosen your privacy settings: For most users, including those who have never changed their Facebook privacy settings, the recommended settings make information less protected and more widely available than the previous default settings. For example, as of last Friday, sensitive information like relationship status and gender preference was available only to your friends by default; now Facebook encourages users to make this information available to "everyone!" The "Transition Tool" does not allow most users to strengthen privacy settings: Facebook's Transition Tool gives you only two choices: keep your current settings or switch to Facebook's recommendations. And since Facebook's recommendations are less private than the previous default settings, most users have to click through to another page of privacy controls in order to strengthen their settings. Read the full post about the ACLU's stance on Facebook's new privacy policy. Learn more about Demand Your dotRights.

Please note that by playing this clip You Tube and Google will place a long-term cookie on your computer. Please see You Tube's privacy statement on their website and Google's privacy statement on theirs to learn more. To view the ACLU of Illinois' privacy statement, click here.

Tell Facebook to keep moving in the right direction by fixing its app gap and giving you better control over your personal information. Please Sign Our Petition.

Common Dreams has an important article on the new National Resolution for Ending School Pushout. Too many children - students from poor commmunities, students of color - face punitive, zero-tolerance school environments that dramatically increase the likelihood of students dropping out of school.

Robert C. Koehler writes in Common Dreams:

Our military, political and cultural thrust reaches every corner of the globe. We're the world's only superpower. And we're feeding our own children -- a shocking percentage of them, at any rate -- into a sort of Darwinian meat grinder of low expectations, zero tolerance and fend-for-yourself hopelessness.

This is our school system in much of Poverty America: an ill-funded, desperate and deteriorating bureaucracy of bad ideas and entrenched disrespect for everyone -- especially those who care. When I was an outside writing consultant, some years ago, at several high schools on the West Side of Chicago, I saw first-hand the us-vs.-them mentality that prevailed, as though the schools were colonial outposts in these low-income neighborhoods, run by an occupying army.

Read the whole article

Don't miss Glenn Greenwald's extremely thoughtful piece about how the current financial climate has affected the ACLU and its important work. And if, you feel so moved - you can support the ACLU by clicking on the statue of liberty button over on the right hand side of the page.

Greenwald writes:

It is not hyperbole to say that, over the past decade, there has been no organization more important to the United States, the Constitution, and basic political liberties than the ACLU. From the start of the Bush/Cheney assault on core civil liberties -- when most organizations and individuals were petrified of opposing any efforts justified by "terrorism" -- the ACLU was one of a small handful of groups which defied that climate of fear by vigorously and fearlessly opposing those erosions.

Read the whole thing.

Lots of important voices from American history - including, apparently, Matt Damon reading the Declaration of Independence. Check it out at: www.thepeoplespeak.com.

The New Jersey Senate will vote on the imperative bill tomorrow that would legalize same-sex marriage. Earlier this week the bill passed seven to six in the state Senate Judiciary Committee after seven hours of public testimony. If the bill passes New Jersey would become sixth in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage.

Read the full article.

The Senate decided to table and successfully kill the Nelson-Hatch abortion amendment on Dec. 8 that would have restricted coverage of abortion services for people who receive subsidies to buy insurance.

Read the article.

Thank you to all the courageous Senate Democrats who voted to protect and defend the rights and liberties of women and girls across the nation.

On Dec. 1 the D.C. Council voted 11-2 to pass same-sex marriage legislation, the first of three steps that could allow gay couples to marry in the nation's capital. A second vote, scheduled in two weeks, is needed for same-sex marriage to become law. According to a Washington Post article, the bill's sponsors said final passage is almost certain, although the bill could be tweaked, and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has said he will sign it. The ACLU Insider will follow this issue closely as the D.C. bill moves to the second stage of voting.

Watch the D.C Council vote to legalize same-sex marriage, or read the full article.

Despite optimism in D.C., however, the New York State Senate shot down same-sex legislation the day after, making the vote in two weeks even more crucial for gay rights advocates. Here are three positive speakers who were memorable among a large group of impressive proponents.

1. Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson - "A Democrat who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, spoke publicly for the first time about her gay brother, who was shunned by her family and moved to France." She said that her district was split on the issue, but they elected her to be a leader and as such, she had to vote yes.

2. Sen. Diane Savino - a roman catholic, Italian-American, from Staten Island, who was articulate, moving, and quite funny. Watch her speech. She said that she looked to Sen. Duane and his partner as a model for a committed couple, and that she herself had failed to ever fulfill that kind of loving relationship in her failed marriages. If anyone screwed up marriage, it was not the gays but us, she said.

3. Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. - from a neighboring district to Ruben Diaz and another Puerto Rican. His description of why he voted yes, notwithstanding the opposition in his district, was quite moving.

It's worth noting that the large majority of the black caucus voted yes. Several African American members gave impassioned speeches about equality and the need to recognize inequality experienced by other minority groups. Many remarked on the fact that the leader of the senate - an African American woman - could not have had that position but for the civil rights advances in this country. One black Senator talked about his gay staffer, his partner, and their newborn twins. The history of inequality in this country was reviewed in detail by African American, female and Jewish senators. It was an impressive set of remarks, even if the end result was terribly disappointing.

Read the full New York State Senate article.

John Knight contributed to this post.

A debate is accelerating among some members of Chicago City Council and leaders of the Chicago Public Schools concerning a new plan to assure diversity in the city's magnet and select enrollment schools. The new plan was necessitated after a federal judge vacated a two-decade old consent decree designed to assure diversity and equal access to the city's best education opportunities.

Read more about the concerns of the city council members.

The ACLU of Illinois has weighed in on this issue expressing concern over CPS' continued insistence that they must use only socio-economic factors as a means of assuring diversity in the city's "crown jewels" of public education. ACLU Legal Director Harvey Grossman recently published a letter in the Chicago Tribune addressing the controversy.

Read the letter.

My name is Ellyn Fortino, and I am the new communications intern at the ACLU of Illinois.  I am currently a full time science, medical, and environmental journalism student at Columbia College Chicago and am very excited to help advance the critical work of the ACLU. I am an advocate for women's rights, especially reproductive rights, and hope to write and report for a non-profit or advocacy group regarding these issues.

Here is what you can expect for the ACLU Insider going forward. I will be including weekly updates and summaries of the ACLU of Illinois in the news with helpful links and space for dialogue. You can also expect to see more in-depth posts about current issues or breaking stories. The ACLU Insider will be a reliable, one stop source for ACLU of Illinois related news with some space for comment and opinion (because who doesn't like a little opinion?).

We would love to hear from you. If you have any hot topics or stories you think should be included and discussed in the ACLU Insider please e-mail me at efortino@aclu-il.org.

See you all soon, Insiders!

From Ellyn Fortino, ACLU of Illinois Communications Intern:

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was tacked onto the health care reform bill and passed in the House of Representatives has made its way into the senate and needs to be stopped!

If the Stupak-Pitts Amendment were to pass, the existing House Health Care Bill would only cover abortions in the instances of rape, incest, or potential harm to the life of the mother. This amendment will jeopardize the abortion coverage that millions of women currently have.

Learn more about the Stupak-Pitts amendment.

Executive Director of the ACLU, Anthony D. Romero, called abortion "part of basic health care for women.... The Senate must keep the Stupak-Pitts amendment out of its health care legislation and, when the time comes to merge the House and Senate bills," he said. "This toxic language should be omitted from the final measure. Health care reform should improve women's health and lives, not interfere with their right to get the health care they need."

Take action today!

Tell your senators to protect women's ability to make private health care decisions without government interference.

From ACLU of Illinois Legal Fellow Lori Turner:

As part of our effort to address the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, we are active participants in the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC), a coalition of advocates, organizers, youths, parents and educators united to reframe the national debate about school climate and discipline from one that favors the punishment and exclusion of children to one based on inclusive school practices and human rights.

DSC held its inaugural national conference in June 2009, the goal of which was to develop a national resolution on ending school pushout. Today, over 180 organizations and individuals from across the country have released the National Resolution for Ending School Pushout, a call to action for our school systems to implement positive, human rights-based alternatives to the degrading school environments and harsh discipline and safety policies that push millions of children out of school each year.

The Resolution is being released as states submit applications for Race to the Top Funds made available under the federal stimulus package. Federal Department of Education Guidelines recommend that states and districts use these funds to promote positive school climates and discipline.

The Resolution points to a range of factors, including excessive suspensions, expulsions, and school arrests, which contribute to the "pushout" crisis in our schools. Students of color and students in poor communities are impacted the most by these policies. According to the American Psychological Association, these punitive, zero-tolerance policies and practices do not improve behavior, but can instead increase the likelihood that students will fall behind academically, have future behavior problems, become withdrawn and dropout of school.