Last Friday, ACLU of Illinois Executive Director participated on a panel reviewing the implications of civil liberties for the recently-completed term of the Supreme Court of the United States. (Spoiler alert: not a lot of good news!)

The excellent presentation at the panel was augmented by the always-thoughtful Supreme Court review produced each year by ACLU National Legal Director Steve Shapiro. For those of you who did not get an opportunity to attend the panel, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the Court's decisions this year, including a number of critical cases that did not receive wide media attention.

We hope you find the document helpful.
 

Date

Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - 9:45am

Featured image

Show featured image

Hide banner image

Tweet Text

[node:title]

Related issues

First Amendment Advocacy Government Accountability and Personal Privacy Women's and Reproductive Rights

Show related content

Menu parent dynamic listing

28

Style

Standard with sidebar

The Chicago Sun Times editorial board weighed in today calling on Chicago Public Schools to reintroduce race as a factor when determining admissions to the City's select enrollment high schools. Recent data shows that the enrollment level of African American students has decreased since a long-time federal consent decree to assure racial integration of Chicago public schools was vacated by the courts several years ago.

At the time that the provisions of the consent decree was lifted, the ACLU of Illinois warned that if CPS failed to use race as just one factor -- an approach clearly permissible under several Supreme Court rulings -- in the admissions' process, then the number of African American students in the City's best schools (the select enrollment high schools) would fall. A City Council Committee held a hearing on this subject last week, urging CPS to heed this warning from the ACLU.
 

Read the entire article.

Date

Monday, July 21, 2014 - 10:30am

Featured image

Show featured image

Hide banner image

Tweet Text

[node:title]

Show related content

Menu parent dynamic listing

28

Style

Standard with sidebar

ACLU of Illinois Communications and Public Policy Director Ed Yohnka recently appeared on local news station WICS-TV via Skype to discuss Illinois law enforcement agencies' use of cell phone tracking technology called "StingRays." The equipment, manufactured by Florida-based company Harris corp., essentially operates by mimicking a cell-phone tower in order to locate individual electronic devices. The ACLU of Illinois has been concerned about this type of technology for some time, and with recent efforts by Florida law enforcement to conceal how they are using StingRays, the concern has prompted WICS to file a FOIA request with Illinois State Police to investigate how the technology is being used in our state.

According to the ISP, outside of Amber Alerts, they only track phones with a court order, but the ACLU still has its concerns.
"Every time these technologies have come on line, there have been abuses," Yohnka said.

Read more, and watch the segment.

Date

Friday, July 18, 2014 - 3:15pm

Featured image

Show featured image

Hide banner image

Tweet Text

[node:title]

Related issues

Police Practices and Racial Justice Government Accountability and Personal Privacy

Show related content

Menu parent dynamic listing

28

Style

Standard with sidebar

Pages

Subscribe to ACLU of Illinois RSS