According to the Salt Lake Tribune, University of Utah President Michael Young said Mormons ought to be "among the most passionate civil libertarians in the world" to preserve religious freedoms.

"We all ought to be members of the ACLU," Young said Monday in a question-and-answer session after addressing the LDS International Society at Brigham Young University during a conference on the erosion of religious liberties.

The U. president, a special adviser to leaders of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on religious-liberty issues, served from 1998 to 2005 on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, including two stints as chairman.

In his keynote address, Young, a Latter-day Saint and a descendant of Utah colonizer Brigham Young, detailed what he sees as attacks on religious freedoms and called for individual LDS Church members to pay attention. Often, he noted, it’s zoning boards or city councils that make decisions that impinge on religious liberties.

"Our capacity to stem the tide, to raise the alarm and do what we need to do for our church, but also for people everywhere, is important," Young told a crowd of about 200 conference-goers.

Karen McCreary, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, was surprised and delighted by Young’s comments that Mormons should join the ACLU.

"I really welcome it," said McCreary, who noted that the Utah chapter was founded by Latter-day Saints. "It’s wonderful to see that the health of my liberties are connected to the health of yours, whether you are LDS, or Jew or Muslim or nothing in this state. It’s great to have a conversation."

According to a Chicago Sun-Times story today, a local legislator’s proposal to beef up the requirements for facilities that provide abortion services in Illinois appears doomed.

Sponsored by 96th District Rep. Darlene Senger, R-Naperville, House Bill 3156 would ensure that providers of the procedure comply with the stipulations for all ambulatory surgical centers.

Legislators debated the matter at length Wednesday before it was called for a vote. The 57 House members backing the bill fell three votes short of the necessary constitutional majority.

“The bill’s on ‘postponed consideration,’” Senger said Thursday afternoon.

If a proposal receives at least 47 votes, it can be brought back for a subsequent vote. But because Friday is the final day of the current legislative session, time is short.

Although Senger has described the measure as a way to guarantee equal access and safety for women who receive early-term abortions, supporters of the right to choose call it an attempt to limit the option for those who have a constitutionally protected right to undergo the procedure.

“I think the debate yesterday was incredibly revelatory,” said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the ACLU of Chicago. “There was a lot of talk about how this bill singles out abortion and subjects it to the kinds of requirements that liposuction, LASIK surgery and other procedures aren’t. It was clear there were a number of members who had enough concerns about it that they couldn’t support it.”

The Surveillance Camera Data Collection Act (House Bill 1948), which would require police agencies that own or have access to video surveillance cameras to disclose to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority the number of their cameras, and their privacy regulations, has passed the Illinois House in a 110-0 vote.

The bill would also require the Authority to post this information on its website. The regulations would extend to outdoor cameras (except for traffic cameras), and to mass transit cameras. The law does not seek information about the location of any cameras.

This bill would provide the public with critical information about video surveillance cameras in Illinois. Government transparency about the number of cameras would allow the public to make important town-to-town and year-to-year comparisons.

Dozens of government agencies across Illinois have installed thousands of video surveillance cameras in recent years, but very little information about these cameras has been released to the public.  The ACLU of Illinois recently released the first independent, comprehensive report of Chicago's surveillance camera system, calling for the City to adopt significant new safeguards to protect privacy.  The ACLU also called for a moratorium on the placement of new surveillance cameras in the City until a full review of the program and adoption of privacy protections has been completed.