Last week, the Senate and House responded to the imminent expiration of the Patriot Act by voting to extend the act for another three months, effectively putting off a making a decision. Allie Bohm, at the ACLU's Center for Democracy writes:

The good news is we now have another three months to convince Congress to finally do the right thing and reform the Patriot Act to ensure that it can no longer be used to violate the rights of everyday people who have nothing to do with terrorism.

Read the full article on the ACLU national website and take action to stop any further extensions of the Patriot Act!

A petition signed by 500 supporters of the ACLU's call for a moratorium on the placement of new surveillance cameras was mailed to Chicago mayoral candidates this afternoon.

ACLU Intern Maura Ross mailing petitions to mayoral candidates

The petition reads:

Recently the ACLU of Illinois released a comprehensive report on the extensive and integrated surveillance camera system in Chicago. The surveillance system has been expanded in recent years with little community input and insufficient guidelines to protect privacy in the City.

I urge you to adopt the ACLU's call for a moratorium on the placement of new cameras in Chicago until a full review has been completed, including ample opportunity for community input and consideration of whether to remove some cameras.

Also, surveillance cameras should not be used without new privacy guidelines.

Whichever candidate wins next Tuesday's election, let's hope they heed the calls for a moratorium on new cameras, an open and thorough review of the camera surveillance system and stronger regulation of existing cameras.

This morning, the ACLU of Illinois participated in an argument before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in our case seeking to improve conditions at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). The argument today grew out of a challenge by the local union representing employees at the JTDC which objected to changes being made at the facility.

Today’s argument centered on a number of technical issues, mainly matters relating to the federal district court’s power under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. ACLU of Illinois Associate Legal Director Ben Wolf urged that the panel not elevate ‘form over substance” and reminded the Court that the “conditions at the JTDC are still dangerous” for the children housed at the facility.

The Court asked for further briefing on a number of the issues raised during the argument. We will keep you posted on the course of this case.