News & Commentary

The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) confessed to under reporting the number of children fatally lost because of neglect or abuse over the last five years. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that a recent DCFS audit revealed 11 more children to date had died since 2009. Testifying before Illinois Senate hearings, DCFS acting Director Denise Gonzales attributed the under reporting due to tracking and reporting errors. For decades, the ACLU of Illinois has represented the interests of children in the care of DCFS and worked to reform the foster care system:

The Austin Weekly News reports that an ACLU suit against the Chicago Police Department, filed with the Central Austin Neighborhood Association (CANA), has been reinstated by an appellate court. The case, which had been dismissed last year by a trial court, charges that 911 police response times are slower in African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods than in other sections of the city:

The New York Times today published a powerful editorial about a lawsuit brought by the National ACLU and the ACLU of Michigan against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The ACLU represents Tamesha Means, who was denied appropriate medical care for her miscarriage at a local Catholic-sponsored hospital -- the only hospital accessible to her in Muskegon, Michigan where she resides. Means was sent home from the hospital after her water had broken at 18 weeks, despite excruciating pain and significant risk to her health, based on religious directives from the USCCB. Because of these directives, the hospital staff did not tell Means that terminating her pregnancy was an option and the safest course for her condition.

Tech giants, including Google, Facebook and Apple, have sent an open letter to President Barack Obama and Congress, calling for tighter controls on the collection and surveillance of personal data, Reuters reports (via The Chicago Tribune). In light of the cables leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the companies are led by a sense of urgency to call on government to reform electronic privacy laws.  The ACLU has advocated for the Electronic Communications Privacy Act -- a law that was enacted in 1986 -- to be updated to reflect today's growing online privacy concerns. The open letter states:

In an opinion piece published in The Chicago Tribune, Cook County Clerk David Orr called for a new, automated and more efficient voter registration system that captures every eligible voter by using every available government database to identify and register Illinois citizens so that they can vote. The ACLU Voting Rights Project's works to increase the ease and accessibility of voting for all eligible voters. In other states, ACLU affiliates have fought against the use of databases to cull out registered voters. Orr writes:

The Pantagraph reports that the ACLU has gone to court in Colorado against a wedding vendor who refused to do business with a gay couple planning their post nuptial party. Colorado allows Civil Unions, yet, David Mullins and Charlie Craig were turned away when they tried to place an order for a wedding cake at the Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver with the owner claiming a conflict with his own religious beliefs. The ACLU of Illinois is representing a couple from Mattoon, Illinois before the Illinois Human Rights Commission. The couple was turned away by two bed & breakfast facilities because they were gay.

The Chicago Tribune wrote about a Woodstock police officer who used a law enforcement database to obtain private information about his girlfriend, and allegedly sent sexually inappropriate text messages to her 12 year old daughter. The Tribune spoke with ACLU of Illinois' Communications and Public Policy Director Ed Yohnka about this serious invasion of privacy.

The Chicago Tribune reports that passage of the Illinois Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, which does not go into effect until next June, could have been a case of equality delayed for Vernita Gray, who is battling terminal cancer and whose life expectancy may mean she will die before being able to marry her partner Patricia Ewert.

The State Journal-Register has a story about upcoming free speech activity in the capitol building in Springfield. A series of displays from various religious, non-religious and advocacy groups will be exhibited in the rotunda and will last through the holiday season. The Register spoke with ACLU of Illinois Springfield chapter president Donald Hanrahan about the plans for an ACLU display in the building: