News & Commentary

As we near the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, we can expect to see a number of retrospective pieces in print and broadcast offering commentary on changes to America in the decade since that shocking day. Some of the changes are obvious – heightened security at the airports, U.S. troops involved in two wars overseas, and physical barriers placed at governmental buildings in downtown Chicago and across the nation.Beyond these obvious changes, we have seen numerous alterations to federal laws that permit government to gain easy access to personal information about millions of Americans. The USA PATRIOT Act, for example, was passed by Congress and signed into law approximately six weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon; that law has been extended several times in some form or other. And, Congress passed a measure that granted the National Security Agency broad, new powers to monitor the telephone calls, emails and website use of Americans without prior oversight from a court.In early 2006, news reports uncovered another fro

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House Bill 1948 – which passed both the Illinois House and Illinois Senate unanimously – requires agencies that own or have access to certain kinds of video surveillance cameras to disclose (on an annual basis) to the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority (ICJIA) the number of cameras they own or have access to, and their privacy regulations, if they have any. The bill also requires this information to be posted on the website of the ICJIA. The legislation is an effort to ensure a small measure of transparency in the operation of these powerful, technologically-sophisticated cameras. The ACLU and the sponsors of the bill believe that the public should know how many cameras the government is operating.