[NV Greens] Fwd: ACLU Online: Schiavo Case, Same-Sex Marriage Victory and more

Paul Etxeberri eusko at greens.org
Fri Mar 25 23:24:16 PST 2005


>
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>  <http://www.aclu.org?orgid=n&MX=2005&H=1> 
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><#story1>U.S. Supreme Court Protects Liberty in Schiavo Case
>
><#story2>Victory in California: Court Ends Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
>
><https://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?orgid=n&slp=y&cid=16&MX=2005&H=1>
><#story3>New Report Examines Impact of Drug Policies on Women and Families
>
><#story4>Take Action: Oppose Writing Intolerance into the Constitution
>
><#story5>Prominent Foreign Scholars Denied U.S. Entry
>
><#story6>Planning for Victory: Join the Legacy of Liberty Challenge
>
>In the States:
>
><>ACLU Sues Federal Agents for Illegal Detention of Iraqi Refugee in Montana
>
><>Georgia School Board Agrees to Allow Gay-Straight Club
>
>
>
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>
>ACLU Sues Federal Agents for Illegal Detention of Iraqi Refugee in Montana
>
>The ACLU of Washington, the ACLU of Montana, and the ACLU 
>Immigrants' Rights Project have filed suit against two federal 
>agents for unlawfully stopping, interrogating, arresting, 
>imprisoning, and seeking to deport an Iraqi refugee who was legally 
>admitted to the United States and had broken no laws.
>
>Abdul Ameer Yousef Habeeb, who came to the U.S. as a refugee after 
>suffering persecution by Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, was 
>stopped at a train station in Havre, Montana in 2003. Habeeb stepped 
>off the train during a 30-minute station stop at Havre and was 
>singled out by two agents of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol who 
>demanded to know where he was from. Habeeb responded that he was 
>from Iraq and produced a copy of a form regarding his admission into 
>the U.S. as a refugee.
>
>"Mr. Habeeb's mistreatment in this case is the inevitable outcome of 
>a program that targets people for suspicion based on where they were 
>born or what they look like, rather than individualized conduct," 
>said Robin Goldfaden, staff counsel with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights 
>Project.
>
><http://www.aclu.org/ImmigrantsRights/ImmigrantsRights.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17765&c=94&MX=2005&H=1>Get 
>more information and access the complaint.
>
>Georgia School Board Agrees to Allow Gay-Straight Club
>
>Officials at White County High School in Cleveland, Georgia have 
>agreed to drop their attempts to stop students from forming a 
>gay-straight alliance club. The agreement comes after several weeks 
>of negotiation between the school and the ACLU of Georgia.
>
>"I can't tell you how relieved I am that the board is finally going 
>to do the right thing and let us create a safe space for gay 
>students at my school," said Kerry Pacer, a 16-year-old lesbian who 
>decided to form the club with friends in an attempt to counteract 
>rampant anti-gay harassment at the school.
>
>The Federal Equal Access Act requires schools to treat gay-straight 
>alliances as they would any other school group. Federal courts have 
>repeatedly ruled in favor of GSAs where schools tried to block their 
>formation, upholding students' right to form the groups in Salt Lake 
>City, Utah; Orange County, California; Franklin Township, Indiana; 
>and Boyd County, Kentucky.
>
><http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17801&c=106&MX=2005&H=1>Read 
>the full story.
>
>
>
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>the ACLU and what we're doing to protect civil liberties? Help us 
>spread the word about ACLU Online -- forward this newsletter to a 
>friend.
>
>Mar 24, 2005 
>
>
>
>
>The ACLU welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of a petition 
>forcing the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tubes. The 
>decision protects the severely brain-damaged woman's right to 
>withdraw her own life-sustaining treatment and prevents politicians 
>from interfering with intensely personal medical decisions.
>
>Earlier this week two federal courts also found no basis to set 
>aside the legal procedures in Florida, despite attempts by Congress 
>to interfere in the legal proceedings by the issuance of a 
>Congressional subpoena.
>
>"Terri Schiavo's wishes were honored today by yet another court that 
>recognized her constitutionally protected right to refuse and 
>withdraw medical treatment," said Howard Simon, executive director 
>of the ACLU of Florida on Thursday. "If the court had ruled 
>otherwise, the nation may have taken a giant step backward in the 
>protection of privacy."
>
>The ACLU was co-counsel in the Florida case before Judge James 
>Whittemore. The ACLU was also part of the legal team challenging 
>"Terri's Law 1," enacted in October of 2003 to give Gov. Jeb Bush 
>authority to re-insert the feeding tube. That case was struck down 
>as unconstitutional by every Florida court; the U.S. Supreme Court 
>declined to hear the appeal.
>
><http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17814&c=27&MX=2005&H=1>Read 
>Howard Simon's statement and find additonal resources on writing a 
>living will.
>
>
>
>
>  Last week a tremendous victory was won when the California courts 
>ruled to end discrimination against same-sex couples in marriage. 
>The decision is a landmark for the law, and an important development 
>for the entire nation. With plain but compelling logic, the court 
>has shown us all why in a nation committed to fairness, same-sex 
>couples must not be shut out of marriage.
>
>This decision is most important to the thousands upon thousands of 
>same-sex couples who desperately need the protection that marriage 
>gives, and who deserve the dignity it brings. Gay people are 
>firefighters, teachers, doctors and neighbors who deserve the same 
>rights and protections as other Americans. Our constitution promises 
>liberty to all; this decision takes us a step closer to that promise.
>
>The case, Woo v. Lockyer, is being brought by the National Center 
>for Lesbian Rights along with the American Civil Liberties Union and 
>Lambda Legal.
>
><http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17713&c=101&MX=2005&H=1>Check 
>out a profile of the case and the clients involved.
>
>
>
>
>A new report, "Caught in the Net: the Impact of Drug Policies on 
>Women & Families," highlights the sky-rocketing incarceration rates 
>of women in the United States. The report also features stories of 
>women minimally, peripherally or unknowingly caught up in drug 
>activity who are found "guilty by association" with their husbands 
>and boyfriends involved in the drug trade.
>
>The number of women serving time in state prison facilities for 
>drug-related offenses has increased 888 percent since 1986 according 
>to the Sentencing Project, and U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics 
>show that more than one million women are currently in prison, in 
>jail, or on parole or probation.
>
>"We've gone from being a nation of latchkey kids to a nation of 
>locked-up moms, where women are the invisible prisoners of drug 
>laws, serving hard time for someone else's crime," said Lenora 
>Lapidus, Director of the ACLU Women's Rights Project. "Family values 
>ought to mean keeping families together. Treatment can cure drug 
>addiction, but there's no cure for a family destroyed."
>
>The report was co-authored by the ACLU, Break the Chains: 
>Communities of Color and the War on Drugs, and the Brennan Center 
>for Justice at NYU School of Law.
>
><http://www.aclu.org/WomensRights/WomensRights.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17759&c=171&MX=2005&H=1>Find 
>more information and access the report.
>
>
>
>The victory in California for same-sex couples will likely lead to a 
>backlash as politicians beholden to the religious right gear up for 
>a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. Help us 
>preempt their predictable and reactionary response by writing to 
>your Members of Congress today and letting them know that you do not 
>support writing discrimination into the Constitution.
>
>Take Action! 
><http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?orgid=n&ID=9977&c=101&MX=2005&H=1>Oppose 
>the Federal Marriage Amendment!
>
>
>
>Citing a serious and growing threat to academic freedom, the ACLU 
>has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records 
>concerning the government's practice of excluding scholars and other 
>prominent individuals from the U.S. because of their political views.
>
>The FOIA request focuses on Section 411 of the Patriot Act, which 
>permits the government to exclude foreign scholars from the country 
>if in the government's view they have "used [their] position of 
>prominence to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or to persuade 
>others to support terrorist activity." While the provision 
>ostensibly focuses on those who sanction terrorism, news reports 
>suggest that the government is using the provision more broadly to 
>deny admission to those whose political views it disfavors.
>
>"The government should not be barring scholars from the country 
>simply because it disagrees with what they have to say," said ACLU 
>staff attorney Jameel Jaffer. "Nor should immigration and State 
>Department officials be in the business of determining which ideas 
>Americans may hear and which they may not."
>
><http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?orgid=n&ID=17740&c=206&MX=2005&H=1>Learn 
>more and read the FOIA request.
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand
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