House and Senate leaders Thursday announced a new effort to overhaul U.S. wiretapping laws that appears likely to let telecommunications companies escape lawsuits over the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program.
The Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said it was concerned that the basic rights of the children and mothers connected to a Texas polygamist ranch were violated during a recent raid and custody hearing.
Analysis: Since 9/11, the U.S. has increasingly traded privacy for the promise of security, leaving civil liberties advocates flailing
The governor of Texas argues in a new book that attacks on the Boy Scouts are the latest front in a "culture war" and the moral struggle for the country's future
The Supreme Court offered no explanation Tuesday for refusing to hear an appeal regarding the Bush administration's covert domestic surveillance program.
A federal appeals court has upheld the right of female inmates to be transported at state expense for elective abortions.
Some foreign diplomats abuse and exploit their household help while serving in the U.S., advocacy groups charge
A new type of walk-through security machine will debut at several U.S. airports in the coming days as the Transportation Security Administration tries out the latest in body scanning technology.
Conservative Sen. Larry Craig got support from an unexpected source on Monday. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in court saying the lawmaker's bathroom bust was likely unconstitutional.
It's a fashion that started in prison, and now the saggy pants craze has come full circle -- low-slung street strutting in some cities may soon mean run-ins with the law
House and Senate leaders Thursday announced a new effort to overhaul U.S. wiretapping laws that appears likely to let telecommunications companies escape lawsuits over the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program.
The Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said it was concerned that the basic rights of the children and mothers connected to a Texas polygamist ranch were violated during a recent raid and custody hearing.
Analysis: Since 9/11, the U.S. has increasingly traded privacy for the promise of security, leaving civil liberties advocates flailing
The governor of Texas argues in a new book that attacks on the Boy Scouts are the latest front in a "culture war" and the moral struggle for the country's future
The Supreme Court offered no explanation Tuesday for refusing to hear an appeal regarding the Bush administration's covert domestic surveillance program.
A federal appeals court has upheld the right of female inmates to be transported at state expense for elective abortions.
Some foreign diplomats abuse and exploit their household help while serving in the U.S., advocacy groups charge
A new type of walk-through security machine will debut at several U.S. airports in the coming days as the Transportation Security Administration tries out the latest in body scanning technology.
Conservative Sen. Larry Craig got support from an unexpected source on Monday. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in court saying the lawmaker's bathroom bust was likely unconstitutional.
It's a fashion that started in prison, and now the saggy pants craze has come full circle -- low-slung street strutting in some cities may soon mean run-ins with the law
A judge struck down parts of the Patriot Act, saying investigators must have court approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers
Newly released documents regarding crimes committed by U.S. troops against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan detail a pattern of troops failing to understand and follow the rules that govern interrogations and deadly actions.
Though Congress is on vacation, majority Democrats are keeping alive various fights with the White House with one common thread: Congress' access to administration documents and testimony to which President Bush has claimed executive privilege.
A federal court Thursday struck down ordinances passed by Hazleton, Pennsylvania, that were intended to limit where illegal immigrants could live and work.
A federal appeals court Friday ordered the dismissal of an ACLU lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic surveillance program.
It looks under your clothes and can see you naked. It's the new "Backscatter" X-ray security device and was installed by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport last week.
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. government's domestic eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately.
The Defense Department has withdrawn its appeal challenging a district court order requiring it to turn over to civil rights groups 74 photographs and three videotapes depicting images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, officials said Tuesday.
More grisly photographs and videos have emerged that appear to show U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, some of whom were apparently forced to engage in sex acts.
Two lawsuits were filed Tuesday against the National Security Agency over its no-warrant wiretapping program, claiming the domestic eavesdropping is unconstitutional and that President Bush exceeded his authority by authorizing it.
A suit was filed Tuesday in the United States on behalf of a German man who alleges he was kidnapped and tortured by U.S. agents for five months in 2004. The suit charges the man was mistakenly suspected of being an associate of the 9/11 hijackers.
John Brown. Leon Czolgosz. Bernardine Dohrn. These are the faces of American terrorism -- as much as Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph or Osama bin Laden.
The newest school fashion trend is not ripped from the pages of the latest magazine -- it comes from the principal's handbook as a growing number of school districts are adopting more stringent dress codes and implementing school uniform policies.
Civil liberties groups will release a report Monday that accuses the Justice Department of violating individual rights under material witness statutes.
Two civil liberties groups will release a report Monday claiming the Justice Department has abused its power under the material witness statute and violated many of the the detainees' rights.
Detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, alleged in 2002 that guards mistreated the Quran, according to some of the hundreds of FBI documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Hiding in the floorboards of pickup trucks, poking through fences, fording rivers -- the methods of entry into the United States are endlessly creative for millions of illegal immigrants.
Stun-gun maker Taser International said Friday that an independent study of the effects of one of its new devices, the Taser X26, found no significant heart rhythm abnormalities in volunteers subjected to its shock.
Conservative and liberal groups normally at each other's throats over the direction of government are finding common cause in wanting to gut major provisions of the government's premier anti-terrorism law.
A federal judge Wednesday rejected a CIA request to stay an order requiring the release of its documents on detainees and prisoners held in the fight against suspected terrorists.
A controversy is brewing over a U.S. State Department decision to put identification chips inside all new passport covers, a program scheduled to start by late 2005.
The abuse of naked Iraqi prisoners received the bulk of publicity, but those incidents were just some of many clandestine occurrences in which detainees endured shock, burns and mock executions, newly released Pentagon records reveal.
The Senate voted 89-2 Wednesday to approve a sweeping overhaul of U.S. intelligence as proposed by the independent commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Travelers bound for long lines at security checkpoints in airports across the nation this Thanksgiving season may not realize exactly what they are in for.
In late September, a federal district judge in New York, Victor Marrero, ruled that a key component of the USA Patriot Act is unconstitutional. The ruling made headlines, for it is the first to strike down any of the vast new surveillance powers the act authorized.
The "no-fly" watch list -- billed as a post-9/11 weapon in the United States' war on terror -- lacks guidance on adding and deleting names and a method of consolidating more than a dozen lists maintained by various government agencies, a review of government records revealed.
The Secret Service is investigating an Internet posting of some Republican delegates' phone numbers, e-mail addresses and the hotels where they would stay during the party's national convention, federal law enforcement officials said Monday.
A U.S. judge Thursday became the second in the nation to rule that a federal ban on a particular type of late-term abortion is unconstitutional.
In a highly anticipated ruling, a federal judge found the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Thursday because it does not include a health exception.
The American Civil Liberties Union has withdrawn from a federal donation program, refusing to follow U.S. Patriot Act rules requiring use of a government anti-terrorism watch list to check employees' names, a spokeswoman said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a law intended to protect children from pornography on the Internet, saying the law probably violates free-speech guarantees.
The Iraq war, jobs and the economy have overshadowed the contentious issue of the Patriot Act during this year's presidential election, but it has not been completely overlooked by activists on the University of Missouri campus.
A federal government list designed to keep terrorism suspects off commercial airline flights has subjected "hundreds, if not thousands" of innocent passengers to repeated interrogation, detention and stigmatization, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
New York pulled out of the Matrix program Thursday, making it the latest state to withdraw participation from the multistate, anti-terrorism information exchange.
A lawyer for the Bush administration has argued that the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold a law that protects children from Internet pornography.
A federal judge in Los Angeles has struck down a provision of the post-September 11 USA Patriot Act, saying it was unconstitutional.
An 82-year-old American brand is getting a makeover, complete with a new logo and a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to attract a younger demographic. None of which is particularly remarkable--excep...
A PRISONER SHORTAGE
INVESTING IN PRISON
For the second time in five years, the traditional towering Christmas tree will be absent from the front of ((Pittsburgh's)) City-County Building. The administration has opted instead for two small...
Answer true or false. Legally, your boss can: Rifle through your desk drawers. Videotape you without your knowledge. Read E-mail and computer files addressed solely to you. Eavesdrop on your phone...
Leave it to . . . the American Civil Liberties Union to get out a provocative message at Chicago's 25th Annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade . . . ''A-C-L-U. We defend your right to screw,'' ACLU pa...
Fourteen-year-old Astrianna Johnson . . . wanted to make a bold statement about the importance of safe sex. She pinned condom packs to her shoes and clothes at school. Her campaign got Astrianna su...
Traditional parochial school attire is catching on in Bay Area public schools . . . Parents and administrators claim uniforms help students concentrate on learning rather than their clothes ((and))...
IRA GLASSER, 56, head of the ACLU, preparing archconservative William F. Buckley Jr., 68, to attend his first pro baseball game ever: ''You will be pleased to know I stand obediently for the nation...
In which Keeping Up returns to its traditional search for Senator Biglib, the most liberal member of the current upper chamber. Two years ago the menace to society turned out to be Democrat Pat Lea...
The American Civil Liberties Union ((is)) suggesting ((that)) a legislative prayer caucus ((in the Georgia House of Representatives)) may be violating the constitutional separation of church and st...
A suit has been filed in U.S. District Court challenging the constitutionality of new ((Seattle)) ordinances that ban sitting or lying on downtown sidewalks and take a tougher line against panhandl...
CHICAGO -- Witches attending the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions won permission Tuesday to dance under the full moon in a city park, after the American Civil Liberties Union swooped in to ...
Or perhaps just taking in a movie with someone else's wife? Laural Allen, 23, and Sam Johnson, 20, had been working for Wal-Mart in Gloversville, New York, for several months when they began dating...
This book review will be less favorable than the one above, as we began talking back to the ACLU's Restoring Civil Liberties: A Blueprint for Action for the Clinton Administration at the first word...
NORFOLK, VA. -- The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia . . . filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a student who was suspended . . . for wearing to school a T-shirt saying ''Drugs...
LITTLE ROCK -- American Civil Liberties Union lawyers ((will)) represent a Ku Klux Klan group seeking to participate in a state Adopt-A-Highway anti-litter program . . . Members of the Knights of t...
Who is the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate? The last time we asked this fateful question (June 19, 1989), the surprising answer was Claiborne Pell, the spaced-out aristocrat from Rhode Islan...
Your servant has had some moments of deep doubt in preparing this item. For openers, the controversy being covered is one in which he nervously finds himself on the same side of the barricades as t...
LOS ANGELES -- The American Civil Liberties Union, in a clash with local and national efforts to curb rampant gang activity, has challenged the constitutionality of an ordinance banning gang member...
Bruce Ennis, formerly national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union . . . ((had)) some difficult moments ((in arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that nude dancing was protected '...
We sulkily declined to answer Ira Glasser's letter to the editor a while back (January 28), and had definitely planned to cease ''baiting'' the American Civil Liberties Union -- this being executiv...
Herewith, our fifth not quite annual list of the year's ten most depressing happenings unless you are a lefty. Contributing to this highly subjective and impressionistic feature's being not quite a...
Your servant was recently browsing through Nexis, reading about the death penalty, not because this is his idea of a good time, honest, but because he was thinking of writing something about the in...
Try imagining this scenario: An organization behaving somewhat like the Mafia has gone after a major corporate employer in a large American city. It tells the employer it will put him out of busine...
We open with an inside story. Occasionally, your servant comes to a fortnight when it is time for Keeping Up to go to press, and there is no Only in America item in the cupboard. What can the poor ...
A fortnight ago, we were dwelling heavily on the curious unwillingness of the New York Times to label certain congressional Democrats ''left wing.'' Having raised this prickly subject, we feel it w...
Perplexities abound when you ponder the instantly famous ruling just issued by the New York Court of Appeals. For openers, how do you parse the lead sentence of the ACLU press release enthusiastica...
Challenge in the last issue: to figure out, with the help of 13 clues, which of ten Senators was the ''most liberal'' -- i.e., which had the highest total when you added the scores assigned each of...
LOS ANGELES -- Long Beach City College will upgrade its women's sports program and pay $85,000 to settle a discrimination suit. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the college four years ago, a...
And now for a bit of brain exercise. Several weeks ago, we were flipping the pages of The Sciences, a high-class magazine published by the New York Academy of Sciences, and came across the followin...
After years of debate and acrimony, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act is at last in place. Thus far the results seem unsurprising and yet oddly illuminating. It turns out that personnel folks, ...
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah State Prison proposal to ((build)) a modern, steambath-type sweat lodge for American Indians would violate the inmates' religious rights, American Civil Liberties Union att...
A fortnight ago, we were groaning in this space about the curious fact that modern liberals -- unlike liberals of earlier years -- are powerfully biased against defense. The occasion for the groan ...
Last month some sixth graders in Brandon, Vt. were seen ''drinking, or pretending to drink'' from beer bottles left the night before by ''young adults'' at the playground of the Neshobe Elementary ...
PARCHMENT, MICH. -- Requiring boys and girls to wear graduation gowns of different colors is unconstitutional, an American Civil Liberties Union official charged. The ACLU has written a letter to t...
In which Kindly Dr. Keeping Up groaningly assays the latest demarche of a certain editorial board that is known to be in the pay of the New York Times and yet is driven to solemnly comment on alleg...
A FEDERAL INVESTIGATOR, acting without a search warrant, gains access to incriminating evidence stored in a computer databank. A corporate spy picks up trade secrets as he monitors the satellite fe...
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge Monday authorized a . . . ''comparable worth'' suit on behalf of about 90,000 women -- present and former state workers who claim pay discrimination. But Judge Mari...
A question we have often thought deeply about in the zone between 4 A.M. and 5 A.M. is how the New York Times decides which errors to correct. The question is truly puzzling, and the suspicion has ...
Various improbable events have been much in the news lately, and Keeping Up's senior handicapper has been laboring overtime to figure out the odds and betting angles on such suddenly interesting lo...
The purpose of this memorandum is to . . . inform you of an important development . . . In 1983, in a situation involving termination of four employees for the same minor dishonest acts, an arbitra...
To be severely logical about it all, we should actually be grateful to Ira Glasser of the American Civil Liberties Union, he whose denunciatory letter to the editor is even now lurking on page 15. ...
Mr. Gorbachev trusts that better planning could help Soviet industry to grow by maybe 1 1/2% to 2% more a year. He is readier than his predecessors to orchestrate belly laughs about the inefficienc...
The American Civil Liberties Union has a lot going for it these days. Its national membership is around 250,000, an all-time high. It has several hundred local chapters, and its views and legal res...
We twitched noticeably the other day upon reading that Ernie Fitzgerald was in the news again. A. Ernest Fitzgerald is quite often in the news, and the story is always the same. The story, which gr...
LINCOLN, R.I.--In the lunchroom of the Saylesville Elementary School, the children are divided into two classes: the ''hot lunchers'' and the ''brown baggers.'' A family is protesting this separati...
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