Bevn Attacks KY AG for Saving Women's Lives

Say it with me again:  Abortion restrictions don't stop abortions.  They just kill women.

But Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You doesn't care about grown adult women dying from illegal abortions and forced childbirth.  All he cares about is feeding freakazoid bloodlust in hopes they will catapult him into the White House.

From the Bevin press release:

While Gov. Matt Bevin’s legal team is fighting an attempt by the ACLU and a Louisville abortion clinic to overturn the recently enacted House Bill 454, Kentucky’s attorney general is continuing his track record of failing to defend the Commonwealth’s unborn blastocysts.
 
Attorney General Andy Beshear has reached an agreement with the ACLU and the abortion clinic to be dismissed from the lawsuit against HB 454, which bans the brutal and grotesque practice of live dismemberment the legal, common and safe first-trimester type of abortions. In a similar action last year, Beshear asked to be removed as a defendant in the ACLU’s legal challenge of HB 2, a law requiring physicians to describe an ultrasound to patients prior to performing an abortion.

A)  No such thing as the "unborn."  Babies and children have already been born and are outside the womb breathing oxygen.  Things that are not outside the womb breathing oxygen are not human beings.

B) First-trimester abortions remove blastocysts - the biological equivalent of a tumor.  The only brutal and grotesque thing going on here is Bevin 's freakazoid determination to turn Kentucky into Gilead.

C) By requesting removal from the case, AG Beshear is refusing to defend Bevin's indefensible attacks on Kentucky's women.  Beshear is the one protecting Kentuckians.

ACLU Stops a New Law Aimed At Killing Kentucky Women

Give more money to the Kentucky ACLU.  Right now, it and teachers are the only ones standing between us and the New Feudalism, now with more Gilead!

From the Herald:

Kentucky's new law banning a common procedure for second-trimester abortions was temporarily put on hold when a federal judge signed an order setting the stage for another courtroom battle between the state and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Under the joint consent order signed late Thursday, state officials agreed to take no action to enforce the law pending a ruling on the ACLU's request for a preliminary injunction.

"This brings immediate relief to women across Kentucky who have had their appointments canceled and care delayed if not pushed entirely out of reach," Andrew Beck, senior staff attorney for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said Friday. "In the meantime, we'll continue to fight this law and look forward to seeing the state in court."

OK, everybody, all together now: A fetus is not a child, not a baby, not a human anything until it is breathing oxygen. What a woman does with her own body, especially including getting rid of growing tumors, is None. Of. Your. Fucking. Business.  Restricting abortion doesn't stop abortion; it just kills women.  Abortion On Demand Now!

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article208824739.html#storylink=cpy

Don't Let bibble "literacy" Get Away With Murder in Your School

You know damn well that this bullshit is just a cover for freakazoids to intimidate and proselytize students.

The ACLU knows it, too, and is ready to fight the motherfuckers, but they need your help.

Kentucky has more than 170 public school districts that are responsible for approximately 1,200 public schools. Many of those schools will soon be offering "Bible Literacy" courses to their students as a direct result of HB 128 that passed into law last session by the General Assembly. 

While courses on the Bible can be taught in public schools in a constitutionally permissible way, the ACLU of Kentucky has reason to believe that not all of the schools that offer this class will faithfully adhere to those constitutional limits.

Contact us if you, or someone you know, has specific information about your school district using these courses to "preach," instead of "teach." Also, please keep copies of any classroom assignments, worksheets, or other materials that you think highlight that fact. Simply email us at info@aclu-ky.org and include "Bible literacy" in the subject line, or fill out our legal intake form.

Best of luck to all of Kentucky's teachers and students as they kick off the school year. While school officials are not permitted to sponsor prayer or proselytize in school, students may freely express and exercise their faith. There are always a number of Know Your Rights resources on free exercise of religious liberty in public schools available on our national organization's website.

Fuck You Very Much, Matt Bevin

HA!  Motherfucker backed down. 

From the Herald:

Lawyers for Kentucky's governor have halted efforts to shut down the state's last abortion clinic pending the outcome of a lawsuit aimed at preventing the closure.

The latest development came as lawyers for Gov. Matt Bevin and the Louisville clinic submitted an agreement to U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers, who had not yet signed it. In it, Bevin's administration agreed to renew the license for EMW Women's Surgical Center until the lawsuit is resolved.

"We are open providing the service, and people won't have to leave their community to get the rights the Supreme Court has determined they have," Donald L. Cox, an EMW lawyer, said Friday.

The ACLU of Kentucky is defending We The People on this one.  Donate to them here.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article143308484.html#storylink=cpy

Last KY Abortion Clinic Fighting for Life

Yes, Life.  The lives of women suffering from malignant unwanted pregnancies.  Scratch that redundancy: all unwanted pregnancies are malignant.

Yes, Malignant, as in Tumor.  Until it takes a breath outside the womb, it's a tumor.  Dictionary definition: a collection of rapidly growing cells endangering the health and life of the host.  That's what a fetus, an embryo, a blastocyst, a sperm-penetrated egg is:  a tumor.

Yes, Clump of Cells.  Not a baby.  Not a child.  Not a "preborn" anything. Not a human being of any description.

Which is why anyone attempting to deny the bodily autonomy of a woman by restricting abortions is a sex-terrified, woman-hating, freakazoid piece of shit who should have been drowned at birth.  Which would be murder. Unlike abortion, which is simple removal of a malignant tumor.

Deborah Yetter at the Courier:

Gov. Matt Bevin's administration is seeking to shut down Kentucky's only abortion provider, prompting a federal lawsuit by the clinic to block the move it says would have “a devastating impact on women.”

Bevin’s administration has ordered the EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville to stop providing abortions starting Monday, claiming it lacks proper agreements for patient care in the event of a medical emergency.

EMW's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Louisville, calls the order "blatantly unconstitutional" and asks a federal judge to bar the Bevin administration from revoking the EMW clinic's license.

"They've made it clear they won't stop until no woman can get an abortion in Kentucky," said Donald L. Cox, a lawyer for EMW. "It's just an attempt to ban abortion in Kentucky."

A Bevin spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

SNIP

But EMW, joined in its lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, said the clinic already complies with the law and says that if the state succeeds in forcing it to close, “abortion will be effectively banned in the commonwealth.”

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to temporarily block state efforts to stop abortions at EMW. It says the clinic has patients scheduled and an abrupt shutdown would deprive them of their right to the procedure.

SNIP

The state's new finding that the agreements are deficient amounts to a "bureaucratic sleight of hand," said Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "This is an attempt to ban abortion in Kentucky, plain and simple. We are fighting to keep this from happening."

SNIP

The dispute comes amid EMW's legal challenge to a new state law requiring doctors providing abortions to first perform an ultrasound and attempt to show and describe the image of the fetus to the patient. EMW and the ACLU argue the law passed in January by the General Assembly is unconstitutional.

Lawsuits Work: ACLU Wins a Huge One Against Trump

Talking Points Memo:

Federal Judge Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York has issued a temporary stay on President Trump's immigration executive order. The ruling is in response to a petition by the ACLU on behalf of two individuals at JFK airport. The ruling does not overturn or even stop all aspects of the Executive Order. It applies to people who have already arrived in the United States and prevents them from being deported under the Executive Order. My understanding is that the stay has effect nationwide.

From the ACLU yesterday afternoon:

This morning the ACLU and several other legal organizations filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Iraqi men who were en route to the United States when President Trump issued an executive order banning many Muslims from entering the country.

The lead plaintiffs were detained by the U.S. government and threatened with deportation – even though they have valid visas to enter the United States.

One plaintiff, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, worked for the U.S. military. His life was in danger in his home country due to that relationship. A former Obama administration official and platoon commander during the invasion of Iraq said on Twitter yesterday that Mr. Darweesh "spent years keeping U.S. soldiers alive in combat in Iraq."

The family of the other plaintiff, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was also threatened because of perceived ties to the United States. His wife and 7-year-old son are lawful permanent residents living in Houston, Texas and were eagerly awaiting his arrival. Mr. Alshawi’s son has not seen his father for three years.

Tellingly, Trump’s executive order authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security to admit refugees on a "case-by-case" basis, for people of a minority religion in their home countries. In effect, Trump has barred Muslims from entering the United States, while favoring the entry of Christians.

Mr. Darweesh was just released from detention at John F. Kennedy International Airport this afternoon, but Mr. Alshawi and others remain in detention. The ACLU and its supporters will not stand for the Trump administration’s unconstitutional discrimination. Today, and every day, we will fight back.

For more information on our lawsuit, please see https://www.aclu.org/cases/darweesh-v-trump.

If you're not white, male, christian, straight AND conservative, the ACLU is the only thing standing between you and Guantanamo.  Give like you know it. 

And be at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville tomorrow, Monday, at 6 p.m. for the big Pro-Immigrant rally.

The Resistance: Rally for Reproductive Rights TOMORROW in Frankfort

Capitol Rotunda, 1 p.m. BE THERE.

From the ACLU:

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky and the ACLU of Kentucky will need you January 4th and 5th at the State Capital. Come and join us to show that the Commonwealth will not stand for attacks on its people. We need send a clear message that we will not back down and we will not go back!

Thursday, January 5 1:00PM

We ARE Kentucky: Days of Action for Repro Rights Rally Day  

The cafeteria in the annex basement will be our staging area:

10:30AM Lobby Training
10:45AM Direct Action Training
11AM-12:45AM On your own lobby legislators, grab lunch
1:00PM Rally in the Capitol Rotunda

Fill out this coalition registration form to receive additional information:  https://docs.google.com/a/nyu.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_F-lX9XfJMspd9KnDwFR3TsuF49tZFscShNoORlFKnpWTqg/viewform?c=0&w=1

Carpool information:

Louisville carpool will leave from Von Maur end of Oxmoor Mall at 11:15AM
For those in Lexington a bus will depart at 9:30am sharp from the Fayette Mall near Dillards at 3625 Nicholasville Rd. Please arrive by 9:15am to ensure that we leave on time.

The Resistance: Lawsuits

Donate to your favorite mouthpieces now:  ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, Southern Poverty Law Center and more

 

Wonkette:

Taking a page from the GOP playbook, Democrats are getting ready to stall, sue, and resist Republican and Trump policies now that the crooks and cranks from the fringes of politics are being pulled in and propped up.

Bevin Demands Forced Indoctrination for Foster Children

Violations of the Establishment Clause forbidding government from promoting religion rarely gets as blatant as this. Not that Governor Lying Coward gives a shit about the Constitution, genuine religion freedom or the well-being of foster children.

From the AP:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's administration has asked a judge to throw out a legal settlement made under former Gov. Steve Beshear that was meant to ensure church-run foster care programs don't sway children to their religious beliefs.

Executive branch lawyers said this week that the court should undo the settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Courier-Journal reported (http://cjky.it/2atVLI1 ). The state's position and all-around "philosophy" has changed now that Bevin is in office, the lawyers said in court filings.

Bevin is a Republican, while Beshear is a Democrat.

Alex Luchenitser, an attorney for Americans United, said the state must stick to the agreement.

"It's a binding agreement and there is no basis for the state to get out of the agreement," Luchenitser said.

The state agreed in 2014 to let Americans United and the ACLU access surveys and exit interviews with children under certain conditions to ensure foster programs aren't trying to proselytize to children. According to the settlement, the two organizations can access the information only if a state inspector general investigation has been initiated.

$2 Million Taxpayer Bucks and Counting to Defend Criminal Freakazoids

UPDATE, 2:40 p.m.: Of course she's defying the order.  She's a filthy, hate-filled freakazoid bitch, and that's what filthy, hate-filled freakazoid bitches do.

So the Sixth Circuit, having been slapped down on human rights by the Supreme Court, is passing the slapping on down to vicious, hateful freakazoid bigot Kim Davis.

Who will, of course, appeal to the Supreme Court, costing the Kentucky taxpayers yet more millions of dollars.

Because Davis is claiming she is a state official and therefore her legal fees should be paid by the state. That is, me and four million of my fellow victims of this crap xian piece of shit.

Meanwhile, a much better case is being made by the ACLU of Kentucky for the state's taxpayers to cover the legal costs of the ACLU having to fight Governor Beshear through the Supreme Court over his refusal to extend human rights to human beings.  That's $2 million that should have to come out of Beshear's plenty deep personal pockets.

The rumor is that Beshear "fell on his sword" by fighting the gay marriage case in order to protect Attorney General Jack Conway in his race for Governor.  Apparently, some idiot at the Kentucky Democratic Party thought this little ploy would let Conway attract the gay vote (and campaign bucks) and avoid the freakazoid attack.

In 10 weeks, Conway's gonna lose that race by 30 points.  What exactly will this stupid, expensive, counter-productive fight over extending human rights to human beings have accomplished?

"sophomoric threats in a transparent attempt to try to intimidate and bully"

Michael Aldridge, the executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky - who was at the County Clerk's Office in Louisville today when the first same-sex couple received their marriage license - penned the perfect response to the police declaration of war on the citizens they are sworn to protect.

Consider this an open letter to Louisville FOP Lodge 614 President Dave Mutchler, who chose to send an incendiary letter to Louisville Metro residents shortly after the staggering tragedy in Charleston, S.C., a time of national grief and mourning.

Know this: The ACLU of Kentucky, our coalition partners and allies, community activists, and citizens of this community will not stand on the sidelines while you resort to sophomoric threats in a transparent attempt to try to intimidate and bully those who you view as your political opponents.

If you didn’t know already, rest assured that through our litigation and public policy advocacy, the ACLU will continue to work for meaningful, long-lasting, and systemic reforms of the Louisville Metro Police Department, alongside, and by supporting, communities directly harmed by racial profiling and excessive force.

The ACLU will continue to work to help build community-police partnerships with the shared goals of equality, fairness, dignity, and public safety to prevent future tragedies from happening again.

The ACLU is committed to encouraging de-escalation practices in all instances of community/police interaction.

Armed with the Constitution, the ACLU will protect the First Amendment rights of Louisville activists to question government policy and speak their minds without fear of prosecution.

If people hadn’t spoken up and questioned authority, we would still be living under monarchs, without the freedoms and civil liberties that we prize.

It is obvious to nearly everyone who read your letter that you sought to attack the very citizens you are sworn to serve and protect instead of taking steps to address the real issues — the long-standing and troubling problems of racial profiling, over-criminalization of communities of color, and incidents of excessive force that drive a wedge between community members and police officers here and across the country. And if, as you claim, your letter has received “overwhelming” support from your fellow officers, then the divide between law enforcement and this community is very troubling indeed.

You want our attention? Well you have it. As a starting point, we challenge you to review the Law Enforcement Code of Conduct (page 5 of the Standard Operating Procedures handbook for the Louisville Metro Police Department). You may find the following excerpts particularly helpful:

As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental duty is to serve the community; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the constitutional rights of all to liberty, equality and justice.

I will maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn or ridicule; develop self-restraint; and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others.

Mr. Mutchler, we need an end to the prevailing Us vs. Them policing paradigm. We hope you will join us in the goal of developing successful police/community partnerships.

No, Your Freakazoid Lies Are Not Education

Now we need the same ruling on teaching creationism as science, supply-side jeebus as economics and "original intent" as history.

Think Progress:

In a decision that’s being hailed as “historic,” a judge in California has ruled that health classes focusing exclusively on telling students to remain abstinent until marriage fall short of the state’s comprehensive sex ed requirements.

In his opinion, Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald Black concludes that, given the high rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy in the U.S., medically accurate sexual health information is “an important public right.”

Black’s decision narrowly applies to about 40,000 students who attend the Clovis Unified School District. However, since his opinion represents the first-ever ruling on California’s decade-old sex education standards, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — whose legal counsel represented the plaintiffs in the suit — believes it sets an important precedent for the rest of the state.

“This is the first time that abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula have been found to be medically inaccurate,” Phyllida Burlingame, the director of reproductive justice policy at the ACLU, told the San Francisco Chronicle. She added that the ruling should send a strong message to other schools that “young people need complete, accurate health information required by law.”

SNIP

Plaintiffs alleged that the district was showing students abstinence-focused videos that contained “egregiously inaccurate and biased information,” like comparing a woman who has engaged in sex to a dirty shoe, and suggesting that men are physically unable to stop themselves once they become sexually aroused. One video, entitled Never Regret The Choice, suggested that homosexuality doesn’t exist by encouraging students to adopt the mantra, “One man, one woman, one life.”

The suit was dropped in 2014 after Clovis Unified School District changed its sex ed policies to bring them more in line with California law. Black, however, ruled that the district is still responsible for paying the parents’ legal fees, since their lawsuit prompted the policy changes.

California is hardly the only state where students receive biased health information that focuses solely on abstinence. There aren’t any national requirements for comprehensive sex ed instruction in public schools, which allows 19 states to continue to require health materials to emphasize the importance of engaging in sexual activity only within marriage. In addition to failing to include information about birth control and condoms, abstinence-only programs typically tell kids that having sex will make them dirty — comparing people who have had sex to chewed up gum, used tape, dirty chocolate, and glasses of spit.

Even though a significant body of scientific research has confirmed that abstinence-only curricula are ineffective at convincing students to delay sex, and don’t prepare them to safeguard their sexual health, these programs continue to be propped up with state and federal funding. Just last month, Congress quietly appropriated $25 million in additional funding for the very same type of abstinence education programs that Black ruled violate the public right to medically accurate sex ed.

Ban White Cops and Prosecutors

Until this shit stops.

Andrew Wolfson at the Courier:

Blacks in Kentucky are six times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession — a greater disparity than in all but four states, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released this week.

The study, the first to examine arrest rates by race for all 50 states, found that nationally, blacks are nearly four times as likely to be arrested for possessing pot, even though blacks and white use the drug at roughly the same rate.

The report — “The War on Marijuana in Black and White” — was released by the American Civil Liberties Union and based on FBI uniform crime reports and census data.

The disparity was especially egregious in some Kentucky counties, the study showed. It found that blacks were 32 times more likely to be arrested for possessing marijuana than whites in Nelson County, 12 times more likely in Campbell County, 10 times more likely in Kenton County and 3.5 times more likely in Jefferson County.

State Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said the study shows that police are targeting blacks.

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:

Keith Humphreys points out that this is partly because marijuana laws have been loosened primarily in whiter areas of the country. At a guess, some of this might also be due to the use of possession charges as a plea bargain from more serious charges. Nonetheless, this accounts for only a fraction of the difference. The rest is most likely racially motivated, as the chart on the right makes clear. Black arrest rates are higher than white arrest rates—usually a lot higher—in every single one of the 25 biggest counties in the country.

More here from the ACLU study. The full report is here.

Roe's 40th in Louisville: Celebrate, Then Get to Work

Wonder where the pointy end of the civil liberties spear is these days?  It's right here.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky plans a celebration on Jan. 22 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade landmark Supreme Court ruling.

The public event will be from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Falls City Beer Tasting Room, 545 Barret Ave. Falls City has agreed to donate the space for the event, said ACLU spokeswoman Amber Duke.

The Roe v. Wade ruling found that the right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution protects a woman’s ability to decide whether to continue a pregnancy to term or to have an abortion.

Duke said the event is intended primarily as a social gathering.


There will be a short program featuring Derek Selznick, the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project director. He will discuss the significance of Roe v. Wade as well as current efforts to have the ruling overturned. He also is expected to discuss what is happening in the 2013 Kentucky General Assembly related to reproductive health issues, Duke said.


The community celebration sponsors, in addition to the ACLU, include Planned Parenthood of Kentucky, the A-Fund, Clinic Escorts, Kentucky Health Justice Network and the Kentucky Religious Coalition of Reproductive Choice.

Fourth Amendment Water Too Hot For You Yet?

Speaking of losing our constitutional rights ....

 

Ars Technica:

Statistics obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union provides additional evidence that government surveillance of Americans has skyrocketed in recent years. The government is legally obligated to release reports about its surveillance activities, but it refused to do so until the ACLU sued to compel the production of the documents.

The reports concern what lawyers call "pen register" and "trap and trace" records. These terms originally referred to hardware devices law enforcement could attach to the phone network to capture information about (but not the contents of) phone calls. Pen registers recorded outgoing phone numbers. Trap and trace devices recorded incoming phone numbers.

Today's telephone networks have the ability to capture this information without any special equipment. And the government has expanded the concept to include other forms of communication such as email.

The legal standard for conducting this kind of non-content surveillance is less stringent than the rules for conducting a wiretap. To get a wiretap order, the government must convince a judge that it is essential to an investigation, but pen registers must merely be "relevant" to an investigation to obtain the approval of a judge.

The statistics uncovered by the ACLU show a striking increase in the frequency of government surveillance. Here is the number of orders issued by the government over the last 12 years:

SNIP

Why is the government spying on us so much more than it did just a decade ago? The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 were surely one motivating factor. But it can hardly explain the sharp increase in the last two years. Another important factor is likely just supply and demand. As information technology in general has gotten cheaper and more powerful, the technology to capture and store large amounts of intercepted data has also gotten cheaper. So economic constraints that limited the amount of data the government could collect in the past has become less and less of a constraint.

That old story about slowly boiling a frog isn't true: as soon as the water gets too hot, the frog will jump out of the pot.

If only we were that smart.

No Help, No Hope Centers

Why doesn't this violate some - any - federal law? Like false advertising. Or fraud. Or endangerment. Yeah, I know - not unless they cross state lines while doing it. And of course North Carolina repugs would never apply state law to these motherfuckers.

From David at Crooks and Liars:

A North Carolina abortion rights group revealed Monday that most "crisis pregnancy centers" (CPC) in the state were misleading women about their health care options.
A NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina Foundation (NPCNCF) report (PDF) found that more than two-thirds of CPCs provided medically inaccurate information.

The centers have been in operation for years, but have recently gotten more attention after the Republican-controlled state Legislature decided to provide them public funding with proceeds from a new "Choose Life" license plate. At present, there are eight times more CPCs in North Carolina than abortion clinics.

In all, 92 percent of the 122 identified centers had no medical professionals on staff, and the state provides no mechanism for regulating them. Only 22 percent disclosed that they were not medically licensed.

Because the centers are not medically licensed, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not protect patient confidentiality.

In one of the more disturbing anecdotes from the report, an investigator posing as a pregnant Jewish woman was told by five centers that she would not go to heaven unless she converted to Christianity. At one meeting, volunteers prayed for an investigator and recommended she become a "born-again virgin."

"Our investigation of CPCs in North Carolina makes clear that our state's leaders cannot ignore how these centers intentionally mislead and misinform women, including those facing unintended pregnancies," NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina executive director Carey Pope said in a statement.

"We have no objection to a center that offers women who have decided to carry a pregnancy to term any help they like," she later told The Charlotte Observer. "But lines are crossed when the center is not up-front about its limited services or uses misinformation or intimidation or coercion."

Planned Parenthood affiliates and physicians who provide abortions had already sued to block new abortion restrictions that will go into effect Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is also suing to force the state to create license plates for supporters of abortion rights.

It's donation season: you can support the ACLU here and Planned Parenthood here.

ACLU Out to Corral Out-of-Control ICE

The last decade has left the Fourth Amendment battered and gasping for life, but not yet dead. So "Warrants? We don't need no steenkin' warrants" is still a lie.

Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars:

Wingnuts are so fixated on the Second Amendment, they completely miss the Fourth. With the increasing militarization of police departments and federal agencies, such legal formalities as warrants go right out the window:

On the night of October 20, 2010, Angel Enrique and Jesus Antonio were in bed in their small, two-bedroom apartment in the Clairmont complex in Nashville. The doors and windows were all shut and locked.

Suddenly there was a loud banging at the door and voices shouting "Police!" and "Policia!" When no one answered, the agents tried to force the door open. Scared, Jesus hid in a closet. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began hitting objects against the bedroom windows, trying to break in. Without a search warrant and without consent, the ICE agents eventually knocked in the front door and shattered a window, shouting racial slurs and storming into the bedrooms, holding guns to their heads. When asked if they had a warrant, one agent reportedly said, "We don't need a warrant, we're ICE," and, gesturing to his genitals, "the warrant is coming out of my balls."

The Fourth Amendment strictly prohibits warrantless intrusions into private homes and the Constitution's protections apply to both citizens and non-citizens alike. In the absence of a judicially authorized warrant, there must be voluntary and knowing consent; ICE officers forcing themselves into someone's home does not constitute consent.

The ACLU and ACLU of Tennessee this week filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of fifteen residents of the apartment complex who were subjected to this large-scale, warrantless raid by ICE agents and Metro Nashville police officers.

If you could have only one constitutional amendment to protect America from becoming Saudi Arabia or Syria, it would have to be the Fourth. More even than the First, the Fourth Amendment's protections against unwarranted searches is the last bulwark against the Security State.

Scaring Ourselves Into Tyranny

Ten years ago, in a piece on the anti-American abomination known as the USA PATRIOT Act, Molly Ivins recalled the boy who overreacted to the presence of a harmless chicken snake in the henhouse, quoting him:

"Sometimes you scare yourself so bad you hurt yourself."

Kevin Drum:

Glenn Greenwald calls our attention to the ACLU's ten-year commemoration of 9/11. It's a little different from most of the others hitting the news stands this week. No pictures of the twin towers falling, no touching paeans about how we all came together as a nation for a brief shining moment, no photo spreads of exhausted firefighters or grieving relatives. In fact, no pictures at all. It's just plain, sober text about what's happened to our civil liberties over the past decade. Here are a few excerpts:

Torture: Just as the public debate over the legality, morality, and efficacy of torture was warped by fabrication and evasion, so, too, were the legal and political debates about the consequences of the Bush administration’s lawbreaking. Apart from the token prosecutions of Abu Ghraib’s “bad apples,” virtually every individual with any involvement in the torture program was able to deflect responsibility elsewhere.

The military and intelligence officials who carried out the torture were simply following orders; the high government officials who authorized the torture were relying on the advice of lawyers; the lawyers were “only lawyers,” not policymakers. This had been the aim of the conspiracy: to create an impenetrable circle of impunity, with everyone culpable but no one accountable.

Indefinite detainment: President Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo was undermined by his own May 2009 announcement of a policy enshrining at Guantanamo the principle of indefinite military detention without charge or trial....The real danger of the Guantanamo indefinite detention principle is that its underlying rationale has no definable limits.

Targeted assassinations: No national security policy raises a graver threat to human rights and the international rule of law than targeted killing....Under the targeted killing program begun by the Bush administration and vastly expanded by the Obama administration, the government now compiles secret “kill lists” of its targets, and at least some of those targets remain on those lists for months at a time.

Surveillance: The Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, has used excessive secrecy to hide possibly unconstitutional surveillance....Hobbled by executive claims of secrecy, Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall have nevertheless warned their colleagues that the government is operating under a “reinterpretation” of the Patriot Act that is so broad that the public will be stunned and angered by its scope, and that the executive branch is engaging in dragnet surveillance in which “innocent Americans are getting swept up.”

Profiling: No area of American Muslim civil society was left untouched by discriminatory and illegitimate government action during the Bush years....To an alarming extent, the Obama administration has continued to embrace profiling as official government policy....There are increasing reports that the FBI is using Attorney General Ashcroft’s loosened profiling standards, together with broader authority to use paid informants, to conduct surveillance of American Muslims in case they might engage in wrongdoing.

Data mining: Nothing exemplifies the risks our national surveillance society poses to our privacy rights better than government “data mining.”....The range and number of these programs is breathtaking and their names Orwellian. Programs such as eGuardian, “Eagle Eyes,” “Patriot Reports,” and “See Something, Say Something” are now run by agencies including the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security....Without effective oversight, security agencies are now also engaged in a “land grab,” rushing into the legal vacuum to expand their monitoring powers far beyond anything seen in our history. Each of the over 300 million cell phones in the United States, for example, reveals its lcation to the mobile network carrier with ever-increasing accuracy, whenever it is turned on, and the Justice Department is aggressively using cell phones to monitor people’s location, claiming that it does not need a warrant.

But hey, it's just the ACLU. So serious! And such party poopers too. Anyway, aren't they the guys who hate America? I'm pretty sure they are. There's really no need to pay attention to all their tedious whining. Please carry on.

UPDATE: A few moments after I wrote this, I turned on the TV and found myself watching Time managing editor Richard Stengel intone the banal conventional wisdom that the lesson of 9/11 ten years later is that "we've recovered, we've moved on."

God no. Just no. I don't care how many people say this, or how many times they repeat it. It isn't true. Just yesterday we declared ourselves thrilled by the news that maybe someday in the future we'll be able to board a plane without first taking off our shoes. Thrilled! Listen to the ACLU. We haven't even come close to moving on.

Molly saw it all coming just a month after the attacks, and spent the next six years writing about it, deploring it, insisting we not surrender to terroristic fear by giving up the core of our democracy.

Until we dismantle the Bush/Cheney/Obama Anti-Liberty State, the terrorists have indeed won.

ACLU of KY Stands Up For Abortion Rights

I will be damned. Just when I start to wonder what use the ACLU of Kentucky is in a state where taxpayer-supported religious propaganda and intellectual child abuse go unchallenged by the supposed defenders of the Bill of Rights, the ACLU takes one of the most dangerously unpopular positions imaginable.

From an emailed Action Alert:

The Kentucky State Legislature has introduced several anti-choice measures that we must oppose for the sake of women’s health, privacy and autonomy over their own bodies. Next week on Thursday, February 17th, the House Health and Welfare Committee will hear three anti-choice bills. These measures are another attempt by the government to interfere with a woman’s ability to access an abortion.

Urge your representatives to oppose House Bills 215 and 243, and Senate Bill 9.

Send a clear message to the Kentucky Legislature that Kentuckians do not support any more abortion restrictions. Senate Bill 9 would force a woman to come to one of Kentucky’s two abortion clinics at least 24 hours prior to her procedure and force her to hear a description of the fetus regardless of her wishes. House Bill 215 would ban abortions after 20 weeks and House Bill 243 would not allow teens from outside of Kentucky to access a judicial bypass to receive abortion care.

These measures are some of the most aggressive attempts to erase access to abortion in the country.

Take action and make your voice heard!

ACLU of Kentucky
www.aclu-ky.org

That doesn't mean the ACLU will follow through with actual legal action to make the mouthbreathers, freakazoids, teabaggers and conservadems in the General Assembly pay for their unconstitutional and inhumane legislation, but it's a sign of life.

This is also inspiring:

Youth Rally Day

Please join us in Frankfort at noon in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday, February 15th for our Youth Rally Day! We will hear from student activists and legislators about the importance of comprehensive sexuality education. Email Derek Selznick for more information.

ACLU Backing Somali Muslim Mosque in Mayfield

I'm always quick to criticize the ACLU of Kentucky for dodging tough cases, so full props to them this morning:

The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Kentucky will represent a Mayfield man whose request to open a downtown mosque was denied last month.

The Mayfield Board of Zoning Adjustment's denial of Khadar Ahmed's request reversed a previous decision approving the mosque.

Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said the reversal was troubling.

The ACLU has not said it will sue the city, but Mach said the group is exploring its options to secure Ahmed's religious freedom.

Find out more and support the ACLU of Kentucky here.