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Human Rights Watch Should Not Be Criticized for Doing Its Job

Aryeh Neier | Posted 11.02.2009 | World


Aryeh Neier

Human Rights Watch has an immense amount of experience in all parts of the world in fact-gathering and getting the story right. That is why its reporting matters.

Naked Pumpkin Run At Risk: Boulder Colorado Police Threaten Crackdown

Wall Street Journal | STEPHANIE SIMON | Posted 10.31.2009 | Denver


For nearly a decade, naked pumpkin runners did their thing unmolested, stampeding through the frigid dark past crowds of admirers who hooted, hollered...

Thirsting for Justice

Deborah Jacobs | Posted 10.31.2009 | Politics


Deborah Jacobs

Since August, Newark turned off nearly 600 water accounts in an attempt to collect $29 million in unpaid bills. Newark's desire to collect this debt is entirely understandable, but unpaid bills do not trump human rights or public health.

Detainee Torture Claims Can Be Suppressed, Federal Court Rues

AP | Posted 10.16.2009 | Politics


WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Friday in a case on detainees at Guantanamo Bay that the government can maintain the secrecy of portions of s...

Congress To Keep Detainee Abuse Photos Hidden

AP | MARK SHERMAN | Posted 10.10.2009 | Politics


WASHINGTON — Congress is set to allow the Pentagon to keep new pictures of foreign detainees abused by their U.S. captors from the public, a mov...

Justice Scalia's Cross

Geoffrey R. Stone | Posted 10.09.2009 | Politics


Geoffrey R. Stone

Justice Scalia takes umbrage at the suggestion that an eight-foot-high Christian cross, erected as a memorial to soldiers killed in military service, violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.

Congress Assists In Torture Photo Cover-Up, Lieberman At Center Of Controversy

The American Prospect | Adam Serwer | Posted 10.08.2009 | Politics


Since 2003, the ACLU has been seeking torture documents through a FOIA lawsuit. In 2005, the Southern District Court of New York ordered the governmen...

A Decision Whose Time Has Come: Constitution Protects Women in Prison From Unsafe Shackling During Labor And Delivery

Reproductive Justice | Posted 10.07.2009 | Politics


Reproductive Justice

Last week, in a historic ruling, a federal Court of Appeals held that the U.S. Constitution protects pregnant women in prison from the inhumane practice of shackling during labor.

Congress Is Losing Its Chance to Reform the Patriot Act

Michael Macleod-Ball | Posted 10.07.2009 | Politics


Michael Macleod-Ball

Tomorrow the debate continues over the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act, which includes minor tweaks to the Patriot Act but does not go nearly far enough to protect the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans.

Republican Leaders Join In Honoring New Rotunda Statue Of Radical Socialist Woman

Chris Weigant | Posted 10.07.2009 | Politics


Chris Weigant

A woman whose name we all know was a proud Red, a committed Socialist, and an unapologetic Wobbly. And now she's not only buried in the National Cathedral, she's got her own statue in the Capitol.

Churches Have No License to Harm Our State

Leah Anthony Libresco | Posted 10.07.2009 | Politics


Leah Anthony Libresco

If we distort the framework of nondiscrimination for religious organizations it privileges prejudice. We would, in the name of separating church and state, give the church license to harm our state.

Thanks to Operation Gatekeeper, Death Toll Increases to Over 5,000

Mary Ann West | Posted 10.05.2009 | Politics


Mary Ann West

Fifteen years of failed immigration policy has not lessened the number of undocumented aliens entering the country and has cost millions in dollars.

Death Toll Increases to Over 5,000 and Counting

Mary Ann West | Posted 10.02.2009 | World


Mary Ann West

The deaths of unauthorized migrants have been a predictable and inhumane outcome of border security policies on the U.S.-Mexico border over the last fifteen years.

Law & Order Tackles Accountability for Torture. Will We Have It in Real Life?

Anthony D. Romero | Posted 09.25.2009 | Politics


Anthony D. Romero

Jack McCoy isn't afraid to hold members of the Bush administration accountable for torture. Now the question is, in real life, will Attorney General Holder rise to the occasion?

The Torture Report

Jameel Jaffer | Posted 09.24.2009 | Politics


Jameel Jaffer

Five years after Abu Ghraib, the Defense Department is still withholding photographs showing prisoners being abused at other facilities, as well as interrogation directives used by special forces.

Court Says Employer Must Pay For 340-Pound Employee's Weight-Loss Surgery

AP | CHARLES WILSON | Posted 09.10.2009 | Business


INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana court has ruled that a pizza shop must pay for a 340-pound employee's weight-loss surgery to ensure the success of ano...

White Rivers, Brown Skin, and Black Deeds: Into the Rabbit Hole of Border Detentions and Racial Profiling

Hamdan Azhar | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics


Hamdan Azhar

The evil of profiling is that it dehumanizes its victims, stripping them of their individuality. The border officials didn't see me as a writer or as a wide-eyed student in the grip of wanderlust.

Remembering a Fighter for Freedom

Michelle Pilecki | Posted 10.17.2009 | Politics


Michelle Pilecki

Larry Frankel spent his professional life as a legislative lobbyist for the ACLU. That means that Larry worked behind the scenes with both "left" and "right" legislators to protect the civil rights.

Four Years Later, Let's End the Human Rights Crisis in KatrinaRitaVille

Jeffrey Buchanan | Posted 09.28.2009 | Politics


Jeffrey Buchanan

The federal government still has a long fight ahead to make good on promises to rebuild a stronger, safer and more equitable Gulf Coast.

New CIA Docs Detail Brutal "Extraordinary Rendition" Process

Posted 09.28.2009 | Politics


By Scott Horton Special to the Huffington Post Deep among the documents released to the ACLU on Monday afternoon was a curious memo dated 30 Decembe...

Why the Florida Gay Adoption Ban Is Immoral

Carlos A. Ball | Posted 09.26.2009 | Politics


Carlos A. Ball

The ACLU is back in court in Florida challenging the constitutionality of that state's thirty-year old law which prohibits lesbians and gay men from adopting.

Torture Report From 2004 Released by CIA (Help Read Through It)

Posted 09.24.2009 | Politics


Under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA has been forced by the ACLU to release its report on Bush-era interrogation operations written by former...

Do Homeless People Have Rights?

Christine Schanes | Posted 09.21.2009 | Politics


Christine Schanes

If every city with an insufficient number of shelter beds were to pass an ordinance against sleeping in all public places, there would be no place for a homeless person to sleep.

The Olson/Boies Same-Sex Marriage Lawsuit: Too Much, Too Soon?

Carlos A. Ball | Posted 09.20.2009 | Politics


Carlos A. Ball

The question no longer is whether the lawsuit should be brought, but whether it will succeed.

Bagram Isn't The New Guantanamo, It's The Old Guantanamo

Andy Worthington | Posted 09.15.2009 | Politics


Andy Worthington

From what I have been able to gather about the workings of Bagram, I have no reason to conclude that the prison is now being run according to the Geneva Conventions.