ACLU In The News

[Soldier4Christ]

 ACLU suing Vista over day laborer ordinance

The San Diego ACLU is suing the city of Vista over new rules that target day laborers. The ordinance requires employers to get permits before hiring the workers. KPBS Radio's Andrew Phelps has more.

At issue is a gaggle of Latino laborers who congregate every morning in a shopping center parking lot. Contractors then scoop them up for short-term jobs.

Vista Mayor Morris Vance joined a unanimous city council to regulate what he calls a slapdash morning routine.

As soon as someone drives in there they automatically run to them and harass them and we think that it ought to be more organized. And it's also for the protection of the day laborer as well.

The ordinance requires employers to get briefed on labor and immigration law before getting a free hiring permit. Workers must also sign employment contracts.

But the ACLU's legal director, David Blair-Loy, questions the city's motives.

The city is trying to do through the back door what it can't do through the front, which is to discourage day-laborer hiring and employment, if not drive it out of the city entirely.

The suit claims the rules violate employers' constitutional rights by giving the city excessive influence in hiring. And it contends the law discriminates against Latinos. Vance disagrees.

We're not discriminating against anyone. We're attacking a problem. And if it involves ---- the majority of those that are involved are Latino then ---- that's the problem we're trying to eradicate.

Both sides say most of the workers in question can work here legally.

This week the ACLU filed a request for a temporary restraining order to block the ordinance before it takes effect later this month. A judge should rule next week.

[Soldier4Christ]

Homeland Security agent monitored student protests in Bay Area


SAN FRANCISCO - A federal Homeland Security agent reported information about student protests in Berkeley and Santa Cruz on a Pentagon terrorism database, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU sued for the release of the documents in March on behalf of UC Santa Cruz Students Against the War and Berkeley Stop the War Coalition at the University of California after the Department of Defense failed to respond to its Freedom of Information Act request.

Information on the protests showed up in the database of a Pentagon program called Threat and Local Observation Notice, or TALON, which the government started in 2003 as a way to collect data that could help stop terrorist attacks. Officials have acknowledged that the reports on protests, which took place in April 2005 against military recruiters on campus, should not have been included and have since removed them.

In the Santa Cruz and Berkeley reports released Tuesday by the ACLU, the source of information was listed as an agent for Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service. The reports were filed by the 902nd Military Intelligence Group, the Army's largest counterespionage unit.

"This raises questions about whether the Department of Homeland Security tasked somebody to gather information about anti-war activities," said Mark Schlosberg, police practices policy director for the ACLU's Northern California office.

Dennis O'Connor, a spokesman for the Federal Protective Service, said his agency protects 9,000 federal sites. Agents disseminate information about protests, but do not investigate them.

"If we're not aware of what's going on around us, we can't do our job effectively," he said. "Even if a protest is going to be peaceful, we have to be aware of it."

Schlosberg said the ACLU is seeking further information. In the documents released Tuesday, the government blacked out the source of the e-mails to the Homeland Security agent.

To date, more than 150 pages dating back to 1982 have been released. They consist mostly of documents and memos outlining the rules and procedures for gathering intelligence on activities the Pentagon might consider threatening to the U.S. military or its personnel.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU suit offends sheriff

Union: Vallario's staff is torturing inmates

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario on Thursday denied all allegations the American Civil Liberties Union leveled against him and county jail Commander Scott Dawson in a class action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Denver on Wednesday.

Vallario said he was offended by the ACLU suit's claim that Garfield County Jail staff uses "mental torture" against inmates by taunting them about the use of an electric shock belt, which reportedly delivers an eight-second, 50,000-volt shock to an inmate with the press of a button.

In a press release, the ACLU claims that Amnesty International has condemned the use of electric shock belts as torture.

"It's pathetic that these guys can make those type of allegations and use those sort of words in a legal court document and be able to get away with it," Vallario said of the ACLU.



Because of the claim that Vallario's staff is torturing inmates, Vallario said he hopes a federal judge will immediately throw out the case.

The lawsuit, which seeks a court order stopping jailers' allegedly abusive practices, claims that the jail lacks adequate written policies governing restraint devices, pepper spray, pepper guns and electric shock belts.

"The allegations are totally baseless, unjustified (and) frivolous," he said. "We do not abuse people. We do not torture people. We do have policies."

The Sheriff's Office policy governing the use of force - adopted Jan. 1, 2004 - demands that deputies follow state law in using force against a person, and authorizes use of "intermediate weapons," such as chemical irritants, electronic restraining devices and "other non-lethal weapons as defined by the Sheriff's office and consistent with individual/team training."

All uses of force must be documented, and deputies' use of excessive force must be reported.

Though Vallario had not yet seen the case on Thursday, he said if the case proceeds, it could drag on for a long time and could potentially cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of four inmates, including Samuel Lincoln, who pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of attempted murder (see related story). Lincoln stands trial in three separate criminal cases within the next year, two of which are in Grand Junction.

If Lincoln must be transported to Denver to testify in the ACLU suit, Vallario said the cost could be very high because Lincoln will need to be transported with extra security.

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I hope that he sues them.

[Soldier4Christ]

The ACLU finally decides to support a "christian" organization. Take note that it is one that is anti-American and filled with hate speech.

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ACLU and Westboro Hate Cult Challenge Missouri Protest Ban


Once again we come to the debate over whether we should limit speech that infringes upon the rights of others. I have expressed how I feel about this determined hate cult before, so suffice it to say I think they are ignorant and filled with hate. They are deranged cultists. They think that dead soldiers in a war against terror is punishment from God for America tolerating gays. Their ignorance infringes upon the rights of these fallen heroes’ family and friends to peacefully assemble and mourn their loved ones. As much as I hate what they say, I do think they have the right to say it. However, since it infringes upon the rights of others I have no problem putting limits on when and where they may do so.

Here’s the latest story on two unhinged groups teaming together.

    A Kansas church group that routinely protests at military funerals across the country filed a suit in federal court Friday, claiming the Missouri law banning such pickets infringed on the members’ religious freedoms and right to free speech.

    Missouri’s law bans picketing and protests “in front of or about” any church, cemetery or funeral establishment from an hour before a funeral begins until an hour after it ends. A number of other state laws and a federal law, signed in May by President Bush, bar such protests within a certain distance from a cemetery or funeral.

    The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City. It will test lawmakers’ ability to target the Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, constitutional scholars say.

    “I told the nation as each state went after these laws that if the day came that they got in our way, that we would sue them,” said Phelps’ daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, the lead plaintiff and a spokeswoman for the Topeka-based church. “At this hour, the wrath of God is pouring out on this country.”

    The church claims God is allowing soldiers, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates homosexuals. Westboro Baptist has outraged mourning communities across the U.S. by showing up at soldiers’ funerals with signs that read “God Hates Fags.”

    In the lawsuit, the ACLU claims the wording of Missouri’s ban, which restricts protests “about” any funeral establishment, seeks to limit the group’s free speech based on the content of its message.

These people are absolutely insane!

Captain’s Quarters:

    Defenders of the ACLU will proclaim this as proof of their dedication to free speech, but that’s nonsense. The ACLU does not take every case that has free-speech implications, let alone Constitutional issues. Fred Phelps could get a lawyer on his own; the ACLU and its donors have no obligation to assist him in mocking the loss of family members at funerals. The ACLU has put itself on par with these soulless freaks, and their donors should take note that their money now supports the Phelps traveling hate show.

[Soldier4Christ]

Florida's ACLU Wins Book Banning Battle

The  BBC noted today, July 24, that "US judge overturns Cuba book ban". The Miami-Dade Student Government Association and the ACLU said removing the book has violated students' constitutional right of access to information under the First Amendment.

"By totally banning the Cuba books and the rest of the series, the school board is in fact prohibiting even the voluntary consideration of the themes contained in the books by students at their leisure," said Judge Gold.

America and Florida are again seeing the results of those who would deny access to knowledge to those who voluntarily seek to read freely. In this case it is political rather than religious and the complainant, Juan Amador Rodriguez, may have good reason to feel strongly about the Castro government. He does not want his primary school daughter to read anything positive about the country where he was a political prisoner. The desire to protect her is valid enough for a parent.

However, he also fled this totalitarian regime to enter into the freedoms that the American Constitution guarantees. That means his daughter does not have to read the book, Vamos A Cuba. It does not mean that his complaint nor the support of a strong member of the Miami-Dade County School System, Frank Bolaños , can keep other children from this book nor from the entire series of childrens' books that had been banned.

The entire, lengthy legal opinion of the United States Southern District Court, Southern District of Florida in the case of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida v. Miami Dade County School Board is available as a PDF document for download.

The Miami Herald, which has been reporting on this issue, published an  article by Ani Martinez on 14 July titled "VAMOS A CUBA Book's foe sensitive to tyranny" where she describes the Cuban exile's third grader's interest in her father's homeland.

Ten-year-old Yilen Amador Rodriguez couldn't wait for bedtime so she could show her dad a book about Cuba that she had brought home from school.

The third-grader had often heard her father talk about his homeland at the dinner table. But she was surprised when he began to thumb through Vamos a Cuba, which Yilen had checked out last spring from the library at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary School in West Miami-Dade County.

His smile quickly faded when the former political prisoner saw pictures of children dressed in communist school uniforms.

''When you are five years old in Cuba, you denounce your family and belong to the state,'' explained the father, Juan Amador Rodriguez, who formally complained about the book in April and got it banned by the Miami-Dade School Board on June 14.

He has his right to request a time-out from freedom. Amazingly (except that it is Florida) the school board went along with him and banned this book and a whole series of books about children living in other societies.

Rodriquez was jailed in Cuba for over four years when he was 18 for denouncing the Castro government. When he was released he went to work building a raft. In 1995 he, his wife, and his brothers embarked on the raft and made it to Miami where the little girl, Yilen, was born. He now owns a number of lunch trucks that sell to construction workers in the Doral area of Miami.

The blog, "Miami Gradebook: Inside South Florida Education" by the education writer for the Miami Herald who is writing about the case, Matthew I. Pinzur, says
it's a pretty decisive win for the ACLU. The question now is whether Frank Bolaños can convince the majority of the board to appeal the injunction and push forward on the case, or whether the majority of the board reads Judge Gold's decision and decides to cut bait.

Mr. Rodriquez undoubtedly has reason for a strong distaste for anything that seems to support the totalitarian regime from which he fled. However, the banning and burning of books, whether for children or anyone else who can or can hope to learn to read, is anathema to the freedoms of the country to which he fled. Florida has a terrible history of repressiveness and racism, bigotry and religious intolerance. This decision seems to buck that tradition as it protects the society as a whole from the desires of a few to limit access to information.

[Soldier4Christ]

The American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday it has appealed the dismissal of a federal lawsuit filed by a German of Lebanese origin who says he was abducted and tortured by the CIA.

The ACLU, which represents Khaled el-Masri in the suit against former CIA Director George Tenet and CIA agents, asked the federal appellate court in Richmond, Virginia, to overturn a May 18 ruling by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis tossing out Masri's case as a risk to national security because it would expose state secrets.

In a case that has drew wide attention and spawned investigations in Europe, Kuwaiti-born Masri says he was abducted in Macedonia in December 2001, then drugged, beaten and flown by the CIA to Afghanistan, where he was held as a terrorism suspect for five months.

He says the CIA then dumped him in Albania. Tenet was director at the time.

The CIA declined to comment on the appeal.

Ellis agreed with Bush administration lawyers that Masri's case could not move forward without risking national security by exposing state secrets about CIA activities vital to the U.S. war on terrorism.

In a 17-page ruling, he said documents provided by the government showed that national security could be jeopardized "if the defendants in this case were required to admit or deny el Masri's allegations."

The ACLU said details of the case have already been disseminated widely by world media coverage.

"If this decision stands, the government will have a blank check to shield even its most shameful conduct from accountability," said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner.

[Soldier4Christ]

Judge dismisses lawsuit over phone records

 Citing national security, a federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T Inc. from giving telephone records to the government for use in the war on terror.

"The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities," U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said.

Kennelly ruled in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other activists who said their constitutional rights were violated because of a National Security Agency program of gathering phone company records illegally.

[Soldier4Christ]

NSA Leaker Is Subpoenaed To Testify Before Federal Grand Jury


National Security Whistleblowers Coalition puts out this press release for immediate release. When reading the wording…consider the source.

    On Wednesday, July 26, Russell Tice, former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst and a member of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), was approached outside his home by two FBI agents who served him with a subpoena to testify in front of a federal grand jury. NSWBC has obtained a copy of the subpoena issued for Mr. Tice’s testimony and is releasing it to the public for the first time. The subpoena directs Mr. Tice to appear before the jury on August 2, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. in the Eastern District of Virginia. Mr. Tice “will be asked to testify and answer questions concerning possible violations of federal criminal law.”

    In response to the subpoena, Mr. Tice issued the following statement: “This latest action by the government is designed only for one purpose: to ensure that people who witness criminal action being committed by the government are intimidated into remaining silent.” He continued: “To this date I have pursued all the appropriate channels to report unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted [by the government] while I served as an intelligence officer with the NSA and DIA. It was with my oath as a US intelligence officer to protect and preserve the U.S. Constitution weighing heavy on my mind that I reported acts that I know to be unlawful and unconstitutional. The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state.”

    On December 22, 2005, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition made public a request by Tice to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts by the government while he was an intelligence officer with NSA and DIA. In a press release, NSWBC urged the congress to hold hearings and let Mr. Tice testify. Mr. Tice, a responsible veteran intelligence officer, tried to use the so-called appropriate channels, including the United States Congress, to responsibly and lawfully disclose government wrongdoing.

[Soldier4Christ]

NSA WHISTLEBLOWER IS SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY BEFORE FEDERAL GRAND JURY

Government Begins its Witch Hunt Targeting Whistleblowers

On Wednesday, July 26, Russell Tice, former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst and a member of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), was approached outside his home by two FBI agents who served him with a subpoena to testify in front of a federal grand jury. NSWBC has obtained a copy of the subpoena issued for Mr. Tice’s testimony and is releasing it to the public for the first time. The subpoena directs Mr. Tice to appear before the jury on August 2, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. in the Eastern District of Virginia. Mr. Tice “will be asked to testify and answer questions concerning possible violations of federal criminal law." [To view the subpoena click here].

In response to the subpoena, Mr. Tice issued the following statement: “This latest action by the government is designed only for one purpose: to ensure that people who witness criminal action being committed by the government are intimidated into remaining silent.”  He continued: “To this date I have pursued all the appropriate channels to report unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted [by the government] while I served as an intelligence officer with the NSA and DIA. It was with my oath as a US intelligence officer to protect and preserve the U.S. Constitution weighing heavy on my mind that I reported acts that I know to be unlawful and unconstitutional.  The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state.”

On December 22, 2005, the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition made public a request by Tice to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts by the government while he was an intelligence officer with NSA and DIA. In a press release, NSWBC urged the congress to hold hearings and let Mr. Tice testify. Mr. Tice, a responsible veteran intelligence officer, tried to use the so-called appropriate channels, including the United States Congress, to responsibly and lawfully disclose government wrongdoing. [To read the release click here].

“What we are seeing here is a government desperate to cover up its criminal and unconstitutional conduct. They now are going beyond the usual retaliation against whistleblowers who courageously come forward to report cases of government fraud, waste, abuse, and in some cases such as this one, criminal actions. Their old tactics of intimidation, gag orders, and firing, have not stopped an unprecedented number of whistleblowers from coming forward and doing the right thing. Desperate to prevent the public’s right to know, they now are getting engaged in a witch hunt targeting these patriotic truth tellers.” stated Sibel Edmonds, the Director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

In addition, the timing of the subpoena appears to be more than a little suspect. On July 25, 2006, Judge Matthew Kennelly upheld the government’s assertion of the state secrets privilege in Terkel v. AT&T. The crucial issue in the case was whether or not the government’s program of surveillance had been publicly acknowledged, and Kennelly wrote "the focus should be on information that bears persuasive indication of reliability." If there were reliable public reports of the program then the fact of the program’s existence could not be a state secret. Kennelly found that there were no reliable sources of public information about the contested program’s existence sufficient to thwart the government’s need for secrecy. In other words, the existence of the program had not been conclusively established, and the government therefore had a right to prevent probing into the matter. This stops a case that represented a serious threat to the Bush administration.

Professor William Weaver, NSWBC Senior Advisor, stated: “Russ Tice is the only publicly identified NSA employee connected to the New York Times in its December 2005 story publicizing warrantless Bush-ordered surveillance. Tice is also publicly perceived as someone who could authoritatively establish the existence of the program at issue in Terkel; Tice could remedy the defect in the plaintiff’s case cited by Kennelly that allowed the government’s assertion of the state secrets privilege to be successful. Later, on the same day Kennelly’s opinion was filed, the Department of Justice sent out Tice’s subpoena. The date on the subpoena is July 20th, before Kennelly’s decision was filed, but the issue in the Terkel case was so pregnant that it would be easy for the government to anticipate the ruling and only issue the subpoena to Tice if necessary. It has now become necessary, and the government seems to be moving to put pressure on Tice not to reveal information that would confirm the electronic surveillance program at issue in Terkel by threatening him with investigation and possible indictment.”

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Frees Suspected Terror Fundraiser


    Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan was ordered released without bond from the Terminal Island federal detention facility, according to his attorney, Ranjana Natarajan of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

…..

    Hamdan, who founded a mosque in Anaheim, was arrested on immigration charges in July 2004 as federal authorities unsealed an indictment against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The government charged that the Texas-based charity funneled millions to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

    The following month, Hamdan was ordered deported on the immigration charges. His requests to be released on bond while he fights the charges had been denied until this week.

    Hamdan, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, was accused of having ties to terrorism but was never charged. Instead, he was convicted of overstaying a student visa he got 27 years ago.

    The Holy Land Foundation’s president, chairman and director of endowments have been charged with terrorism-related crimes.

Here is some info on the “charity” according to Discover the Networks:

    Established in 1989, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), was a non-profit, tax-exempt, charitable trust whose offices in Texas, New Jersey, California, and Illinois were shut down by the Bush administration on December 4, 2001. Calling itself America’s largest Islamic charity, this organization purported to be a source of help for needy Palestinian Muslims in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority. “Our mission,” stated its Website, “is to find and implement practical solutions for human suffering through humanitarian programs that impact the lives of the disadvantaged, disinherited, and displaced peoples suffering from man-made and natural disasters.” The Bush administration seized all HLF assets and records, however, on suspicion that it was a front group funding the terrorist organization Hamas.

According to Mein Blogo Vault’s research the government has been building a case against him for four and a half years. This is the typical dangerous and irresponsible kind of thing to expect from the ACLU. However, to be fair, the government should expect that this organization is going to challenge them on everything they do to fight terror, and if they had solid evidence on this guy they should have sped the process up and nailed him for good.

Regardless of the government however….Don’t you all feel safer now that the ACLU freed one of the key players in a terror fundraising campaign? I didn’t think so.

[Soldier4Christ]

The full article:

Judge Backs Release of Islamic Fundraiser

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of a top fundraiser for an Islamic charity who has been held for two years because the government says he has ties to terrorism, his attorney said Thursday.

Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan was ordered released without bond from the Terminal Island federal detention facility, according to his attorney, Ranjana Natarajan of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

"We're thrilled, we're just thrilled," Natarajan said of the order by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter.

The court's Web site did not give information about the conditions of Hamdan's release.
   
   

Hamdan, 45, of Buena Park, had not been released as of Thursday afternoon. A call left at his home was not immediately returned.

Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said federal lawyers had not yet seen a copy of the order.

Hamdan, who founded a mosque in Anaheim, was arrested on immigration charges in July 2004 as federal authorities unsealed an indictment against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The government charged that the Texas-based charity funneled millions to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The following month, Hamdan was ordered deported on the immigration charges. His requests to be released on bond while he fights the charges had been denied until this week.

Hamdan, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, was accused of having ties to terrorism but was never charged. Instead, he was convicted of overstaying a student visa he got 27 years ago.

The Holy Land Foundation's president, chairman and director of endowments have been charged with terrorism-related crimes.

[Soldier4Christ]

2 local mayors join ACLU fight

Despite two recent, conflicting federal court decisions over domestic surveillance programs, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is still pursuing its objective to get the state telecommunications authority to hold a public hearing on the warrantless wiretapping of Massachusetts citizens by the National Security Agency.

The civil liberties group filed the request for the hearing in May on behalf of two local mayors, Michael D. Bissonnette of Chicopee and Mary Clare Higgins of Northampton, and two others in other cities.

The national ACLU is pursuing a two-tier strategy of lawsuits and requests for public hearings to get federal officials and communications companies on the record about the scope and legality of the surveillance programs, which monitor Americans' telephone and Internet communications.

 The ACLU says the warrantless surveillance is illegal, violating the Fourth Amendment ban on government searches unless there is probable cause that a law has been broken.

The ACLU has filed lawsuits and requests for public hearings in 20 states, including Massachusetts, saying that telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon Inc. violated customers' rights by providing NSA with access to their information. The federal agency says its massive data-mining effort fights terrorism and that discussing its programs in public violates the U.S. government's "state secrets" policy.

Further roiling the waters are two recent conflicting decisions by federal court judges on the NSA's position.

"What we have are two different decisions by two U.S. courts on the state-secrets issue," said Carol Rose, executive director of the state ACLU chapter.

On July 20, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that a privacy lawsuit against AT&T over NSA surveillance could go forward, saying the surveillance program had been discussed publicly by President George W. Bush and other officials.

But on July 24, a federal judge in Chicago threw out a lawsuit aiming to bar AT&T from giving customer information to the government, saying the suit could compromise national security.

Rose said that, despite the confusion, her group will continue its efforts to get a public hearing in Massachusetts.

"That doesn't mean we won't move our case forward," she said on Tuesday.

Calls to the state Department of Telecommunications and Energy, for comment on when a hearing would be scheduled, were not returned.

Rose said state law requires the state agency to hold a public hearing when top municipal officials, or 20 citizens, request it in writing.

Bissonnette said he joined the ACLU complaint because he was troubled by the escalating scope of NSA wiretapping. The federal agency first claimed only overseas calls to Americans were being monitored, then admitted that communications inside the country, including Internet activity, were also included.

Clark said she joined the ACLU effort because she believes the United States can protect national security without violating Constitutional principles.

[Soldier4Christ]

Lambda Legal and ACLU team up to fight antigay Nebraska law

The American Civil Liberties Union is joining forces with gay rights group Lambda Legal in an attempt to overturn a recent antigay court decision in Nebraska that stripped same-sex couples of all government protections.

In legal papers filed Friday, Lambda Legal and the ACLU asked a Nebraska federal appeals court to reconsider its July decision that upheld a state law banning all legal protections for gay couples.

"The federal appeals court panel that decided this case just ignored the U.S. Supreme Court, which has ruled that states can't pass laws just to discriminate against gay people," said Matt Coles, director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "We are hopeful that the court will recognize this decision simply can't be squared with constitutional guarantees of equality."

[Soldier4Christ]

Civil Liberties Union questions dog search policy

The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union is questioning whether a proposed policy to use dogs to search students is constitutional.
The Portsmouth School Board approved a draft last week of a search policy expanding current rules. The change says students, their desks, lockers and cars can be searched and that police canines may be used.

Civil Liberties executive director Claire Ebel questions the legality of two sections of the proposal. One allows students to be searched "in transit" to school events and the other says students can be searched if they possess property that may disrupt school operations.

Assistant City Attorney Kathleen Dwyer -- who helped write the policy -- says it is reasonable because students can't expect the same degree of privacy on school property.

The school board plans a final vote on the policy change August eighth.

[Soldier4Christ]

Vista Day-Laborer Ordinance Takes Effect

It is illegal to hire a day laborer in the city of Vista without first registering with the city.

The controversial ordinance went into effect Friday, a month after the Vista City Council approved it.

So far, only four people have registered to legally hire day laborers.

The ordinance still faces a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union and activist groups.

A Vista councilmember said she's not surprised so few people have registered.

"I really didn't expect a lot of people to register, but I was just waiting to see," Councilwoman Judy Ritter said. "Maybe they haven't heard about it yet -- that they have to register -- or maybe they chose not to."

A Vista code compliance officer said the city would target pickup sites to look for people violating the ordinance.

People caught in violation of the new ordinance face a misdemeanor charge.