ACLU In The News

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Cry About Government Crackdown On Leakers


What do you call someone that leaks sensitive secret government programs designed to protect Americans and track down their enemies for all the world to know? Traitor? Deranged?

Well, if you are the ACLU you call them brave heroes.

    The American Civil Liberties Union today strongly objected to the government’s attempts to crack down on brave whistleblowers who come forward to report on illegal or unconstitutional activity in government agencies. On Wednesday, Russell Tice, a whistleblower and former National Security Agency intelligence analyst was served with a federal grand jury subpoena to “testify and answer questions concerning possible violations of federal criminal law.”

To the ACLU transparency is fundamental to democracy. To their extreme viewpoint nothing should be kept secret. We should be so transparent we are see through.

    “Transparency should be applauded, not punished. Courageous federal employees like Mr. Tice who bring hidden truths to light, letting lawmakers and the American people know when official misconduct has occurred, perform a valuable public service.

Why don’t we just start sending courtesy copies of all our plans to fight terror over to Al Qaeda?

[Soldier4Christ]

OH Requires Public Schools to Display “In God We Trust” Mottos

Lawyer Lauds Ohio Law’s Mandate That Schools Display State, National Mottos


(AgapePress) - A pro-family attorney says he believes a new law calling on Ohio schools to exhibit the U.S. motto is constitutional. The bill recently signed into law by Governor Bob Taft requires public and community schools to display any donated copies of the national motto, “In God We Trust,” and the state motto, “With God all things are possible.”

Mat Staver, founder of the legal organization Liberty Counsel, says contrary to the arguments of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, acknowledging religious heritage is not an “establishment of religion” in violation of the Constitution of the United States. “There’s no question that patriotism is fine,” he contends.

Displaying mottos that acknowledge religious heritage is constitutional “despite the ACLU,” Staver insists. And furthermore, he says, “these kinds of pieces of legislation that have now been signed into law by Governor Taft in Ohio, I think, are good to replicate around the country.”

The Ohio law should withstand any legal challenges, the Liberty Counsel spokesman explains, because all of the posters to be displayed in the schools will be donated and not paid for with tax dollars. He believes other states around the U.S. may pass similar laws.

Displaying the different mottos that other states have alongside the national motto gives educators a chance to impart some important civics lessons, Staver notes. It provides teachers with “an opportunity to discuss why we have a national motto” and to discuss questions like “What is a motto, and what does this particular motto mean, and how did it come about?”

And, with regard to students’ own-state motto, such displays can aid teachers and students in considering questions like “What does that motto mean and how does it say anything relevant to our society today? How did it come about?” the attorney continues. “It’s a great opportunity to teach about our history, and I think we oftentimes miss those opportunities,” he says.

Both the national motto and the Ohio state motto have already withstood court challenges claiming that use of such phrases violates the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, Staver emphasizes. If Ohio’s new law is challenged, he asserts, it is unlikely it would be found unconstitutional, especially when federal appeals courts are regularly upholding displays of the Ten Commandments.

In fact, Staver adds, three federal courts of appeal have upheld displays of the biblical laws in public buildings in the past year, including the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs Ohio. That same court also upheld the “Foundations of American Law and Government display, which included a depiction of the Ten Commandments, in ACLU of Kentucky v. Mercer County, Kentucky, a case Liberty Counsel defended.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Lose Case For Criminals To Vote


The ACLU lose in an attempt to use the courts to overturn a state law in Colorado.

    The American Civil Liberties Union’s Colorado chapter challenged the law on behalf of two nonprofit groups and Michael Danielson of Fort Collins. Danielson was paroled in 2003 following a conviction on drug and theft charges.

    Attorneys for Danielson, the Colorado Criminal Justice Coalition and Colorado-CURE argued the state law violates state Constitution. They say prisoners’ voting rights should be restored when they are released from prison — even if they are still on parole.

    But in an unanimous opinion, the justices said convicted felons have not served their full sentence until all components, including parole, are completed.

The courts decision pretty much speaks for itself. The ACLU attempted to push its agenda for convicted criminals to vote who have not completely payed their debt to society. The states have every right to determine the price to be payed for the privilege to vote. The ACLU attempted to overturn this in favor of their own radical agenda and got slapped down. This was a good call from this court in upholding states rights. When people violate the boundaries that society has decided to set they should lose the ability in being a part of the decision in electing who creates those very boundaries. They should not regain these privileges until they have adequately proven to the satisfaction of the society that they have earned them back.

[Soldier4Christ]

Gitmo Guards Claim They’re Abused By Detainees!


In the midst of the controversy surrounding a new maximum security prison being opened at Gitmo, guards at the facility are claiming the ones being abused.

    The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons, Pentagon reports say.

    Incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press indicate Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by “cocktails” of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners.

    They’ve been repeatedly grabbed, punched or assaulted by prisoners who reach through the small “bean holes” used to deliver food and blankets through cell doors, the reports say. Serious assaults requiring medical attention, however, are rare, the reports indicate.

    The detainee “reached under the face mask of an IRF (Initial Reaction Force) team member’s helmet and scratched his face, attempting to gouge his eyes,” states a May 27, 2005, report on an effort to remove a recalcitrant prisoner from his cell.

    “The IRF team member received scratches to his face and eye socket area,” the report said.

These are the dangerous creeps that our Supreme Court ruled deserve lawyers and access to our courts. These are the violent jihadist caught on the battlefield that groups like the ACLU think are entitled to our constitutional rights. I would be holding my breath forever if I were hoping for a statement from the ACLU concerned about the American citizen guards who are being mistreated by their prisoners. These are the actions of the “religion of peace”.

The reports state that these devout Muslims were staging riots, ripping their own Korans to pieces, and many acts of violence with fatal intentions.

    “Detainee stabbed the MP guard … in the hand with his spork from chow meal,” the report said, adding the prisoner later “made a slicing motion across his neck” and vowed to kill the guard.

    With many nearing five years in U.S. captivity, the prisoners “have a Ph.D. in being a detainee” and “know our procedures and they try to turn them against us and try to make us question what we are doing,” said Army Lt. Col. Michael J. Nicolucci, the prison’s executive officer.

    “They’ll take the smallest things, be it a piece of rust,” he said. “They told us they are going to take that piece of rust and they are going for the jugular, they are going for the eye. They know what our vulnerabilities are, anatomically speaking.”

    Meal plates, shower flip-flops, cleaning brushes and other items deemed harmless in civilian life also are commonly turned into weapons, the reports said. For instance:

    _”Detainee in cell (redacted) grabbed the radio from an MP and then threw the radio at the MP. The detainee then threw rocks at the MP,” a Dec. 23, 2003, incident report stated.

    _A detainee “reached out of his bean hole and attacked MP (name redacted) with a piece of metal foot pad from toilet striking him on the left hip area,” a July 15, 2005, report said.

    _”Detainee broke off the top of his sink, subsequently broke out the window then began throwing the sink and pieces of pipes at the Block Guard,” a March 25, 2005, report said.

    One of the most unusual incidents detailed in the four-inch stack of incident reports occurred when a detainee in the prison recreation yard assaulted a guard with a bloody tail torn from a lizard.

    The detainee “caught the iguana by the tail at which time the tail detached,” the May 2005 report described. When the guard turned to talk to a commanding officer, “he felt something strike him in the lower right back” and then “saw the tail on the ground at his feet and blood was in the same area of his uniform.” The detainee said he was “just playing.”

    Nicolucci said one of the most serious incidents occurred this May, too recent to be recorded in the Pentagon’s released reports. A prisoner staged an apparent suicide attempt while his inmates slicked the floors with human waste, seeking to overpower guards when they slipped, he said.

These are the people the ACLU are trying their best to free. Much of the attacks on guards were from the advantage given to them from having items of comfort and privelage that we would have been accused of abuse if we didn’t provide. They are provided with fans to keep cool for example. Can you imagine what kind of dangerous things the wrong person could do with a fan blade and an innovative imagination? Well, make sure to read the entire article to see just how that was achieved.

Like I said earlier, we will be waiting forever if we are hoping the ACLU will step up for the guards “human rights” like they have the terror suspects imprisoned there. However, there are some legal organizations that are hoping these reports bring out some balance to the ACLU’s smear campaign.

    The Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group that fought to force the Pentagon to release the reports under the Freedom of Information Act, said it hopes the information brings balance to the Guantanamo debate.

    “Lawyers for the detainees have done a great job painting their clients as innocent victims of U.S. abuse when the fact is that these detainees, as a group, are barbaric and extremely dangerous,” Landmark President Mark Levin said. “They are using their terrorist training on the battlefield to abuse our guards and manipulate our Congress and our court system.”

    Though all detainees are foreigners, many are clearly Americanized when it comes to their insults and gestures. Male guards are frequently derided as “donkeys” while female guards are routinely called “bitches” or harassed by references to their breasts or genitalia, the reports said.

    In all, nearly a quarter of incidents involved female guards, the reports show.

    “They absolutely target female guards,” Nicolucci said. “They have a lot of cultural biases about females, and we let them know in our culture that females do everything males do in a professional job environment, and we just hold firm.”

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU accuses black mayor of racial profiling

JACKSON, Miss. The American Civil Liberties Union is accusing the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, of racial profiling.
Mayor Frank Melton, who is black, declared a state of emergency last month in response to the city's escalating crime problem.

But an A-C-L-U spokesman says his organization has been receiving complaints. People are claiming Jackson police have pulled them over because of their race and conducted searches without probable cause.

A spokesman for the organization said the fact the mayor is black should make him "more sensitive to the problems this is creating."

For his part, the mayor denies the crackdown has violated anyone's civil rights. He says 26 people have been killed in Jackson this year, and 300-thousand are killed across the country each year -- and that most of the victims are black. He says, "It's time to do something different."

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Loses Case In Defense Of Sex Offender

    A Superior Court judge Tuesday upheld a Woodfin ordinance barring sex offenders from the town’s three public parks.

    David Standley, 43, a registered sex offender living in Woodfin, sued the town in August 2005. The N.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union backed his case.

    Standley argued in his lawsuit the ordinance was too broad, in part by including people who have never committed sex crimes against children.

    He was convicted in 1987 in Florida of attempted sexual battery with a weapon against an adult and served three years and six months in jail, according to the N.C. Department of Justice sex offender registry.

    “I think it’s likely that we’ll appeal,” said Bruce Elmore, Standley’s attorney. “I think he had a strong constitutional case.”

    A registered sex offender found violating the Woodfin ordinance can be fined $500 or put in jail for 30 days.

    “I think this is going to be a useful tool for law enforcement,” Woodfin Police Chief Brett Holloman said.

    The town adopted the ordinance after the arrest of a sex offender who had lived across the street from South Woodfin Park.

I will chalk this up as a win for the good guys. I really don’t think society will ever trust a sex offender to have access to playgrounds and parks regardless of the age of their victim and whether they have served their time or not. If the sex offenders can’t deal with certain restrictions as one the consequences of society losing trust in them, perhaps the option of remaining behind bars completely seperated from society would be more appealing to them.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU sponsoring Ilegal Alien March On Labor Day

The ACLU of Texas and CAIR are proudly on the list.

Illegal aliens and their proponents plan to march through major US cities on September 4, 2006 and once again flaunt the numbers of law breakers in our society. The planned marches are being organized by Nativo Lopez, the organizer of previous illegal alien marches. The marches were announced at the Washington D.C. planning conference of Illegal Aliens in Washington D.C., July 28 -30th

The groups planning to participate so far are listed below. Do you notice any familiar faces on this list?


    A World Beyond Capitalism

    ACLU of Texas

    AFSC (Baltimore, MD)

    AFSC (Washington, DC)

    AFSC Project Voice (Cambridge, MA)

    AfterDowningStreet.org

    Andy Shallal (Iraqi American activist)

    Boston May Day Coalition

    CAIR Coalition

    Camp Democracy

    Campaign For Labor Rights

    Carpenters' District Council of Greater Kansas City and Vicinity

    Casa Freehold

    Code Pink Detention Project/Asylum Project of Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition

    Detention Watch Network

    Global Exchange

    Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition

    Guyanese-American Workers United

    Hispanic Organizations Leadership Alliance

    Industrial Workers of the World

    Laborer's International Union of North America

    Los Angeles March 25th Coalition

    Massachusetts Global Action

    MDI-Movimiento por los Derechos de los Inmigrantes

    Mission: Middle East

    National Asian American Student Conference

    National Council of La Raza

    National Immigrant Solidarity Network

    National Immigration Project

    National Interfaith Committee For Worker Justice

    National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

    National Organization of Women

    Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala

    New York May 1st Coalition

    North American Alliance for Fair Employment

    Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition

    Pittsburgh Friends of Immigrants

    Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign

    Queers for Economic Justice

    Rescue Community

    Rights Working Group

    SmartMeme Media Collective

    Socialist Workers Party/Young Socialists

    Solidarity Committee of Capital District, NY

    Student Immigrant Movement

    Tenderloin Neighborhood Development

    United for a Fair Economy

    United Students Against Sweatshops

    University Leadership Initiative

    Washington Peace Center

    Washtenaw County Workers Center

    Western Mass Coalition of Immigrant Rights

    Western Mass Global Action Coalition

    Woodbridge Workers Committee

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Forces Tampa To Stop Searches


Via ACLU:

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida today announced that a federal judge has blocked mass pat-down searches at Buccaneer games, stating that the public “has a compelling interest in preserving the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.”

    The court order follows a similar injunction issued by a state court judge in October of last year and prohibits mass random searches of Tampa Buccaneers patrons without individualized suspicion. In both rulings, the courts held that the Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches such as those being conducted at Raymond James Stadium, which is owned and operated by the Tampa Sports Authority.

    “This case is important because it involves being forced to give up a very real liberty in the name of generalized fear,” said Rebecca Harrison Steele, Director of the ACLU of Florida’s West Central office. “The government does not have a blank check to suspend the constitutional rights of Americans. Across-the-board pat-downs are a violation of each and every person’s rights, and we are happy that has been upheld by the court”

Of course the ACLU can only see their side of the equation. They are blind to the fact they just made people less safe. I really don’t think they care though. Now anyone can walk into the park without fear of it being found out what they are hiding. Why don’t they just put up a welcome sign for terrorists?

A Blog For All is on the same wavelength:

    Never mind that the patdowns also prevented people from bringing weapons and other prohibited items into the arenas and ballparks, but the very real possibility of a terrorist attack against a mass gathering of people. Attacking public events, like football and baseball games, is a very high profile attack that al Qaeda would consider. The NFL and the Stadium management owe a duty of care to the fans, players, and staff at the arena to ensure a safe facility. Those searches help ensure that safety.

[Soldier4Christ]

Same-sex classes challenged

Southside Junior High teen files suit

A 13-year-old Southside Junior High School student and her parents are seeking to block a planned pilot same-sex education program in Livingston Parish schools, court records show.

Filed for the family by the ACLU Wednesday morning in Baton Rouge’s U.S. District Court, the lawsuit seeks a court order to halt the new program before the school year starts Aug. 9.

The federal lawsuit names the entire parish School Board and Superintendent Randy Pope as defendants. The suit seeks class-action status and a jury trial.

School officials plan to segregate male and female students at two junior high schools: Southside in the Denham Springs school district and Westside in the Walker district.

Myra Holmes, principal of Southside, said same-sex classes are one learning strategy among many tied to “brain-based” research and aimed at helping her sixth- to eighth-graders learn.

She said boys and girls will be taught the same curriculum but sometimes in a different manner to accommodate males’ and females’ reported learning styles.

“We feel like academically that this will be better for our kids,” Holmes said Wednesday.

The divisions would apply to physical education and core academic classes but not such group activities as band or lunch, Holmes said.

The lawsuit claims the program is based on overbroad generalizations and will violate the Louisiana and U.S. constitutions, as well as federal Title IX education regulations.

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in all education programs or activities receiving federal money.

“I don’t want to be required to attend an all-girls class because I don’t think it’s right that boys are taught one way and girls are taught another,” said Michelle Selden, the incoming Southside eight-grader who filed the suit with her parents.

She attended a news conference in front of her school Wednesday with her father, Darren, and American Civil Liberties Union officials.

School officials have based the same-sex program in large part on the research of Leonard Sax and Michael Gurian. The authors have promoted the idea that girls and boys learn differently and that teachers and parents should accommodate those differences.

The lawsuit also notes some of the conclusions in Sax’s and Gurian’s books.

One, from Sax’s book “Why Gender Matters,” says that because of differences in girls’ and boys’ brains, boys need to practice pursuing and killing prey, while girls need to practice taking care of babies. That means boys should be allowed to roughhouse at recess but such play is dangerous for girls, the lawsuit paraphrases from the book.

Selden has a purple belt in Shaolin Kung Fu, is a junior volunteer firefighter and recently became certified as a junior scuba diver.

“I don’t know whether most girls would want to do what I do. I do it because I want to and I enjoy it,” she said.

Emily Martin, deputy director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, said the schools should not teach boys or girls to behave like the “average” boy or girl. The cookie-cutter approach “is bad for kids and is also against the law,” she said.

Martin contended the schoolwide setup creates a mandatory program violating Title IX regulations and even proposed Title IX changes meant to encourage same-sex schools.

“Mandatory single-sex education is what’s being instituted here,” Martin said.

She claimed the mandatory nature makes the program different from other same-sex programs throughout the nation.

School officials differ with Martin, saying students can transfer out of junior high schools with the pilot programs. Pope said he has not received a transfer request from the Seldens.

The Selden’s lawsuit claims that former Southside Principal Alan Joe Murphy said during a parent’s meeting in May that students could not transfer from Southside.

Pope said he believes the school system is acting within the law.

“It is separate but equal. It’s the same size classrooms. They have the same size books,” Pope said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Sen. Brownback: ACLU -- Not Taxpayers -- Should Foot the Bill for Church-State Lawsuits
Proposed Legislation Would Halt Lucrative Legal Attacks on Religious Freedom


(AgapePress) - Some U.S. senators this week have heard testimony from both sides on a piece of legislation that would strip legal fees from church-state lawsuits. Such legal victories, often described as "Establishment Clause" cases, have provided the American Civil Liberties Union with millions of dollars in profits as it pursues numerous cases challenging public displays of religious belief in America.

Senator Sam Brownback (Rep.-KS) says public officials who fear costly litigation often cave in to the mere threat of lawsuits alleging violation of the separation of church and state. That is why he is sponsoring a Senate bill that would block plaintiffs from collecting attorneys fees for lawsuits alleging "establishment of religion."

The Public Expressions of Religion Act (PERA) (S. 3696) was the topic of discussion at hearings on Wednesday (August 2) before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. The U.S. House is considering similar legislation (H.R. 2679) that is sponsored by Indiana Congressman John Hostettler. Brownback has made it clear in recent weeks that if groups like the ACLU want to sue city after city for displays of religious images, it should be on their own dime -- not at taxpayers' expense.

At yesterday's hearing, Brownback said attorneys fees should not be awarded to plaintiffs who file lawsuits alleging violation of separation of church and state. "Many jurisdictions simply acquiesce to the demands of the ACLU and prohibit all displays of religious faith in order to avoid the potential expense of litigation," the senator said. "Legal fees is the threat that the ACLU uses."

Such fees, he said, were never meant to be awarded in cases charging government with establishment of religion. "Congress's intent in passing the fee-shifting statute in 1976 was to prevent racial injustice and discrimination," the lawmaker pointed out. "Thirty years later these laws are being used simply to purge religious faith -- and symbols of any faith -- from our society at taxpayer expense."

But Melissa Rogers, a professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University, defended the fees, saying they are appropriate to discourage government from promoting religion. "I do not want the government to be involved in promoting the cross and the gospel," Rogers stated. "That is my job as a Christian; that is not the government's job."

And in the educator's opinion, religion that is promoted by the government runs the risk of being corrupted. "I am very fearful that the day the government gets its hands on the cross is the day that the cross is used as a means to a political end," she said.

But American Legion lawyer Rees Lloyd charged that lucrative lawsuits -- like the 17-year battle challenging San Diego's Mount Soledad cross -- sometimes are used as a threat against municipalities. He cites as another example a legal threat that prompted the City of Los Angeles to remove a cross from its county symbol. "That is the kind of hocus-pocus that is going on to accommodate views that I think are absolutely in the extreme," the attorney said, "and it made the ACLU the Taliban of American liberal secularism."

In recent days Congress has passed a bill that could save the 29-foot Mount Soledad cross, located in a suburb of San Diego, by making it federal property. President Bush is expected to sign the bill.

Also testifying before the subcommittee were Marc Stern of the American Jewish Congress, Mat Staver with Liberty Counsel, and Shannon Woodruff, senior research counsel with the American Center for Law and Justice.

Huge Fees a 'Perverse' Incentive
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, strongly supports Senator Brownback's Public Expressions of Religion Act -- and in light of the Mount Soledad situation, he believes now is the appropriate time for the legislation to be considered. "For long-term protection, we need the Brownback bill now," he says.

He calls the lucrative legal fees being won in lawsuits targeted expressions of religion a "perverse" incentive. PERA, he says, is needed to repeal a section of the Civil Rights Attorney Fees Act that gives groups like the ACLU "a financial incentive" to attack all public expressions of religion. "This perverse incentive also pressures embattled state and local authorities to capitulate rather than be forced into lengthy, costly litigation," says the FRC leader.

Perkins says the City of San Diego had been "feeling the pinch" with the Mount Soledad case, but that with the anticipated White House approval of the recently passed legislation, the ACLU and others -- he calls them "militant secularlists" -- will now have to sue the Pentagon to get at the cross. "And the Pentagon has some experience of fighting," he warns.

[Soldier4Christ]

Odessa Bible Course Attracts -- Who Else? -- the ACLU
District School Board Confident Elective Course Will Go Forward


(AgapePress) - A school board trustee in Odessa, Texas, says any protest by the ACLU will not derail implementation of a high school Bible elective course being offered this fall in the district. He says he doesn't fear possible litigation from the liberal group.

According to an Associated Press report in April 2005, more than 6,000 people signed a petition supporting a Bible class among the high school electives in Odessa. Now an open records request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeks all records relating to the class and its curriculum. The ACLU also wants minutes and tape recordings from Ector County School Board meetings.

The course being offered is developed by the North Carolina-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS), which claims its curriculum has been voted into 353 school districts in 37 states, Texas among them -- and that 180,000 students have taken the course. Doyle Woodall, a trustee on the school board, says he and his fellow trustees have no plans to reverse their decision to adopt the class.

"They have a lot of money," says Woodall, referring to the ACLU. "If they want to come after us, they just need to get after it, because we're not going to blink on this. This is what the community wants. This is what the school board has voted to put in as an elective, and we're not going to let the ACLU tell us how to run our school district here in Odessa, Texas."

Woodall says if the ACLU chooses to pursue its intentions, it will be wasting its money. "They've got a lot of money to waste, so they just need to spend their money in whatever fashion they see fit," he says. "This is going to be an elective class; we had a petition with 6,000 signatures on it from the community. They [the ACLU] really don't have a leg to stand on. No one's trying to pull something. This is a legitimate course that's accepted nationwide."

The Odessa school board member says every time the NCBCPS Bible curriculum has been challenged in the past, opponents have either withdrawn their complaint or lost in court.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU Applauds No Punishment For Pregnant Women Doing Drugs


Via ACLU website:

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland applauded today’s decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals unanimously ruling that the reckless endangerment statute does not apply to women who take drugs while pregnant.

    “The ACLU of Maryland is heartened that the high court agrees that prosecuting drug-dependent pregnant women is not what the state of Maryland considers good policy,” said David Rocah, staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland. “We believe that using criminal law to regulate a pregnant woman’s conduct on the theory that it might harm a fetus or her newborn child is counterproductive, illegal, and, ultimately bad for children and society.” (emphasis in bold is mine.)

What? It is a theory that a pregnant woman doing drugs will harm a fetus? But it is common practice for the ACLU to ignore common sense and facts in order to paint an abuser into a victim. The way the word their press releases is quite interesting and revealing of how they think. They think that punishing a negligant mother who has subjected her child to hard drugs is bad for children and “illegal”. The irresponsible and reckless acts of the mother are the things that are illegal and bad for children and society.

    In reaching its decision in Cruz v. State of Maryland, the Maryland Court of Appeals stressed that the General Assembly has consistently rejected efforts to allow criminal prosecutions of women for drug use while pregnant because the approach to the problem is not good public policy. The high court ruled that state law does not support such criminal prosecutions and reversed the conviction of Kelly Cruz, a Talbot County woman who was convicted in August 2005 of reckless endangerment because she gave birth to a drug-exposed baby.

    “The Court of Appeals correctly interpreted the law, as the legislature intended, not to criminalize the drug addiction of pregnant women, in effect, but to recognize that this difficult problem is most effectively addressed through drug treatment programs,” said ACLU cooperating attorney Beth S. Brinkmann, who argued the case before the Court of Appeals.

    The case arose when, on January 13, 2005, Cruz gave birth to a son. Blood tests taken at the hospital showed the presence of cocaine, and based solely on those toxicology results, Cruz was charged with child abuse, reckless endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and drug possession. In response to a motion to dismiss filed by the ACLU on her behalf, the state’s attorney dropped all of the charges except for the reckless endangerment count. Cruz was ultimately convicted on that charge, which the court reversed today.

So where does justice come into play here? I agree the woman needs drug rehab, but she should have taken that responsibility when she realized she was pregnant and that another life was being subjected to her addictions. Why should this woman escape punishment for subjecting the unwilling and fragile life of her child to dangerous drugs? If the woman had subjected the child to drugs after being born there would be no question that she should be punished. This shouldn’t be any different. She knew she was carrying a child and made the concious decision to continue taking drugs.

    The court of appeals reaffirmed the virtually unanimous view of courts around the country that such broad prosecutions under reckless endangerment statutes could make pregnant women vulnerable to criminal liability for a wide range of activities, some as mundane as not maintaining a proper and sufficient diet or exercising too much or too little.

This is a complete B.S. strawman. We are not talking about diet and exercise. We are not talking about a pregnant woman drinking a cup of coffee or a glass of wine on occasion. We are talking about criminal acts and illegal hard drugs. We are talking about an irresponsible mother subjecting her unborn child to the real possibility of death or birth defects. We are talking about her giving birth to a helpless child addicted to dangerous and illegal substances. For the ACLU to compare this to making it criminal if a pregnant woman doesn’t exercise as much as she could is a complete diversion from what we are really talking about.

    Prosecuting pregnant women who suffer from drug dependencies is almost uniformly regarded as bad public policy, with no benefit for a child once it is born. Such a tactic deters women from seeking prenatal care, from going to a hospital to give birth and encourages pregnant women struggling with addiction to have abortions to avoid prosecution.

So in this case the ACLU are pretending to think that abortions are something women should avoid? I’m not sure what the exact laws are, but if a woman comes in for prenatal care and asks for drug rehab before any significant damage is done to the unborn baby then I think she should not be prosecuted. However, to find drugs in the baby’s system at birth tells us that this woman had very little, if any, desire to be rehabilitated from her abusive habit. She carried the baby to full term taking drugs disregarding the health of her child. And now thanks to the ACLU she will not be held responsible for her negligance and abuse.

Society recognizes that along with rights comes responsibility. Responsibility is essential in maintaining rights. The ACLU talk alot about rights and consistently ignore responsibility. A social conception of freedom closely ties rights to responsibilities and holds wrongdoers accountable for their actions. The ACLU reject this position. This case is not an isolated case either. The ACLU have a history of fighting fetal protection laws.

In this case, not only has the ACLU succeeded in making the victimizer into the victim, it has set a precedent for society to tolerate abusive negligance and dangerous irresponsibility. It has undermined justice, and enabled drug abusers to subject innocent children to dangerous and life threatening substances. We do not have the right to abuse other people. However this is essentially what the ACLU are arguing in cases like this. Holding people responsible for criminal actions and endangering the life of others is necessary for the function of a just society. It seems that this concept is foreign to the ACLU.

[Soldier4Christ]

American Mines Are The Friend Of American Infantryman


Senators Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter have introduced legislation that will hurt the ability of US Infantryman to survive on the modern battlefield. They are no friend of the US Infantryman who has always been careful in the use of mines to prevent civilian casualties:

    “The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, a coalition of 500 U.S.- based religious, community, and human rights organizations, today welcomed the introduction of the Victim-activated Landmine Abolition Act of 2006. This important legislation, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy (VT), Arlen Specter (PA), and others, would block Pentagon efforts to develop and produce the first new U.S. victim-activated antipersonnel landmines in nearly a decade.”

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU sues to prevent better education

From WBRZ in Louisianna...

    A 13-year-old Southside Junior High School student and her parents are seeking to block a planned pilot same-sex education program in Livingston Parish schools, court records show.

    Filed for the family by the ACLU Wednesday morning in Baton Rouge’s U.S. District Court, the lawsuit seeks a court order to halt the new program before the school year starts Aug. 9....

    Myra Holmes, principal of Southside, said same-sex classes are one learning strategy among many tied to “brain-based” research and aimed at helping her sixth- to eighth-graders learn.

    She said boys and girls will be taught the same curriculum but sometimes in a different manner to accommodate males’ and females’ reported learning styles....

    The lawsuit claims the program is based on overbroad generalizations and will violate the Louisiana and U.S. constitutions, as well as federal Title IX education regulations.

    Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in all education programs or activities receiving federal money....

    “It is separate but equal. It’s the same size classrooms. They have the same size books,” Pope said.

Wait, aren't there all women college scattered all over the country? Didn't Hillary Clinton go to one of them? Why isn't the ACLU going after them?

The public schools were forced to downgrade curriculum expectations to accommodate the those students at the tenth percentile because only those who scored below that could be put in special classes. That means the other 89% had to use a curriculum well below their ability. But to the Liberals mandating our education policies, it was more important to "mainstream" the students, and not "discriminate" rather than to actually allow the 89% to succeed at the level they are actually capable of.

It has also been exposed that curriculum and education methods have been gradually geared toward girls, since boys tended to be more assertive, and would either make up for it, or could be drugged with Ritalin if they couldn't. Compliant drones of the state are very important to a smooth Liberal World Order, you know.

So it's no surprise that the ACLU would want to continue the feminization of America's education system, by preventing school from focusing on the students' actual strengths, rather than forcing them into a feminized mold. My prediction is that the school will back down, since the fight will cost money that could be used for the kids, not that the ACLU cares about that.

[Soldier4Christ]

ACLU accuses Black mayor of profiling Blacks

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer...

    The national American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday accused the city's black mayor of civil rights violations including racial profiling in his crusade to stem crime in Mississippi's capital city.

    The accusations against Mayor Frank Melton and police are based on complaints from people who say they were pulled over on the basis of their race and searched without probable cause, the ACLU's national racial profiling coordinator, King Downing, said at a news conference....

    ...Melton said in an interview Tuesday that he wasn't interested in the ACLU's complaints against him or the police, and denied he had violated anyone's civil rights.

    "We have 26 people that have been killed in Jackson this year. We have 300,000 people killed across America each year. The majority of them are African-American and it's time to do something different," Melton said. "I want to know what the ACLU wants to do besides criticize."...

    Melton declared a state of emergency last month to attack the city's escalating crime problem, basically adopting a stricter curfew for teenagers and homeless people. He also continued his practice of riding with police officers on patrol or at roadblocks.

    The city's population of 184,256 is nearly 71 percent black, and 23.5 percent live below the poverty level.

Bravo to Mayor Melton. As more and more Blacks wake up the scam of victimization that's chained Black Americans so long, the more those like the ACLU who hold those chains will fight them. The crime rate among Blacks is a self-perpetuating condition, encouraged by Liberals. The attitude that because you perceive yourself to be a victim, gives you the moral right to victimize others is a never ending loop. Liberals fervently encouraging that attitude keep it strong.

Heroes like Mayor Melton are among those fighting against the problem. He should be applauded.

by Danny Carlton