ACLU Nationwide
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1920
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ACLU Nationwide
Facebook is once again rolling out changes to its user interface, including new Applications and Games Dashboards that it says will “mak[e] it easier for you to find and interact with applications.” And, once again, these changes affect your privacy: now other users can easily find out which app...
Jon
Jon
@April: That is exactly why the privacy settings that control the PAI information are so ciritical.
about an hour ago
Stephen Carpenter
Stephen Carpenter
Adina: So do you expect every 16-23ish year old to understand that concept? Also, who is to say that every piece of information collected is something you intended to be public?

On the other hand, I tend to take the other approach. If a potential employer or client doesn't like what I have to say...they don't need the privilege of having me work for them.
about an hour ago
ACLU Nationwide
People have a clear constitutional right and a civic duty to report crimes they witness to the police. But what happens when the police are the ones committing the crime...
Tim
Tim
I don't understand why both officers weren't arrested for assault & battery, especially since it was reported AT THE TIME on 911, with an eye witness... why the hell are they still getting paid on the city budget by the assaulted victims taxes??? What the FUCK is wrong with this picture.
8 hours ago
Charles
Charles
Tim Flannery: Because America has a LONG history of bigotry. Every story I read that ends like this one makes me lose any hope that this country will actually make any meaningful change in that arena.
2 hours ago
ACLU Nationwide
Don’t fret, we’re here! The right to free speech is undeniably one of the most fundamental rights we have as Americans. It is the breath that sustains our democracy. Wh...
Paul Stillman
Paul Stillman
Thank you ACLU for supporting free speech.

Jeff, you only support organizations that you agree with one hundred per cent of the time? Maybe you should run for office; that way you would have a candidate for whom you could vote.
Sat at 4:45pm
Evan Reynolds
Evan Reynolds
^grammar fag with realll bad english
11 hours ago
ACLU Nationwide
As you know there has been a lot of politically-motivated criticism of the Obama administration for holding Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in federal custody...
Dwight House
Dwight House
After reading some of the previous comments, it seems that republicans are horrible people. I find them to be much like deomcrats. As one who is neither republican nor democrat, I see little difference between the two parties.
Sat at 12:11pm
Gwendolyn Gallagher
Gwendolyn Gallagher
Rule of law: We have a system, we use it; if it doesn't work, we change it. We don't just ignore it and make something up. There should be no debate on this point.
Sat at 7:13pm
ACLU Nationwide
Yesterday, The Washington Post reported that Google — the world’s largest Internet search company — is negotiating an information-sharing agreement with the National Security Agency (NSA) — the world’s largest network for routine, mass communications surveillance. The part...
Richard
Richard
I sent my letter to Google.
Sat at 9:11pm
Charles
Charles
letter sent
2 hours ago
ACLU Nationwide
When an American citizen leaves the U.S., they don't give up their constitutional rights...
Christopher
Christopher
I thought we had a no assassination policy going back to the 60's. Who is we aren't supposed to kill? And as a former military intelligence linguist I received many briefings on how we were not even allowed to listen to a U.S. citizen's conversations anywhere at any time, without a special warrant or something at least. The idea of having U.S. ... See Morecitizens killing other U.S. citizens abroad is either a shocking truth or just technical legal mumbo jumbo to stir up controversy. We don't know that Obama has signed any such orders, do we? Sure, though, the ability to fly a fairly small quiet remote controlled airplane hundreds of miles from a safe place and launch an anti-tank Hellfire missile at any target, moving or stationary, with very high accuracy and kill probability is quite an improvement over having to infiltrate a human to do the job personally. It's about as complicated and personal as a video game.
February 5 at 7:31pm
Joe DeFina
Joe DeFina
Well help me out. Aren't enemy combatants subject to the laws governing a legally declared war?
Sat at 5:01am
ACLU Nationwide
Recently I wrote about the allegedly Chinese cyber attack on Google and how it highlighted a point that the ACLU and security experts have been making for years — that creating government backdoors into our communications network for the purpose of surveillance creates security problems. ...
Tuskegee
Tuskegee
Got two cases filed in fed. Court this day same issues... Could use your assistance over here???
February 4 at 11:59pm
Christy
Christy
Are you guys working on the new info that has come out about the ACTA treaty? It sounds like all sorts of rights will be denied if/when nations accept it's allegedly anti-piracy measures.
February 5 at 4:41pm
ACLU Nationwide
The courtroom was packed for yesterday's hearing in the breast cancer gene patents case, a testament to the significance of our challenge. Both sides argued that the judge should rule in their favor without a trial...
Robin Webster
Robin Webster
@Preston McDonald, I think the tribe wasn't trying to claim rights to their knowledge about the natural world per se, but to knowledge concerning the medicinal properties of the plant. From what I read, American scientists relied on tribal Shamans to help them focus on plants with medicinal properties they were interested in exploiting. Who knows, ... See Moremaybe this knowledge came at a great cost to the tribes, through experiments performed eons ago on fellow tribe members. Regardless of how it might have been developed, it's knowledge that didn't exist anywhere else in the world and I suspect would have been eligible for an intellectual property patent in the US.
February 4 at 8:42pm
Robin Webster
Robin Webster
@Preston McDonald, A good example might be PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). Both the process and the naturally-occurring enzyme that made the process work were awarded patents and earned the inventor a Nobel Prize in chemistry. It was the knowledge about how the enzyme was able to function at near boiling temperatures that allowed the process to be... See More developed. Personally, I don't think a patent should have been awarded to the enzyme, in part because it tended to limit the research that could be done by academic laboratories with limited funding. And the patent holders still made an immense fortune.
February 4 at 8:42pm
ACLU Nationwide
On November 18, 2009, Shukree Simmons, who is African-American, was driving with his business partner on the highway from Macon, Georgia, back to Atlanta after selling his cherished Chevy Silverado truck to a restaurant owner in Macon for $3,700 of sorely needed funds. As Mr...
Aaron LaFollette
Aaron LaFollette
I'll be sure to keep my eyes open going through Lamar County, thanks for the warning! This case should be run up the flagpole - and where is the news media on cases like this? Hiding under their biased covers - go figure. The ACLU does great work like this every day, and that's why I'm a supporter. Thanks for all you do - the people need it badly!
February 4 at 10:13am
Kurt
Kurt
Great work ACLU.

Now what's the best way to amend these laws or have them torn down altogether?
February 4 at 5:22pm
ACLU Nationwide
Today we post the first of two parts of Chapter 4, “A Ponzi Scheme of Torture.” This chapter connects the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, Jose Padilla, and Binyam Mohamed, three people who were allegedly involved in a "dirty bomb" plot that grew more fantastical the more the men were tor...
David
David
Thank you ACLU, for bringing this information to the fore-front. Please keep on doing so!
February 4 at 12:03am
ACLU Nationwide
This afternoon, the military’s top civilian and uniformed leadership — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen — appeared in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. They...
ACLU Nationwide
(Originally posted on Huffington Post.) The United States has long participated in programs abroad that prevent the recruitment of child soldiers.But the added strain of fulfilling enlistment quotas necessary to carry out sustained U.S...
Michael Sharkey
Michael Sharkey
Mr. Hidalgo-Acosta- I certainly agree that the military is a reflection of our society with a great diversity of backgrounds and, likewise, reasons for serving. My point is merely the enlisted ranks, as a whole, have a statistically higher incidence of individuals with working-class poor background, one of the portions of our society. At least I... See More presume that is statistically correct from my observations. However, you have caused me to really think about this. I will now proceed to fact-check myself, if any reliable statistics are available. Thank you for the exchange.
February 5 at 3:57pm
Ramon
Ramon
Mr. Michael Sharkey, I also thank you for the exchange as well. I don... See More’t know if there is any statistical data too but one fact has shown that the influx of recruits into the military is sometime driven by the health of our economy. When the job market is bad in the civilian world, the miltary benefits from it but when it’s good, sometimes it lower its standard to meet its recruiting goals. In either case, recruits form all sectors of our society join the ranks. Again, thank you. I’ve enjoyed the exchange and the courteousness in which we carried it out.
Sat at 4:13am
ACLU Nationwide
Seventeen years and more than 13,000 dismissals later, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing, albeit for a mere one hour, Tuesday at noon on the discriminatory and counterproductive policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," (DADT) which bars openly gay and lesbian individuals...
Daniel Oliva
Daniel Oliva
Now if we can get rid of DOMA, as it stands now the hospital I worked for will keep 25 years of my pension, because of DOMA. It is just wrong of them because it was a compensitory benifit.they paid me less per hour because they paid my pension!
February 2 at 4:07am
Melvin Bernard
Melvin Bernard
I can only hope that one day in the future we can all look back and see this DADT & DOMA laws as something of a collective mental sickness that we have grown out of. How else does one explain such insane stupidity
February 2 at 5:54am
Regina Axenroth
Regina Axenroth
Great but what about all the ones that have been fired? The Farsi Linguist , especially.
February 2 at 6:50am
ACLU Nationwide

ACLU Nationwide ACLU goes
to court tomorrow on the breast cancer gene patent case – This will be
the first time that the question of whether human genes should be patented is heard in federal court. Stay tuned for updates and sign a message of support for the plaintiffs: http://bit.ly/4sFDn

www.aclu.org
On May 12, 2009, the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation filed a suit on behalf of organizations and individuals representing over 150,000 health professionals and women's groups and individuals. The suit, against the US Patent Office and Myriad Genetics, seeks to invalidate breast cancer gene pat...
Shelah
Shelah
Well, I always say, no sex with genetic engineers!
February 2 at 11:59am
Daria L. Mitchell
Daria L. Mitchell
Whenever there is big business involved, there will be a problem with who benefits. The same goes for the drug industry. The only problem is that you don't have to give them a part of yourself as a life or death decision.
February 2 at 9:46pm
ACLU Nationwide
Today is National Freedom Day, the culmination of a month-long campaign to increase awareness about present-day slavery and human trafficking. In January, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation declaring January 2010 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month...
A. Katherine Suetterlin
A. Katherine Suetterlin
Come on people...President Obama has TONS of stuff that he's concerned about...and it would not surprise me that much of what we are worried about, he is too...but he is in the game of politics, dear friends...he has to walk a very fine line sometimes, especially when meeting with, say, other world leaders, let alone members of Congress.

People expect him to work miracles, especially after the fiasco that was the Bush "presidency." He's not only having to clean up his predecessor's mess, but having to be firmly aware that what choices he makes in cleaning up the mess can make or break his election chances in 2012.

So I make the motion that we cut this guy some slack--and pray, meditate, etc on how we can help our president!...after all, he has one of THE toughest jobs in the world...making some of THE toughest decisions. Ever. ... See More

I would NOT want to be in his shoes right now. Not at all!
February 3 at 2:18am
Todd
Todd
He is supposed to look better than Bush, but he is working for the same people, and it ain't us.
February 3 at 6:24pm