ACLU news stories on Newser

Hey, IRS: Even the Tea Party Deserves Free Speech

Kevin Spak — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:00:05 CDT

The IRS' stunning admission that it singled out Tea Party groups for more aggressive tax enforcement should be a warning to all Americans to guard their free speech rights jealously, ACLU officials Michael Macleod-Ball and Gabe Rottman write for CNN . There's been a rush to regulate political speech since the...

Detroit Cops Dumping Homeless Outside City: ACLU

Matt Cantor — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:00:00 CDT

Detroit police are ushering homeless people out of a tourist area and leaving them miles away—in some cases outside the city itself, the ACLU alleges in a federal complaint. Officers are "approaching individuals who appear to be homeless in the Greektown area, forcing them into police vans, and deserting...

IRS Might Be Peeking at Emails Without Warrants

John Johnson — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:22:39 CDT

It's probably not wise to talk about all your deep, dark tax-dodging secrets via email, but if you do, know that the IRS might be poking into them without a warrant. So says the ACLU, which complains that it can't get a straight answer from the agency about its policy,...

Court: CIA Can't Say There's No Drone Program

Kevin Spak — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:30:05 CDT

The CIA can't just pretend its drone program doesn't exist to avoid releasing its records, a federal appeals court ruled today, reviving an ACLU lawsuit to obtain them. The CIA had rejected the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act request, saying it couldn't confirm or deny that the records existed, but...

Seattle Mayor: Fine, We Won't Use Drones

Mark Russell — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:28:05 CST

Bowing to a fierce public outcry, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has decided to ground the city's plan for an unmanned drone program, reports Reuters . Seattle bought two Draganflyer X6 drones in 2010 using an $80,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security, and planned to use the miniature, 3....

Teen's Sentence: 10 Years of Church

Liam Carnahan — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:43:24 CST

What sounds better to you: Having to attend church for 10 years, or going to prison for manslaughter? If you said the former, you're not the ACLU. Tyler Alred, 17, was behind the wheel in a 2011 alcohol-related crash that killed his passenger, and Oklahoma Judge Mike Norman last month...

Pepper-Sprayed UC Students Get $30K Each

John Johnson — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:25:05 CDT

One of the more notorious incidents of the Occupy movement will result in a payday for the students involved. The University of California will pay $30,000 to each of the 21 students who were methodically pepper-sprayed by a Davis campus cop, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . The school also...

Dad-Daughter Dances Axed for 'Gender Discrimination'

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 01:15:00 CDT

A Rhode Island school district has banned father-daughter dances—and mother-son sports events—because of "gender discrimination" after a challenge by the ACLU. A single mom complained that her daughter was shut out of a dance in Cranston, and the civil rights organization argued in a letter that the event...

ACLU's New Target: License Plate Trackers

Liam Carnahan — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:28:13 CDT

ACLU affiliates in 38 states are filing requests with police agencies today to gather more info about Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), which the group says are "fundamentally threatening our freedom on the open road." Police at the state and local level use the devices to snap photos—as many...