ACLU news stories on Newser

ACLU Backs Girls Expelled for Facebook 'Death Threats'

Rob Quinn — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:54:06 CDT

Genuine death threats don't tend to come with "LOL" and a smiley face attached, notes the ACLU, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three expelled eighth-graders in Indiana. The 14-year-old girls were kicked out of school for a Facebook conversation in which they talked about which classmates they...

Tennessee's Anti-Evolution Bill to Become Law

Mark Russell — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:13:00 CDT

Tennessee was the site of the infamous Scopes monkey trial nearly 90 years ago (spoiler alert: creationists lost), but the state is still fighting evolution. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said yesterday he'll allow a bill to become law that protects teachers who criticize evolution, as well as global warming and...

Girl, ACLU Sue School Over Facebook Flap

John Johnson — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:24:05 CST

Maybe this kind of thing will start sounding familiar soon? A 12-year-old girl in Minnesota is suing her school with the help of the ACLU because she says administrators made her hand over her Facebook password and pored over her account, reports CNN . The move came after the girl got...

23 States Considering Welfare Drug Tests

Kevin Spak — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:10:20 CST

Lawmakers in 22 states think Florida had the right idea with its law requiring welfare recipients to pass a drug test . States like Wyoming, Illinois, Maryland, and Colorado are all considering similar laws that would make a clean drug test a prerequisite for food stamps, welfare, and other forms of...

Atheists Raise $44K for Teen Prayer Foe

Rob Quinn — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:00:00 CST

Rhode Island teen Jessica Ahlquist's fight against a school prayer banner didn't win her many friends in her strongly Catholic hometown—but it has won her a hefty college fund. Prominent atheists, who praise the 16-year-old for standing up to critics "with class and style," are raising funds for a...

Town Slams Teen Atheist's Fight Against Prayer

Mark Russell — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:31:05 CST

A 16-year-old Rhode Island atheist has her heavily Roman Catholic town of 80,000 in an uproar after she successfully sued her school to take down a eight-foot-tall prayer that hung in the school auditorium for 49 years, reports the New York Times . One state representative called Jessica Ahlquist “an...

Cops Fired for Opposing War on Drugs

Kevin Spak — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 15:33:04 CST

Bryan Gonzalez was working as a Border Patrol agent in New Mexico when he made the fatal mistake of musing to a colleague that legalizing marijuana would end Mexico’s violent drug war. He was fired soon afterwards; his termination letter said he held “personal views that were contrary to the...

Judge Orders Florida to Stop Welfare Drug Tests

Kevin Spak — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:31:25 CDT

A federal judge has ordered Florida to suspend its “suspicionless drug testing” of would-be welfare recipients, writing that “there is a substantial likelihood” that the law requiring such tests will be deemed unconstitutional. The ruling comes thanks to an ACLU lawsuit on behalf of one welfare recipient—an unemployed ex-Marine,...

Alabama Town Enacts 'Jesus or Jail' Plan

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:54:00 CDT

Petty offenders can choose between Jesus and jail time in Bay Minette, Alabama. The town kicked off Operation Restore Our Community this week, giving misdemeanor lawbreakers the choice between a year of church-going or fines and jail, Raw Story reports. Pastors invented the program because crime is caused by "the...