Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said that when civilians videotape officers at protests, that can be helpful particularly when the tapes show police politely warning protesters. Brutality suits against police do not succeed with that type of evidence at hand.

Illinois has a law on the books against recording conversations between police and civilians. -db

From the Chicago Sun-Times, January 30, 2012, by Abdon M. Pallasch and Adeshina Emmanuel.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Obama administration to force them to release records related to the deaths by drone attacks of three U.S. citizens in Yemen.

The administration cited national security in denying the request for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, but the ACLU said the drone program should not be allowed to operate without transparency and accountability. -db

From The Washington Post, February 1, 2012, by Karen DeYoung.

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A South Carolina county will have to pony up nearly $600,000 to settle a censorship lawsuit brought by a group who publishes a monthly newsletter for prison inmates.

Before the settlement, prison officials at a county detention center only allowed inmates religious texts for reading materials. -db

From the First Amendment Center, January 26, 2012, by David L. Hudson Jr.

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The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are set to file an appeal concerning the U.S. government’s attempts to obtain Twitter records in their investigation of WikiLeaks.

The ACLU and EFF are seeking to prevent the government from sealing records of their efforts to obtain private information of Internet users without a warrant. -db

From a press release by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 20, 2012.

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There were four cases over the Freedom of Information Act that promoted transparency in 2011 according to the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

The cases were Milner v. Department of Navy, FCC v. AT&T, Islamic Shura Council of S. Cal. v. FBI and National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. ICE.

From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, December 31, 2011, by Jennifer Lynch and Mark Rumold.

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A former University of Northern Colorado student received a $425,000 judgment against a county prosecutor who authorized a criminal libel investigation on writings he published on a satirical website critical of university administrators and a professor.

The police got a search warrant through the prosecutor and invaded the student’s home. -db

The Denver Post, December 12, 2011, by John Ingold.

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The Obama administration is still insisting that cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified even though the cables were released by the State Department in compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request.

The classified information concerned targeted killings, detention at Guantanamo, torture and rendition. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, December 7, 2011, by Nathan Freed Wessler and Anna Estevao.

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The American Civil Liberties Union  of Michigan filed a lawsuit protesting the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority’s ban on a bus ad advocating the boycott of Israel for its Palestinian policy.

The Authority rejected the attempts of an Ann Arbor man to buy an ad, “Boycott Israel, Boycott Apartheid” along side a picture of a spider facsimile with a skull for a head. -db

From the Arab American News, December 3, 2011, by Nick Meyer.

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North Carolina lost a case in federal court over its desire to issue license plates with a “choose life” message. The ACLU had sued citing the state’s refusal to issue a plate with the message, “respect choice.” -db

From the Jurist, November 29, 2011, by Max Slater.

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A federal district judge in San Jose ruled that a blogger does not have to reveal his identity to the Art of Living Foundation that promotes spirituality lessons of Ravi Shankar. The blogger had published criticisms of the foundation along with one of  their manuals, an act that the foundation said infringed its copyright.

The judge said that so far the blogger’s First Amendment rights outweighed the foundation’s interests. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 17, 2011, by Chris Healy.

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Legislation backed by the entertainment industry to protect copyrights by stopping online piracy , the Stop Online Piracy Act, has support in Congress.

But powerful interests including Google are poised to challenge the law if passed. -db

From a commentary for the First Amendment Center, November 17, 2011, by David L. Hudson Jr.

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Philadelphia is facing a lawsuit over its refusal to run a billboard ad by the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) advocating prison reform .

In bringing the suit, the NAACP and the ACLU said the city has not been even handed in administrating its ad policy, accepting some political ads but refusing others. That would violate the First Amendment by discriminating according to viewpoint. -db

From a commentary for the Citizens Media Law Project, November 14, 2011, by Marc J. Randazza.

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Delaware schools and schools across the country are crafting policies to encourage responsible use of the social media but in doing so often run head on into the First Amendment.

Many educators and free speech advocates see the need to educated students at an early age to the consequences of cyberbullying and other questionable uses of the social media. -db

From DFMNews, November 8, 2011, by Eileen Smith Dallabrida.

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A federal district judge sided with Las Vegas street performers, ruling that they could pursue their claim that the Metro Police and the Venetian had violated their free speech rights.

The performers claimed that the sheriff had not adequately trained his officers on free speech issues over the use of the sidewalks outside casinos. -db

From the Las Vegas Sun, October 31, 2011, by Steve Green.

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The American Civil Liberties Union outlines the rights of photographers to help them resist attempts of law enforcement to prevent them from taking photos in public places. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, October 31, 2011.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is invoking the First Amendment in suing the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for labeling photography in key public places as “suspicious activity.”

In three separate incidents, sheriff deputies detained photographers, at a Los Angeles Metro, industrial buildings, and the Long Beach courthouse. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, October 28, 2011, by J.C. Derrick.

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The Electronic Freedom Foundation sued the Department of Justice for its failure to release documents detailing its interpretation and use of Section 215 of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. The section allows the FBI to obtain a court order for “any tangible thing” related to a terrorism investigation.

The EFF claims the government has been misusing the Patriot Act to investigate citizens without their knowledge. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 27, 2011, by Maria Dinzeo.

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The Justice Department has proposed a rule change for the FOIA to allow government agencies to deny that records do not exist when they do. As it stands now the government can withhold information and issue a Glomar denial that says they neither confirm nor deny the records exist.

Open government advocates say that the rule change would deliver a blow to transparency in that with the proposed rule, those seeking information would be inclined to forego appealing denial of the request concluding that the information doesn’t exist. -db

From ProPublica, October 24, 2011, by Jennifer LaFleur.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is appealing a federal court decision approving the decision of Seattle officials for public safety reasons to pull ads critical of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Officials received many threatening messages before the ads were scheduled to run, but one proponent of the ad said there was no evidence of  credible threats against the ads. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 11, 2011, by Nick McCann.

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The American Civil Liberties Union and allies lost a bid in federal court to find out who was responsible for destroying nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations in 2001 of al Qaeda leaders.

The judge noted that the CIA had erred in destroying the videotapes but had since made changes to prevent the destruction of videos in the future. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 6, 2011, by Adam Klasfeld.

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A woman from Orange County, California won a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court allowing her to sue prison authorities for forcing her to remove her hijab in public, contrary to religious law.

Lower courts had ruled that the holding cell where the woman was held was a special zone not subject to laws allowing prisoners to wear religious garments. -db

From Jezebel, October 3, 2011, by Margaret Hartmann.

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The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal law prohibiting the unauthorized wearing of military decorations in ruling that a Nevada man had violated the law in knowingly wearing a Purple Heart he was not entitled to.

The man contended in his appeal that the law prohibiting wearing of unauthorized military decorations was overbroad and would keep family members from wearing medals of fallen loved ones or the wearing of medals as artistic expression. -db

From the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, September 27, 2011, by Sherri M. Okamoto.

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The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for a second time that a suit could proceed that challenged a Congressional law allowing the National Security Agency to electronically spy on citizens without a probable-cause warrant.

The case may finally come to trial unless the Obama administration uses the state secrets privilege to kill the lawsuit. Federal judges have not often ruled against the government in those instances. -db

From Wired, September 21, 2011, by David Kravets.

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A reporter for PCWorld provides some guidelines for photographing police including details about allowable circumstances, the exceptions to the rule that a citizen can take photos and videos of police doing their jobs and the responsibilities of the police. -db

From PCWorld, September 19, 2011, by Rachel Sadon.

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The ACLU is protesting the delay in granting Kerim Yildiz, a British citizen, a visa to travel to the U.S. at the invitation of the Open Society Foundations and the Patricia Gruber Foundation.

The ACLU is concerned that Yildiz has been denied entry because of his work on human rights for Kurds. -db

From the American Civil Liberties Union, September 15, 2011, by Suzanne Ito.

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The Internet era has eroded a Supreme Court decision (Department of Justice v. Reporters’ Committee) allowing governments to deny rap sheets requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Now it is possible to tap into a national database provided by the federal courts to obtain the information.

In an opinion a federal judge has even acknowledged the possibility of using the national database, a sure indication that that privacy exemption has been seriously weakened. -db

From a commentary in Politico, September 7, 2011, by Josh Gerstein.

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A federal judge ruled that Michigan’s law limiting funeral protests was unconstitutional in prohibiting conduct that would “adversely affect” a funeral. The judge said the law violated the First Amendment and was unconstitutionally vague.

The ACLU sued on behalf of an army veteran and his wife arrested for displaying signs and bumper stickers critical of then President George W. Bush while riding in a 2007 funeral procession of a friend killed in Iraq. -db

From a release from the American Civil Liberties Union, September 9, 2011.

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President Barack Obama has done nothing to fulfill his promise to curtail warrantless spying and in fact wants Congress to renew powers given to the federal government to conduct the surveillance.

Writing a commentary for Wired, Ryan Singel quotes Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute on the effectiveness of the spying, “We have become so accustomed to talking about the balance between civil liberties and security that we begin to assume that the more our liberties are invaded, the more secure we are, when there is very little evidence that is the case.” -db

From a commentary in Wired, September 11, 2011, by Ryan Singel.

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The Electronic Freedom Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union won a victory in court as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government must produce documents concerning criminal prosecutions in which the government obtained cell phone site locations without a warrant.

The court found that the release of the documents would serve the public interest,  “…disclosure sought by the plaintiffs would inform this ongoing public policy discussion by shedding light on the scope and effectiveness of cell phone tracking as a law enforcement tool.” -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, September 10, 2011, by Mark Rumold.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Orange County Board of Supervisors for their policies regulating controversial commentary at their public meetings.

The suit came after the supervisors cut off a speaker who in their opinion had wrongly criticized Vietnamese immigrants. -db

For the Voice of OC, September 9, 2011, by Tracy Wood.

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A federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice must release case docket information in criminal cases where the government used cellphone location tracking data without a warrant.The American Civil Liberties Union used the Freedom of Information Act starting in 2007 in a bid for the information.

The ACLU was concerned that the warrants were not supported by probable cause and contravened a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1989. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, September 7, 2011, by You-Jin Han.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the FBI and the National Security Agency for withholding information about the eGuardian monitoring system that collects information on “suspicious activity” that may include taking photos of important buildings. The ACLU has been unsuccessful in its attempts to acquire the information through the Freedom of Information Act.

The ACLU writes in their court filing, “these records will significantly contribute to the public’s understanding of how local, state and federal authorities have interpreted the broad mandate of the eGuardian program, how they have used the potentially invasive ‘suspicious activity’ reporting system, and whether effective safeguards are in place to protect Americans against unwarranted privacy invasions or discriminatory surveillance based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or protected beliefs or activities.” -db

From the Courthouse News Service, August 28, 2011, by Iulia Filip.

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A federal district judge ruled that Indiana school authorities overreached in punishing two high school girls for posting provocative images of themselves online.

The judge said the expression was intended to be humorous and was protected. He also found no disruption in the posting, “…no reasonable jury could conclude that the photos of T.V. and M.K. posted on the internet caused a substantial disruption to school activities, or that there was a reasonably foreseeable chance of future substantial disruption.” -db

From the First Amendment Center, August 12, 2011, by David L. Hudson, Jr.

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A federal appeals court ruled that a Pennsylvania transit agency, the Allegheny County Port Authority, violated the free speech rights of a nonprofit group who had sought to run a bus ad to inform ex-cons of their voting rights. The agency rejected the ad on the grounds that it did not accept noncommercial ads, but in fact they had accepted ads from other nonprofit groups.

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union said, “The 3rd Circuit recognized that government agencies like the Port Authority in this case cannot pick and choose which messages they want to display once they have opened up a space to outside speakers for speech.What the Port Authority did in this case was the essence of viewpoint discrimination.” -db

From a commentary from the First Amendment Center, August 11, 2011, by David L. Hudson Jr.

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The Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s attempt last week to foil protesters by shutting down cellular service in its San Francisco underground stations has turned into a First Amendment cause celebre.

The transit district switched off service last Thursday to confound protesters who might use mobile phones to organize inside the stations. BART said it took the step to protect passenger safety.

First Amendment advocates called the move an overreaction that trampled on the rights of legitimate users.

By silencing all cellular communication, “you’re shutting down much more speech than could possibly be related to a protest,” ACLU lawyer Michael Risher told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The demonstration, which didn’t occur, was planned after BART police shot a man to death July 3 at the Civic Center station. Police said the man threatened them with a knife.

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Affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union filed 379 public records requests in 31 states to find out how local law enforcement agencies are using cell phone location to track citizens.

Writing for the ACLU, Allie Bohn says that laws don’t always keep up with technology and civil liberties suffer, “…while we believe that law enforcement should always be required to obtain a warrant based on probable cause to access cell phone location information, the scary truth is that they don’t always obtain said warrant, and courts don’t always insist that they do.” -db

From a commentary in the American Civil Liberties Union, August 3, 2011, by Allie Bohm.

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A federal judge criticized the CIA for ignoring a court order asking the agency to preserve videos of interrogations but did not hold it in contempt. The American Civil Liberties Union had brought the contempt motion in ACLU v. Department of Defense, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit begun in 2004.

An ACLU spokesperson said, “Yet again, the CIA will get away with denying the public of the best evidence of torture.” -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, August 3, 2011, by Aaron Mackey.

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie invoked the executive privilege exception in denying the requests of Gawker reporter John Cook to correspondence, calendar entries and phone logs on a dinner with Fox News President Roger Ailes who encouraged Christie to run for president.

Chistie eventually submitted a calendar entry about the dinner after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, July 25, 2011, by Steve Gosset.

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A University of Michigan professor, Juan Cole, who suspects he was under investigation by the federal government for his blogs on Mideast issues, is filing a lawsuit to force the government to release any files on him.

The lawsuit came about after a former CIA official said his superiors asked what he knew about Cole and what he could find that would discredit him. ACLU attorney Zachary Katznelson says the lawsuit is to determine “whether or not [the government] in fact investigated an American citizen merely for speaking out and voicing his opinion. If they did, that’s completely illegal.” -db

From Wired, July 13, 2011, by Spencer Ackerman.

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A Massachusetts man was arrested under Massachusetts wiretap law and accused of aiding the escape of a prisoner and disturbing the peace. The man Simon Glik had used his cell phone to record police arresting a suspect on the Boston Common.

Glik contended that his did not make a secret recording as forbidden by the wiretap law, did not interfere with the police arrest and had a First Amendment right to record the event. -db

From an analysis from the Citizen Media Law Project, June 8, 2011 by Timothy Lamoureux.

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