Activist conference teaches members how to get active, pulpit politics, banned books and more

A big thanks to everyone who attended and helped with the ACLU of Wisconsin statewide activist conference this weekend. We're working on getting pictures and materials posted to our website. Also stay tuned to Cap City Liberty for more media coverage of the event.

Here is the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project Director, Barry Steinhardt, in his excellent interview on WPR's Joy Cardin show.


In this interview, ACLU of Wisconsin's Associate Director, Renee Crawford talks about what issues will be addressed at the activist conference and why they are important.


Free Speech
I woke up this morning to my radio alarm clock and heard NPR’s Lynn Neary talking about the Depression-era California Dust Bowl. I thought it was another story about fears of economic collapse, but it was actually about the banning of The Grapes of Wrath. It’s Banned Books Week and people across the country are celebrating the right to read (check out this story about Banned Books Week activities in Rock County). The NPR story is worth a listen – especially the part about what the librarian said when she risked her job in fighting the book ban. The story is timely: despite the Internet rumor about an attempt by Alaskan Governor and current Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin to ban books in Wasilla, challenges to controversial books and art are something that require constant vigilance.

Check out this ACLU comic on book burning (there is also a link to download a printable PDF) or boost your civil liberties savvy with this “Ban This Booklist.” There is more on artistic freedom on the ACLU Banned Books Week 2008 website.

Separation of Church and State
A West Bend pastor is claiming free speech rights to endorsing John McCain for President during a recent sermon. This action was one of 33 examples of pulpit politicking. A challenge from the IRS may be imminent.

Most people don’t know about the nuances of tax law and why nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations are supposed to also be non-partisan. The idea is that a tax-exempt status is reserved for groups that exist just for education and social welfare. As soon as an organization goes from generally educating their public to telling them who to vote for, the organization’s purpose changes. Endorsing a candidate throws an organization into another tax classification. Churches that cry foul need to either give up the privilege of being tax-exempt or pay up on the expenses and taxes that other groups that endorse candidates have to pay. The conservative Alliance Defense Fund doesn’t see it that way, however, and this election year will see another dispute over politics in the pulpit.

Voting Rights
The ACLU of Wisconsin makes the news again for its work to change the state law and enfranchise citizens on parole or probation from felony convictions. With recent challenges to the Statewide Voter Registration System, we know that weeding out felons from other citizens is costly and time-consuming. If people are able to be out of prison, why can't they be able to vote?

Action Alert! Volunteers needed in South Dakota to fight abortion ban; ACLU conference in WI in the news

The ACLU of Wisconsin is gearing up for our annual activism conference this weekend. Check out some clips below of interviews with ACLU staff. More media coverage to come - stay tuned!

ACLU of Wisconsin Associate Director Renee Crawford


ACLU of Wisconsin Community Advocate Stacy Harbaugh


Reproductive Rights
With 40 days to go until the election, South Dakota is the scene of a major showdown over reproductive freedom, and we’re asking people in Wisconsin to help.

This fall, South Dakotans are again being asked to vote on a sweeping ban on abortion called Measure 11. Measure 11 allows politicians to interfere in the most private and personal decision that women and families can make.

South Dakota’s Measure 11 is poised to have a national impact its real purpose is to overturn Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.

You can help stop this from happening. Join pro-choice Americans who are pitching in to help defeat this radical and dangerous abortion ban. The ACLU, in coalition with the Campaign for Healthy Families, is recruiting people to come to South Dakota to help talk to voters from Friday, October 3 through Sunday, October 5.

Can you join us Friday, October 3 through Sunday, October 5? It’s a big commitment, but this is a watershed moment for reproductive freedom. And your help could make an enormous difference.

That’s why we’re looking for volunteers who can arrive in Sioux Falls late Friday afternoon and stay through Sunday afternoon. You will be trained on how to talk to voters, knock on doors and do phone banking.

Travel, lodging, and most meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including vegetarian options) will be provided.

This battle can be won. Polls show that when South Dakotans know the facts many of them reject the ban. That’s why it’s crucial that we make sure voters hear mainstream views that expose an anti-choice agenda aimed at silencing women, interfering with private medical decisions, and overturning Roe v. Wade.

Please consider standing with us. We simply cannot allow South Dakota and this November's election to be a watershed moment for the anti-choice movement.

If you are interested or have questions, please email Stacy Harbaugh right away at: sharbaugh@aclu-wi.org.

Thank you for considering participating in this critical event.

Sincerely,
Stacy Harbaugh
Madison Community Advocate
ACLU of Wisconsin

Issue ad regs postponed, drug sniffing dogs in parks, homeless banned and more

Free Speech
Free speech gets muddled in between the lines of rule-making of the GAB at their recent meeting. While the board didn’t take a formal vote at their last meeting (mainly because it is still up in the air whether or not they have the actual authority to regulate issue ads), they will be working on drafting a rule concerning ads and revisit the topic at their October meeting. This subject goes to the heart of free speech, the ability of all organizations to communicate with the public about the issues they care about, and how to make campaign finance and influencing voters fair.


Privacy Rights
Here’s an article about recent sweeps of public parks by police with drug sniffing dogs. The cops made some small busts of drug users, but the article is a rare example of newspapers detailing the boundaries of people’s rights. It also shows how 1.) police lie, and 2.) open air is searchable. For more on how everyone can interact with police while asserting their rights to privacy, to remain silent and to not consent to searches, visit this Know Your Rights page on the ACLU website.


Rights of the Poor
A recent article points out that the Brittingham Park plan to get rid of disorderly loiterers is working. But the article doesn’t ask anyone where the homeless people went or if they experienced an increase of police harassment or discrimination.


Reproductive Rights
Zweifel writes a solid column about the religious right’s support for Republican V.P. nominee Sarah Palin’s daughter. The spin from Palin’s supporters articulates how Palin’s family is human, subject to mistakes and should have their private decisions kept to themselves. Zweifel notes that this perspective comes from religious right figureheads who have been telling the rest of us how to raise our children and teach them (or not teach them at all, in the case of abstinence-only education mandates) about sex. For more on how the ACLU is challenging abstinence only education, visit our reproductive freedom webpage.


Student Rights
Dane County schools update their rules to bring clarity and more modern definitions to their policies. New regs on cell phones are an improvement that recognizes the ubiquity of this personal communications technology. However, it’s as important as ever for students and parents to read their school rules in the student handbook to understand their rights and the boundaries of what is allowed. Read on to get the scoop on how students can get kicked out of school for something that even looks like a gun and a student ID experiment at Verona that would require students to have IDs visible on lanyards at all times.


Check out this upcoming event which features an excellent speaker who is a former board member of the ACLU of North Carolina affiliate and frequent speaker at ACLU national conferences:

Community lecture: “Civil Liberties and the War on Terror – Past, Present, and Future” with Erwin Chermerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, UC-Irvine School of Law
When: Friday, September 19, 12:10 p.m.
Where: UW Memorial Union Play Circle Theater
The UW Law School Office of the Dean and the Institute for Legal Studies fall 2008 workshop series will focus on “Ideas and Innovations in Legal Scholarship.” Hosted by Kathryn Hendley, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, this series features current topics shared by legal scholars in our community and from across the country. Professor Howard Erlanger will provide the welcome for Chermerinsky who will doubtlessly give an in-depth, yet accessible talk on the history of threats to civil liberties in times of war and threats to national security. Worth checking out!

Action Alert! Protect Birth Control and Emergency Contraception!

Reproductive Rights
On August 21, 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released proposed regulations that could seriously undermine access to basic reproductive health services, including birth control and abortion.

The rule leaves open the possibility that based on religious beliefs institutions and individuals can deny women access to birth control and individuals can refuse to provide information and counseling about basic heath care services. Moreover, they expand existing laws by permitting a wider range of health care professionals to refuse to provide even referrals for abortion services.

For years, federal law has carefully balanced protections for individual religious liberty and patients’ access to reproductive health care. The proposed regulations appear to take patients’ health needs out of the equation.

There is a 30 day comment period, ending September 20, 2008. This is the time to make your voice heard and to help protect access to birth control.

Send your comment to DHS today!

Madison's police cameras, terror watch list failures, DNC/RNC protests and more

News roundup!

Domestic Spying
More evidence that casting a wider net to spy on or track Americans doesn’t work – the terror watch list has become so big and poorly maintained that it is rife with search problems. Check out this editorial from the NYT on why the watch list is failing both our privacy and our security. Whether the databases work or not, the watch list frenzy will snag all kinds of people, even would-be gun owners.

In related news, here’s a good story about evolving technology use and ethics with police work. It looks at Madison/Dane County cameras and microphones in squad cars and how they can be both a benefit to protecting both officers and civilians from abuse (when they are actually turned on) and also underscores the need for everyone to know that you don’t have to be read your Miranda rights for anything you say to be possibly used against you in court.


Protest Rights
An article in The Nation illustrates the motivations behind many of the protesters who are demonstrating at the DNC and at the RNC. Check back with CapCityLiberty for updates on our legal observation support at the RNC next week.


Reproductive Rights
A St. Petersburg Times opinion writer who was also a former head of two ACLU affiliates wrote a good editorial about what is at stake for Roe v. Wade in the next election.


Voting Rights
A recent New York Times article details the slowdown on federal certification for electronic voting machines and includes information on how the national trend impacts Wisconsin.


Misc.
If you haven’t heard the news already, Air America radio talk show host Rachel Maddow will make a big move to MSNBC. She’s slated to be the featured guest at the ACLU of Wisconsin’s annual Bill of Rights dinner event in February 2009.p

Big Brother, Oh Brother!

Lots of news in the domestic spying world...

The US Justice Department has issued a proposal for new rules on domestic spying that would roll back privacy and oversight provisions put in place after Watergate. This “track ‘em all – just in case” system includes data fusion centers in which intelligence about citizens would be stored in databases shared among law enforcement agencies across jurisdiction lines.

According to this McClatchy release on the proposed regs, “Michael German, a former veteran FBI agent who is now policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said if Mukasey moves ahead with the new rules as he describes them, he'll be weakening restrictions originally put in place after the Watergate scandal to rein in the FBI's domestic Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO. At the time, the FBI spied on American political leaders and organizations deemed to be subversive throughout the late 1950s and into the 1960s.”

The concerns about data fusion centers are at the heart of the treatment of protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver where peaceful protesters can be lumped together with “terrorists.” In a recent column, Amy Goodman writes about the overbroad definitions of suspicious activity which can land non-violent protesters in federal databases.

Goodman’s column also expressed concern with the literal “caging of dissent” in which arrestees will be taken to a large, temporary detainment facility without bathrooms or running water. The ACLU of Colorado is involved in talks with city law enforcement about attorney access and conditions of detainees.

CapCityLiberty has been sharing information about searches of electronics at the border, but now with the advent of the passport-light card with the radio frequency chip, citizens crossing back and forth into Canada or Mexico will have their travels recorded in a database for up to 15 years.

These data fusion centers are worse than watch lists – and event the watch lists are snagging children now. Here's a recent action alert from the national ACLU:

Why is 7-year-old John Anderson from Minneapolis on the national Terrorist Watch List?


1. He pushed Tommy too hard on the playground.

2. His July 4th birthday means he distracts other Americans from celebrating their country.

3. John didn’t pick up the blocks during playtime.

The truth is that we don’t know how he got on the Terrorist Watch List. Or if he can get off it. It took an Act of Congress to get Nelson Mandela, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, off the list.

This ever-growing and ineffective Watch List demonstrates what's wrong with the U.S. government’s current approach to security: it’s unfair and a waste of resources. And when our government wastes time and money like this, we are all put in more danger -- not less.

Take our national security quiz to learn about other frightening national security “tools.”

The questions above might be light hearted, but the problems Americans face everyday due to overzealous security measures are real.

According to USA Today:
John Anderson of Minneapolis, [now 7] was first stopped at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2004, when his family took him for his first airplane ride to Disney World. "We checked in at the ticket counter, and the woman said in a stern voice, 'Who is John Anderson?' " says his mother, Christine Anderson. "I pointed to my stroller."

Her son is allowed to fly. But because his name is flagged, his family cannot print out a boarding pass for him online and he must check in at the ticket counter so an airline official can see that he's a child.

Take Action!
To find out more about how to fight the "bigger monster with weaker chains" of government surveillance, come to the statewide ACLU of Wisconsin 2008 Activist Conference (Saturday, September 27, Monona Terrace in Madison) where we will feature the ACLU's national expert on domestic spying, Barry Steinhardt. Registration is $30 for members, $10 for students and NEW members can get in the conference and get a new membership for $50. For more information, contact the Madison Area Office at (608) 469-5540.

Fake voter registration hoopla, will vets vote? and more...

News roundup!

Religious Liberty
Here's a story on a UW professor who just wrote a book on the complicated issue of religious healings and medical neglect. The interview with the author addresses the clash between religious liberty and state law in Wisconsin.


Voting Rights
Here is an article summarizing some of the recent controversies about non-partisan groups submitting invalid voter registration forms. Read on for the story about what ACORN did to fix their side of the problem. There is a lot here about partisan bickering over who would benefit from what voting reform laws, but ultimately it must be pointed out that eliminating election-day registration or requiring photo ID to vote creates more barriers to legitimate voting than it would stop this continued myth of widespread, in-person voter fraud. Think about it: what would requiring an ID at the polls do to fix the fact that paid canvassers, motivated by making earning money easier, faked registrations? It's not like they then convince their friends to show up at the polls under those fake names. We don't buy the conspiracy. We need fewer barriers to voting, not more.

According to this AlterNet story, the first large block of voters to be disenfranchised in 2008 are the wounded warriors from recent wars and homeless veterans living at hundreds of Department of Veterans Affairs facilities across the country, according to veterans and voting rights activists. While Wisconsin's valuable election-day registration practice may make our vets able to avoid this controversy, what does our state Vets Administration think about this issue?

Issue of ex-felon voting rights was recently covered in the Washington Post - the article looks at some of the myths and assumptions of partisanship in the effort ot restore the vote to the formerly incarcerated and highlights the work of the ACLU nationally on voting rights.


Miscellany
And this is cool: because free speech isn't always "free," TDS just donated a chunk of change to the Lussier Community Ed Center for a studio where youth can record music.