ACLU ONLINE NEWSLETTER 25JUN10

ACLU Online

In This Issue

Ms. McMillen Goes to Washington!

Humanitarian Groups Criminalized Under "Material Support" Law

Nebraska Town Passes Discriminatory Arizona-like Measure

Death by Firing Squad Highlights Inhumanity of Death Penalty

Help Defend the Women Who Defend Us

Victory! Politicians Play Doctor, but ACLU Helps Secure Veto

Make Hawaii Proud, Gov. Lingle: Allow the Civil Unions Bill to Become Law



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Victory! Politicians Play Doctor, but ACLU Helps Secure Veto

In an 11th-hour move during Florida's 2010 legislative session, legislators tagged two harmful amendments onto a health care bill (H.B. 1143) without opportunity for public comment, review by any committee of the legislature or expert testimony. The result of the legislation would have been devastating to women in Florida, drastically undermining access to reproductive health care and dictating what types of health insurance coverage private employers may offer their employees.

Had the bill passed, it would have required doctors—with only extremely limited exceptions for documented victims of certain crimes—to perform an ultrasound before providing an abortion in the first trimester. Additionally, it would have allowed government to dictate to businesses that receive tax credits what types of health insurance coverage they can provide to their employees. As a result, millions of Floridians would have lost the coverage that they currently have through the private market.

In a coordinated effort, the ACLU and 35 partner organizations sent Gov. Charlie Crist a letter urging him to veto H.B. 1143. The letter was part of a collaborative effort by a broad spectrum of organizations to alert Floridians about the realities of this anti-women's rights legislation.

ACLU supporters made over 10,000 calls and emails to Gov. Crist, encouraging him to veto the Florida Legislature's attempt to play doctor. Gov. Crist responded by vetoing H.B. 1143, a major victory for all Floridians. Along with our allies such as Planned Parenthood and Progress Florida, we sent a clear message to legislators: write good legislation, not prescriptions.

Your dedication and overwhelming response no doubt led to this success. Thank you for helping to stop this damaging legislation and commend Gov. Crist's resolve to veto the bill. This veto is a victory for women's rights, reproductive rights, health care, privacy and personal freedom.

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Make Hawaii Proud, Gov. Lingle: Allow the Civil Unions Bill to Become Law

LGBT rights supporters in Hawaii have been waiting on pins and needles since April 29, 2010, when the Hawaii State House of Representatives passed House Bill 444, a civil unions bill, and sent it to Gov. Linda Lingle for her signature. The governor has until July 6, 2010, to either sign it into law, allow it to become law without her signature, or veto it.

H.B. 444 would allow both same-sex and different-sex couples to enter into a civil union, which will provide them with the same responsibilities and legal protections under state law as those provided to married couples. While civil unions will not confer those social and cultural benefits or federal legal protections that come with marriage, they will go a long way towards ensuring that same-sex couples are able to adequately take care of each other and their families.

H.B. 444's long and excruciating two year journey through the Hawaii State Legislature will surely go down in history as one of the most hard-fought battles for LGBT rights in Hawaii. In addition to endless community organizing, lobbying, and public education, supporters of the legislation have endured historically long public hearings, wavering legislators and vote after vote after vote. Even now, while waiting for Gov. Lingle's decision, supporters are lobbying the legislature to come back to the capitol to override her veto if necessary.

It has been reported that the governor, in deciding how to act on H.B. 444, has been reading about the legacy of former Hawaii Gov. John Burns, who allowed a bill legalizing abortion to become law without his signature despite his personal opposition. In his statement to the legislature, Burns noted that his decision was "the decision of the Governor of Hawaii, not the private and personal whim of John A. Burns. It reflects my best judgment as Governor, made after consultation with the best minds in the State, in regard to what is in the best interest of all the people of Hawaii." We hope that Gov. Lingle sees the wisdom and logic in Gov. Burns' position and follows his example.

>> Take action: Please contact Hawaii's Governor and ask her to allow the civil unions bill to become law.

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June 25, 2010

Ms. McMillen Goes to Washington!



ACLU client Constance McMillen with Senator Al Franken (D-MN).

Join Constance in urging members of Congress to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act.
Earlier this week, ACLU client Constance McMillen joined President Obama at a White House ceremony recognizing the contributions of LGBT Americans.

President Obama closed his remarks at the reception by highlighting the struggles of LGBT young people like Constance who, through their courage and commitment, are helping to make change happen in America and opening hearts and minds in the process.

Constance made headlines this spring when her Mississippi high school took the extraordinary step of canceling the school prom rather than allow her to go with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. Constance and her girlfriend were eventually sent to a "decoy" prom that was attended by only a few other students while the rest of her classmates attended a private prom 30 miles away.

Constance made the most of her time in D.C. by squeezing in a jam-packed day advocating for protections for other LGBT students across the country. She started the day with a CNN interview, in which she stated that the reason she has been so willing to speak out is so other LGBT youth will not have to endure the same struggles she and others like her have.

Next up was a personal sit-down meeting with Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.), lead sponsor of the Student Non-Discrimination Act. This legislation would bar discrimination based on "actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity" in public elementary and secondary schools across the country, and would provide legal remedies to students whose civil rights were violated. There is simply no reason why these important protections should not be afforded to LGBT students, a particularly vulnerable population in many schools.

>> Take action: Join Constance in urging members of Congress to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act.

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Humanitarian Groups Criminalized Under "Material Support" Law



Learn how U.S. terrorism finance laws hurt legitimate charities helping Muslims in need. Watch this short video.
This week, the United States Supreme Court upheld the broad application of a federal law that hinders the ability of human rights and humanitarian aid organizations to do their work by making it a crime to provide "material support" to designated "foreign terrorist organizations" (FTOs).

Under the law, individuals face up to 15 years in prison for providing "material support" to FTOs, even if their work is intended to promote peaceful, lawful objectives. "Material support" is defined to include any "service," "training," "expert advice or assistance" or "personnel."

The ruling thwarts the efforts of human rights organizations to persuade violent actors to renounce violence or cease their human rights abuses and jeopardizes the provision of aid and disaster relief in conflict zones controlled by designated groups. The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, on behalf of the Carter Center and several other organizations known for their work to promote peace, further human rights and alleviate human suffering around the world.

"The 'material support law'—which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism—actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence," said former President Jimmy Carter, founder of the Carter Center. "The vague language of the law leaves us wondering if we will be prosecuted for our work to promote peace and freedom."

>> Learn how U.S. terrorism finance laws hurt legitimate charities helping Muslims in need. Watch this short video.

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Nebraska Town Passes Discriminatory Arizona-like Measure

Arizona isn't the only jurisdiction passing laws that encourage discrimination and racial profiling.

Fremont, Nebraska voted this week to banish undocumented immigrants from rental homes or jobs in the 25,000-person town. The law requires town officials to evaluate the citizenship status of any person renting property, while employers must check the status of would-be hires using a flawed federal database.

The vote could make Fremont the latest battleground in a national fight against discriminatory laws like the one recently passed in Arizona requiring police to demand "papers" from people they stop who they suspect are not authorized to be in the U.S.

"If this law goes into effect, it will cause discrimination and racial profiling against Latinos and others who appear to be foreign born, including U.S. citizens," ACLU Nebraska Executive Director Laurel Marsh said about the Fremont law. "The ACLU of Nebraska has no option but to turn to the courts to stop this un-American and unconstitutional ordinance before the law goes into effect. Not only do local ordinances such as this violate federal law, they are also completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality. We will be working with concerned citizens in Fremont who want to stop Arizona-like laws from getting on the books in their city."

The ACLU has successfully challenged local anti-immigrant laws across the country. Similar laws have been struck down by courts in California, Pennsylvania and Texas.

>> Learn more about this challenge.

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Death by Firing Squad Highlights Inhumanity of Death Penalty

When Ronnie Lee Gardner was strapped into a chair last week, a hood placed over his head and a small white target pinned over his heart, the citizens of Utah—and indeed the entire country—were reminded in the most graphic of fashions of the nation's ongoing adherence to the barbaric, arbitrary and bankrupting practice of capital punishment.

Five anonymous men, each carrying identical .30-caliber rifles, carried just the third execution by firing squad in Utah—or anywhere else in the U.S.—since 1976, and the first since 1996. It is a practice so brutal that even Utah's state legislature outlawed the practice in 2004, though it left the option available to prisoners who were condemned prior to the legislative action.

While executions in the United States are generally carried out largely under the radar and absent much fanfare or media attention, most Americans might be surprised to learn that a death sentence is carried out almost every week. But the brutal nature of Gardner's planned killing by firing squad has resulted in it being unavoidably high-profile.

As savage and inhumane as Gardner's execution was, we cannot let it shroud the systemic injustices and inequities that plague every other execution that takes place in this country, and which delegitimizes the death penalty system in Utah and across the nation.

Like taxpayers in other death penalty states, Utah's taxpayers are wasting millions of dollars every year to prop up a system in which a few randomly selected individuals receive the death penalty. Instead, we can condemn the worst offenders to permanent life imprisonment, a severe, swift, certain and much more cost-effective punishment that serves our shared priorities of punishing offenders and protecting society.

In the past three years, the systemic injustices of the system have compelled New York, New Jersey and, most recently, New Mexico, to replace the death penalty with permanent imprisonment. In fact, New Mexico is the 15th state without the death penalty and the first in the continental western U.S. Utah should join them.

>> Learn more about the ACLU's work to end capital punishment.

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Help Defend the Women Who Defend Us

Tell your members of Congress to protect the reproductive rights of women serving our country.
It's totally unacceptable. More than 100,000 women serving overseas in our nation's armed services can't exercise the rights they defend with their lives.

But that's what's happening: women in the armed services are prevented from getting abortions—even if they pay for them themselves.

The Senate Armed Services Committee recently voted to lift the military facilities abortion ban and allow privately financed abortions in U.S. military hospitals. But anti-choice members of Congress are trying to keep the senseless ban in place.

This is one of the many ways in which anti-choice extremists are trying to chip away at the rights of women. And each time, ACLU supporters have stood up to defend reproductive rights.

From proposed state initiatives that define the fetus as a person to attempts to drastically undermine access to reproductive health care and dictate what types of health insurance coverage private employers may offer their employees, we're fighting extremist forces that want to impose their values on the rest of us.

>> Take action: Tell your members of Congress to protect the reproductive rights of women serving our country.

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Geraldine Engel and Lisa Sock,
Editors


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