Reagan Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein -- a speaker last year for the ACLU of Massachusetts's Amicus Club -- called today in the conservative Washington Times for an investigation of former President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other leading figures in the outgoing administration. His piece is in the typically conservative Washington Times.

Speaking of ACLU speakers, be sure to register for our upcoming 2009 Statewide Conference on February 7 at UMass Boston. We'll be looking at what the Obama administration means for civil liberties, and more.

At yesterday?s Cambridge City Council ?Civic Unity? hearing into the use of the city?s new surveillance cameras, unity prevailed. No one from the Council bench or the capacity audience had a good word to say about the eight cameras purchased for the city through a Department of Homeland Security grant.

Instead, widespread skepticism was expressed at claims by the city?s Fire Chief, Police Commissioner and 911 Director that the cameras were only intended for traffic control purposes in case of a large accident or other emergency. State Representative Alice Wolf was among the ten members of the audience who expressed fears about their chilling impact and their potential for invading the privacy of residents.

The ACLU of Massachusetts has played a leading role in raising public consciousness about troubling issues connected with the DHS grant to install the surveillance cameras in nine different cities and towns in the Greater Boston area. In Brookline, after two spirited pubic hearings, the Selectmen recently voted to give them a year?s trial.

We don?t know what the outcome will be in Cambridge. But we do hope there will be another huge turnout when the City Council votes on a public order to keep the cameras turned off.

Stay tuned for the date of that hearing. If you live in communities that are getting the DHS-funded surveillance cameras (Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop) and want to get involved in local organizing, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can learn more about our concerns from the testimony I presented to the City Council last evening.

Nancy Murray
Director of Education
ACLU of Massachusetts

=======
TESTIMONY

I am a Cambridge resident and Director of Education at the ACLU of Massachusetts, which has 1300 members in Cambridge. We have many concerns about the DHS-funded surveillance cameras being installed in Cambridge.

As we understand it, the eight surveillance cameras purchased for Cambridge are part of a ?Urban Area Security Initiative? grant worth $4.6 million from the US Department of Homeland Security. The camera network linking Cambridge and 8 other Greater Boston communities (including Brookline and Somerville) will be run out of the Office of Emergency Preparedness in Boston. Cambridge will thus be incorporated into a rapidly growing network of surveillance cameras across the country funded by the DHS in the name of ?fighting terrorism.? Even Liberty, Kansas ? population 95, now has a DHS-funded surveillance camera.

This raises a host of questions. Whose eyes will be watching us as we go about our daily business? Will the digital images be shared ? if so, with what agencies and on what terms? Where will they be stored and for how long? Who will have access to them? Will they, like so much other public and private data be transmitted to the secretive Commonwealth Fusion Center and possibly be used for data mining purposes? The Fusion Center in Maynard, Massachusetts is now one of 66 Fusion Centers in the country which are emerging as hubs of a new domestic intelligence apparatus that collects information about crime, everyday activities, personal relationships, and tips from the public about suspicious activity, and uses data mining techniques to identify individuals for closer scrutiny, all without any independent oversight.

These questions about the collection, storage, sharing and use of data raise serious concerns about privacy, the surveillance of lawful First Amendment activity, and the nature of a free society. We are alarmed to learn that these extremely powerful cameras will be placed at two sites in Cambridge where demonstrations and vigils often take place ? namely, Holyoke Center in Harvard Square and Central Square.

Existing studies show how easily the cameras can be abused. In Britain, police officers assigned to monitor surveillance cameras ended up using them to zoom in on women?s body parts and even stalk women. They have also been used to target and track people of color. Their round-the-clock monitoring can make immigrants in our community feel even more vulnerable. The potential to use cameras for racial, ethnic or religious profiling is especially troubling because of three recent developments:

? A report in the December 9th Cambridge Chronicle that Cambridge police officers recently went to Israel along with local officials from the FBI and state police to study Israel?s counter-terrorism methods. Racial profiling is fundamental to Israel?s security strategy, as the US State Department itself has recognized.

? New FBI guidelines that permit agents to track people based on their race and ethnicity, without the standard of ?suspicion? required by the Fourth Amendment.

? Reports in the Wall Street Journal (June 13 and November 13, 2008) listing Boston - the hub of this surveillance camera network - as one of nine cities and states across the country which will soon follow in the steps of the LAPD and train police officers to identify and file suspicious activity reports on 65 different behaviors that could ?relate to terrorism? - an example given is taking pictures of a building. This information will reportedly be deposited in state fusion centers, and made available to the DHS, FBI and security officials around the country. The Wall Street Journal reports that the next stage is getting the public involved ?in an education program, called iWATCH, which will instruct citizens on specific behaviors to report to authorities? (Wall Street Journal, November 25).

Whether or not iWATCH comes to the Urban Area Security region of which Cambridge is a part, I don?t think it is farfetched to assume that eventually cameras could be equipped with software to track specific behaviors, with that data being deposited in the fusion center. We know from experience with the bloated and deeply flawed ?No Fly Lists,? that once false or misleading information lands an innocent person in one of these mega databases, that person may be stuck in there forever with all kinds of harmful consequences ? unless his name is Edward Kennedy.

In conclusion, I thank Councilor Decker for initiating this discussion which is really about the kind of society and community we want to live in. Like President Obama, who in his inauguration speech said ?we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,? the ACLU believes that we can maintain both our safety and our freedom. As you will shortly be hearing, evidence shows that surveillance cameras are not effective in fighting crime and in ensuring a safe evacuation in case of a catastrophic event. So let us not be misled by what is indeed a false choice in this case, and instead preserve Cambridge as a city in which our ideals can flourish -? a community where immigrants feel welcome, where diversity and First Amendment activity can thrive and where privacy rights are respected.

TPMtv's Zachary Roth reports that President Obama has "issued an executive order governing press records which makes it much more difficult for former presidents to keep their records secret." In other words, there's a chance we could get information about what went on during Bush's eight years in office that administration officials had hoped to keep secret.

These and other executive orders are being posted daily here, on the new whitehouse.gov website.

President Obama moved almost immediately to begin the closure of the notorious prison at Guant?namo Bay. Predictable hysteria arose from Bush apologists, who argue that deviation from that approach -- basically, locking people up indefinitely on the president's say-so -- would embolden our enemies.

Never mind innocent until proven guilty. Never mind that some of the people in Gitmo are people like cooks, and many might have had no connection to anti-American efforts at all. The U.S. was able to handle the trial and punishment of terrorism suspects before the Bush administration, in a way that protected us from real terrorists and respected American values.

Richard Clarke makes that point well in his op-ed The confusion over renditions in today's Boston Globe. People convicted of attacking the U.S. embassy in Kenya and the World Trade Center in the '90s, for example, weren't set free in the Mall of America -- they went to a Supermax prison in Colorado.

As Clarke writes:

There simply was no need for the special "kangaroo courts" created by the Bush administration.

ACLU of Massachusetts Staff Attorney Laura R?tolo -- author of our recent report Detention and Deportation in the Age of ICE: Immigrants and Human Rights in Massachusetts -- took part in a recent panel, sponsored by the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration, about health care for immigrant detainees. It's now available as a podcast.

When Iowa became the 4th state in the union to recognize equal marriage rights regardless of sexual orientation (after Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California, which voted narrowly in November to take those rights away), I was hit by a sense of inevitability -- an awareness that we will, one day soon, have equal rights under the law.

It's not just that the Hawkeye state -- where I grew up -- serves as a bell-weather of middle-American sensibility. After all, despite being a mostly-white state of farmers and professors, Iowans as a group are moved politically by a sense of common fairness. This gives them the courage to embrace change, even to vote for a young black constitutional lawyer as their presidential candidate and to recognize that "equality under the law" means nothing if those of us with legal rights deny those same rights to our fellow citizens. But the sense of history that I feel in today's Iowa Supreme Court ruling is larger than that -- it's a sense across the nation, we are going to realize the promise of equality under the law. I guess that fresh spring air is the smell of freedom and justice.

On May 26, 2009, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), co-counsel EarthRights International (ERI) and other human rights attorneys will bring oil giant Shell to federal court in New York for the start of a landmark trial for corporate accountability. CCR is pleased to make two exciting announcements as we draw nearer to the trial: we are launching a short film developed by CCR and ERI titled The Case Against Shell, and a new website, www.WiwavShell.org In the early 1990's, following decades of Shell's environmental devastation in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, the Ogoni people of the region organized a non-violent movement against the oil company.

The Observatory: Iran: Joint Letter to the authorities: Concern about the imprisonment of Alieh Eghdamdoost and the recent arrest of 12 other human rights defenders April 9, 2009 President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad The Presidency Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Your Excellency: We, the undersigned members of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, submit this statement to express our deepest concerns regarding the imprisonment of Alieh Eghdamdoost, as well as the recent arrest of 12 other human rights defenders in Iran. Alieh Eghdamdoost, together with dozens of other activists, was arrested at a women?s rights demonstration in Tehran in June 2006. On July 6, 2007, she was sentence to a prison term of three years and four months, and 20 lashes. On appeal, the prison term was reduced by four months, and the judge overturned the lashings. Her sentence of three years is now being implemented, making her the first woman to have a sentence related to women?s rights activism actually implemented. Eghdamdoost was taken from her home on January 31, and has been held in Evin prison since. The fact that Eghdamdoost has been sentenced to a three year sentence that she is now forced to serve, while some others arrested on the same day faced no charges, were acquitted, or received suspended sentences, demonstrates the completely arbitrary nature of these judicial proceedings. Her imprisonment also sets a dangerous precedent for all women engaged in human rights activism in Iran.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 14, 2009 AHRC-OLT-006-2009 An Open Letter to Hon. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, Karachi The AHRC requests you to sign copies of this letter and forward it by facsimile to the Honourable Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali. Hon. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Karachi Pakistan Fax: No. 92-21-9203221 ----------- Your Honour: Re: Suo Moto action is sought on behalf of a seventy-five-year-old man imprisoned by civilians for 34 years 14 April 2009 The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to draw your attention to the case of a Pakistani citizen who has been held in inhuman conditions inside a private cell for 34 years. Although the case is known to authorities in the area and a video documentary has been released about the man, no action has been taken to free him.

It's a sad fact that people who advocated for human rights under repressive regimes, are less conscientious once they become part of the ruling government. I've seen it in my own country of Argentina, and, indeed, we are seeing it right now in the US, as President Obama continues and even expands policies (such as the denial of the right to habeas corpus) violatory of fundamental human rights. So it's not surprising to find the same situation going on in Liberia. Still, it's a reminder that as human rights advocates, we need to be weary of the traps of co-option, be it by the appearance of power or of funds. Marga.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6055 From Foreign Policy in Focus President Barack Obama has reversed a few of the Bush administration's most egregious policies violating human rights and international law, such as the announced closure of the detention center in Guant?namo. But it remains to be seen to what extent he will lead the military toward respect for human rights, and change the institutional impunity to which American commanders and U.S. military allies have become accustomed. Last month, combatant commanders came before Congress to make their case for funding. Southern Command Chief Admiral James Stavridis didn't hesitate to say how critical funds are for military training, especially the former School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). "The camaraderie developed among our military officers at these institutions," Stavridis said, "and the schools' strong emphasis on democratic values and respect for human rights are critical to creating military establishments capable of effective combined operations."

A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who accused a Bay Area company of flying him to foreign torture chambers for the CIA is at the center of a bizarre new case, in which his lawyers face possible jail sentences for writing a letter that asked President Obama to disclose how brutally he was treated. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/20/BA68172JDM.DTL

From the Center for Constitutional Rights http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/383/t/6374/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27088 We need your help to impeach one of the legal architects of the Bush administration Torture Program who is now, incredibly, a federal judge. Last week, President Obama released four torture authorization memos written by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) under the Bush administration that devised a legal framework for the justification of the Torture Program. The memos were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the Center for Constitutional Rights helped file with the ACLU and other organizations.

We don't think so, and the ACLU argued this before the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday.

29 April 2009 Government suspends BBC radio service for "unacceptable speech" in programme on genocide SOURCE: Media Institute, Nairobi (Media Institute/IFEX) - On 25 April 2009, the Rwandan government suspended the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) local-language radio service in the country saying it threatened the country's national reconciliation by hosting people with views negating the 1994 genocide. A press statement released by Information Minister and government spokesperson Louise Mushikiwabo attibuted the closure of the BBC's Kinyarwanda service to "unacceptable speech" on the 1994 Rwanda genocide. She pointed out that the BBC's broadcasts, especially its local vernacular programme "Imvo n'Imvano" (Analysis of the Source of a Problem), had, despite repeated written and verbal protests from government, consistently showed total disregard for Rwanda's unity and reconciliation efforts.

We wanted to share this scorecard from the ACLU of Massachusetts on President Obama's decisions so far on civil liberties, during his first 100 days:

www.aclum.org/scorecard

The tally we've come up with so far is -1.5

The problem is not that the Obama administration has not immediately repaired all the damage done to civil liberties in recent years -- that would be a tall order.

Instead, we are looking at the decisions the administration is making that could help to restore the rule of law, and evaluated whether or not that decision was a step in the wrong direction or a step in the right direction.

www.aclum.org/scorecard

Over 70 Mexican human rights organizations have written to the US Congress expressing their concern over the military aid to fight the drug traffic that the United States is providing Mexico. The US Congress is considering increasing that aid significantly. The organizations request that human rights be put in the agenda of any conversation between the US and Mexico. The following is the letter they've sent.

Copenhagen-Geneva-Paris, April 30, 2009. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) express their deep concern about the warning letter received by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) from the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity, which seriously undermines freedom of association in Egypt. On April 27, 2009, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) received a letter from the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity, Masr-El-Kadima district authority, in which it was warned that the organisation risks to be subjected to closure and dissolution for violating Law of Association No. 84 of 2002. More specifically, the Ministry, which is the competent executive authority for all non-governmental organisations, indicated that Article 42 of the NGO Laws had been breached by EOHR, which, allegedly, had received unauthorised foreign funding.

Yesterday I sent a press release about the threatened closure of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. I did not do my due diligence to find out if the situation had changed until after I sent the story - for which I apologize. Here is the statement by the EOHR on the response by the Ministry of Social Solidarity, which is backing down from its previous threat.

There has been much criticism of Obama's Bushesque human rights policies in recent days and weeks in the American press. However, I'm not sure that the extent of Obama's continuation of Bush's repressive and illegal policies is commonly known outside the US. For those of us who maintained even a glimpse of hope that Obama would be significantly different than Bush, what is happening is very disappointing. In short, the administration wants to limit habeas corpus, leave open the door for continuing the use of torture and forced disappearances, maintain the power of the president to arbitrarily detain people indefinitely and spy on them without judicial oversight. Not surprisingly, the administration also wants to solidify the impunity of those responsible for committing such vile acts. I don't need to explain to you how these policies are not only violative of the human rights of the people involved, but also how they profoundly threaten the core of any liberal democracy, of justice and therefore peace. As the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law". And, in the United States, the rule of law has been broken - and, according to the deeds of the current administration, it will stay that way. What I find most insidious, most dangerous, is that Obama is covering his repressive policies in the language of human rights. He pronounces the importance of the rule of law, while at the same time he undermines it. Doublespeak, if you will. The following is a brief overview of the human rights that continue to be threatened under the Obama administration:

Professor Adam Habib Among Many Writers And Scholars Denied Entry On Basis Of Political Views

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 27, 2009

CONTACT:
Rachel Myers, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Christopher Ott, 617-482-3170 x322, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

BOSTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union is in federal court today to present arguments in the case of a prominent South African scholar who was denied a visa and is barred from attending speaking engagements in the U.S. The government has denied Professor Habib a visa on unspecified national security grounds.

According to the ACLU, the government denied Professor Adam Habib a visa not because of his actions but because of his vocal criticism of U.S. foreign policy, and his exclusion violates the First Amendment rights of organizations that have invited him to speak at conferences in the United States.

"The government can't censor the ideas U.S. citizens get to hear and stifle debate with foreign thinkers by shouting 'national security' without a shred of evidence to back it up," said Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Professor Habib's exclusion is motivated by his political views and associations, not his actions, and we're asking the court to immediately end this unconstitutional ban on his entry to the country."

Habib is a renowned scholar, sought-after political analyst, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research, Innovation and Advancement at the University of Johannesburg. He is also a Muslim who has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and some U.S. terrorism-related policies. In October 2006, the government revoked Professor Habib's visa without explanation. The revocation prevented him from attending a series of meetings with representatives from the National Institutes for Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, Columbia University and the Gates Foundation. In October 2007, the State Department denied Professor Habib's application for a new visa. The State Department claimed that Habib is barred because he has "engaged in terrorist activities," but refused to explain the basis for this accusation or provide any evidence to support it.

In December 2008, Judge George A. O'Toole, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the court had the power to review Professor Habib's exclusion and that the government must justify its actions. Thus far, the government has refused to do so.

The ACLU and the ACLU of Massachusetts filed the lawsuit in 2007 on behalf of organizations that have invited Professor Habib to speak in the U.S., including the American Sociological Association, the American Association of University Professors, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights. The lawsuit charges that the government's exclusion of Professor Habib amounts to censorship at the border because it prevents U.S. citizens and residents from hearing speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

"The ideological exclusion of scholars like Adam Habib violates the First Amendment rights of those who seek to meet with foreign scholars," said Larry Schwartztol, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Ideological exclusion is a form of censorship and it should not be tolerated in a country committed to free expression and democratic values."

The U.S. denial of a visa to Professor Habib is part of a larger pattern of "ideological exclusion." Over the past few years, numerous foreign scholars, human rights activists and writers -- all vocal critics of U.S. policy -- have been barred from the U.S. without explanation or on vague national security grounds.

In March, dozens of the nation's leading academic, free speech and civil rights organizations sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano urging them to put an end to the practice of ideological exclusion. The letter was signed by groups including the ACLU, the National Education Association and the Rutherford Institute.

In addition to Goodman and Schwartztol, attorneys in the Habib case are Jameel Jaffer and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU and Sarah Wunsch and John Reinstein of the ACLU of Massachusetts.

The full text of the letter to Attorney General Holder and Secretaries Clinton and Napolitano is available online at:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/39050leg20090318.html

More information about the ACLU's work to end ideological exclusions is available online at:
http://www.aclu.org/exclusion

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the keynote speaker at our 28th annual Bill of Rights Dinner last week, posted the text of her remarks "Time Will Justify Our Strength" on her blog at The Nation.

The Brookline Tab opposes Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.

NEWS RELEASE

Brookline Rejects Homeland Security Surveillance Cameras

ACLU worked with Brookline PAX, local residents on risks of increased government surveillance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2009

CONTACT:
Sarah Wunsch, Staff Attorney, 617-482-3170, x323, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Christopher Ott, Communications Director, 617-482-3170 x322, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


BROOKLINE -- The Brookline Town Meeting voted late last night to adopt a resolution against the use of police surveillance cameras provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The resolution calls on the Board of Selectmen to halt a one-year trial use of the cameras and to take them down.

This is the first time that a town meeting -- an institution of local New England democratic government, with more than two hundred members -- has debated and rejected government surveillance cameras in a town?s public spaces. Brookline now joins Cambridge, where the City Council voted 9-0 in February to oppose the installation of eight surveillance cameras obtained with the same DHS grant.

?We are grateful to town meeting members in Brookline who understood that a message needed to be sent, that America should not be a place where the government is watching us as we go about our activities in public,? said Sarah Wunsch, a Brookline resident and staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. The ACLU worked with Brookline PAX and concerned residents to educate the community about the increasing government surveillance of lawful activities and the creation of government databases on vast numbers of Americans.

State Representative Frank Smizik of Brookline spoke in favor of the resolution at Town Meeting, saying that ?Brookline has always been a leader? and that this was a time when that leadership was needed to protect our values as a free society.

The Town Meeting vote followed months of public hearings and debates, with many residents objecting to the town?s acceptance of the Bush administration?s offer of millions of dollars for digital interlinked cameras to watch our public places. Although the cameras were justified by town officials as ?free? and as needed to help with evacuations, prevent crime or terrorism, or aid in prosecutions, studies provide no evidence that the cameras are effective. Rather, improved lighting and community policing have been shown effective in preventing and solving crime.

The cameras were intended to form part of a network funded with a $4.6 million Department of Homeland Security grant linking nine Greater Boston communities.

As media outlets including WBUR reported today, the Boston School Committee voted last night to delay a plan that would have limited busing and school choice.

It's an issue the ACLU of Massachusetts has been working on. Here's what Amy Reichbach, our Racial Justice Fellow, has to say about it:

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson announced some months ago that she would be proposing that the School Committee adopt a plan that would change the way students are assigned to their schools. The ACLU of Massachusetts was approached by community activists concerned about this plan. With the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice and the Lawyers? Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association, we developed a set of recommendations that we sent to Superintendent Johnson and the School Committee in advance of last night?s School Committee meeting, where Johnson was scheduled to present her proposal. Our general conclusion regarding the ?Five-Zone Plan? is that the plan, which is designed around cost-cutting rather than ensuring access to quality schools for all Boston Public School children, will exacerbate existing racial and socioeconomic inequities within BPS.

Our analysis of the plan and our recommendations appear online.

Executive Summary:
http://www.aclum.org/pdf/rezoning_proposal_20090602.pdf

Full Report:
http://www.aclum.org/pdf/rezoning_executive_summary_20090602.pdf

At the School Committee meeting last night, Superintendent Johnson and the School Committee agreed to postpone the School Committee?s vote on Johnson?s proposal, which had been scheduled to take place on June 24th, in order to permit her to make some revisions responsive to concerns raised by community members and advocates. We were pleased to see that she intends to consider many of objections raised both by us and by parent and educator activists to the Five-Zone Plan as she goes forward, Of course, it will take ongoing involvement to ensure that any plan she introduces ensures access to quality and innovate schools for families living in several of Boston?s most disadvantaged neighborhoods; ensures access to the most successful model of educating English Language Learners; employs racial and socioeconomic data technologies that could be used for rezoning, school reform and resource allocation purposes; and continues to provide transportation to students to the extent that transportation is required for choice to be meaningful. We are hopeful that our recommendations will help to guide future discussion of the plan.

On the evening of June 2, the Brookline Town Meeting voted by a large margin to reject the town?s Department of Homeland Security-funded surveillance cameras. The vote was the culmination of a vigorous grassroots campaign, with the ACLU of Massachusetts joining Brookline residents to raise public consciousness about the privacy implications of the cameras. Below, Brookline resident John Moon explains why he opposes the camera installation in remarks directed to Town Meeting members.

I am John Moon [of] Brookline, Massachusetts. I am an Emeritus Professor of History, whose specialty is the history of chemical and biological weapons.

I am centering my argument against the placement and operation of surveillance cameras in a national context. The impact of 9/11 and subsequent actions taken by the federal government to confront an existing threat cannot be isolated from actions taken or proposed throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

After 9/11, speculation was rife in government circles that this horrible event was the first wave of a succession of attacks that would inevitably culminate in chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear strikes against our country. This fear was understandable at the time of the event and in the early months that followed. However, the persistence of this deep fear led to an overreaction, close to panic: to warrantless surveillance, to enhanced interrogation techniques.

Let us recall that the surveillance cameras, which are now being promoted as crime preventing, crime solving measures, were initially justified as a means to help evacuations in response to a catastrophic event.

Since 9/11, countless communities have carried out exercises so that their first responders will be better prepared to deal with a terrorist strike. In no case, as far as I am aware, have these tests carried out evacuations beyond the local area. In the case of a biological attack, for example, evacuations would be counter productive and cameras would not help. They cannot detect invisible weapons.

Let us recall that the gift giver of these cameras is the Department of Homeland Security, an agency not especially sensitive to privacy rights. It is this agency, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, that is fostering the fusion centers spread throughout the nation. On 16 October 2006, Michael Chertoff, former head of the Department of Homeland Security, defined the purpose of these fusion centers as a way to create ?a national network of intelligence fusion?to support state and local decision makers, chiefs of police, and state and local intelligence officials.?

Today, more than forty fusion centers are spread throughout the nation, fifteen more are planned. One of these fusion centers is located in Maynard, Massachusetts. In the goals cited on its website, there is no mention of the need to protect privacy while strengthening security.

And will these cameras make us safer? Last year, my wife and I spent two months in London while I did research in the U.K. National Archives.

Great Britain has an extensive surveillance network: London alone has 200,000 cameras, and more than 4 million cameras have been deployed throughout the country. It is estimated that there is one camera for every 14 people and the average Briton is seen by 300 cameras per day.

On the first day that we arrived in London, I was pick-pocketed in the center of the city. In spite of the many cameras the thief was not caught.

This world of surveillance is being put in place at a time when our national laws have not caught up with a technological revolution that is accelerating. Knowledge is power. There are those who have sought to create Total Information Awareness systems for the use of the national government. As Lord Acton reminds us: ?Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.?

What is now in place will be surpassed in the near future.

It's been over a decade since Ken Saro Wiwa and other Ogoni environmental rights activists were executed by the Abacha government in Nigeria. Saro Wiwa had led a peaceful protest against the environmental degradation brought about by Shell's oil exploitation in the Ogoniland region. Saro Wiwa was very successful in garnishing international attention for the plight of his people, and Shell and the Nigerian government wanted him out of the way - they thus conspired to have him tried on made up charges by a military tribunal. Despite the best efforts of thousands of human rights activists worldwide, Saro Wiwa and other activists were quickly found guilty and executed. His family and his people continued to fight for justice - suing Shell for complicity in the torture, killing, and other abuses of Saro Wiwa and his colleagues. Today, on the eve of the start of the trial, Shell settled for $15.5 million - thus tacitly admitting responsibility for such crimes. Of course, money does not equate justice. Brian Anderson, the head of Shell's Nigeria operations, and the others who conspired in the torture and eath of the Ogoni activists should face criminal charges as well - but every step towards justice is a good one. I congratulate Earth Rights, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the private lawyers who worked tirelessly on this effort. What follows is the press release by the organizations that sponsored the trial.

Quota advocates are hoping the economic downturn stimulates more than just federal funding. They’re hoping to increase set-aside contracts. The Federal Highway Administration recently approved the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) racial quota plan. The reason? What else?money. The state’s so-called Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program saw a drop in minority business participation related to the economy. [...]

In April, Bucknell University deans shut down a racial preferences bake sale that a conservative student group hosted to illustrate the unfair and demeaning nature of lowered admissions standards based on race. The school cited a discrepancy between prices at the time of application and at the time of sale. A technicality. After almost three [...]

This blog posting comes from Laurie King, a writer, human rights activist and adjunct professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown. --- I've seen the heartbreaking video of the young Iranian woman, Neda, dying on the street in Tehran a dozen times now. Unspeakably shocking, horrible and tragic. I'm afraid her life and death will be used now in possibly distasteful ways, though. The whole Iran story has left me strangely distraught. I'm shocked by friends who seem to think the protestors are pawns of imperial powers and completely devoid of sense or agency. For some, a global war against neoliberalism trumps the tragedies that this film clip embodies. Then there are the "let's go to war and save the Iranian people" contingent. Most of whom are the same people who would have applauded had Israel bombed the hell out of Tehran, killing Neda and hundreds of others. Iran has to find it's own way. For the US to intervene would be a huge mistake. US legitimacy and credibility in the world is nil, after the disastrous Bush-Cheney misadventures in the Middle East. Then there is my bitter question: Why don't the deaths of Palestinian children and women cause such outrage and alarm? That's why I say "Down with Ideological Purity", or more to the point, down with anyone who wants to mourn some deaths while ignoring others, or want to mourn for reasons that are more self-serving than humanitarian. And then there's the simply ridiculous and surreal: The call to nominate twitter for a Nobel prize. Or, last night, seeing Mavis Leno, wife of Jay Leno, on the Larry King (no relation!) Show talking about how Iranian women are now finally "finding their voice." I can think of ten Iranian women who could have spoken eloquently and incisively about the shooting of this young woman. But no: We get the rather inarticulate wife of a celebrity who knows nothing about Iran saying "well, now Iranian women will be able to wear their chadors in a new style that will allow them to show more hair!" (Apparently she is active with some group called Feminist Majority. As if "feminist" means the same thing all over the world, or as if what Americans think of as liberated is what Iranians would think of as "liberated.") The message of emotionally-overwrought US news coverage of Iran seems to be that Modernization = Americanization, modernization is inevitable, and America is a beacon of freedom to the world. Not to so people living not far from Iran: Palestinians, who are, alas, a people our country is ACTIVELY involved in oppressing in criminal ways. I did not see journalists, congresspeople, pundits, or many Facebook and twitter friends getting outraged at the murders of over 1000 Palestinians in January. But do I think Ahmadinejad is some sort of model of a progressive leader that the left should support? Hell, no. He's Iran's version of George Bush. (Recall that he said that "There are no gay people in Iran. That's a Western sickness.") The point is not "Is Mousavi better or any different?" but rather, what else could a movement like the one unfolding on the streets of Iran accomplish and change? Here we are watching what appears to be a really transformative moment, but one that everyone wants to harness to their own agenda. And to my friends on the Left (where I sit myself): Does neoliberalism mean anything different, or play out in new ways, in the new economic crisis situation, in what can reasonably be described as the post-American Empire period of the 21st century? What does that mean for a progressive agenda? Do we even think and reflect anymore, or just shout slogans? And if you are sitting in a Starbucks somewhere updating your FB account from an iPhone and posting about how Iranian youth are unwitting tools of the US or the World Bank or the IMF and don't understand political economy, try facing people with guns who don't want to hear you assert your will and desires in public. The American left does not know much about Iran. So chill out and listen and learn, people, before defending basijis or painting the Supreme Leader as a victim. If the protestors prevail, the biggest disappointment will be felt among the Likud in Israel and the neocons in the US (note that Daniel Pipes said he'd vote for Ahmadinejad if he were Iranian). With no Evil Mad Man of the week (which is overstating the abilities and impact of a bumpkin like Ahmadinejad) to stir up fear to legitimate an Israeli or American attack on Iran, it's gonna be a boring summer for the warmongers in Israel and Washington. And do note that Iranian youth are not protesting for the right to wear miniskirts, body piercings, or play with the Wii all day. They don't want to undo the Islamic revolution (which was initially all about social justice before corrupt mullahs hijacked it), but rather, to upgrade and adjust their system of governance in the way that they see fit. Listening to the young Iranian people being interviewed, I have to say they are smarter and more mature than most American teenagers I know. I hope no more of them get killed by thugs. This is what democracy looks like, my fellow Americans who did not go to the streets to protest when Bush and Cheney stole the election in 2000 (and very possibly 2004, too). A little respect for others' struggles is in order. It's not always all about us (i.e., from the left feeling that the Iranians are not protesting as they think they should, or the center-left's self- satisfaction that women's liberation is now breaking out, or the right's maudlin crocodile tears for young women like Neda, whose death they seem to want to use to push American intervention in a country that has had very, very bad experiences with US interference. Maybe we should all start intervening in our own systems of governance, which don't reflect or embody much social justice. Ultimately, it's about dignity not ideology. If you aren't supporting and safeguarding others' dignity, then you are not a revolutionary.

A few years ago, white parents in Seattle and Jefferson County, Kentucky, sued the school districts for assigning students based on race, a policy they said violated their rights to equal protection of the laws. The schools claimed they used race only as a “tie-breaker.” The cases made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, [...]

It should surprise no one that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor supports preferential treatment for racial minorities and women. Consequently, one shouldn’t be stunned that she served on the board of a group that filed lawsuits over employment exams similar to the ones in Ricci v. DeStefano. (Source) The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund [...]

Like most liberal politicians, President Barack Obama supports race-based preferential treatment, although he calls it affirmative action, which it is not. We’ve explained on the blog several times what affirmative action is: widening the recruitment net to include qualified minorities historically left out of the process for whatever reason. Racial preferences are not affirmative action. [...]

Last month we blogged about the Center for Equal Opportunity’s study, “Racial, Ethnic and Gender Preferences in Admissions to the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy,” which concluded that both service academies lowered admissions standards for black admittees. Professor Bruce Fleming, who teaches at the Naval Academy, exposes how the school assesses applicants [...]

The New York Times published a story about Lieutenant Ben Vargas, the lone Hispanic who joined a lawsuit with white firefighters in Ricci v. DeStefano. Vargas says he was knocked unconscious by someone he suspects was a black firefighter for joining the lawsuit. His own brother, also a firefighter, turned against him. Vargas, who received [...]

Sonia Sotomayor faces a second day of questions posed by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation to the Supreme Court. The “wise Latina” said she’d be an impartial judge, despite previous statements that indicate the contrary. “Many Senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy. It is simple: fidelity to the law. The task [...]

Lani Guinier, who said African immigrants should not receive racial preferences because they are not descendants of black American slaves, co-wrote an article in the New York Times with Susan Sturm, a fellow liberal law professor. Guinier was Bill Clinton’s nominee for Assistant Attorney General until her pro-quota views became known. I echo what the Center [...]

The Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald says what many people don’t want to hear. Commenting on Ricci v. DeStefano, she cuts to the chase in City Journal: “The main function of the race industry today is to repackage problems of black underachievement as instances of white racism. For decades, the vast majority of alleged discrimination [...]

On the evening of June 2, the Brookline Town Meeting voted by a large margin to reject the town?s Department of Homeland Security-funded surveillance cameras. The vote was the culmination of a vigorous grassroots campaign, with the ACLU of Massachusetts joining Brookline residents to raise public consciousness about the privacy implications of the cameras. Below, Brookline resident John Moon explains why he opposes the camera installation in remarks directed to Town Meeting members.<br /><br /><blockquote>I am John Moon [of] Brookline, Massachusetts. I am an Emeritus Professor of History, whose specialty is the history of chemical and biological weapons.<br /><br />I am centering my argument against the placement and operation of surveillance cameras in a national context. The impact of 9/11 and subsequent actions taken by the federal government to confront an existing threat cannot be isolated from actions taken or proposed throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.<br /><br />After 9/11, speculation was rife in government circles that this horrible event was the first wave of a succession of attacks that would inevitably culminate in chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear strikes against our country. This fear was understandable at the time of the event and in the early months that followed. However, the persistence of this deep fear led to an overreaction, close to panic: to warrantless surveillance, to enhanced interrogation techniques.<br /><br />Let us recall that the surveillance cameras, which are now being promoted as crime preventing, crime solving measures, were initially justified as a means to help evacuations in response to a catastrophic event. <br /><br />Since 9/11, countless communities have carried out exercises so that their first responders will be better prepared to deal with a terrorist strike. In no case, as far as I am aware, have these tests carried out evacuations beyond the local area. In the case of a biological attack, for example, evacuations would be counter productive and cameras would not help. They cannot detect invisible weapons.<br /><br />Let us recall that the gift giver of these cameras is the Department of Homeland Security, an agency not especially sensitive to privacy rights. It is this agency, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, that is fostering the fusion centers spread throughout the nation. On 16 October 2006, Michael Chertoff, former head of the Department of Homeland Security, defined the purpose of these fusion centers as a way to create ?a national network of intelligence fusion?to support state and local decision makers, chiefs of police, and state and local intelligence officials.? <br /><br />Today, more than forty fusion centers are spread throughout the nation, fifteen more are planned. One of these fusion centers is located in Maynard, Massachusetts. In the goals cited on its website, there is no mention of the need to protect privacy while strengthening security.<br /><br />And will these cameras make us safer? Last year, my wife and I spent two months in London while I did research in the U.K. National Archives. <br /><br />Great Britain has an extensive surveillance network: London alone has 200,000 cameras, and more than 4 million cameras have been deployed throughout the country. It is estimated that there is one camera for every 14 people and the average Briton is seen by 300 cameras per day.<br /><br />On the first day that we arrived in London, I was pick-pocketed in the center of the city. In spite of the many cameras the thief was not caught.<br /><br />This world of surveillance is being put in place at a time when our national laws have not caught up with a technological revolution that is accelerating. Knowledge is power. There are those who have sought to create Total Information Awareness systems for the use of the national government. As Lord Acton reminds us: ?Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.?<br /><br />What is now in place will be surpassed in the near future. </blockquote><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-3690770269255265689?l=www.massrightsblog.org'/></div>

The Brookline Tab <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/opinion/editorials/x124601824/Editorial-Camera-pilot-program-too-risky">opposes</a> Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-1052287478008143477?l=www.massrightsblog.org'/></div>

Addressing an audience at the NAACP National Convention, president Benjamin Jealous acknowledged that racial preferences are unpopular and face future defeat (with a shout-out to Ward Connerly): “And we will need all those friends and many more because I’ll tell you this: The days of Ward Connerly beating us at the ballot box are [...]

The American Civil Rights Institute’s Ward Connerly penned an op-ed for the Christian Science Monitor about Ricci v. DeStefano. “Discrimination in employment on the basis of race, sex, skin color, ethnicity, or national origin is a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” he writes. “Yet that fact seems to either go unnoticed or is considered [...]

The Brookline Tab <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/opinion/editorials/x124601824/Editorial-Camera-pilot-program-too-risky">opposes</a> Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width=&#039;1&#039; height=&#039;1&#039; src=&#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-1052287478008143477?l=www.massrightsblog.org&#039;/></div>

The Brookline Tab &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; href=&quot;http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/opinion/editorials/x124601824/Editorial-Camera-pilot-program-too-risky&quot;&gt;opposes&lt;/a&gt; Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;img width=&#039;1&#039; height=&#039;1&#039; src=&#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-1052287478008143477?l=www.massrightsblog.org&#039;/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

Houston Chronicle - Found 7 hours ago ... of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.' The memorandum can be found online at www.usdoj.gov/crt/. In addition, the Civil Rights Division... Justice Department Hosts Conference Celebrating the 45th Anniversary ... - Reuters Justice Department Hosts Conference Celebrating the 45th Anniversary ... - Los Angeles Business Justice Department Hosts Conference Celebrating the 45th Anniversary ... - San Antonio Business Journal Explore All

Houston Chronicle - Found 18 hours ago ... of all civil rights legislation are incalculable. Smith, a partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP, has argued several voting rights...

Philadelphia Daily News - Found 15 hours ago NEW YORK - President Obama yesterday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil- rights leaders, telling the NAACP that Obama hails triumphs of rights organization, warns pain of ... - Truro Daily News Explore All

Metronews - Found 2 hours ago ... and human rights museum to pay off $11.5 million on a loan so it can acquire display rights to thousands of documents of the late civil rights... Plan to pay off King Papers wins council approval - Examiner.com Atlanta approves civil rights museum's plan to pay off King Papers ... - 570News Explore All

The Brookline Tab &amp;lt;a target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot; rel=&amp;quot;nofollow&amp;quot; href=&amp;quot;http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/opinion/editorials/x124601824/Editorial-Camera-pilot-program-too-risky&amp;quot;&amp;gt;opposes&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.&amp;lt;div class=&amp;quot;blogger-post-footer&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;img width=&amp;#039;1&amp;#039; height=&amp;#039;1&amp;#039; src=&amp;#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-1052287478008143477?l=www.massrightsblog.org&amp;#039;/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;

The Brookline Tab &amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;quot;http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/opinion/editorials/x124601824/Editorial-Camera-pilot-program-too-risky&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;opposes&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.&amp;amp;lt;div class=&amp;amp;quot;blogger-post-footer&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img width=&amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;#039; height=&amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;#039; src=&amp;amp;#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-1052287478008143477?l=www.massrightsblog.org&amp;amp;#039;/&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;gt;

The Brookline Tab &amp;amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/opinion/editorials/x124601824/Editorial-Camera-pilot-program-too-risky&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;opposes&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt; Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.&amp;amp;amp;lt;div class=&amp;amp;amp;quot;blogger-post-footer&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;img width=&amp;amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;amp;#039; height=&amp;amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;amp;#039; src=&amp;amp;amp;#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-1052287478008143477?l=www.massrightsblog.org&amp;amp;amp;#039;/&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Fox News - Found 12 hours ago Monday, July 20, 2009 Print EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.??? A federal civil rights lawsuit alleges a southern Illinois sheriff's deputy used a stun gun Deputy Accused of Zapping 3 Kids With Stun Gun - Fox News Deputy Accused of Zapping 3 Kids With Stun Gun - FOXNews.com Ill. deputy accused of using stun gun on 3 kids - MSNBC Ill. Deputy Accused of Using Stun Gun on 3 Kids - ABC News Explore All

Houston Chronicle - Found 11 hours ago ... the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned a district court decision limiting attorneys' fees in civil rights cases, and set new ... Seventh Circuit Establishes New Rights for Attorneys' Fees in Civil ... - Globe Investor Seventh Circuit Establishes New Rights for Attorneys' Fees in Civil ... - Business Review Albany Seventh Circuit Establishes New Rights for Attorneys' Fees in Civil ... - Reuters Explore All

Screen Gems has acquired Murderball director Dana Adam Shapiro?s civil rights screenplay Holler, based on true events at a high school in Mississippi. Kristin Hahn will produce through her Echo Films label alongside Tracey Durning. Jennifer Aniston ...

In 2004, the Rhode Island Judiciary marked a milestone when it opened its first Office of Court Interpreters to help non-English speakers understand legal proceedings. But according to a new study, Rhode Island and many other states do not require ...

Not long after the Nov. 4 general election, videotape and witness testimony surfaced to prove that three members of the New Black Panther Party had intimidated potential voters at a Philadelphia polling place. The Justice Department acted swiftly and ...

Newton Knight still haunts the Piney Woods and swamps of southern Mississippi, 140 years after the Civil War. Knight, subject of the new book "The State of Jones" by journalist Sally Jenkins and Harvard University historian John Stauffer, remains an ...

AM980 CFPL - Found Jul. 21, 2009 ... and human rights museum to pay off $11.5 million on a loan so it can acquire display rights to thousands of documents of the late civil rights... Atlanta to Use City Bonds to Buy MLK Papers - Bet.com Atlanta to use bonds to buy MLK papers - UPI Atlanta to use city bonds to buy MLK papers - Atlanta Journal And Constitution Plan to pay off King Papers wins council approval - Examiner.com Explore All

Chicago Daily Herald - Found Jul. 21, 2009 EAST ST. LOUIS -- A federal civil rights lawsuit alleges a southern Illinois sheriff's deputy used a stun gun on three children at an emergency Deputy Accused of Zapping 3 Kids With Stun Gun - Fox News Suit claims deputies attacked kids - Denver Post Lawsuit: Cops tasered 3 kids, threatened one with sodomy - The Raw Story Ill. deputy accused zapping 3 kids with stun gun - KansasCity.com Explore All

MSNBC - Found 20 hours ago League baseball players, and Emmett Till, the Chicago teenager whose 1955 murder in Mississippi was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. Chicago Cemetery Whistleblower: Job Was Threatened - FOXNews.com Cook County to sue owners of desecrated cemetery - Chicago Daily Herald How one gravedigger dug up a scandal - Toronto Star Online Cook County board votes to sue Burr Oak owners to recover ... - Chicago Tribune Explore All

WYTV News

Philadelphia Daily News - Found Jul. 21, 2009 ... closed in 44 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey - constitutes what adult adoptees call the nation's last civil rights battle. Adoption-records advocates to protest in Phila. - Philadelphia Inquirer Adoption-records advocates to protest in Phila. - Philly.com Explore All

Philadelphia Daily News - Found Jul. 21, 2009 John McBride, 39, filed the civil-rights lawsuit Friday in federal court in Philadelphia, maintaining that he never sold marijuana to an... Lawsuit: Imprisoned man claims he never sold drugs - Philadelphia Daily News Inmate sues Phila. officers over drug case - Philadelphia Inquirer Inmate sues Phila. officers over drug case - Philly.com Explore All

The Brookline Tab &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/opinion/editorials/x124601824/Editorial-Camera-pilot-program-too-risky&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;opposes&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Department of Homeland Security video cameras. We agree.&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div class=&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;blogger-post-footer&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img width=&amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;amp;amp;#039; height=&amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;amp;amp;#039; src=&amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-1052287478008143477?l=www.massrightsblog.org&amp;amp;amp;amp;#039;/&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
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Katrina vanden Heuvel, the keynote speaker at our 28th annual <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aclum.org/dinner/">Bill of Rights Dinner</a> last week, posted the text of her remarks <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/439648/time_will_justify_our_strength">"Time Will Justify Our Strength"</a> on her blog at <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thenation.com/">The Nation</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-3722402587139711244?l=www.massrightsblog.org'/></div>

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the keynote speaker at our 28th annual <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aclum.org/dinner/">Bill of Rights Dinner</a> last week, posted the text of her remarks <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/439648/time_will_justify_our_strength">"Time Will Justify Our Strength"</a> on her blog at <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.thenation.com/">The Nation</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width=&#039;1&#039; height=&#039;1&#039; src=&#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-3722402587139711244?l=www.massrightsblog.org&#039;/></div>

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the keynote speaker at our 28th annual &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; href=&quot;http://www.aclum.org/dinner/&quot;&gt;Bill of Rights Dinner&lt;/a&gt; last week, posted the text of her remarks &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; href=&quot;http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/439648/time_will_justify_our_strength&quot;&gt;&quot;Time Will Justify Our Strength&quot;&lt;/a&gt; on her blog at &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; href=&quot;http://www.thenation.com/&quot;&gt;The Nation&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;div class=&quot;blogger-post-footer&quot;&gt;&lt;img width=&#039;1&#039; height=&#039;1&#039; src=&#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-3722402587139711244?l=www.massrightsblog.org&#039;/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

Houston Chronicle - Found 1 hour ago ... woman to commit acts of prostitution, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King for the Civil Rights Division and Acting U.S... St. Louis Woman Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison on Federal Sex ... - Earthtimes.org St. Louis Woman Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison on Federal Sex ... - Reuters Explore All

Houston Chronicle - Found 1 hour ago ... a handcuffed arrestee in the mouth, announced Loretta King, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and A. Courtney... Officer allegedly punches handcuffed man - UPI East St. Louis Police Department Officer Indicted on Civil Rights ... - Reuters Explore All

Reuters - Found 8 hours ago 'I'm all in favor of the nation's oldest civil rights group redefining its mission and agenda; A new look at black America - Raleigh News & Observer NAACP anniversary celebrates progress on racism, but not an end - Coshocton Tribune 100 years later: Blacks navigating diverse paths - Orlando Sentinel Explore All

George Olivar/AP Gay marriage advocate Steven Goldstein, chairman of the Garden State Equality Group. TRENTON -- One of New Jersey's leading gay rights advocates is raising questions about Attorney General Anne Milgram's pick for state civil rights ...

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the keynote speaker at our 28th annual &amp;lt;a target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot; rel=&amp;quot;nofollow&amp;quot; href=&amp;quot;http://www.aclum.org/dinner/&amp;quot;&amp;gt;Bill of Rights Dinner&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; last week, posted the text of her remarks &amp;lt;a target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot; rel=&amp;quot;nofollow&amp;quot; href=&amp;quot;http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/439648/time_will_justify_our_strength&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;quot;Time Will Justify Our Strength&amp;quot;&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; on her blog at &amp;lt;a target=&amp;quot;_blank&amp;quot; rel=&amp;quot;nofollow&amp;quot; href=&amp;quot;http://www.thenation.com/&amp;quot;&amp;gt;The Nation&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;.&amp;lt;div class=&amp;quot;blogger-post-footer&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;img width=&amp;#039;1&amp;#039; height=&amp;#039;1&amp;#039; src=&amp;#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-3722402587139711244?l=www.massrightsblog.org&amp;#039;/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;

A Warren police officer, accused of tasering a woman several times, will not face federal prosecution. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Officer Rich Kovach last month saying the evidence in the Heidi Gill ...

WHITE PLAINS - A federal jury ruled today that West Point officials did not violate the rights of eight anti-war protesters during a 2004 demonstration on the military base. The eight protesters, all from Westchester, had claimed that their First ...

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the keynote speaker at our 28th annual &amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;quot;http://www.aclum.org/dinner/&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;Bill of Rights Dinner&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; last week, posted the text of her remarks &amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;quot;http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/439648/time_will_justify_our_strength&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;quot;Time Will Justify Our Strength&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt; on her blog at &amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;quot;http://www.thenation.com/&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;The Nation&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;.&amp;amp;lt;div class=&amp;amp;quot;blogger-post-footer&amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;img width=&amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;#039; height=&amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;#039; src=&amp;amp;#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-3722402587139711244?l=www.massrightsblog.org&amp;amp;#039;/&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;gt;
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PROVIDENCE, R.I.? A civil rights watchdog group wants a Rhode Island judge to reverse a gag order banning a woman from commenting on a child custody case on the online social networking site Facebook. The American Civil Liberties Union said ...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) ? U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told hundreds of black prosecutors on Wednesday he is proud to report that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is "back and open for business." Speaking at a National Black ...

Katrina vanden Heuvel, the keynote speaker at our 28th annual &amp;amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.aclum.org/dinner/&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;Bill of Rights Dinner&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt; last week, posted the text of her remarks &amp;amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/439648/time_will_justify_our_strength&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;quot;Time Will Justify Our Strength&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt; on her blog at &amp;amp;amp;lt;a target=&amp;amp;amp;quot;_blank&amp;amp;amp;quot; rel=&amp;amp;amp;quot;nofollow&amp;amp;amp;quot; href=&amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.thenation.com/&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;The Nation&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;.&amp;amp;amp;lt;div class=&amp;amp;amp;quot;blogger-post-footer&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;img width=&amp;amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;amp;#039; height=&amp;amp;amp;#039;1&amp;amp;amp;#039; src=&amp;amp;amp;#039;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/72430895370047121-3722402587139711244?l=www.massrightsblog.org&amp;amp;amp;#039;/&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;gt;<br /><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aclu.org/multimedia/nusratchoudhury_ricciguide.mp3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Attachment(audio/mpeg)</a><br />

TRENTON, N.J. - Seton Hall Law School professor Chinh Q. Le has been chosen as New Jersey 's next civil rights protection czar. Attorney General Anne Milgram had nominated Le on Tuesday to become the next director of the state Division of Civil ...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder used a Southern civil rights landmark as a backdrop Wednesday as he told hundreds of black prosecutors that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is "back and open for business." Speaking ...

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder used a Southern civil rights landmark as a backdrop Wednesday as he told hundreds of black prosecutors that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is "back and open for business ...

An East St. Louis police officer has been charged with federal civil rights violations and lying to the FBI in connection with the assault of a handcuffed suspect in 2006. Antonio McWherter was charged Wednesday in a two-count federal indictment. It ...

NEW YORK (July 17) - President Barack Obama on Thursday traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil rights leaders, telling the NAACP that the sacrifice of others "began the journey that has led me here." The nation's ...