american civil liberties union

Homeland Security Is Buying Its Way Around the Fourth Amendment 19 July 2022 American taxpayers pay to be spied upon. That's one takeaway from new documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has been examining how federal agents spent millions to purchase massive...

Michigan Supreme Court Says Photographing, Fingerprinting People Without Probable Cause Is Unconstitutional 1 August 2022 The only surprise in this decision isn’t that the court ruled the way it did. It’s that the Grand Rapids, Michigan police department apparently believed it wasn’t a...

Federal Judge Rules Gruesome Medical Neglect in Arizona Prisons Violates Eighth Amendment 1 July 2022 Arizona prison officials were deliberately indifferent to "grossly inadequate" medical and mental health care, violating inmates' Eighth Amendment rights, a federal judge ruled Thursday in a...

The FBI Wants To Be Your Facebook Friend 14 April 2022 Undoubtedly, the FBI has always surveilled the open web, looking for persons or phrases of interest. It’s just going to get a whole lot better at doing it. And it’s going to spend millions of your tax dollars to make it easier to place...

'Geofence Warrant' for All Cell Location Data From Area Near Robbery Is Ruled Unconstitutional Plus: New rules on sex discrimination in education, economists warn of housing market exuberance, and more... 1 April 2022 "Geofence warrant" was unconstitutional, says judge. Can the cops use...

The 5th Circuit Approves a Cop's Violent Response to a Dispute Over a 7-Year-Old's Littering The officer used a "pain compliance maneuver" to force information from the boy's sister, who was recording the encounter. 25 March 2022 A 2016 dispute between neighbors that began when a 7-year-old...

The 5th Circuit Approves a Cop's Violent Response to a Dispute Over a 7-Year-Old's Littering The officer used a "pain compliance maneuver" to force information from the boy's sister, who was recording the encounter. 25 March 2022 A 2016 dispute between neighbors that began when a 7-year-old...

Secret Surveillance Warrants Remain Secret In November, the Supreme Court declined to consider an ACLU petition arguing that the public has a First Amendment right to see the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's classified decisions. 24 February 2022 For nearly a decade, the American...

FOIA Lawsuit Featuring A DC Police Whistleblower Says PD Conspired To Screw Requesters It Didn't Like 17 February 2022 It's no secret government agencies love to screw with FOIA requesters. This is especially true when the responding agency doesn't care for the requester's attitude or thinks...

Terrible Vermont Harassment Law Being Challenged After Cops Use It To Punish A Black Lives Matter Supporter Over Her Facebook Posts 9 February 2022 In June 2020, in Brattleboro, Vermont, something extremely ordinary happened. Two residents of the community interacted on Facebook. It was not a...

D.C. Cops Conspired to Keep Records From Reporters, Activists, and Critics, Says Lawsuit Defense lawyer Amy Phillips is suing over what she calls the department's "watchlist policy." 3 February 2022 Did D.C. cops conspire to keep damning information from people and groups critical of them...

Migrants Detained in Texas Border Operation Are Fighting Back — and It's Not Going Well For Gove. Greg Abbott A Texas judge ruled that the state’s arrests of migrants caught crossing the border is an unconstitutional encroachment on federal authority. 26 January 2022 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s...

Police Caught Stealing Money from Innocent People To Secretly Buy Tech to Spy on Citizens’ Cellphones 8 January 2022 For decades now, federal government and their cohorts in law enforcement have been carrying out theft of the citizenry on a massive scale. We’re not talking about taxes, but an...

"Our findings reaffirm that law enforcement not only failed to protect protestors, but actively put them in harm’s way by enabling and encouraging predominantly white, right-wing armed civilians and militia groups that night. These actions escalated tensions, heightening rather than diffusing a...

Push on to separate coroners from law enforcement in California The Golden State is currently one of only three states that allow counties to combine the offices of coroner and sheriff 6 January 2022 A new bill introduced in the California Assembly this week would separate coroner offices...

In 2021, Qualified Immunity Reform Died a Slow, Painful Death Despite bipartisan momentum at the federal level, Congress still couldn't get anything over the finish line. 30 December 2021 The year 2021 was widely seen, almost certainly foolishly, as the end of a dark era and the beginning of...

This Coastal Town Needs Federal Aid for Climate Adaptation. It Will Get a Military Truck Instead. But in Iowa, sheriffs have never even used their “mine-resistant” armored vehicle during blizzards. 23 December 2021 Surfside Beach, South Carolina is on the frontlines of climate change. Rising...

No need to pass the trash when you can just keep it around & regurgitate it! They kept this bad cop on the payroll for EIGHT years until they could finagle a pardon and put him back on the beat to abuse the local citizenry. Pardoned for criminal convictions, police officer resumes patrol...

Changes to Tampa Police citizen review board take place New ordinance goes into effect Friday 17 December 2021 A new law to create more trust between the community and the Tampa Police Department is now in effect. After more than a year of discussion, Mayor Jane Castor and the city council...

Tenth Circuit Appeals Court Says Fourth And Sixth Amendment Rights Are Meaningless When National Security Is On The Line 17 December 2021 A case involving the first criminal suspect to be notified by the DOJ that evidence against him was derived from Section 702 surveillance has just reached...