November 21, 2008
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During a 60 Minutes interview last week, President-elect Obama affirmed his intentions to reject torture and close the Guantánamo prison camp and the military commission system.
"It is incredibly gratifying that President-elect Obama plans to put an end to the Guantánamo prison camp and its sham military commission system which have been a stain on America's name at home and abroad,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “We strongly urge him to take such action on Day One with the stroke of a pen, by executive order. The Bush military commissions that violate core constitutional principles and rely on hearsay, secret evidence and evidence obtained through torture have no place in our democracy. Federal civilian or military courts are perfectly capable of handling terrorism prosecutions and accommodating sensitive national security concerns, as has been demonstrated time and time again."
On Monday, the ACLU’s Chris Anders travelled to Guantánamo to observe the military commission hearings of Ibrahim al-Qosi and Mohammad Hashim and reported that interest in the proceedings down there have taken a nosedive. He writes:
"[E]veryone notices that attendance is way down. A couple of military personnel shut off the power in empty tents here in “Camp Justice.” As the only representative of a human rights group this week, my bed is the only one occupied in my six-bed tent. And the media pool is now down to just one reporter. It seems that all that is left to be done is for the new president to pull the plug on the whole operation on January 20th."Our task now is to do everything we can to maintain momentum for a January 20th executive order. Immediately closing Guantánamo and shutting down the military commissions can be a powerful first step on the long road to a full restoration of our fundamental freedoms.
>>Take Action: Sign the open letter to President-elect Obama to demonstrate your support for him to close Guantánamo.
>>Read Chris Anders’s dispatch from Guantánamo.
California Supreme Court Agrees to Review Prop 8 Legal Challenges
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In an order issued Wednesday, the California Supreme Court agreed to hear the legal challenges to Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that would end marriage for same-sex couples in California. It passed narrowly on November 4th.
On November 5th, the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of Proposition 8 in the California Supreme Court on behalf of six couples and Equality California. The City of San Francisco, joined by the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, and Santa Clara County, filed a similar challenge, as did a private attorney in Los Angeles.
The lawsuits allege that, on its face, Proposition 8 is an improper revision rather than an amendment of the California Constitution because, in its very title -- which was "Eliminates the right to marry for same-sex couples" -- the initiative eliminated an existing right only for a targeted minority.
If permitted to stand, Proposition 8 would be the first time an initiative has successfully been used to change the California Constitution to take away an existing right only for a particular group. Such a change would defeat the very purpose of a constitution and fundamentally alter the role of the courts in protecting minority rights. According to the California Constitution, such a serious revision of the state constitution cannot be enacted through a simple majority vote but must first be approved by two-thirds of the legislature.
Since the three lawsuits submitted on November 5th, three other lawsuits challenging Proposition 8 have been filed including petitions filed by the California Council of Churches, leading African American, Latino and Asian American groups, and two prominent California women's rights organizations.
In May of 2008, the California Supreme Court held that barring same-sex couples from marriage violates the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and violates the fundamental right to marry. Proposition 8 would completely eliminate the right to marry only for same-sex couples. No other initiative has ever successfully changed the California Constitution to take away a right only from a targeted minority group.
>>Learn more about the ACLU’s work to defend same-sex couples.
Documents Reveal U.S. Knowingly Transfers Detainees To Countries That Torture
New documents obtained by the ACLU this week reveal unsettling details of the U.S. government's process for transferring individuals to countries where they face a significant risk of being tortured.
The documents shed new light on the fundamentally flawed practice of "diplomatic assurances" -- secret promises obtained from foreign governments that they will not torture individuals who are being returned to their country.
The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the ACLU and Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic and shed light on the unreliable nature of unenforceable promises. For example, one memo written by Deputy Secretary of State John Bellinger states, "There is no doubt that torture generally remains a problem for Indian law enforcement." Yet the U.S. government extradited a man to India in 2006 based on diplomatic assurances from the Indian government that he would not be tortured upon his return.
According to another memo, the U.S. government conceded that it is "keenly aware of the culture of torture and extrajudicial punishment in Indian jails" and admitted that it was "unable authoritatively to confirm" whether another extradited couple was tortured. In fact, the couple signed affidavits claiming they were indeed tortured.
>> Learn more about the ACLU’s FOIA request on “diplomatic assurances.”
Abuse Of Iraqi Prisoners Was Systemic, Documents Show
As part of another ongoing FOIA lawsuit, the ACLU also released Department of Defense documents this week that provide further evidence that prisoner abuse in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq was systemic. The documents show that Army investigations of abuse in Iraq were compromised by missing records, flawed interviews and problems with witness recollection.
The documents relate to eight investigations of detainee abuse that occurred in 2003 and 2004. Charges of abuse described in the documents include food and sleep deprivation, the misuse of tasers, sexual threats, urinating on detainees and the use of various stress positions and dogs to intimidate detainees.
In one file, a soldier who was stationed at Camp Cropper in Iraq reports that "soldiers would hog-tie detainees out of their own frustration because detainees would continuously ask them for water or -- in some form -- not be compliant." In another file, a prisoner who was held at a facility called "Kilometer 22" charges that he was punched repeatedly and hit in the face with a sandal by an Egyptian interpreter when he could not give American interrogators the answers that they wanted.
The American public and the world have the right to know the truth about these abuses, the policies that led to them, and the leaders whose decisions put the policies in place. In 2003, the ACLU filed a FOIA request for records of abuse of detainees in United States custody abroad. Since then, the government has released more than 100,000 pages.
>>Learn more about ACLU’s ongoing FOIA lawsuit and work to prevent torture.
Problematic E-Verify Program Should Be Scrapped, Not Expanded
President Bush issued a final rule late last week requiring all federal contractors to use E-Verify, a flawed governmental system to check the citizenship of its workforce as a condition of doing business with the federal government.
The rule would require re-verification of some current federal contracts. This unprecedented expansion would require the compliance of millions of governmental contractors, but the systemic infrastructure simply does not exist for them to participate in the program.
The E-Verify system checks the status of workers against their Social Security file, maintained by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The SSA has already come under criticism for flawed databases, whose errors have resulted in backlogs in payments for the elderly and disabled. Mandating federal contracts to use E-Verify would only exacerbate the struggles of SSA.
"E-Verify has been problematic since its inception -- hobbled by bureaucratic errors in individuals’ Social Security files and runaway costs preventing innocent Americans from working," added Timothy Sparapani, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel. "The costs of moving forward with such a troubled initiative will be felt by all Americans, either in lost tax revenues for the elderly and disabled, or by those who will be prevented from working due to systemic errors out of their control."
>>Read more about the E-verify system.
Including the ACLU in your will is worth more than words can convey.
Through the Legacy Challenge, naming the ACLU Foundation in your will or trust qualifies us to receive up to a $10,000 matching donation today from our generous donor the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust. It's that simple.
So if you have the will, we have the way.
To learn more, visit www.aclu.org/legacy or call toll-free 877-867-1025.
Please act now. The Legacy Challenge ends soon.
Human Rights Begin at Home
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While the U.S. government was a leading voice in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), its policy and practice over the past 60 years has shown a failure to live up to these ideals.
On December 10th, 2008, we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of this instrumental document.
A recommitment by the U.S. to the principles and ideals of the UDHR is essential not only for improving U.S. standing in the world, but, more importantly, for its promise to ensure equality and justice for all at home.
Help us send that message to the next Administration and Congress by signing our UDHR petition today.
Know someone between ages of 16 and 23? The ACLU’s Human Rights Program is sponsoring a contest for young people to create a 60-second video about an article in the UDHR. The winner will win a trip to New York to attend the December 10th, 2008 session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City! Enter the video contest today!
>>Learn more at www.udhr60.org.
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