american civil liberties union

• Politics

State lawmakers, ACLU consider legislation to regulate police surveillance

State lawmakers and civil liberties advocates are considering legislation that would regulate police surveillance programs — and require public disclosure — after the Baltimore Police Department ran a secret aerial surveillance program over the city for months.

• Politics

Maryland General Assembly session ends with criminal justice reforms, no income tax breaks

The General Assembly agreed Monday to sweeping changes in Maryland's criminal justice policies, but failed to reach a deal that would have given residents their first major income tax break in nearly two decades.

• Laws and Legislation

ACLU files suit against NSA 'Upstream' surveillance

The American Civil Liberties Union announced a lawsuit against the National Security Agency on Tuesday, alleging what it calls "mass Internet spying" on Americans international emails, communications and other online activity.

• Feminism

ACLU, military women's group sue Defense Department for Naval Academy records on female midshipmen

Advocates for military women are suing the Department of Defense for information about how the Naval Academy and the other military service academies recruit female students — part of a campaign, they say, to expose ongoing gender bias at the elite training grounds for the nation's officer corps.

By Ian Duncan

Feb 3, 2015

• Finance

Democrats vow to fight Hogan education cuts

General Assembly Democrats and the state teachers union vowed Tuesday to fight what they called unacceptable cuts to education aid proposed by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

By Michael Dresser

Feb 3, 2015

• Baltimore County

Baltimore County Council creates animal commission

Following months of complaints from animal welfare advocates, the Baltimore County Council voted unanimously Monday to create an animal services advisory commission.

By Pamela Wood

Feb 2, 2015

• Baltimore City Paper

Wandering Eye: A deep look at drug treatment, what rights do you have while driving?, and more

• Baltimore City Paper

Parents organize opposition to Hogan's education cuts

• Business

Local civil rights advocates worry about housing case

Lawyers who launched a fair-lending case in Baltimore against Wells Fargo that ended with a $175 million settlement three years ago had an effective weapon in their arsenal: a federal legal standard recognizing discrimination by effect as well as intent. Today, local housing advocates are concerned that this long-standing Fair Housing Act protection is in jeopardy as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a challenge to it.

By Arthur Hirsch

Jan 23, 2015

• Finance

City, counties, advocates pore through budget for impact of cuts

As Gov. Larry Hogan released details of next year's austerity budget Friday, advocacy groups and local governments pored through the numbers to discover what the impact would be on the people they serve.

• Baltimore City Paper

Judge rules Fancy Cats Rescue Team's free-speech and retaliation lawsuit against head of controversial local animal shelter can move forward

Federal judge James Bredar ruled that Fancy Cats Rescue Team and its coordinator, Denise Arnot, have properly alleged a violation of "the right to exercise constitutionally protected free speech, free of a state actor's retaliatory adverse act," and that the director, Charlott Crenson, is not immune from being sued since her alleged conduct "violated a clearly established constitutional right." He also found that the claims are over a "valuable government benefit," namely the "opportunity to serve as a volunteer or partner with a government organization."

• Howard County

Kittleman adds new staff, gets rid of others

The newly fledged Kittleman administration has announced several new hires and confirmed a few departures.

• Politics

Advocates want governor out of lifer parole decisions

Advocates for the rehabilitation of prisoners gathered in Annapolis Tuesday to call on lawmakers to eliminate a requirement that Maryland's governor sign off on any parole recommendation for an inmate serving a life sentence.

By Michael Dresser

Jan 20, 2015

• Opinion

Reform Maryland's officers' bill of rights

Maryland and the nation are grappling with how to restore trust that law enforcement officers will treat all the people they serve fairly and equally, and that the officers can be and will be held accountable when they do not. One critical component of reform locally has to be reform of Maryland's Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights

• Maryland

Marchers in Annapolis echo nationwide call

About 150 protesters gathered Thursday at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis morning before marching to the House of Delegates, where they declared their intention to regularly attend Maryland's General Assembly.

• Politics

ACLU raises concerns over homeland security appointee

ACLU raises concerns over homeland security appointee

• Baltimore City Paper

Skating the Curfew

• Baltimore City Paper

A Night at the Curfew Centers

• Opinion

The agenda

The agenda for Hogan and the legislature should be a cautious one in 2015.

• Obituaries

Katharine LeVeque, anti-war group member, social services worker

Katharine LeVeque, a Baltimore resident for more than 50 years and member of a anti-war group that two years ago won a won a civil rights lawsuit with the ACLU against the Baltimore City Police for her peace activities, died of congestive heart failure on Jan. 1

By Joe Burris

Jan 12, 2015

• Politics

Budget likely to dominate otherwise unpredictable session

One thing's certain about the Maryland General Assembly session that opens Wednesday: it will be dominated by a budget fight. Otherwise, the 435th session of the legislature is unpredictable.

• Baltimore County

Baltimore County Council considers forming new animal shelter advisory group

As criticism of Baltimore County Animal Services mounts, the Baltimore County Council plans create an advisory committee to offer a level of oversight of the agency and its shelter.

By Pamela Wood

Jan 5, 2015

• Opinion

Spying forever

Congress needs to close the loopholes in the Patriot Act that give the NSA virtually unlimited power to spy on Americans' private lives

• Opinion

U.S. torture was illegal, but nobody is likely to be punished

In a rare case of editorial initiative, the New York Times editorial board has flatly called for an investigation of former Vice President Dick Cheney and other prominent George W. Bush administration figures involved in authorship of the so-called torture memos, which authorized use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" against suspected terrorists captured in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The editorial was more wish that prediction.

By Jules Witcover

Dec 29, 2014

• Maryland

State police to pay $600k legal fees in racial profiling suit

A Baltimore County judge has again ordered Maryland State Police to reimburse civil liberties groups nearly $600,000 in legal fees over a long-running court battle over racial profiling, according to the ACLU and the law firm that assisted them in the case.

• Baltimore City Paper

Pot decriminalization brings sharp drop in arrests in Baltimore City

• Courts and the Judiciary

Md's top court will review openness of police disciplinary records

The Maryland ACLU says the state's highest court has agreed to take up a case that centers on whether citizens who file complaints against police are entitled to know the outcome.

• Courts and the Judiciary

Court weighs how companies must accommodate pregnant women

In a case that could have a profound impact on the rights of pregnant employees, the Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled over whether a Maryland UPS driver faced discrimination when she was asked to leave her job because her pregnancy prevented her from lifting heavy packages.

• Maryland

Release Senate report on torture

• Opinion

Immigration is not a zero sum game

Immigration is not a zero sum game

• Opinion

Don't reduce city schools' capital funding

The Baltimore Education Coalition calls upon the state IAC to give the city school system its regular allotment of capital funding: 11 percent to 12 percent of the total state budget for school construction. Other Maryland districts should get their fair share as well — a win win for all children in the state.

• Baltimore City

ACLU joins Md. federal case over cellphone tracking

The national American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief supporting a challenge to the use of a cellphone tracking device in a federal case in Maryland, arguing that the technology raises "serious Fourth Amendment concerns" and that authorities misled a judge in obtaining a court order.

• Baltimore City Paper

This Week in Alts: Overcrowding in Nashville schools, the gay wing of an L.A. jail, and more

• Baltimore City Paper

As City Council and public clamor for police body cameras, mayor hires group to clarify questions raised

• Trials and Arbitration

Appeals court to weigh NSA phone data program

A federal appeals court will hear arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the NSA's vast phone data collection program — the next act in the legal battle pitting the agency's anti-terrorism efforts against the privacy rights of Americans.

By Ian Duncan

Nov 3, 2014

• Opinion

Time for 'bottom-up' education reform

The renewed clamor for postponement of Common Core testing provides further evidence of the failure of "top-down" reform in Maryland public schools. Who can forget MSPAP, the State Board of Education's high stakes tests for graduation; and the procrastination in fulfilling the Race to the Top promise that teacher promotions would be related to student performance? What has not been tried is "bottom up" reform.

• Maryland

Support Harrison for Orphans' Court Judge [Letter]

• Opinion

Marijuana legalization is the only option

The longer Maryland waits to end criminal penalties for pot, the harder it will be for addicts to seek treatment.

• Opinion

Brown's fiscal fallacies

Larry Hogan admits to errors in his plans to cut state spending, but Anthony Brown's proposals for savings are flawed, too

• HIV - AIDS

Greenbelt Hair Cuttery employee with HIV reinstated after being fired

An assistant manager at a Greenbelt Hair Cuttery who was fired after being diagnosed with HIV has been reinstated and paid restitution by the barbershop chain's parent company, the American Civil Liberties Union announced Wednesday.

• Baltimore County

ACLU says Balto. Co. has squelched criticism of animal shelter

The ACLU of Maryland says Baltimore County officials have repeatedly moved to stifle critics of its animal shelter, violating free-speech rights and raising "significant legal concerns."

By Alison Knezevich

Oct 19, 2014

• Opinion

We're living in depressing times

The stock market rises and falls, ISIS marches on and the president plays golf, writes Cal Thomas.

• Politics

Rawlings-Blake criticism highlights debate over police strategy under O'Malley

The sharp reduction in violent crime that occurred on Martin O'Malley's watch as mayor of Baltimore is a central theme of the speech he gives as he travels the country and lays the groundwork for a presidential campaign. But ongoing criticism from the city's current mayor could focus attention on an aspect of O'Malley's crime-fighting record he never mentions in New Hampshire or Iowa: A soaring arrest rate during his tenure in Baltimore that angered civil rights groups and locked the city into a

By John Fritze

Oct 13, 2014

• Opinion

U.S. citizens have a right to protest, even in Ferguson, Mo. [Commentary]

It seems our constitutional rights are being nibbled out from under us, while we watch with dull complacence.

• Maryland

Support Harrison for Orphans' Court judge [Letter]

• Politics

Montgomery Co. is latest to limit immigration detainers

Montgomery County officials said Tuesday they will no longer honor federal requests to hold illegal immigrants beyond their scheduled release date unless U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can demonstrate the person is likely to have committed a crime.

• Baltimore City Paper

Come Mayor $RB, Won't You Smoke a Little Weed With Me?

• Howard County

Howard BOE candidates talk school disparities in forum

Howard County Board of Education candidates discussed what they perceive as inequalities between county schools, the need to adjust school start times and the controversial confederate flag display at Glenelg High School during a candidates' forum Wednesday at The Other Barn in Columbia.

• Politics

Ferguson brings new attention to Cardin bill on profiling

Sen. Ben Cardin said Tuesday that his legislation to prohibit law enforcement agencies from racial profiling had received renewed national attention after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last month.

• Baltimore City Paper

Wandering Eye: Omar and the ACLU, WaPo on Yahoo, Russ Smith on Charles Street, and more