The "Intelligent Design" Case: Fighting for Religious Liberty Lawmakers, Librarians Join Briefing on Patriot Act Gag Delivering the John Doe Petition to the DOJ ACLU Introduction to the New Supreme Court Term FreedomWire In the States: Fate of 6,500 New Orleans Prisoners Sought Anthony D. Romero on Civil Liberties in the Wake of Katrina Second-Grader Banned From Singing "Awesome God" at Talent Show Check out our Patriot Act Editorial Cartoon Gallery and pick a card to send to your friends. YOU CAN HELP PROTECT OUR BASIC FREEDOMS by joining with over 400,000 card-carrying members of the ACLU. Our rights as individuals -- the very foundation of our great democracy -- depend on our willingness to defend them, and as an ACLU member, you'll be doing your part. Click now to safeguard our Bill of Rights by becoming an ACLU member. Fate of 6,500 New Orleans Prisoners Sought Citing eyewitness reports of locked prisoners being abandoned to drown in their cells in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the ACLU has demanded access to the relocated prisoners it represents under a longstanding class-action lawsuit over prison conditions. In a motion filed before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the ACLU cites both eyewitness accounts and news reports saying that no evacuation plans were in place. Also, the sheriff of the prison did not seek state assistance until midnight on August 29, days after other parish prisons had already called for help. The prison is located within miles of the 17th Street Canal Levee, which was breached on August 29. According to the ACLU's legal papers, prisoners housed in one building known as Templeman III reported that as of August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. As the water inside the locked building began to rise, the prisoners frantically signaled people outside the building by setting fire to blankets and shirts and hanging them out of broken windows. The prisoners in this unit were not evacuated until September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level. The ACLU specifically is seeking information from the U.S. Marshals, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Justice, seeking records regarding deaths that occurred in the prison since August 26, 2005, the collection and disposition of dead bodies from the prison since August 26, 2005, any evacuation plans in effect as of August 26, 2005, and any documents pertaining to evacuation plans in effect as of August 26, 2005. For more information on this case, go here. Anthony D. Romero on Civil Liberties in the Wake of Katrina On September 24, ACLU Executive Director, Anthony D. Romero spoke at the ACLU of Alabama in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. He took the opportunity to address some of the vexing questions raised about the state of civil liberties and civil rights in America by the horrible failure to protect the most vulnerable -- racial minorities, the poor, the sick and the elderly - in the wake of Katrina. To read the full speech, go here Second-Grader Banned From Singing "Awesome God" at Talent Show An elementary school in Frenchtown, New Jersey prohibited a second-grade student, Olivia Turton, from singing the song "Awesome God" in a voluntary, after-school talent show. The talent show was open for anyone who wished to play solo instruments, dance, perform a skit or sing to karaoke. Students were permitted to select their own songs or skits so long as they were "G-rated." "There is a distinction between speech by a school and speech by individual students," said ACLU of New Jersey cooperating attorney Jennifer Klear. "The Constitution protects a student's individual right to express herself, including the right to express herself religiously." Because the school left the choice of songs up to each individual student, the ACLU said, no reasonable observer would have believed that the school endorsed the content of each student's selection. New on FreedomWire -- Ban this Booklist: 50 Books That'll Boost Your Civil Liberties Savvy Exercise your freedom to read at: www.aclu.org/freedomwire Do you know somebody who would be interested in getting news about the ACLU and what we're doing to protect civil liberties? Help us spread the word about ACLU Online -- forward this newsletter to a friend. October 6, 2005 The 21st century version of the Scopes trial opened up on Monday, September 26 in Dover, Pennsylvania. The trial of Kitzmiller v. Dover will test whether American public schools can introduce the idea of "Intelligent Design" as a part of science education. The lawsuit challenges a controversial decision made in October by the Dover Area School Board to require biology teachers to present "intelligent design" as an alternative to the scientific theory of evolution. "Intelligent design" is an assertion that a supernatural entity is responsible for the creation of life. The lawsuit argues that such an assertion is a controversial religious theory that falls completely outside of mainstream science. "Intelligent design" is a pseudo-science that has been repudiated by every leading scientific organization, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences. Each of these organizations asserts that the ideas promoted by ID advocates lack any scientific merit and that their claims cannot be supported by scientific research. As The New York Times explained, "with the new political empowerment of religious conservatives, challenges to evolution are popping up with greater frequency in schools, courts and legislatures." The ACLU is leading the legal challenge against the activists and political lobbyists who are attempting to insert their personal religious beliefs into science education, as if it were science. By trying to use governments to give the prestigious label of "science" to their beliefs, these activists are misleading children and parents and are endangering religious freedom for all Americans. Read more about the Dover case at: http://www.aclu.org/evolution/ Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com Tell your friends about this case and ask them to get involved in the ACLU's work to protect religious liberty. To see the full cartoon and to send your friends a message, go here. A "gagged" librarian at a September 28th Capitol Hill press briefing calling on the Attorney General to lift the gag. As Congress debates how to reform and renew the Patriot Act, newly-disclosed documents show that the FBI has used the National Security Letter (NSL) provision to demand information from an organization with library records. The ACLU is seeking to lift the government-imposed gag order that prevents its client, a "John Doe" organization, from participating in the critical public debate now underway about the Patriot Act. Without appropriate checks on law enforcement, the FBI and other government agencies retain the power to seek the personal records of ordinary Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. Thousands of Americans joined the ACLU and members of Congress to call on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to lift the gag and allow the librarians who represent John Doe to speak to Congress and the public about their first-hand experience with an NSL. On September 28th, the ACLU and more than a dozen librarians delivered the "Let John Doe Speak" petition with its 25,000 signatures to the Justice Department. Beforehand, on Capitol Hill, several librarians with tape printed with the letters NSL over their mouths stood in solidarity with John Doe. They were supported by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI), and Dick Durbin (D-IL), as well as Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and Bernard Sanders (I-VT), all of whom made statements at the event. Congress is considering critical decisions about the very nature of our democracy, but the NSL secrecy rules deny our leaders and all Americans critical first-hand information that could, and should, influence the public debate on the Patriot Act and the NSL authority itself. A first-hand account from Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy After the Capitol Hill event, more than a dozen librarians went with ACLU members to the Justice Department to deliver 25,000 petition signatures from supporters all over the country who want the government to "Let John Doe Speak." As we reached the Department of Justice, an armed agent refused to let the group of librarians deliver the petition. Instead, he arbitrarily asserted that only two people could go in the entrance to call the mail room to pick up the petitions. Knowing there was no law or regulation that limited to two the number of people from one group who could make such a delivery, I said I would be going in as well and asked if there were other librarians who wanted to join. He asked us for our IDs and after glancing at them he let the President of the ALA and of the CLA through along with me. We walked through the door and phoned the mail room. When a DOJ employee came to receive the bulk of documents, the librarians asked to make sure it would make it to the Attorney General, and were assured they would be delivered. That's how the petitions made it to the Justice Department. Hopefully, Gonzales will listen to the American people and allow John Doe to speak. We've just heard that the two Patriot Act bills could be resolved by the week of October 17th. If John Doe is ungagged before then, his testimony could provide critical information for members deciding whether to reform these dangerous powers. The Senate bill takes some positive steps for reform, although more improvements are needed to bring the Patriot Act in line with the Constitution. To read the full account on our Patriot Act blog, go to: http://blog.reformthepatriotact.org More information about the ACLU's cases against the National Security Letter provision of the Patriot Act is available online at: http://action.aclu.org/reformthepatriotact/nsl.html Get Ready for Episode 2 of the ACLU Freedom Files TV series! October 13's timely episode, "The Supreme Court," features Lindsay Earls, a high school sophomore who opposed her school's drug testing policy for violating her privacy. See how Lindsay stood up for what she believed in front of our country's highest court. Screen our Episode 2 trailer. As the Supreme Court opens its new term, the docket already includes a range of important civil liberties cases, involving abortion, free speech, the free exercise of religion, search and seizure, the right to die, military recruiting on university campuses, and disability rights. Other cases involving national security and the constitutionality of military commissions may also be added to the docket soon. The ACLU is direct counsel in a number of these cases. Learn more about this term's cases below, or watch video of our recent breakfast briefing by Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro and others. Right to Die Gonzales v. Oregon: Reviewing whether the federal government improperly undermined Oregon's Death With Dignity Act by threatening doctors with revocation of their license to prescribe narcotic drugs if they assisted in implementing the Act. Government Secrecy Garcetti v. Ceballos: Reviewing whether a government whistleblower forfeits all First Amendment protection by speaking out in the course of his or her job. Edmonds v. DOJ (petition for certiorari pending): Reviewing whether a government whistleblower forfeits all First Amendment protection by speaking out in the course of his or her job. Free Speech/Lesbian and Gay Rights Rumsfeld v. FAIR: Reviewing the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment, which cuts off federal funding to any university that bars military recruiters for failure to comply with the university's nondiscrimination policies. Religious Freedom Gonzales v. UDV: Reviewing a church's claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that it cannot be barred from importing a hallucinogenic tea used in its sacramental ceremonies. Disability Rights Goodman v. Georgia and U.S. v. Georgia: Reviewing whether state prisons that discriminate against prisoners with disabilities can be sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Search and Seizure Hudson v. Michigan: Reviewing whether the exclusionary rule applies to evidence seized following a violation of the "knock-and-announce" rule. Reproductive Freedom Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood: Reviewing the legal standard by which courts consider abortion restrictions and whether laws regulating abortion must protect women's health. For more information on the cases before the Supreme Court, go to: http://www.aclu.org/court/court.cfm?ID=19161&c=317 Privacy Statement This mail is never sent unsolicited. You, or someone on your behalf, has subscribed to receive this information from the American Civil Liberties Union. At the ACLU Web site, the ACLU gathers anonymous summary statistics on the responses to our email newsletters in order to better serve list subscribes and ACLU members. To review our Privacy Statement, click here.