By: Christopher Baker, Rights On! (1:374/14) To: All, Star Tech III (1:218/801) Re: notes

By: Christopher Baker, Rights On! (1:374/14)
To: All, Star Tech III (1:218/801)
Re: notes from the ACLU News feed on Internet

Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 13:21:09 GMT
From: ACLU.Newsfeed-Owner
To: news@aclu.org
Subject: ACLU News 04-17-96: Terrorism, Wiretap, Gay Student Clubs...
Sender: owner-news@aclu.org

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04-17-96
ACLU Newsfeed -- ACLU News Releases Direct to YOU
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 TODAY'S NEWS:

* ACLU Alerts House That Significant Wiretap Provisions Remain in
Conference Report on Terrorism Legislation

* Utah Lawmakers Vote Today to Single Out Gay Student Clubs; ACLU Vows
to Challenge Restrictions in Court

* Judge Rules State Prisoner Cannot Be Force-Fed

* Wrongly Accused Oklahoma City Suspect Rejects Government's Token
Settlement Offer

* Student Suspended for Saying "Christ"

* Congress May Strip Federal Judges of Their Power

* NYCLU to File Suit in Death Penalty Controversy

* Catholic Cardinals Criticize Clinton Veto
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*ACLU Alerts House That Significant Wiretap Provisions*
*Remain in Conference Report on Terrorism Legislation*

WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today alerted  members
of the House of Representatives that significant wiretap provisions
remain in the terrorism legislation now making its way through Congress.

Despite assurances to the contrary by House and Senate leadership, the
ACLU said that the current conference version of the terrorism bill
includes two significant expansions of wiretap powers for government law
enforcement agents while also removing prohibitions on eavesdropping by
private parties.

In their desire to hide the wiretap provisions from concerned members of
the House, the conference leaders went to such extremes as to subtly
change wording in the conference report, the ACLU said.  Section 731 of
the House Bill, for example, was titled "Exclusion of Certain Types of
Information from Wiretap-Related Definitions." While the conference
committee deleted the words "wiretap-related," it left the wiretap
provisions unchanged, the ACLU said.

The ACLU also pointed to another provision deeply buried in the
conference report that would require banks  to freeze assets of domestic
groups and U.S. citizens if there is any reason, however vague, to
believe that the organization or individual is an "agent" of a
designated foreign terrorist organization.

In addition, the ACLU said that the terrorism conference report includes
yet another provision added at the last minute that would federalize
state law to an even greater extent than either version of the
corresponding sections of the House and Senate bills sent to conference.

"Taken together, these provisions should cause members of the House to
have deep concerns about the terrorism bill as they face a final vote,"
said Gregory T. Nojeim, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Dangerous and
largely hidden changes have been made in this bill. We ask that members
of the House vote against this legislation to protect our nation's
liberties well into the next century.

"This bill," Nojeim added, "would do nothing to make safer, but would,
in effect, add the Bill of Rights and our nation's liberty to the list
of casualties of the tragic bombing in Oklahoma City."
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*Utah Lawmakers Vote Today to Single Out Gay Student Clubs*
*ACLU Vows to Challenge Restrictions in Court*

SALT LAKE CITY -- Seeking to sidestep a federal law guaranteeing equal
access in the schools,  Utah lawmakers will hold a special legislative
session today to vote on a controversial bill aimed at restricting
lesbian and gay student clubs while allowing all other extracurricular
clubs to meet.

     The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been lobbying heavily
against the bill, says the measure is in clear violation of the Equal
Access Act of 1984, and vowed to challenge the legislation the moment
the law is enforced.

"This law flies in the face of federal law, not to mention the mission
of schools to help all students learn and grow," said Carol Gnade,
Executive Director of the ACLU of Utah.  "In its cruel efforts to single
out lesbian and gay youth for discrimination, the legislature has
slapped together a bill that violates the First Amendment rights of
every person affiliated with a Utah high school."

    Gov. Mike Leavitt and legislative leaders emerged late Tuesday with
a proposal that would allow school districts to ban clubs that promote
"bigotry, encourage criminal behavior or involve human sexuality," and
require students to get parental consent before joining any club.

    The controversy began in February when the Salt Lake City school
board, citing the federal equal access law, voted to ban all student
clubs rather than allow a gay and straight alliance club at the East
Side High School to form.  Ironically, the law was originally drafted to
give Bible-study groups access to school facilities for extracurricular
activities, and was supported by Utah Senator Orin Hatch, a conservative
Republican.

After the school board vote, state lawmakers seized the issue and began
holding closed-door  meetings to craft legislation that would allow the
Salt Lake City school board to lift its blanket ban on all student
groups, while maintaining restrictions just on gay groups.

"Their thinly-veiled attempt to single out gay youth is not fooling
anybody," Gnade said. "But in their rush to sidestep the equal access
law, the lawmakers have thrown together a proposal so broad, even the
Utah legislature could be barred from forming a group if they were in
high school."
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*Judge Rules State Prisoner Cannot Be Force-Fed*

DETROIT -- An Ingham County Judge ruled today that the state may not
force a prisoner to accept unwanted medical treatment or nutrition.

Judge William Collette ruled from the bench in the case of 47-year-old
Michael Anderson, who is serving a life sentence for first-degree
murder.

"This is a victory for the right of competent adults to have the most
basic of all rights - the right to privacy and bodily integrity," said
ACLU of Michigan Legal Director Paul Denenfeld, who argued the case
before Judge Collette. "Anderson simply wants the right to be let
alone."

Anderson stopped injecting himself with insulin for his Type II
diabetes, and stopped eating in December of 1995. He was taken to a
prison hospital, where intravenous feedings were administered against
his will. Blood samples were also taken without his consent. In early
March, he began to eat small amounts of food under threat of having a
naso-gastric tube inserted through his nostrils and down into his
stomach for the purpose of force-feeding him. He has been transferred
back to the Kinross Correctional Facility in Kincheloe, Michigan.

Anderson is serving a life term for first degree murder, and has been
incarcerated since 1975. He has been rebuffed at all stages of the
appeals process; the Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal in
1980, although Justice Charles Levin wrote that he would have granted an
appeal based on incompetence of legal representation at trial. His
current appellate counsel is not hopeful that the courts will order a
new trial.
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*Wrongly Accused Oklahoma City Suspect*
* Rejects Government's Token Settlement Offer*

WASHINGTON -- A Jordanian-American who was wrongly detained one year ago
for the Oklahoma City bombing today rejected a token settlement offer by
the Justice Department, saying the government is failing to take his
claims seriously.

The settlement offer came in response to a federal tort claim filed by
the American Civil Liberties Union that charged that Abraham Ahmad was
unlawfully detained and interrogated for three days without any evidence
and that his name was leaked to the press as a suspect in the bombing.

In a letter delivered earlier this week, the government denied any
liability for its mistreatment of Mr. Ahmad, acknowledging only that he
and his family "experienced considerable inconvenience and
embarrassment."

"Instead of facing responsibility for the grievous harm done to the
Ahmad family, the government's offer only adds insult to injury," said
Louis Bograd, an attorney with the ACLU's National Legal Department.
"The $10,000 settlement doesn't even cover half the medical expenses --
let alone the pain and suffering --  incurred by the Ahmad family as a
result of the government's actions."

Mr. Ahmad, a 32-year-old American citizen and a 13-year resident of
Oklahoma,  was traveling to Jordan to attend to a family emergency and
visit relatives.  By coincidence, he boarded a plane on April 19, 1995,
the same day the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed.

Based on those facts alone, federal agents detained Ahmad from April 19
to 21 as a bombing suspect in Chicago, Virginia, London, and Oklahoma
City. During that time, federal agents also interrogated his wife and
two daughters, and leaked his name to the press, leading a horde of
reporters and angry neighbors to camp outside his home.

"I believe the government should follow every lead to track down a
terrorist," said Mr. Ahmad, who still lives in Oklahoma City.  "But this
must be based on fact and not on stereotypes.  My detention and
mistreatment did not just humiliate me and my family, but the entire
Arab and Muslim American community as well."
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*Student Suspended for Saying "Christ"*

CINCINNATI, April 17 - A hearing officer Wednesday upheld the suspension
of a high school student who cursed in class even though the boy's
mother said his constitutional rights were violated, Reuters reports.

Jeremy Goodman, 16, a freshman at Williamsburg High School in Clermont
County, was suspended for two days for violating a ban against cursing
after saying "Jesus Christ!" in class.

His mother, Karen Goodman, said after the school district hearing that
she would seek help from the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge
the suspension, which ended Wednesday. Describing herself as a
non-Christian, she told the hearing officer:  "We do not consider saying
'Jesus Christ' any more of a curse word than saying 'red sneakers'.''

Her son told a reporter that he uttered the words with his back to a
teacher after she ordered him to return to his desk in a health class.
"When they took me to the principal's office, he told me I had taken the
Lord's name in vain and I could go to hell for it,'' the boy said.

Scott Greenwood, a frequent spokesman for Cincinnati civil liberties
causes, said he considered the suspension "a gross violation'' of the
youth's free speech rights.

"I think it's perverse to the extreme that while there is a movement to
push mandatory, teacher-led prayer in school, here we have a school that
considers the words 'Jesus Christ' inappropriate and a reason to
discipline,'' Greenwood said.

School Superintendent Barry Campbell said the principal probably should
have found another reason, such as disrupting the classroom, for the
suspension.
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*Congress May Strip Federal Judges of Their Power*

With little fanfare, The Los Angeles Times reported this week, Congress
is poised to approve a fundamental change in the Habeas Corpus Act and
to strip federal judges of most of their power to review state court
actions.

The pending anti-terrorism laws, the Times said, would make four major
changes to limit federal appeals, including prohibiting federal judges
from reversing a state conviction or death sentence unless it resulted
from "an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law."

The Times said that "dejected civil libertarians" and defense lawyers
say Congress is about to strip away the legal safeguards that prevent
the execution of possibly innocent persons.

Commenting on the legislation, Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU
National Washington Office, said it "would tear at the fabric of our
society and make us no safer, just less free."
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*NYCLU to File Suit in Death Penalty Controversy*

NEW YORK -- State Attorney General Dennis Vacco said today that he had
"strong grounds" for seeking the death penalty for the Bronx man charged
in the shooting death of police officer Kevin Gillespie, The New York
Times reported today.  The man, Angel Diaz, was indicted yesterday on
first-degree murder charges.

The Attorney General was assigned the case by Governor George Pataki
when Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson refused to commit to
pursuing capital punishment in the case, saying instead, in a letter to
the governor, that he promised to "weight the facts" in the case.

Mr. Johnson and the New York Civil Liberties Union are both expected to
sue Governor Pataki this week, asserting that he exceeded his authority
in removing the Bronx D.A. from the case.

At issue is more than a simple argument over which man should argue the
case before a Bronx jury.  Legal experts say the lawsuits will likely
offer a judge the opportunity to assess the breadth of the governor's
power, the limits of the prosecutor's discretion and the extent of the
voters' rights to be represented by the politician of their choice.

Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union,
said that his suit would argue that the governor does not have the right
to remove a prosecutor when "there was no corruption, no conflict of
interest and no knowing and willing violation of a substantial legal
mandate."

Mr. Siegel also said that his suit would argue that Bronx voters, who
re-elected Mr. Johnson while well aware of his reluctance to impose the
death penalty, had been disenfranchised by the governor's action.
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*Catholic Cardinals Criticize Clinton Veto*

The ACLU continues to defend President Clinton's veto of the so-called
"Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act" in light of renewed pressures by the
Catholic community.

According to The New York Times, the eight Roman Catholic cardinals that
preside in the United States, as well as the president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a three-page letter to President
Clinton condemning him for rejecting Congress' bill criminalizing a
particular type of late term pregnancy abortion.

In the letter, Catholic leaders promise to educate American Catholics
about "partial-birth abortions" and incite anger among them, reminding
the President that ending abortion remains a top priority with Catholic
voters.

Understanding that the procedure in question, professionally known as an
intact D&E, is performed rarely and in dire circumstances, President
Clinton vetoed the controversial bill last Wednesday. The ACLU praised
his decision, claiming that the bill would have represented "a severe
threat to all women's reproductive rights."

"The bill is flagrantly unconstitutional," said Janet Gallagher,
Director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "This veto put a stop
to a cruel, ideologically driven bill that was a first step toward
making all abortions illegal."

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TTFN.
Chris

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