Big news today — the Third Circuit Hazleton case (see below) has finally been released, almost two years after it was argued in 2008. And the good guys won. Major props to the folks at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project who argued and briefed the case. The unanimous decision was decided on federal preemption grounds, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'ACLU'
Omg Omg Omg
September 9th, 2010 · No Comments · AS, Immigration, Politics
Tags: 1981·ACLU·ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project·Arizona·Hazleton·Hazleton v. Lozano·Jan Brewer·preemption·SB 1070·Third Circuit
More Anti-Immigrant Ordinances
June 24th, 2010 · 2 Comments · AS, Immigration, Supreme Court
This week, Fremont, Nebraska residents passed a local anti-immigrant measure that aims to ban hiring or renting to “illegal immigrants.” Unlike the laws passed in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Farmers Branch, Texas, this law was enacted by voter referendum. Otherwise, though, the law is pretty similar to its predecessors — it requires local employers to use [...]
Tags: ACLU·anti-immigrant measures·anti-Latino measures·Ellis Island·Farmers Branch·Fremont·green card·Hazleton·illegal immigration·immigrants' rights·Immigration·immigration reform·Jim Crow·Latinos·local immigration enforcement·MALDEF·Nebraska·New York City·New York Times·Obama Administration·Pennsylvania·slavery·Texas·undocumented immigrants
Other Bills Not Worth Reading
May 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment · AS, Law and Justice, Politics
We have already said a few things here about how dumb Arizona is with its unreadable laws against all things Latino. But lost in the discussion of racial profiling is this other creepy law Jan Brewer signed regarding public school curricula. Arizona schools are now forbidden from having courses which “promote the overthrow of the [...]
Tags: ACLU·after-school club·Arizona·education·ethnic studies·First Amendment·Immigration·Jan Brewer·Jim Crow·Old South·public education·race·racial bias·racial profiling·racism·segregation·students·Tom Horne·Tuscon·white people
What A Girl Wants
January 25th, 2010 · No Comments · AS, Law and Justice, Technology
Last week, the Third Circuit heard arguments in what has been dubbed the “Sexting Case,” although the case actually has little to do with the AARP phenomenon of sexting. The girls in this case weren’t even old enough to realize their Twilight books are homoerotic: The case goes back to 2006, when two girls aged [...]
Tags: AARP·ACLU·gender·New Haven Firefighter Test·sexting·sexting case·sexuality·Third Circuit
Quick, Someone Explain Symbolism to Scalia
October 8th, 2009 · No Comments · AS, Supreme Court
During oral arguments in the Salazar v. Buono case (involving the constitutionality of a 5-foot cross in the Mojave National Preserve), Justice Scalia clearly just didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. After Peter Eliasberg of the ACLU explained that the cross symbolizes, you know, something Christian-y, Scalia had this to say: The cross [...]
Tags: ACLU·Antonin Scalia·Christianity·cross·McNaughton·Peter Eliasberg·Salazar v. Buono·symbolism
What Happens In Vegas
October 2nd, 2009 · No Comments · AS, Law and Justice, Technology
Yesterday I flew to Las Vegas for the second time this month. I was sitting in front of a loud, Eastern European couple. I couldn’t recognize the language they were speaking, but at one point in the middle of their impenetrable conversation, the man said in perfect English, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” [...]
Tags: ACLU·airport·airport security·body scanner·idiocy·Las Vegas·millimeter wave technology·national security·privacy·Proust·Susan Hallowell·TSA·War on Terror
Turns Out, Local Police Sure Like Trying To Deport People
September 28th, 2009 · No Comments · AS, Immigration, Law and Justice, Uncategorized
A new study by the Warren Institute just came out this month analyzing some extremely rare arrest data from Irving, Texas. The ACLU of Texas managed, by some wild miracle, to get arrest records for a 23-month period during which Irving started participating in the Criminal Alien Program (“CAP”). (Get it? ICE CAP? I know, [...]
Tags: ACLU·ACLU of Texas·CAP·ICE·Immigration·Irving Texas·local immigration enforcement·racial profiling·racism·Texas·Warren Institute
Pity the Fool
September 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · AS, Immigration, Law and Justice, Politics, Technology
For those of us no-name types, Twitter provides an outlet for the little germs of wisdom we come up with while drunk and/or pathetically lonely. For political types, however, Twitter is an easily mockable (and equally misguided) excuse for a soapbox. Josh Treviño (former Bush writer of some sort, who now runs a “strategies & [...]
Tags: 287(g)·ACLU·Border Patrol·civil liberties·conservative logic·idiocy·immigrant rights·Immigration·Josh Treviño·racial profiling·Texas·Twitter
The Dick Cheney Redaction Game
August 26th, 2009 · 1 Comment · AS, Law and Justice, Politics
If you’re ever looking for something to do on a lazy Tuesday afternoon, I recommend printing the words “Dick Cheney” in approximately the same font and size as the just-released CIA report from 2004, then cutting them out and seeing how many of the redacted black-boxes in the 109-page report they seem to fit in. [...]
Tags: ACLU·CIA·Dick Cheney·enhanced interrogation techniques·games·George Bush·redacted·torture·waterboarding