Civil Liberties Videos

Wired is one of the few publications that acts as a watchdog on civil liberties and freedom of information issues, and I'm glad they do. The federal government far too often overreaches - and this looks like it's one of those times. Go read the whole thing: (WIRED) -- An anarchist social worker raided by the feds wants his computers, manuscripts and pick axes back. He argues that authorities violated the U.S. Constitution and the rights of his mentally ill clients while searching for evidence that he broke an anti-rioting law on Twitter. In a guns-drawn raid on October 1, FBI agents and police seized boxes of dubious "evidence" from the Queens, New York, home of Elliott Madison. A U.S. District Judge in Brooklyn has set a Monday deadline to rule on the legality of the search, and in the meantime has ordered the government to refrain from examining the material taken in the 6 a.m. search. Madison, who counsels more than 100 severely mentally ill patients in New York, seems to have first drawn attention from the authorities at September's G-20 gathering of world leaders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There he was arrested on September 24 at a motel room for allegedly listening to a police scanner and relaying information on Twitter to help protesters avoid heavily-armed cops -- an activity the State Department lauded when it happened in Iran. A week later, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, armed with a search warrant and backed by a federal grand jury investigation, raided Madison's house, which he shares with his wife of 13 years and several roommates. The squad seized his computers, camera memory cards, books, air-filtration masks, bumper stickers and political posters -- all purportedly evidence that the 41-year old social worker had broken a federal anti-rioting law that carries up to five years in prison. But a closer look at the court documents leaves the unmistakable impression that Elliott Madison is yet another casualty of the government's nasty, post-9/11 habit of considering political dissidents as threats to national security. Madison, his wife and his lawyer Martin Stolar say the search violates the Constitution's protections against general searches and prosecution for political speech. The police also seized mobile phones, citizen emergency kits, manuscripts, posters and even the couple's marriage license. In a motion to throw out the search, Stolar called the search unconstitutional: In this day and age, federally authorized agents entered the private home of a writer and urban planner and seized their books and writings. The warrant's vagueness and lack of specificity encouraged the agents to use their own discretion and their own views of the political universe to seize, or not to seize, items which they thought were evidence of a violation of the federal anti-riot statute. The law and the Constitution do not allow this. If there really is a grand jury investigation with possible future prosecution under [a federal anti-rioting law], the use of this statute as applied to demonstrations, demonstrators, and their supporters has profound 1st Amendment implications. If Madison were an Iranian using Twitter to coordinate government protests, he'd likely be considered a hero in the West. Instead, the self-identified anarchist -- who volunteered in Louisiana after Katrina -- is now facing up to five years in prison for each count a grand jury cares to indict him on.

The B.C. Civil Liberties was leaked a government document detailing plans to detain homeless people against their will during severe weather. BCCLA executive director David Eby says it's a plan to get the homeless off the streets during the Olympics in February next year. To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

The B.C. Civil Liberties was leaked a government document detailing plans to detain homeless people against their will during severe weather. BCCLA executive director David Eby says it's a plan to get the homeless off the streets during the Olympics in February next year. To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

In 19 days we will know whether we beat back NOM and the Catholic Dioceses and protected marriage equality for Mainers, or took yet another step backwards at the ballot box for equality. 30 states have had votes on marriage equality since 1998 and the right-win has won in all 30 of them. We are going to stop that streak in Maine, but we can't do it without the resources to fuel a massive get-out-the-vote operation. Today at midnight is the last major financial reporting deadline and it also marks the first day of early voting. If you were planning on giving to No on 1 and haven't yet, or have the resources to give again, today is the day to do it. Luckily, we at Blue America have a little sweetener, courtesy of Howie: Meanwhile we have something nice to offer to donors today. The first 9 people who kick in at least $30 at the Blue America '10 page each wins a special DVD of Barbra Streisand's spectacular 1966 television special Color Me Barbra (which includes a rare poster). And if that wasn't fabulous enough, we also have something pretty mind-blowing for the person who donates the most by 6AM (PT) tomorrow. The picture is above. It's a gorgeous Joan Osborne RIAA custom double platinum award for both Relish and "One of Us." It's rare, collectible, unique and... well, what a gift it would make for anyone who you happen to know who went bonkers over the song below! And, more important, what an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Maine! There is new polling out that shows us up 51.8% to 42.9%, but Bill in Portland Maine over at the great orange satan reminds us of why poll numbers are crap: I take you back to 1997 when, after nine attempts spanning 20 years, the Maine legislature finally passed a basic civil rights bill preventing discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation. Governor Angus King signed it. The law was put on hold while the religious conservatives---trying to marginalize our very existence by denying us any official state recognition---launched a war to repeal it by a citizens veto referendum, very similar to the kind they're waging now. They got the signatures they needed and the fight to take away our newly-won civil rights was on. The polls had our side up by several points. The result? The 1998 referendum passed. The fundies won. The final vote: 51.9% to 48.1%. It's one thing to feel disappointment when your favorite candidate loses. It's quite another when you are the one being voted on by your neighbors, and a majority of them agree that, yes, it should be legal for a Maine business owner to pull you aside and say, "I don’t want no faggots workin' here. You're fired." It took another seven years to finally make that against the law. To this day I still get a knot in my gut when I think about what happened 11 years ago. The only way we stop this from happening again is to make sure that we can get our voters out to the polls. The No on 1 campaign needs your help to make sure they have the resources to execute their field plan. So give today and maybe take home a platinum Joan Osborne album, or a rare Barbara Streisand poster and DVD. The Courage Campaign is sending me back to Maine in a week or so. Expect more reports from on the ground there on how your generous donations are being spent. I was there a couple weeks ago and can assure you, the campaign is a tightly run ship, simultaneously on the offense and firing back at the lies spewed from the other side. No on 1 is IDing and turning out their voters, relying on thousands of in state volunteers and assisted by out of state phone bankers from around the country. They know how to win in Maine "and can do it with your help.

0 0 0 The Vancouver Olympics are looming ever closer, and so is the reality of what it is actually going to be like in Vancouver during February 2010. If you are looking to be publicly critical of the games, or of anything for that matter during that time, you may be shushed, asked to leave, arrested or even have your group infiltrated.read more

Eight years after the Patriot Act became law in the United States, President Obama has told lawmakers that he wants to reauthorize three parts of the act that were set to expire later this year. Many people have said that the Patriot Act is an invasion of privacy and opens the door for abuses of power, so why would Obama extend one of former President Bush's policies?

We have seen what happens to a society paralyzed by fear. As newly released documents reveal, in the wake of the attacks of September 11, George W. Bush's attorneys redefined human rights: legal interrogation and detention techniques became more or less whatever the US president approved. And it is likely that thousands of innocent people have been wrongfully detained. But the US wasn't the first country to suspend civil liberties in the name of fighting terror. The British did it for decades, citing the threat from armed groups fighting for Irish independence. So do anti-terror laws make us safe? And at what cost? Today on GRITtv Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Tony Benn former Labour MP and Cabinet Minister, Human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, and Eileen Clancy a member of I-Witness Video, discuss whether anti-terror laws make us safe.

Bill Moyers sits down with political commentator and Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald who asks: Are we a nation ruled by men or by laws? A former constitutional and civil rights lawyer, Greenwald looks at the legacy of the Bush Administration, the prospects for a restoration of the rule of law, as well as the possibilities for government accountability. And, Georgetown University's legal and finance scholar Emma Coleman Jordan takes Bill Moyers through recent news on the bailouts as big business begs for more.

Just back from being under fire in Sadr City this week, award-winning journalist Leila Fadel, Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy, gives viewers on-the-ground analysis of the latest events and close-up look at the state of the war. And, Bill Moyers talks with Marth Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at University of Chicago, about church and state, and her newest book, LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE: IN DEFENSE OF AMERICA'S TRADITION OF RELIGIOUS EQUALITY.

How far can a President go to defend the nation? Bill Moyers Journal examines the unprecedented Presidential power some say is being amassed by our current Administration and kept secret in the name of national security. Moyers gets perspective from Charles Fried, who teaches Constitutional law at Harvard Law School and served as solicitor general in the Reagan Administration, and Fritz Schwarz, who served as counsel to the U.S. Senate select committee led by Frank Church of Idaho that uncovered decades of abuse by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Ever since President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law in October of 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a national debate has raged on whether the act provides necessary tools to fight terrorism or deprives Americans of basic civil rights. Join John Callaway and his panel of guests as they explore the Patriot Act and its impact on American security and liberty. Guests: Patrick Fitzgerald, Colleen Connell, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, and Joseph A. Morris. Originally aired 05/24/04.