Dec 23, 2004 

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A document released by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Other recently released documents include a slew of additional records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.

"These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Day after day, new stories of torture are coming to light, and we need to know how these abuses were allowed to happen -- top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."

The release of these documents follows a federal court order that directed the Defense Department and other government agencies to comply with a year-old request under the Freedom of Information Act filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.

Find more information on these documents online.

Or for more information on the ACLU's efforts to gain information about detainees held at US military bases, click here.

Citing evidence that the FBI and local police are illegally spying on political, environmental and faith-based groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and its affiliates today filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests around the country to uncover who is being investigated and why.

"The FBI is wasting its time and our tax dollars spying on groups that criticize the government, like the Quakers in Colorado or Catholic Peace Ministries in Iowa," said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson. "Do Americans really want to return to the days when peaceful critics become the subject of government investigations?"

Read the ACLU's press release on illegal spying by the FBI.

Important legislation will soon be introduced to combat this unnecessary expansion of government powers. This legislation would put critical protections back in place and ensure that the FBI would only be able to investigate you if they have reason to believe that you are involved in criminal or terrorist activity.

Take Action! Urge your Members of Congress to support and cosponsor legislation that would reign in these dangerous and unnecessary powers.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit on December 14, 2004 in Federal District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., against the school board of Dover, Pa., saying the board violated the religious rights of several parents and students by requiring the teaching of an alternative theory to evolution in public schools.

Dover is the first school district in the United States to require high school biology teachers to introduce students to the alternate theory, known as intelligent design, which says the development of the universe and earth was guided at each step by an "intelligent agent."

"Teaching students about religion's role in world history and culture is proper, but disguising a particular religious belief as science is not," said ACLU of Pennsylvania Legal Director Witold Walczak. "Intelligent design is a Trojan Horse for bringing religious creationism back into public school science classes."

For more information about the lawsuit, please click here.

Read a story on the case in the New York Times. **New users will have to register to read the article - registration is free.**

A contingent of protesters from the religious-right arrived at the Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, DC only to find the bulk of the office's staff waiting outside with cookies, coffee, soda and Christmas carols.

"Some may have come to our offices today expecting a 'grinch,' but instead found a warm welcome," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Office. "Fact is, I have a lot of people in the office looking forward to the holiday season. We understand and respect that there are people that disagree with us about the best way to protect religious freedom in this country, but we hope that we can open a dialogue and continue to search for common ground."

Murphy and her staff wanted to highlight for the protesters the extensive efforts on the part of the ACLU to defend religious free exercise claims across the country. "Though we often get a bad rap for our efforts to keep government from endorsing one particular religion over another," Murphy said, "the fact is we all come to work every morning to make sure that everyone is free to worship as he or she sees fit."

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