Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri called for an independent investigation into allegations of human rights violations in jails in the city of St. Louis. The ACLU issued a report detailing its findings of abuse in the St. Louis Justice Center, pictured, and the Medium Security Institution in March. Charles Bryson, the city's director of Public Safety, said Wednesday afternoon that he supports an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

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The Poplar Bluff Public Library agreed to pay $45,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a former librarian who would not participate in a “Harry Potter” party because it violated her Christian beliefs. (read the settlement at the end ...

Tagged with: American Civil Liberties Union Anthony Rothert Deborah L. Smith Harry Potter librarian Paule Camazine & Blumenthal Poplar Bluff Public Library

Missouri is taking its fight against protests near military funerals to the U.S. Supreme Court. The state petitioned the Supreme Court to consider whether the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals got it wrong when it said Shirley Phelps-Roper and ...

Tagged with: 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals American Civil Liberties Union Anthony Rother Fernando J. Gaitan funeral protest Shirley Phelps-Roper U.S. Supreme Court Westboro Baptist Church

The city of St. Joseph has agreed not to enforce an ordinance prohibiting protests at funerals, pending the outcome of a related lawsuit against a similar state statute. The city’s ordinance was passed in response to Westboro Baptist Church’s protest ...

Tagged with: American Civil Liberties Union funeral Gary Fenner military U.S. District Court Westboro Baptist Church

The change sweeping Washington has been slow to show up in President Barack Obama’s legal stances on issues such as terrorism and racial preferences. The new administration’s court filings so far have been marked less by repudiation of former President ...

Tagged with: al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri American Civil Liberties Union Barack Obama racial preferences Steven Shapiro Taliban terrorism

The Central Intelligence Agency destroyed 92 videotapes of interrogations of suspected terrorists, government lawyers said in a letter to the U.S. judge overseeing a fight over the records. Amrat Singh, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in New ...

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The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee seemed amenable to legislation prompting convicted felons to serve 85 percent of their sentences, even as a defense lawyers’ organization and a civil liberties group expressed concerns about the bill’s impact. Sen. Kurt ...

Tagged with: American Civil Liberties Union felons John Coffman Kurt Schaefer Lathrop & Gage Senate Judiciary Committee

A unit of Boeing Co., the second-largest U.S. defense contractor, faced an appeal court hearing over claims it falsified flight plans to disguise the CIA’s delivery of suspected terrorists to secret prisons where they were tortured. A lawyer for the ...

Tagged with: American Civil Liberties Union Barack Obama Boeing Co. CIA Department of Justice falsified flight plans George W. Bush Jeppeson Dataplan terrorists torture

The California Supreme Court will consider on March 5 whether to overturn a voter-approved ballot measure that repealed its ruling legalizing same-sex marriages, a court official said. The court scheduled oral arguments in three lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Proposition ...

Tagged with: American Civil Liberties Union California Supreme Court lawsuit Proposition 8 same-sex marriage San Francisco

Supreme Court won’t revive Internet porn law The U.S. Supreme Court, rejecting a Bush administration appeal, refused to resurrect a federal criminal law that would have punished people for making pornography available to children through commercial Web sites. The justices, ...

Tagged with: American Civil Liberties Union Boston Internet porn law student sexual harassment Title IX U.S. Supreme Court