Feature: Take five with Keith Olbermann

In advance of his appearance at an ACLU banquet tomorrow, the Boston Globe is running a "Take Five" feature on its homepage with Keith Olbermann's answers to five questions.

Olbermann is an MSNBC anchor who has attracted a loyal following thanks to his sharp critiques of the war in Iraq, and will serve as one of our headline speakers at tomorrow's Bill of Rights Dinner.

Press Release: ACLU Honors Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift and Prof. Neal Katyal

MSNBC Anchor Keith Olbermann and Humorist Roy Blount, Jr. to Headline Sold-Out Bill of Rights Dinner

BOSTON - During its annual Bill of Rights Dinner at Boston's Park Plaza Hotel on Thursday, May 31, the ACLU of Massachusetts Foundation will honor Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift and Georgetown Law Professor Neal Katyal. Swift and Katyal sued the U.S. government in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that the military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions.

Keith Olbermann, MSNBC anchor and host of "Countdown With Keith Olbermann," will speak at the event. Olbermann is known for his sharp critiques of the war in Iraq and was dubbed "The Most Honest Man in News" by Rolling Stone magazine in February.

Humorist Roy Blount Jr. will speak as well. Blount is a panelist on NPR's popular "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me" program and is author of nineteen books, most recently Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans.

ACLUM's annual Bill of Rights Dinner, which takes place this year at Boston's Park Plaza Hotel beginning at 6:00 pm, is sold-out, but spaces on a waiting list are available. Call 617.482.3170 extension 335, or email mwarde@aclum.org for wait-list details.

ACLU of Massachusetts board members Arnie Reisman and Jodie Silverman serve as co-chairs for the event. The dinner's host committee includes Anne & Ramon Alonso, Ron Ansin & Jim Stork, Elyse Cherry, Christian Draz, Thomas Dwyer, Jr., Richard Ferrante & Tobie Weiner, Frank Fisher & Ellen Paradise Fisher, Celia & Walter Gilbert, Robert A. Glassman, Holly Gunner & Anne Chalmers, Paul & Patricia Hogan, Ambassador Swanee Hunt & Charles Ansbacher, Jeffrey F. Jones, Wendy Kaminer & Woody Kaplan, Carol Master & Sherry Mayrent, Alex MacDonald & Maureen Strafford, Paul and Ann B. Sagan, Norma & Ben Shapiro, Drs. John & Holly Thomas, and Kate & Phil Villers.

For more details about the honorees, speakers, and the event, see: http://acluma.convio.net/site/Calendar/1412640139?view=Detail&id=100321

Letter to Editor: Marriage amendment elicits reader opinions

The Worcester Telegram published a letter to the editor by George D.J. Phillies, president of the Worcester County Chapter Board of Directors of the ACLU.

News: Three years later

Coverage of the ACLU's book release party for Courting Equality in LGBT weekly BayWindows.

News: City adopts strict sex offender measure

The Boston Globe cites ACLU opposition in its most recent coverage of a sex offender residency restriction law in Marlborough.

News: A move to expand buffer zones at clinics

More coverage of the "buffer zone" bill in the Boston Globe, citing ACLUM's communications manager, Chris Ott: "We're strong supporters of reproductive freedom, but we're also strong supporters of freedom of expression." The Worcester Telegram cited ACLUM Legislative Counsel, Ann Lambert, in its story as well.

News: AG Boosts Barrios bill

The Somerville journal mentions ACLUM Board member Wendy Kaminer's testimony against a proposed "buffer-zone" bill. We oppose the bill because it would unduly restrict freedom of expression.

Press Release: ACLU of Massachusetts applauds Attorney General's leadership on marriage equality

BOSTON - On Friday, May 11, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley made a forthright statement of her well-founded legal judgment in a speech to the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association: marriage equality in the Commonwealth must be defended in the event that a proposed constitutional amendment survives the next legislative step onto the ballot. The ACLU of Massachusetts applauds Martha Coakley's leadership on this issue.

Predictably, the Attorney General has come under fire from opponents of equality. They conveniently forget, however, that Coakley's stand is principled: it would be wrong to take away anyone's fundamental right to equal treatment under the law through a popular vote.

We wonder how the opponents of equality would feel if this situation were reversed-if they were not being asked to simply accept that others be treated equally, but were actually themselves threatened with being constitutionally denied important legal rights and protections. We suspect they would be grateful for the leadership of a civil libertarian like Coakley.

Voting on the rights of others undermines the most fundamental values of the Commonwealth. The right of every citizen to be free from this threat trumps the right of those who want to use the ballot initiative process to nurse a grievance against another group of citizens.

As a part of the MassEquality coalition, the ACLU of Massachusetts is working to defeat the proposed amendment in the Legislature. If it unwisely goes to a vote, we will help fight it on the ballot. And if the result of the election were that popular prejudice stripped away the rights of an entire class of citizens, we would join Attorney General Coakley in fighting to overturn it-but it would be far wiser for the Legislature to simply stop this measure now and to bring this divisive discussion to an end.

News: No pictures please? MBTA struggles to wrap its head around a photo policy

BostonNOW reports on contradictory MBTA policy and practices regarding photography in the T, mentioning ACLUM's work last year to ensure the rights of a photographer.

News: Charges of police brutality rock Lawrence force

The Boston Globe cites ACLUM's work to investigate charges of police brutality in Lawrence.

Press Release: ACLU of Massachusetts to Testify at U.N. on New Bedford Raids

BOSTON - On Saturday, May 12, the ACLU of Massachusetts (ACLUM) will testify at a public hearing in New York with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Migration regarding human rights abuses that occurred during the March immigration raids in New Bedford.

The Special Rapporteur, Jorge Bustamante, is conducting a three-week fact-finding mission at the invitation of the United States government, traveling across the country to meet with dozens of human rights and immigrants groups about the conditions of immigrants and migrants living in the United States. The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council with the mandate to monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries, including the United States, and on human rights violations worldwide.

Later this year, the Special Rapporteur will issue a public report on his findings, including recommendations for how the United States can live up to its commitments to universal human rights standards in relation to immigrants. He will present this report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, where the United States government will have a formal opportunity to respond. This will give advocates within the United States as well as other countries the opportunity to apply pressure on the U.S. government to rectify the situation and meet universally recognized standards of fairness, due process and respect for the rights of immigrants.

Together with its affiliate offices and other organizations, the ACLU has been organizing public hearings and meetings for the Special Rapporteur with victims of human rights violations and national and local authorities.

"The visit of the Special Rapporteur is a critical opportunity to shed light on human rights violations of migrants in the United States," said Jamil Dakwar, Advocacy Director for the ACLU Human Rights Program. "All persons deserve to be treated with dignity, regardless of their immigration status."

Laura Rótolo, a lawyer with ACLUM who has been working on the lawsuit against the government on behalf of the New Bedford workers, will testify that the way in which the raid was carried out violated the rights of the workers and their families. "Children were left without proper supervision and the workers were denied access to lawyers. These are violations of basic human rights, and the world needs to know about them," Rótolo said.

The Special Rapporteur's official visit includes tours of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and immigrant detention facilities in Arizona, Texas and New Jersey. The ACLU is documenting the visit with blog posts, podcasts, video and news updates at www.aclu.org/humanrightsofmigrants.

News: Gloucester's Cape Ann Forum takes on torture

North Shore Sunday carried an excellent, detailed article about a talk by the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer, on the use of torture.

News: Courting Equality

LGBT weekly Bay Windows ran a fantastic, in-depth cover story this week on ACLUM's work on LGBT issues over the years.

News: Vote OK's strict limits on sex offenders

The Boston Globe cites ACLUM's Legal Director, John Reinstein, it its latest story on sex-offender residency restrictions.

News: The Predator-Free Zone

The Worcester Telegram cites ACLUM's Worcester County Chapter Director, Ron Madnick, in its extensive story about sex-offender residency restrictions.

News: Police and schools' memo of understanding sparks debate

The Needham Times examines a push in Needham schools to revive a "zero tolerance" policy and invited ACLUM to weigh in on concerns with racial disparities and other problems with how these policies can be applied.

News: Principal says yes, then no, to drug test

The Newton Tab cites ACLUM in its story on cancellation of a plan to use random testing for drugs and alcohol before Newton South High School's prom next month.

News: City advances revised sex-offender limits

The Boston Globe quotes ACLUM's Legal Director, John Reinstein, in this story on a proposed ordinance in Marlborough to restrict where sex offenders can live and work. The Globe ran a more in-depth piece on Sunday, called Behind the Picket Fence, about the concern that sex offender residency restrictions don't work -- and might do more harm than good.

News: Judge orders DOE to pay $155,000 to MCAS critic

The Assocated Press also ran a story on our win this week in court.

News: Dept. of Education must pay $155,000 for violating First Amendment

The Globe cites ACLUM Staff Attorney Sarah Wunsch about our win yesterday. A Superior Court judge ordered the Massachusetts Dept. of Education to pay $155,000 after forcing the cancellation of a speech at an education conference in 2001 by Alfie Kohn, a speaker at odds with department policies. The Dept. of Education threatened to pull funding for the entire conference if Kohn were allowed to speak, even though state funds were not being used to bring him.

Press Release: State Court Judge Orders Massachusetts Dept. of Education to Pay $155,000 for Unconstitutional Censorship of Conference Speaker

BOSTON - A Middlesex Superior Court judge yesterday ordered the Massachusetts Department of Education to pay $155,000 in attorneys fees and costs for violating the First Amendment when they coerced an education conference into canceling the keynote speech of Alfie Kohn, a well-known critic of high stakes graduation exams like the MCAS.

In response to yesterday's ruling, Kohn said, "It's too bad that the Department of Education was so committed to its agenda of high-stakes testing that it would violate the Constitution to silence those who disagree." Kohn noted that "at a time when the No Child Left Behind law with its punitive testing requirements is up for reauthorization, there's an urgent need for vigorous discussion of the downside of testing without fear of retribution as we saw here in Massachusetts under David Driscoll's Department of Education," referring to the outgoing commissioner of education.

Judge Hiller Zobel had ruled last August that DOE had forced the canceling of Kohn's speech because they did not like his views on MCAS, and in doing so, they violated the rights of Kohn as well as the rights of a school principal, a counselor, and a parent who had wanted to hear Kohn speak at the conference. In yesterday's ruling, Judge Zobel put last summer's decision into a final judgment, awarded the fees, and issued an injunction prohibiting the DOE from denying future grant monies for any conference unless the topic of a speaker was clearly unrelated to the subject matter of the conference.

The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts and cooperating attorneys at Boston's Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C. on behalf of Kohn, Leslie Edinson, a Springfield public school principal, David Sprague, a school counselor, and parent Jan Shotwell, who had planned to attend Kohn's keynote speech. The right to receive information is also protected by the First Amendment, and Judge Zobel found that right was also violated by the cancellation of the speech.

Sarah Wunsch, ACLUM staff attorney, expressed the hope "that our new governor will ensure we have a state education department that will be more thoughtful about what makes for good education and more respectful of constitutional rights."

Kohn, author of "The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools," had been invited to deliver a keynote address on that topic at a May 2001 education conference in Northampton, Massachusetts, aimed at creating a dialogue between charter school and regular public school educators. One of the main areas under discussion at the conference was the subject of testing, including the MCAS. The conference was co-sponsored by Western Massachusetts educators, including some from area charter schools and colleges such as Smith, Mount Holyoke and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and more than a dozen community groups committed to improving high school education in Massachusetts.

Shortly before the conference was to take place, Susan Miller Barker of the DOE threatened conference organizers that they would lose the partial funding the DOE was providing unless Kohn were barred from delivering the keynote speech, even though DOE funding was not paying for the speakers. In an e-mail uncovered during the lawsuit and specifically cited in the Court's earlier decision, Barker wrote, "It was stupid... to use state funds in a way... diametrically opposed to the state's and the board of ed's legislative and policy agenda."

Kohn and the other plaintiffs were represented by Boston attorneys Michael Rader and Michael Albert of Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, who acted as cooperating attorneys with ACLUM staff attorneys Sarah Wunsch and William Newman. The Department of Education has 60 days to decide if it will appeal the ruling.