American Civil Liberties Union Foundation

The American Civil Liberties Union has dropped a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration that claimed a man was wrongly detained the St. Louis airport because he was carrying about $4,700 in cash. The ACLU dropped its suit Tuesday, saying the TSA has now made it clear agents can conduct searches related to flight safety, not engage in general law enforcement. The ACLU had filed the suit on behalf of Steven Bierfeldt, director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, an organization that grew out of Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. Part of Bierfeldt's job involved carrying funds related to the group's activities. TSA ... Read Full Story

The American Civil Liberties Union has dropped a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration that claimed a man was wrongly detained the St. Louis airport because he was carrying about $4,700 in cash. The ACLU dropped its suit Tuesday, saying the TSA has now made it clear agents can conduct searches related to flight safety, not engage in general law enforcement. The ACLU had filed the suit on behalf of Steven Bierfeldt, director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, an organization that grew out of Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. Part of Bierfeldt's job involved carrying funds related to the group's activities. TSA ... Read Full Story

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California has come out with a fairly interesting new initiative. Focused on protecting internet privacy and giving individuals control over their information online, the campaign prompts you to “ Demand Your dotRights ,” by contacting your government representatives and major Internet companies like Facebook and Google. Check out this explanatory video from the ACLU website. While the ACLU’s focus is on protecting individuals from government snooping, there is a lot of good general information on their website too. You should definitely check it out if you get the chance. Read Full Story

Amir Meshal On the heels of a federal appeals court ruling that only Congress and the executive branch of government – not the courts — can interfere with government-sponsored “extraordinary rendition,” a U.S. citizen from New Jersey is asking another court to tell the government it wasn’t OK to secretly imprison and abuse him in three different African countries over a period of four months. The citizen is Amir Meshal, 24, the son of Muslim immigrants from Egypt. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit in Meshal’s behalf, after fleeing hostilities in Somalia in 2006, Meshal was arrested, secretly ... Read Full Story

The American Civil Liberties Union in New York has sued the federal government, seeking to make public the records related to prisoners held at an air base in Afghanistan. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, asks the court to order the Defense Department, the CIA and other agencies to reveal vital information about the detainees at Bagram Air Base. ACLU staff attorney Melissa Goodman said there is growing concern that Bagram has become the new Guantanamo. The Obama administration says Bagram differs from the base in Cuba because the roughly 600 prisoners at Bagram are in an active war zone in ... Read Full Story