FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 7, 2011

CONTACT: Josh Bell, (212) 549-2508 or 2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK– A decade after the September 11th attacks, theUnited Statesis at risk of enshrining a permanent state of emergency in which the nation’s core values are subordinated to ever-expanding claims of national security, the American Civil Liberties Union warns in a new report released today.

“A Call to Courage: Reclaiming Our Liberties Ten Years After 9/11,” shows how sacrificing America’s values – including justice, individual liberty and the rule of law – ultimately undermines the country’s safety. “It is our fundamental values that are the very foundation of our strength and security,” the report says.

“We have titled it ‘A Call to Courage,’ because we believe that a defining element of our national identity – embodied in our national anthem’s pairing of ‘the land of the free’ with ‘the home of the brave’ – has been imperiled by our leaders’ promotion of (or capitulation to) a politics of fear,” the report explains.

It challenges the contention that theU.S.is engaged in a “war on terror” that takes place everywhere and will last forever, and that therefore counterterrorism measures cannot be balanced against any other considerations such as maintaining civil liberties.Americahas become an international legal outlier in invoking the right to use lethal force and indefinite military detention outside battle zones, the report says, and these policies have hampered the international fight against terrorism by straining relations with allies and handing a propaganda tool to enemies.

Taking on the legacy of the Bush administration’s torture policy, the report warns that the lack of accountability leaves the door open to future abuses. “Our nation’s official record of this era will show numerous honors to those who authorized torture – including a Presidential Medal of Freedom – and no recognition for those, like the Abu Ghraib whistleblower, who rejected and exposed it,” it notes.

The report details how profiling based on race and religion has become commonplace nationwide, with the results of such approaches showing just how wrong and ineffective those practices are. “Targeting the American Muslim community for counterterrorism investigation is counterproductive because it diverts attention and resources that ought to be spent on individuals and violent groups that actually pose a threat,” the report says. “By allowing – and in some cases actively encouraging – the fear of terrorism to divide Americans by religion, race, and belief, our political leaders are fracturing this nation’s greatest strength: its ability to integrate diverse strands into a unified whole on the basis of shared, pluralistic, democratic values.”

Concluding with the massive expansion of surveillance since 9/11, the report delves into the many ways the government now spies on Americans without any suspicion of wrongdoing, from warrantless wiretapping to cell phone location tracking – but with little to show for it. “The reality is that as governmental surveillance has become easier and less constrained, security agencies are flooded with junk data, generating thousands of false leads that distract from real threats,” the report says.

The report points out that many controversial policies have been shrouded in secrecy under the rubric of national security, preventing oversight and examination by the public. “We look to our leaders and our institutions, our courts and our Congress, to guide us towards a better way, and it is now up to the American people to demand that our leaders respond to national security challenges with our values, our unity – and yes, our courage – intact.”

“A Call to Courage” is available online at:

www.aclu.org/calltocourage

More information on the 9/11 anniversary is available at:

www.aclu.org/9-11-anniversary

Author and Activist Angie Debo

The ACLU of Oklahoma is currently accepting nominations for the Angie Debo Civil Liberties Award.  The award will be presented at this year’s Bill of Rights Celebration on November 12^th. The Angie Debo Award was established in 1977 to recognize those who have provided exceptional defense to the Bill of Rights throughout the year or throughout their lives. Nominations for these awards must be received by the affiliate office no later than September 16^th. They may be mailed to the ACLU of Oklahoma at 3000 Paseo Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73103 or emailed to Tamya Cox.

Nomination letters should be no longer than three pages and should include the following: 1) name, current address, and telephone numbers (business and home) of the nominee, 2) a description of the nominee’s worthiness, 3) a statement that the nominee has given consent to the nomination, 4) biographical information about the nominee attached as an enclosure, 5) letters of endorsement from others as optional enclosures and 6) the name, address, and telephone numbers (home and business) of the person making the nomination.

School administrators cannot deny admission to a student based on his or her immigration status or require parents or students to disclose their immigrant status or social security numbers. Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982)  In addition, if a district chooses to request a social security number, it shall inform the individual that the disclosure is voluntary, provide the statutory or other basis upon which it is seeking the number, and explain what uses will be made of it. 5 U.S.C. §552a

If your child is denied enrollment please contact the ACLU of Oklahoma at (405) 524-8511 or acluok@acluok.org.

If your child is turned away for enrollment please contact the ACLU of Oklahoma.

The ACLU of Oklahoma needs your help. We do not want this session to be an assault on civil liberties. We need people to get involved in the democratic process. Despite what you have heard, one phone call, one email, or one visit to you legislator can make a difference.

Legislators work for you, and they need to hear from their constituents.

Below is a list of bills that concern us. We have decided that these will have a severe civil liberty impact and must be stopped. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at acluok@acluok.org. If you do not know who your legislator is, please email us with either your district number or home address, so we can help you locate the appropriate person.

HB 1037 by Tibbs- Requires ID to vote

Ø Directed to House Calendar

Ø This bill will require Oklahomans to provide a government issued ID in order to vote. Voting is a fundamental right and to create barriers is unreasonable. There is absolutely no evidence that Oklahoma has ever had a problem with voter impersonation fraud. However, there are over 78,000 Oklahomans who do not have a photo ID, and over 1400 voters with a photo ID that will be turned away at the polls.

HB 1330 by Ritze- Erects a Ten Commandments Monument at the Capitol

Ø Directed to House Calendar

Ø This bill will erect a Ten Commandments Monument at the State Capitol. While the author of the bill argues that this monument will not cost taxpayers any money, he has failed to respond to who will pay for the insurance, maintenance, and potential litigation. As with all monuments erected on the capitol ground, this task is left to taxpayers. The Supreme Court of the United States in its most recent decision on monuments at the Capitol held that a permanent monument placed on government property is government speech. There are many church/state issues with this bill

HJR 1042 by Terril- Requires English to be the Official Language

Ø Direct to House Calendar

Ø This bill will make English the official language in Oklahoma. It will prevent state agencies from communicating with those that have yet to master the English Language. This bill does not provide legitimate means to helping those people become proficient in English. Bills that are divisive such as these create barriers.

SB 4 by Ford Requires ID to Vote

Ø Direct to Senate Calendar

Ø This bill will require Oklahomans to provide a government issued ID in order to vote or a voter registration card. Voting is a fundamental right and to create barriers is unreasonable. There is absolutely no evidence that Oklahoma has ever had a problem with voter impersonation fraud. However, there are over 78,000 Oklahomans who do not have a photo ID, and over 1400 voters with a photo ID that will be turned away at the polls.

SB 1099 by Nichols- Makes unlawful to Intimidate over the Internet

Ø Direct to Senate Calendar

Ø This bill will prohibit any harassment over the Internet to minors and elderly. This bill is vague and may have speech infringement implications. This bill has yet to be completely vetted, and we will provide more information at a later date.

These bills have advanced to the Senate from the House, so you will need to contact your senator to voice your opinion.

HB1595 by Sullivan- Requires Women to Answer Invasive Questionnaire for Medical Procedure

Ø Advanced to the Senate

Ø This bill will require women who choose to terminate a pregnancy to have to endure a long list of unnecessary questioning. Her answers will then be uploaded to a web site for public viewing. While the woman’s name will be withheld, a woman’s identity could be determined in small and rural communities. There is a selection that prohibits abortion based on gender of the fetus; however, there is no evidence that this occurs in Oklahoma or in any part of the United States. This is clearly a distraction from the invasion of privacy. This reporting will cost the taxpayers hundred of thousands of dollars.

HB 1645 by Rousselot- Prohibits all Headgear for Driver’s License Photo without Religious Exemption

Ø Advanced to Senate

Ø This bill was not initially on our radar. However, through an untimely amendment, Rep. Rex Duncan changed the language to prohibit all headgear for driver’s licenses without a religious exemption. Rep. Duncan stated that this was a direct response to a Muslim woman who was having difficulty getting her picture taken, but through advocacy was able to come to a successful resolution. The Department of Public Safety already has a policy regarding headgear, and this completely usurps this policy. This bill will infringe the First Amendment Rights of many minority faiths.

You may call (405) 521-2711 to talk to your legislator.

You can phone bank in your own living room for three hours on November 1 or 2.

That’s right – three hours in your own living room (all you need is a computer with web access and a phone) – it’s that easy to make a difference in this election. The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families (SDCHF), of which the ACLU is a part of, has spent the past three months making over 170,000 persuasion phone calls to highly-targeted voters across the state. They’ve identified a large percentage of supporters and now it’s time to Get Out the Vote (GOTV)! The Campaign has asked for your help on November 1 and 2 to call all identified supporters and encourage them to get to get to the polls to vote NO on Measure 11.

Invite your members to make a difference.

Initiated Measure 11 is a ban on virtually all abortions and is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade that will impact women and their families in all states. You can learn more about the ban at www.sdhealthyfamilies.org

Although South Dakotans decisively defeated a very similar measure in 2006, the abortion ban is back and the polling shows it’s a dead heat. Measure 11 could be decided by a very small number of votes. Each phone call will make a difference. This is a great opportunity to get your members involved with protecting reproductive freedom for all women.

Join the ACLU effort

Contact your affiliate office at 405-524-8511 to see how you can help.

The federal government spent 206 million dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs during 2006. Oklahoma received $690,342 for fiscal year 2005. Yet, as many of us know and the statistics show, not all teenagers are abstaining. In 2005, 48% of Oklahoma female high school students and 50% of male high school students admitted to having sex. These numbers clearly show that our teens are having sex, and now is not the time to turn a blind eye. We must arm our children with the knowledge and tools needed to prevent those who do have sex from unwanted pregnancies as well as contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).

Oklahoma schools are not required to teach sex education but must teach HIV/AIDS prevention. Many school districts who decide to teach sex education do so by teaching an abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum. This curriculum gives medically inaccurate and biased information about the benefits of abstinence; it gives little or no instruction to those who do have sex about birth control and STD prevention. Young adults under the age of 25 are contracting the HIV virus an alarming rate.

Nationally and locally, we have seen a decline in the number of teen pregnancies, yet Oklahoma still ranks in the top ten. If we are teaching any sex education at all, we are teaching our students to wait until marriage, yet almost half of our students have had sex. So the message on which are spending millions of dollars, is not as effective as it should be. We need to know what our children are learning about sex, and we need to insist that a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum be taught.

Currently, no federal funds have been allocated for a comprehensive sex education curriculum. Comprehensive sex education teaches medically accurate, age-appropriate, unbiased information about sex. It teaches students that abstinence is the best method but includes other methods to prevent pregnancies and STDs. We cannot continue to stand by and let our children make uninformed, unintelligent decisions.

I urge you to contact your school and ask to review the information being taught. If the information is medically inaccurate or gives biased information, I urge you to contact your superintendent. Ask him or her to introduce a comprehensive sex education curriculum or contact the ACLU of Oklahoma for information on such curriculum.

If you want more information about comprehensive sex education or want to report what is being taught in your school’s classrooms, please contact me at tcox@acluok.org. You can also learn more by visiting www.takeissuetakecharge.org. Let’s truly enlighten, empower, and educate our children!

Legislative Panel

Following the untimely death last fall of longtime lobbyist Keith Smith, the ACLU of Oklahoma found itself at a crossroads when the Oklahoma Legislature prepared to begin its 2007 session. There was no easy choice for finding a successor to Smith, whose skills, knowledge and political savvy were irreplaceable. As a result, the affiliate’s leadership decided to refocus the legislative program by recruiting more activists at the grassroots level to lobby for civil liberties.

The ACLU of Oklahoma hosted a legislative training workshop on January 27, 2007 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church in Oklahoma City. The event drew more than 100 participants, who were eager to become more involved in affecting legislation.

State Legislative Counsel Charles Mitchell of the ACLU National Legislative Office in Washington, D.C. presented information on effective grassroots lobbying techniques. Political strategist Linda Murphy gave advice on organizing around particular issues. Former Governor David Walters, former State Senator Bernest Cain, former State Representative Opio Toure and former State Representative Wanda Jo Stapleton were joined by current State Senator Andrew Rice and current State Representative Al McAffrey in a session that provided the perspective of lawmakers on lobbying.

Attendance at the workshop was free. Participants were able to network about particular issues and to discuss strategies for the upcoming legislative session. A group of highly motivated grassroots activists left the event with new knowledge and enthusiasm for safeguarding civil liberties in the legislature.

At the top of the ACLU of Oklahoma’s legislative agenda for 2007 was opposition to the state’s implementation of the U.S. Government’s Real ID program, which mandates standards for drivers’ licenses in all 50 states that would ultimately create a national identity card. The ACLU opposed this legislation on the federal level due to grave concerns about privacy and technology.

Senator Constance Johnson proposed SB 464 in the Oklahoma Legislature as a moratorium on the implementation of the Real ID program by the State of Oklahoma until the federal government could address data privacy and security concerns. The legislation also addressed the program’s nature as an unfunded mandate, which would cause a budgetary crisis for Oklahoma.

With support from a network of grassroots activists, SB 464 was sent to the full Senate by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee in February. The Senate later approved the bill and sent it to the House of Representatives for consideration.

While in the House Committee, SB 464 was amended to provide greater protection to individual liberty. The amendments included the deletion of the digital finger imaging requirement on Oklahoma drivers’ licenses.

Following approval by the House Committee, the bill did not receive a vote until early spring on the House floor due to the budget disagreement between Governor Henry and legislative leaders. The House ultimately voted to approve SB 464 with its amendments and sent it back to the Senate for consideration of its altered form.

The Senate voted unanimously on May 16, 2007 to accept the House amendments to SB 464. The bill was sent to Governor Henry, who signed it on May 23, 2007.

Unfortunately, there were some bleak spots during the session. Oklahoma politicians joined in the nationwide demagoguery about illegal immigration by passing HB 1804, which required local law enforcement and small businesses to enforce federal immigration restrictions. The ACLU of Oklahoma provided Governor Henry’s office with extensive educational material about constitutional problems with HB 1804. Despite this and other lobbying efforts, Henry signed the bill.

Following the passage of HB 1804, the ACLU of Oklahoma began working with representatives of the state’s Latin American community here in Oklahoma. A few days after the measure became law, Program Coordinator Tamya Cox and Legal Director C.S. Thornton met with officials from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) at the affiliate office.

Both the ACLU and LULAC agreed that one of the most troubling aspects of this legislation is the psychological effect it will have on documented and undocumented Latinos in Oklahoma. LULAC reported that members of the Latin American community in Oklahoma City were being “stalked” by self-appointed citizen watchdogs. The ACLU of Oklahoma and LULAC shared concern about a potential to increase in racial profiling, not only by government officials, but also by self-appointed watchdogs.

The ACLU of Oklahoma is analyzing the Oklahoma Taxpayers and Citizens Protection Act (OTCPA) codified by HB 1804 in order to determine what portions of it are vulnerable to attack on constitutional grounds. The affiliate plans to involve the ACLU National Immigrants’ Rights Project in this process. Additionally, Thornton and Cox are conferring with immigration lawyers in private practice who have concerns about the enforcement of the OTCPA.

To complement the ACLU’s efforts in combating the OTCPA, the affiliate is working in coalition with groups like LULAC to mount an effective public education campaign. The first of many planned public conversations staged by the ACLU of Oklahoma and its coalition partners to discuss OTCPA was held on Saturday, June 2, 2007 in Tulsa.

The legislative session’s most epic battle was unsurprisingly centered on the issue of reproductive choice. Senator James Williamson authored SB 714, which prohibited physicians from performing nearly all abortions in medical facilities that receive public funding. Representative John Wright sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives.

Both the House and Senate passed SB 714 with solid majorities in spite of strong grassroots opposition generated by the ACLU and its coalition partners like Planned Parenthood and Progressive Alliance. The bill was sent to Governor Henry in early April, and a massive telephone, letter-writing and e-mail campaign was mounted to encourage him to veto SB 714. The Oklahoma State Medical Association; the Oklahoma section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; the Osteopathic Association; and the Oklahoma Nurses Association joined the coalition opposing the bill.
Governor Henry announced his veto of SB 714 at a press conference on April 18, 2007. Flanked by more than 40 physicians, nurses and other medical professionals, Henry said of the bill, “I have grave concerns that its inadvertent consequences would prove disastrous.”

Henry further explained his veto by saying, “I share the concerns of a majority of medical experts who believe this bill would severely compromise healthcare in our state by placing undue restrictions on the sacred relationship between doctor and patient. Under this measure, a woman may have no option but to carry to term a fetus with a fatal birth defect. There are a number of fatal birth defects in which there is no chance of survival, and yet SB 714 would add to a family’s suffering and medical costs by forcing a woman to carry that fetus to term. Although designed to simply prohibit taxpayer-funded abortions, in reality the bill reaches much further, impacting most community hospitals in the state and severely compromising the quality and availability of medical care.”

Senator Williamson, sponsor of SB 714, moved to override Henry’s veto on April 25 and on May 9. Both attempts failed to garner the necessary two-thirds (32 votes) supermajority required to override a gubernatorial veto.

Williamson’s failed attempts resulted in a new strategy being adopted by anti-abortion legislators. The Oklahoma House voted on May 14 to suspend its rules and allow SB 139 to be revived from dormancy. The bill’s original wording was replaced with new language that was essentially a slightly revised version of SB 714. Although the legislators behind this substitution were trying to create an anti-abortion bill that would overcome Henry’s veto objection, SB 139 did not include exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies or for the health of the mother. The only significant differences from SB 714 were exceptions allowing for abortions in cases of rape and incest. However, both the rape and incest exceptions would require the victim to report her attacker to law enforcement before she could obtain an abortion.

Both the House and Senate passed SB 139. It was sent to Governor Henry, who was lobbied extensively by pro-choice activists asking him to veto it. Unfortunately, Henry did not veto SB 139 before the session’s May 23, 2007 deadline, and it became law.

Experience with the 2007 legislative session demonstrated the value of having additional activists in the lawmaking process. However, more Oklahomans still need to make their voices heard. It is important for those who want to lobby their elected officials about civil liberties issues to provide the affiliate office with their e-mail addresses. If you are interested in participating as an activist, please send your e-mail address to acluok@mindspring.com.