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ACLU of MD Update - 5.9.082. Book Signing May 25! Star of M*A*S*H Comes to Pratt Library, Cosponsored by MD ACLU 3. Register Today! Marylanders Invited to ACLU Membership Conference June 8-10 in Washington, DC 4. National ACLU News! Federal Judge Orders CIA To Turn Over Torture Memo For Court Review ******************* 1. Voting Rights News! MD ACLU Cosponsors Forum on Voting Rights and Electoral Reform in the City of Greenbelt WHAT: A community forum: “The Prospects and Promises of Electoral Reform in the City of Greenbelt” WHO: * Deborah Jeon, Legal Director, ACLU of Maryland, will discuss the Voting Rights Act and successful electoral reform in Maryland. * Rob Richie, Executive Director of FairVote, will discuss how the choice voting method of proportional representation can increase local representation and enhance voter choice in Greenbelt. * Earl Adams, Jr., 1st Vice President of the Prince George’s County Branch of the NAACP, will discuss the promise of single member districts vs. at-large districts. * Judith Davis, Mayor of the City of Greenbelt (INVITED) WHEN: Tuesday, May 20 at 7 PM WHERE: Meeting Room at the Greenbelt Library, 11 Crescent Rd, Greenbelt, MD For more information about the forum, email curtis@aclu-md.org. Click here to learn more about electoral reform issues in Greenbelt:
2. Book Signing May 25! Star of M*A*S*H Comes to Pratt Library, Cosponsored by MD ACLU WHAT: Reading and book signing of “Just Call Me Mike: A Journey From Actor To Activist,” presented by the Enoch Pratt Free Library and the ACLU of Maryland. WHO: Mike Farrell, world-renowned actor from the television shows M*A*S*H, Providence and Desperate Housewives, reflects on his path from fame to progressive activism. Mr. Farrell is co-chair emeritus of Human Rights Watch in southern California; spokesperson for Concern America; co-founder of Artists United to Win Without War; and president of Death Penalty Focus. WHEN: Sunday, May 25 at 3 PM WHERE: Wheeler Auditorium, Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD Click here for more information:
3. Register Today! Marylanders Invited to ACLU Membership Conference June 8-10 in Washington, DC We invite you to join your fellow Marylanders and thousands of Americans for three exciting days in Washington, DC to discuss critical civil rights and civil liberties issues at the National ACLU Membership Conference June 8-10. Just a few of the confirmed guests include: Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional and civil rights litigator and author, and Christie Hefner, chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Click here to register: We are expecting to have the same quality advocacy, leadership discussions, Capitol Hill meetings and hands-on activist training that made the conference such a success in 2006. Elected officials, celebrities, renowned experts and some of the ACLU's most inspiring clients will join us again – but more importantly we want YOU to be there. You’ve seen the headlines: • Secret government wiretapping of phone calls and e-mails • Abuse and torture at home and abroad • The erosion of civil liberties across America Do something about it! And don’t forget to sign up for Lobby Day! We will be lobbying the Maryland representatives on Capitol Hill on June 10 from 2–5 PM. There will be training sessions for the Hill visits throughout the conference. Make sure to register for Lobby Day through the ACLU of Maryland affiliate office by e-mailing us at sachs@aclu-md.org. Plus, Maryland ACLU’s new constituents’ action network -- “Maryland ACLU CAN” – will be hosting a special Maryland Caucus reception at the membership conference for all members and activists from the Free State. Stay tuned for more details! The ACLU Membership Conference is on MySpace and Facebook! Add the Conference as your MySpace friend or become a friend of our National Facebook page and attend the membership conference event. You can read bulletins with conference updates, find other young people who care about civil liberties, even coordinate ride and room shares for you and your friends attending the Conference. Click here to add the conference as your MySpace friend: Click here to become a friend of the ACLU National Facebook page: See you in Washington!
4. National ACLU News! Federal Judge Orders CIA To Turn Over Torture Memo For Court Review A federal judge this week ordered the CIA to produce, for the court's review, a memo specifying brutal interrogation methods for use on prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas. The judge demanded the government make the memo available to him so that he can determine whether it should be made public pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by the ACLU and other organizations. The memo, which is one of the most important torture documents still being withheld by the Bush administration, was written by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and sent to the CIA in August 2002. “This memo authorized the CIA to use specific torture techniques – including waterboarding,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “As Attorney General Mukasey has acknowledged, CIA agents waterboarded prisoners because this memo told them that they could. The memo is being withheld not for legitimate security reasons, but in order to protect government officials from accountability for their decisions.” For almost four years, the ACLU has been challenging the government's assertion that the OLC memo could not be released because of attorney-client privilege. The ACLU has argued that the privilege does not apply to a legal memo that the CIA adopted as a matter of policy. At a hearing in January, the judge sided with the government, but he reconsidered his decision after senior officials publicly acknowledged that the CIA had waterboarded three prisoners and after Attorney General Michael Mukasey stated to Congress that the CIA's interrogation program had been authorized by the OLC. Click here to learn more the case and about the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody:
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