Due Process
D.C. Council Presses Officials for Action on ACLU Data Showing High Rate of Suspensions at D.C. Charter Schools
February 15, 2012The D.C. Council recently grilled officials and asked for action in reponse to dramatic testimony to the D.C. Council Committee of the Whole on February 8, when ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Fritz Mulhauser revealed new ACLU findings -- that public charter schools in the District in 2009-2010 (the latest year for which there is adequate data) suspended 4,500 of their 29,000 students--16 per cent of the enrollment.
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- Topics: Featured, Due Process, Student Rights
ACLU Warns D.C. Public Schools of Improper Discipline Proposed at Wilson High School
November 04, 2011The ACLU jhas alerted officials in D.C. Public Schools that Wilson High School Principal Petet Cahall recently proposed improper discipline, that should not be carried out by his superiors. Cahall, in a letter home to parents after students damaged a bathroom in the newly-remodeled building, called for exopulsion and criminal charges against those involved and also
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- Topics: Due Process, News & Events, Student Rights
Protecting the rights of Internet users
September 11, 2010This copyright infringement case was filed by the owner of a movie, who alleges that each of 4,577 unknown defendants infringed its copyright by distributing pirated copies of the movie over the Internet. The copyright owner served subpoenas on various Internet Service Providers, seeking the names and addresses of these “John Does.”
Protecting the Special Ed bar from retaliation
September 11, 2010When D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles launched a “pushback” against the District’s special education bar by suing a plaintiff’s lawyer for attorney’s fees and appealing the dismissal of that suit, we filed an amicus brief showing why the District could not be a “prevailing party” (and thus potentially entitled to fees) when it had obtained dismissal of the lawyer’s administrative complaint by providing the relief he sought. In a January 2010 decision, the Court of Appeals agreed with us about that, and also agreed about the relevant policy issue, quoting our brief: “As amicus explains, such an outcome would deter lawyers from taking IDEA cases, ‘effectively block[ing] the one enforcement mechanism parents have when an educational agency drags its heels,’ and undermining the IDEA’s very purpose.”
Fair representation for people with disabilities
September 11, 2010We joined with other groups in filing an amicus brief in the D.C. Court of Appeals in this case, which involves a request by a person with moderate mental disability for a change in her guardian.
Pre-enforcement standing to sue
September 11, 2010Robert Ord is a Virginia law enforcement officer who has been threatened with arrest if he carries his handgun in D.C., but who asserts a right to do so under the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004, which allows officers to carry concealed firearms notwithstanding contrary state law. His lawsuit against the District of Columbia seeking a ruling on that question was dismissed on the ground that he didn’t have standing to sue, and he appealed. We filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit arguing that the Circuit’s stingy doctrine about “pre-enforcement standing” is inconsistent with decisions of the Supreme Court and other circuits, and should be liberalized.
The right to appeal
September 11, 2010The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance is a sub-agency under the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. In 2008, three D.C. voters filed a complaint with the Office of Campaign Finance, accusing a D.C. Councilmember of wrongly using city resources in his reelection campaign. When the Office of Campaign Finance found no violation, they sought to appeal that decision to the Board of Elections, which refused to hear their appeal on the ground that they had no “standing” to appeal under the Board’s regulations.
Bringing law to Bagram
September 11, 2010In January 2010, we filed petitions for habeas corpus on behalf of four Afghan citizens, challenging their detention at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where they had been confined without charges, access to counsel, access to any court, or access to the evidence against them. We believe they are entitled to the protection of habeas corpus in a U.S. court because Bagram, much like Guantanamo, is under the exclusive control of the United States, pursuant to an open-ended, rent-free lease from the Afghan government.
Bringing law to Guantanamo, II
September 11, 2010Mohamedou Ould Salahi was seized in 2001 and held in Jordan and Afghanistan before being brought to Guantanamo, where he was subjected to some of the most severe torture of any of the Guantanamo inmates. The ACLU joined forces with his pro bono habeas corpus counsel because his case presents several important issues, including the question of when the armed conflict with al-Qaeda began and the scope of military detention authority, given that he was “captured” on the “battlefield” while showering in his own home in Mauritania.
Bringing Law to Guantanamo, I
September 11, 2010We assisted the National ACLU in representing Mohammad Jawad, one of two Guantanamo detainees who were juveniles when first detained. In January 2009 we filed a petition for habeas corpus seeking Mr. Jawad’s prompt release. After the case was stayed for several months to allow the Obama administration to review the Guantanamo situation, we moved to suppress Mr. Jawad’s alleged confessions—written in a language he neither spoke nor understood, and which were the only significant evidence against him—as the unreliable products of torture. The government eventually conceded that his statements should be suppressed, and in July Judge Huvelle suppressed them and scheduled a trial for August. In order to avoid that trial, the government conceded that Mr. Jawad could no longer be held. Judge Huvelle then granted the writ of habeas corpus and ordered Mr. Jawad released. He was flown home to Afghanistan, where he met with President Karzai at the Presidential Palace and was escorted by the Attorney General of Afghanistan to his home village, where he was reunited with his family.
