The Youth Advisory, Activism, and Advocacy Board, the Center for Civic Values, and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, and the New Mexico Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates are pleased to be co-sponsoring the Second Annual Bill of Rights Mock Trial. The Bill of Rights Mock Trial is a mock trial competition centering around an civil liberties issue. It is structured and formatted exactly like the annual Mock Trial sponsored by the Center for Civic Values. If you have already registered your team with the ACLU-NM, please download the case, Pat Smith vs. Western School District , and the rules for the Bill of Rights Mock Trial. We have a number of handouts available to help you, your attorney coach, and your students. Please feel free to download them and use them.
Handout - Suggestions for Student Witnesses
Handout - Suggestions for Student Attorneys
Handout - Master the 10 Most Difficult Things
Hadnout - Making the Most of Your Presentation
Handout - Guidelines for Teacher Sponsors
Hadnout - Guidelines for Attorney Coaches
Handout - Glossary of Legal Terms
The Bill of Rights Mock Trial will be held on October 14.

ACLU-NM Friends,

It’s all over the national media that the National Security Agency is data mining millions of private citizens’ phone records. No one likes it.

But what can we do about it?

File a complaint about this assault on our privacy in two important ways:

(1) Go to http://www.nmprc.state.nm.us/consumers/pdf/utilitiescomplaint.pdf and download the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission Informal Complaint. Return it to:

Public Regulatory Commission
P.O. Box 1269
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504

or FAX it to #505.827.4463. (The PRC regulates telephone service.)

(2) Go to www.aclu.org/dontspy and file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.

Tell them you know what the telephone companies are doing are doing, and that you know it is both a violation of customer trust and a violation of the law. It violates our expectation that the government will not pry into our lives without probable cause.

It is not up to AT&T or Verizon or any other phone company to decide what the government gets to see about our medical calls, our professional or very personal calls.

We can stop this illegal spying now. But they won’t stop if we don’t tell them.
So tell them. Today.

Join Us for a Panel Discussion: Policies Tear Families Apart in New Mexico

Award winning journalist, and former Soros Justice Media Fellow, Nell Bernstein, author of ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD: CHILDREN OF THE INCARCERATED

AND Professor Renny Golden, criminologist, published poet, well known activist for social rights in El Salvador and Guatemala, and author of WAR ON THE FAMILY: MOTHERS IN PRISON AND THE CHILDREN THEY LEAVE BEHIND

will discuss their books which reveal how children
and parents are torn apart by the American penal system

Youth from PB&J Family Services, Inc. (a non-profit social service agency that serves families of the imprisoned) will share their personal experiences on how the penal system has affected their lives.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006 6-8 pm
UNM Law School Room 2402

Sponsors: NM Women’s Justice Project, Inc. and PB&J Family Services, Inc.

Co-sponsors include: The Women’s Agenda, Coalition for Justice, American Civil Liberties Union of NM; NM Voices for Children; Drug Policy Alliance-NM; New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty; New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; Southwest Women’s Law Center.

For more information call: Diane Wood, 505.379.9470

ACLU Challenges Overcrowding in Women’s Prison

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-5915 ext. 1002
Maureen Sanders, ACLU-NM Legal Co-Director, 980-8889

Santa Fe—Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed legal papers Tuesday asking a state court to force NM Corrections Secretary Joe Williams to relieve overcrowding in the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. According to the ACLU, inmates are being housed in public communal areas that are not designed for long-term custody, causing increased tensions and fighting among inmates and the backup of sewage into living areas. NM Representative Mimi Stewart and the New Mexico Women’s Justice Project have joined the ACLU in the lawsuit.

“We gave the Corrections Department every opportunity to fix the situation and it failed to relieve the overcrowding,” said ACLU executive director Peter Simonson. “The current conditions seriously threaten the health and safety of the inmates and of the staff. If it takes a court order to force the DOC to resolve the problem, then so be it.”

Specifically, the ACLU is demanding that the Department of Corrections comply with a state law called the Corrections Population Control Act, passed by the NM legislature in 2002. When the inmate population of a correctional facility “exceeds one hundred percent of rated capacity” for a period of sixty consecutive days, the law requires the Corrections Secretary to notify a special legislatively-created commission and provide it with a list of nonviolent offenders who are within one hundred eighty days of their projected release date. The Commission is required to approve people on this list for emergency release to relieve population pressures within the facility.

ACLU legal co-director Maureen Sanders said, “Our records show that the population at the women’s prison has exceeded the six-hundred-person capacity by sixty inmates for more than sixty days. The Secretary has a legal obligation to convene the commission, or he is short-circuiting the wishes of the legislature. The legislature acted responsibly in addressing the overpopulation problem and the safety problems that result by requiring that nonviolent offenders be released. As a society we have a responsibility to ensure that our inmates are housed in safe facilities.”

The ACLU expects that the court will set a hearing within the next ten days.

###
Peter G. Simonson
Executive Director | ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566 | Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 | Fax: 266-5916

The Youth Advisory Board (YAB) of the ACLU-NM, in conjunction with the ACLU’s UNM chapter, is sponsoring screenings of two civil liberties related films.
On April 9, the HBO special If These Walls Could Talk will be shown. If These Walls Could Talk tells the stories of three women from three time periods in American history who experience abortions. After the movie, a discussion will be held featuring guest speakers represting both sides of the abortion debate.
Dirty Pictures, starring James Woods, tells the true story of a Cincinatti museum curator who was put on trial for displaying the sexually explicit photographs of artist Robert Maplethorpe. Dirty Pictures will be screened on April 30, and will be followed by a discussion.
Both films will be shown at 6:00 pm at the UNM Student Union Building in Ballroom A.

Who is going to hold the President accountable for breaking the law?

That question should be on the tip of every American’s tongue following revelations that President Bush authorized the illegal wiretapping of an undisclosed number of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

On Tuesday, April 11 from 7:00 to 8:30 PM, ACLU members will have a rare opportunity to tune in via webcast to a national ACLU townhall meeting discussing the legal implications and most recent developments in Congress regarding President Bush’s illegal order authorizing the National Security Agency to spy on Americans.

This webcast (see details for access below) will include Anthony Romero, ACLU Executive Director, John Dean, former White House counsel, and Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard Professor of Constitutional Law, among other panelists.

Please, invite friends and civil liberties advocates to watch this critical event.

The Senate Republican leadership is sponsoring two bills that would retroactively ratify the president’s illegal actions, thereby whitewashing this stunning civil rights abuse. It is imperative that ACLU members contact their Congressional representatives to:

* oppose legislation allowing warrantless surveillance of Americans, and
* support appointing a special counsel to investigate President Bush’s misuse of authority regarding surveillance without warrants on private citizens.

Unless Americans act now, Congress will allow this issue to go unchallenged.

Our Congressional delegates will be home April 10-21. E-mail or call them at

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico @ 346.6601
Email Address: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico @ 323.9017
Email Address: http://wilson.house.gov/Contact.asp

Representative Thomas Udall of New Mexico @ 994.0499
Email Address: http://www.tomudall.house.gov/feedback.cfm?campaign=Udall&type=Helping%20You%20

Here’s what you need to watch the webcast. If a group is interested in watching from the Albuquerque affiliate office, please call Joyce @ 266.5916 ext. 1003 or e-m at communications@aclu-nm.org

WATCH NOW
Windows Media Player format
Real Player format (broadband) Real Player format (dial-up)
Audio only (mp3)

Read more about illegal spying on Americans and the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging the NSA. At www.aclu.org

Joyce Briscoe
Legislative Advocate
ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566
Albuquerque, NM 87103
go to our website at www.aclu-nm.org

NEWS Former Hobbs Police Chief Vindicated
in ACLU Suit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-5915, ext. 1002

HOBBS – The City of Hobbs has agreed to pay $70,000 to former Hobbs Police Chief Kenneth Bohn to resolve civil rights claims that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico brought on his behalf last September. The suit stemmed from Bohn’s firing on August 11th, a move that surprised leaders in the Black and Hispanic communities and spurred protests at city council meetings. The ACLU will receive roughly $17,000 in attorneys fees and costs from the settlement.

“We are very pleased with this outcome,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The amount of the settlement offer reflects the seriousness of the civil rights violations that city officials committed against Chief Bohn. Unfortunately, the real losers in this deal are the citizens of Hobbs. Not only have they lost an upstanding leader for their police force, but also they are left with the problems that Chief Bohn tried to clean up.”

The ACLU alleged that Bohn was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about pay inequities within the police department and for insisting on a full investigation of the police evidence room. Complaints of missing weapons, transfer records, and homicide evidence had plagued the evidence room stemming from policies and practices that predated Bohn. When Bohn arrived, he also discovered what he believed to be evidence that the department had used proceeds from drug investigation forfeitures to buy video and audio recording devices that Bohn found to be secretly planted throughout the department. In May, 2005, Bohn requested an independent audit of the police department’s evidence room by the State Auditor and District Attorney’s office.

Bohn also voiced his concerns about disparities in the pay level of different officers at the June 27th Hobbs City Commission meeting. Shortly thereafter, Bohn received a “draft performance evaluation” from the City Manager Dan Dible. Although Bohn received excellent marks for job performance, Dible criticized him for speaking up about safety concerns related to pay inequities.

Bohn reiterated his concerns about pay equity at a subsequent meeting of the Commission on July 17th. On August 10th, mere days after Bohn received a substantial pay raise, Dible issued Bohn an ultimatum that he was to resign or be terminated the following day. The letter confirming Bohn’s termination gave no reasons for the firing.

Simonson said, “I think the Chief is just glad to conclude this episode of his life. It’s a hard thing for anyone to face unfair treatment in their job, even a guy as tough as the Chief.

The ACLU’s relationship with Hobbs is not over though. That’s a troubled police department. I have no doubt that we will see more civil rights problems arise in the coming years. The ACLU will be there when it does.”

Peter G. Simonson
Executive Director | ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566 | Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 | Fax: 266-5916

Civil Rights Groups Achieve Agreement to Overhaul NM Juvenile Justice System

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, February 17, 2006
CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico, 505-266-5915 or (cell) 505-620-0775
Daniel Yohalem, ACLU-NM Cooperating Attorney, 983-9433

ALBUQUERQUE - Civil rights groups have agreed to hold off on a major class action lawsuit against New Mexico’s Children Youth and Families Department in return for promises of major reform in the juvenile justice system. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico and the Youth Law Center (San Francisco) signed a settlement agreement with CYFD last Wednesday that requires sweeping improvements in security, mental health programming, and rehabilitation services in juvenile detention facilities across the state. It also mandates the closure of the New Mexico Boy’s School in Springer.

“The ACLU had two key aims in this litigation,” said ACLU executive director Peter Simonson. “Protect the safety of children in CYFD’s facilities and make sure that youthful offenders in our state get a fair shot at putting their lives back on a positive track. We think this agreement has the potential to transform our juvenile detention facilities from warehouses of problem kids to centers of genuine rehabilitation.”

ACLU cooperating attorney Daniel Yohalem said, “While the threat of the ACLU’s litigation was the spur to action, CYFD Secretary Mary Dale Bolson and her team have shown great leadership and responsibility in agreeing to redraw the future for New Mexico’s juveniles. If CYFD faithfully implements the ground breaking plan of action contained in the Agreement, fewer children will need to be in placed in custody because new community-based services will be available. Rehabilitation and safety will become much more available to those children who are placed in custody.”

Highlights of the 36-page settlement agreement include:

• Transfer of all 107 youth currently housed at Springer to other facilities around the state;

• Improved security in all CYFD facilities, including the installation of security cameras, increased ratios of staff to youth in all living units, and elimination of the practice of isolating youth from programs and general population as the means for ensuring safety;

• Development of comprehensive behavioral health screening and treatment programs headed by separate directors for facility-based and community-based behavioral health services and adequately staffed by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals;

• Requirements that female youth be granted comparable access to services and programs as male youth;

• Creation of classification and placement procedures to ensure that youth are located in the most appropriate settings in CFYD facilities.

• Creation of an Office of Quality Assurance that will independently monitor compliance with CYFD policies and investigate all serious internal grievances;

The settlement will affect over five hundred youth that are now on probation or housed in juvenile facilities run by CYFD.

Yohalem described the settlement agreement as “comprehensive and innovative.”

“In many ways, what this agreement does is break open the ‘closed’ corrections approach and put decision making in the hands of mental health and corrections professionals rather than in the hands of jailers,” Yohalem said. “From now on CYFD will try to place kids in facilities that allow them to keep in touch with their families and communities. And they will have to provide behavioral health services and other programming in the least restrictive setting possible.”

In addition to Yohalem, ACLU attorneys included Peter Cubra, Phil Davis, Larry Kronen, and Lee Hunt. Alice Bussiere represented the Youth Law Center.

“Even though we settled the lawsuit, the ACLU’s job is just beginning,” Yohalem said. “For the next four years, we’ll be monitoring CYFD’s progress very carefully to make sure that all the reforms are fully implemented.”

###

Peter G. Simonson
Executive Director | ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566 | Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 | Fax: (505) 266-5916

Thank you, ACLU Friends, for your many phone calls and e-mails this legislative session. The prospect for civil liberties looked pretty grim right up to the end. But much happened in the crush of closing the session:

The bill expanding the collection of DNA from conviction to arrests for felonies did pass.
Please call Governor Richardson’s office @ 1.505.476.2200 to veto this bill.

We opposed several bills requiring tougher, mandatory penalties (rather than treatment programs) for certain
gang-related crimes
sex offenders.
We are happy to report these bills did not pass.

However, the increased penalties for trafficking of meth did pass.

Other Good News:

Medical Rights: “Kendra’s law” on court-ordered treatment for mentally ill people, in spite of much publicity, did not pass
Gay Rights: no bills or Constitutional amendments proposed on the Defense of Marriage Act
Womens’ Rights: no bills or Constitutional amendments proposed on limiting abortion or defining when life begins
Students’ Rights: no bills or memorials on intelligent design were proposed
Voter Rights: strict voter identification requirements did not pass
although we anticipate fighting all these issues next session.

Once again, it isn’t over until the Governor is done. Please call the Governor concerning the DNA bill at 1.505.476.2200.

Diane Wood, our Most Excellent Lobbyist, and I will be reaching out and touching you before the next legislative session. This year, we want to involve you in gathering support for our civil liberties issues, especially privacy issues, statewide well before the 2007 session begins!

Joyce Briscoe
Legislative Advocate
ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566
Albuquerque, NM 87103
go to our website at www.aclu-nm.org (the web blog is in the upper right corner)

ACLU Members – especially in Gallup and Espanola areas:

Please call Senator Rainaldi @ 1.505.986.4310 and Senator Martinez @ 1.505.986.4389 to oppose Representative Tom Swisstack’s Bills (# 60 and # 65) adding additional, mandatory penalties for crimes involving gangs.

These bills will be in the Senate Judiciary Committee. We are opposing Representative Swisstack’s bills because

1. Generally the ACLU opposes mandatory sentences and enhancements of any kind because they lessen the judge’s ability to consider individual cases and their specific circumstances – such as the age or mental ability of the defendant, or the past criminal history (or lack of one) of the defendant, and especially the rehabilitative potential of the defendant through education or treatment programs.

2. These bills threaten the individual’s right to freedom of association primarily because they are vague in defining what a gang is. In addition, the bills do not define what constitutes being a member of a gang; e.g., Is being in the same room with other gang members who have felony records “membership” in a gang?

3. In practice, we believe these bills would most negatively impact Hispanics and African- Americans and would increase the use of racial profiling

4. We believe the taxpayers’ monies are better spent on educational and treatment programs than on additional prisons.

Please call State Senators Rainaldi and Martinez today to oppose HB 60 and 65

Joyce Briscoe
Legislative Advocate
ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566
Albuquerque, NM 87103

ACLU Members – especially in Las Cruces, Carlsbad, Roswell
& Santa Fe:

Please call Representative Andy Nunez @ 1.505.986.4233, Representative Joe Stell @ 1.505.986.4423
and House Speaker Ben Lujan @ 1.505.986.4782

to vote YES on SB 258, Medical Marijuana,
the Lynn Pierson & Erin Armstrong Compassionate Use Act.

This bill is in the House Agriculture & Water Resources Committee; Representative Joe Stell is the Chairman of this committee.
1. This bill would not legalize marijuana. Sponsor Senator Cisco McSorley emphasizes, “It allows doctors to recommend for clients who have severe ailments – to obtain medical marijuana from a licensee of the state of New Mexico. It is strictly regulated.”

2. New Mexico has a precedent for this bill. In 1978, New Mexico had a law establishing a controlled program allowing glaucoma and cancer chemotherapy patients to use marijuana for their illnesses. This program ended in 1986 because of budget cuts. The Lynn Pierson Research Program was named for a cancer patient who lobbied for the law; Pierson died before receiving federal approval.

3. This bill passed the Senate last week with wide approval from both political parties (34-6).

Please call State Representatives Nunez, Stell and Lujan today to SUPPORT SB 258, Medical Marijuana.

Joyce Briscoe
Legislative Advocate
ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566
Albuquerque, NM 87103

ACLU Protests Investigation of
VA Employee for ‘Sedition’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 31, 2006
CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-5915 or (cell) 505-620-0775

Albuquerque—In a letter to the US Department of Veteran Affairs, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is demanding an explanation for the department’s investigation of a federal employee for publishing an editorial in a local newspaper criticizing the Bush administration. In September, 2005, VA Information Security employees seized Laura Berg’s office computer due to the professed belief “that government equipment was used inappropriately…during government time for drafting an editorial letter.” No evidence was recovered to support that belief.

“The VA had no reason to suspect that Laura Berg used government resources to produce her editorial,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “She signed the letter as a private individual. From all appearances, the seizure of her work computer was an act of retaliation and a hardball attempt to scare Laura into silence.”

In her letter to the weekly Alibi, Berg, a clinical nurse specialist, criticized the Bush administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War, noting that, “[a]s a VA nurse working with returning…vets, I know the public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder.” She urged readers to “act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.”

In a November 9th memorandum to Berg, the VA’s Human Resource Chief, Mel Hooker, conceded that no evidence was found implicating the use of Berg’s work computer in the writing of the editorial. However, he justified the investigation by saying that “[the] Agency is bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially represents sedition.”

Simonson described the reference to ‘sedition’ as “shocking".

“Even if Laura had used the office computer, neither that fact, nor her criticism of the government, nor her appeal for a change in the heads of government approach an act of unlawful insurrection,” Simonson said. “Is the government so jealous of its power, so fearful of dissent, that it needs to threaten people who openly oppose its policies with charges of ‘sedition’?”

ACLU attorneys George Bach and Larry Kronen plan to submit a request under the Freedom of Information Act for all documents related to the VA’s actions towards Berg. They have asked Hooker for a public apology “to remedy the unconstitutional chilling effect on the speech of VA employees that has resulted from these intimidating tactics.”
###

NEWS

ACLU Settles Lawsuit Over Release of
Student Information to Military Recruiters
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-4622 or (cell) 505-620-0775

Karen Meyers, ACLU Cooperating Attorney, Aguilar Law Offices, P.C., 242-6677

ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico has settled a civil rights lawsuit against Albuquerque Public Schools for sending students’ contact information directly to military recruiters without properly notifying parents of their right to opt out of such information sharing. The federal No Child Left Behind Act grants secondary school students and their parents the right to deny the military access to a student’s name, address, and telephone listing. Legal papers filed by the ACLU claim that, in 2004, several APS high schools failed to notify parents of this right until weeks, and in some cases, months, after those schools had already shared students’ information with the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy.

The ACLU lawsuit is the first of its kind anywhere in the country.

“We live in a time when a student’s decision to sign up for the military is likely to land him or her right on the field of battle,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Understandably, many parents want to limit the access that recruiters have to their children. Schools have an ethical and legal obligation to give them that control and to respect students’ privacy.”

Under a settlement agreement, APS will adopt and implement a policy that requires the district to include information about the No Child Left Behind Act in the registration packet that each secondary school mails to parents before registration. The materials will include a form by which parents may request that a student’s name, address, and telephone listing not be released to military recruiters. Once parents have made such a request, their wish will remain in effect until it is changed in writing by the student or the parents. In addition to making the policy change, APS paid $20,000 in attorney fees.

ACLU volunteer attorney Karen Meyers (of Aguilar Law Offices, P.C.) said, “It’s not enough to bury the notice of parents’ opt-out rights somewhere on a school website or in a student handbook. The notice to parents has to be ‘meaningful’. The school has to bring the information to parents’ attention so that they can make an informed and conscious choice. APS wasn’t doing that and we suspect that many other districts around the state aren’t doing it.”

Asked if the ACLU would consider bringing similar legal action against other non-complying school districts, Executive Director Simonson said, “Absolutely. We expect to go to other school districts and say, ‘Here’s what APS did. We expect you to do the same.’”
###

Peter G. Simonson
Executive Director | ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566 | Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 | Fax: (505) 266-5916

NEWS

American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
Media Relations Office
PO Box 566
Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: 505-266-5915
Fax: 505-266-5916
www.aclufl.org

ACLU Claims Sexual Abuse by Jail Guard

Corrections company, Warden accused of ‘gross negligence’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-4622 or (cell) 505-620-0775

Stephen Pevar, Senior Legal Counsel, national ACLU (860) 293-1559

Albuquerque – Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have filed claims of sexual abuse and ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ against a McKinley County detention officer, Brian Orr, on behalf of two female inmates from Wyoming. The lawsuit also accuses the jail’s acting warden, Gilbert Lewis, the board of McKinley County commissioners, and the company that managed the jail, Management and Training Corporation, of negligence and failure to properly train and supervise officer Orr.

During 2003, Sheila Black and Cristy Herden were incarcerated at the McKinley County jail pursuant to a housing contract between McKinley County and the Wyoming Department of Corrections to relieve overcrowding in Wyoming’s main prison for women. Orr repeatedly sexually assaulted the two women and photographed them in the nude, causing the women physical injury and severe psychological and emotional distress.

“If proper safeguards had been in place, these assaults may never have occurred,” said Peter Simonson, Executive Director for the ACLU of New Mexico. “Jails aren’t supposed to be pleasant places. However, prisoners are entitled to basic rights, and protection against predatory guards certainly is one of them.”

New Mexico ACLU attorneys Kari Morrissey, Phil Davis, and George Bach are litigating the case in collaboration with Stephen Pevar, Senior Staff Counsel for the national American Civil Liberties Union.

###

Peter G. Simonson
Executive Director | ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566 | Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 | Fax: (505) 266-5916

ACLU-NM Members:
The legislature convenes today for a short (30 day) session ending on February 16.
Although ACLU-NM is not initiating any new legislation, we will be watching and opposing several possible bills.

These bills may include issues around

Real ID (a federal driver’s license law – see our press release on our web blog)
Mandatory enhancements on sentences (for crimes involving gang members)
Mandatory outpatient mental health treatment for prisoners (religious freedom issues)
Mandatory life sentences for convictions involving victims under 10 years old (or with the intent to kill or torture a child)
DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act proposing a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman)
Definition of beginning of life (Constitutional amendment, anti-choice/abortion)
Teaching Intelligent Design (memorial possibility)

We, Diane Wood, our lobbyist, and me, Joyce Briscoe, will be keeping our ACLU-NM members (and coalition partners, such as Religious Freedom Coalition and Equality New Mexico) informed of legislative actions through e-mail list serves and web blog updates. You can reach our web blog by clicking on the upper right corner of our website, www.aclu-nm.org.

R e m e m b e r
To call the legislative switchboard at the Roundhouse: 1.505.986.4300
Write your Representative or Senator at the NM Legislature
State Capitol
Santa Fe, NM 8750l

Thank you for your active membership during this legislative session !

Joyce Briscoe
Legislative Advocate
ACLU of New Mexico
PO Box 566
Albuquerque, NM 87103
go to our website at www.aclu-nm.org

Study Shows New Mexico MVD Pessimistic on Federal Driver’s License Law

Agency Views Anti-terror Law as Costly for Tax-payers, “Politically Sensitive”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 12, 2005
CONTACT:
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-4622 or (cell) 505-620-0775

Albuquerque—Newly obtained documents reveal that New Mexico state officials are concerned that federal legislation called the Real ID Act will require extensive changes to existing practices at the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division, will be extremely difficult to implement by the Act’s deadline, and will carry heavy expenses that will have to be absorbed by New Mexico taxpayers and license applicants. The Act, passed by Congress last spring, imposes federal regulations on the design, issuance and management of state driver’s licenses –turning them, for all practical purposes, into federal identity papers.

“Civil liberties groups, conservative groups, immigration groups – we’ve all been saying that Real ID will be a real disaster and needs to be revisited by Congress,” said Peter Simonson, Director of the New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union. “These documents indicate that New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division officials – the people actually responsible for carrying out this ill-conceived law – also have serious concerns about Real ID.”

The documents are part of a national survey of state motor vehicle officials’ views and preparation for complying with Real ID that was conducted by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). The documents were first reported today by the Associated Press. A copy of New Mexico’s response to the survey was obtained by the ACLU.

“New Mexico officials are right to be concerned,” said Simonson. “Real ID not only means a national ID, but it will mean higher taxes and fees, longer lines, repeat visits to the motor vehicle offices, bureaucratic snafus, and, for a lot of people, the inability to obtain a license. To top it off, it will do little if anything to prevent terrorism.”

Simonson noted that the national survey responses showed that the concerns expressed by New Mexico officials are broadly shared by motor vehicles administrators around the United States. For example, no state that responded to the survey seems to believe it is possible in the near future to link all the motor vehicle information databases between all states, as the statute requires. And 3 in 4 states reacted with “medium” to “high” concern to Real ID’s extensive new document-verification requirements, which they said would involve major systems changes and increased hiring – and that is assuming that AAMVA or the federal government will build electronic systems for verification.

In the survey, New Mexico officials wrote that legislative action would be required to implement most of the REAL ID Act requirements, some because of their “political sensitivity,” and most because they would require new state funding. At the conclusion of the survey, officials queried, “Where is the funding coming from?”

“This document is a cry for help by our MVD,” said Simonson. “Fortunately, the opposition to this bill is so broad – and is becoming broader as more people figure out what it would do and what it would cost – that there is a very good chance that we can force Congress to take it up again.”

“Congress needs to do this right and actually hold hearings, listen to all the different interests and real-world practical difficulties, and give it an up-or-down vote, none of which happened when it was rammed through last spring,” said Barry Steinhardt, director of the national ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. “New Mexicans need to join with others around the country and help block this disastrous law before it’s too late.”

New Mexico’s response to the AAMVA survey along with other documents is attached and online at www.realnightmare.org.

ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico will honor four people for their outstanding contributions to civil liberties at its annual Bill of Rights Dinner on Friday, December 9 at 7 p.m. at the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town. The last day to buy tickets for this event is Monday, December 5.

Ousama Rasheed and Roger Smith will receive the Cooperating Attorney Award for their work in stopping an Albuquerque law that empowered the City to seize and forfeit vehicles upon first arrest (not conviction) for DWI. Judge Theresa Baca declared the ordinance unconstitutional in August 2005.

Ousama M. Rasheed, is a Palestinian-American attorney in private practice in Albuquerque. A Muslim born in California, he spent a year living on the West Bank before moving to New Mexico in 1976. He is a graduate of Eldorado High School, received his B.A. in Communications from UNM before receiving his Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1990. After law school, he was an Assistant District Attorney in the Bernalillo County D.A.’s office, handling misdemeanor and felony cases. He is currently a board member of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Chair of the Criminal Section of the New Mexico State Bar.

Roger Smith has been practicing law for over a decade. He is a native New Mexican who graduated from Albuquerque High School, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 and his law degree in 1992 from the University of New Mexico. Since August of this year he’s been an associate with The Revo Law Firm where he helps those who have been injured by the negligence of others.

Joyce Briscoe will receive the ACLU’s Volunteer of the Year Award for her assistance in the ACLU’s public education program. Among her contributions, Joyce organized community demonstrations to raise awareness about the USA Patriot Act; organized an ACLU workshop on teacher rights through the teachers’ union; and organized projects centering on student privacy, military recruitment, and intelligent design. She recently retired from 25 years of teaching American literature, Western civilization and government at Manzano, La Cueva and Sandia High Schools.

Bennett Hammer will receive the Civil Libertarian of the Year Award for his outstanding efforts in arranging for the purchase of the ACLU’s own office building, located near Tingley Beach. Bennett has served on the ACLU state board of director for 12 years, and for the last two has represented New Mexico on the national ACLU board of directors. He has a thirty-year career as a real estate broker and is the Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals for the City of Albuquerque, an appointed position.

Public radio talk-show host Arcie Chapa will moderate the Bill of Rights Dinner and hand out the awards. The Bill of Rights keynote speaker for the event is Phil Donahue.

A press conference will be held with Phil Donahue at 3:30 pm on Friday, December 9 at the Fireplace room in Hotel Albuquerque on 800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW. The last day to buy tickets for the event is Monday, December 5, the reception begins at 6pm that evening and the awards dinner starts at 7pm. Tickets are $85 each and $800 for a table of 10, and you can call 266-5915 or go to www.aclu-nm.org to buy tickets.

FARMINGTON – New Mexico’s civil rights community is protesting an essay contest at Farmington’s Piedra Vista High School that asked students to explain why preserving marriage between men and women is vital society and why unborn children merit respect and protection.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, Equality New Mexico, and NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico say the contest violates state regulations banning sexual orientation discrimination by teachers. They also object to the ideological slant of such an assignment.

“The contest had nothing to do with encouraging critical thinking,” said ACLU Staff Attorney George Bach. “It was a tactic to shape students’ political views in the guise of an objective school assignment.”

The ACLU found out about the contest last month when the parent of a student who is a sophomore at Piedra Vista High School contacted their office. The assignment was issued in response to an essay contest sponsored by United Families International, a non-profit established in 1978, whose primary mission is “to strengthen the family by promoting marriage between one man and woman and the protection of human life, including unborn children.” (Source: www.unitedfamilies.org). The students were given the option of either writing to the contests prompts or writing a personal narrative.

“Piedra Vista High School’s apparent lack of respect for diversity in thought is troubling,” said Alexis Blizman, Executive Director of Equality New Mexico, an organization committed to full equality and justice for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. “Students in taxpayer-funded public schools simply shouldn’t be forced to accept one viewpoint over another, regardless of the issue.”

The Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico, Giovanna Rossi, said, “Our schools should put education before ideology. Teachers should present factual, unbiased information about health and sexuality – values are taught at home, but the facts should be taught at school.”

The ACLU contacted Donny Ortiz, Peidra Vista High School Principal, outlining its concerns and proposing an essay contest that would prompt students to write alternative viewpoints.

In his response letter to ACLU-NM, Ortiz declined the offer of a competing essay contest. He also explained that the original essay contest was distributed to school districts by New Mexico Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia for interested students only.

We’re experiencing some difficulties with aclu-nm.org. For the time being, you can connect using this address:

http://mjhinton.net/aclu/index.php

At the Bill of Rights Mock Trial on November 19, St. Pius X High School won first place and Highland High School won second. Students from Manzano High School, Highland HS, and St. Pius X won Outstanding Witness Awards, and students from Albuquerque HS, Highland HS, and St. Pius X won Oustanding Attorney Awards. ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson, Staff Attorney George Bach, and Board of Directors member Tova Indritz were present to present awards.