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.

CONTACT:
Drew Renner, ACLU of New Mexico Northern Chapter Representative at 505-424-3987 or cell at 949 280-4777

SANTA FE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico Northern Chapter will screen the Santa Fe premier of Robert Greenwald’s film Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price twice on Saturday November 19, at the Santa Fe Film Festival Center in the Cinema Café, 1616 St. Michael’s Drive, St. Michael’s Village West.

Doors will open at 3:00 p.m, followed by an ACLU membership meeting open to all. The second showing will take place at 6:30. Following introductory remarks, the just-released Robert Greenwald/Brave New Films production, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, will have its Santa Fe premier. Greenwald rose to fame with his award winning documentaries Unconstitutional, Uncovered and Outfoxed.

Peter Simonson, Executive Director of ACLU-New Mexico and Lisa Smithline, Vice President of Marketing for Brave New Films, will introduce the film and lead a Q&A session after the screening. Wal-Mart Corporate has been invited to send a representative.

The ACLU-NM Northern New Mexico Chapter semiannual membership meeting will follow the event with ACLU-NM Director Peter Simonson reporting on the organization’s recent and ongoing statewide activities. Old, new, and prospective members are welcome.

A special ACLU membership package including a DVD of this documentary will be available, an ACLU membership card will admit two free of charge, SFFF will charge $6.00 admission for its members to the theater, and nonmembers of ACLU or SFFF will be charged $8.00 admission. Students and nonmembers are welcome. Donations accepted at the door.

For reservations or more information, call 505 424-3987 or e-mail infoaclu@aol.com

ALBUQUERQUE – This Saturday, November 19th, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico Youth Advisory Board of the Central NM Chapter is sponsoring its first Bill of Rights Mock Trial.

The event will take place from 8:30 am until 3:00 pm at the UNM Law School. There will be both morning and afternoon sessions with a midday lunch provided for all.

Teams from five area high schools will participate. The case chosen for this Bill of Rights Mock Trial involves a First Amendment issue, freedom of speech. It centers around the repercussions given to a student for voicing his or her opinion on a controversial issue at a school function.

“This case addresses an issue very important to students: free speech. Free speech is one of our nation’s most prized liberties, and students are just as entitled to it just as must as anyone else,” said President of the Youth Advisory Board Daniel Williams.

The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Civic Values and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. The Youth Advisory Board is under the auspices of the ACLU-NM Central NM Chapter Education Task Force.

ALBUQUERQUE – Phil Donahue will deliver a keynote speech critical of corporate media at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico Annual Bill of Rights Dinner on Friday, December 9 at 7 p.m. at the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town.

Most people know Donahue for his talk show fame, but may not be aware of his civil rights and civil liberties significance. A leader in national media reform efforts, Donahue will reveal the inside story of corporate media censorship and how First Amendment protections guaranteeing a “free marketplace of ideas” have been steadily eroded with each new merger.

Donahue was interviewed by Sean Hannity of the FOX News channel’s Hannity & Colmes program the fall after he was fired from MSNBC. “Well, we were the only antiwar voice that had a show, and that, I think, made them very nervous. I mean, from the top down, they were just terrified. We had to have two conservatives on for every liberal. I was counted as two liberals.”

When Donahue’s show was canceled, The New York Times reported that “he was actually attracting more viewers than any other show on MSNBC.” All Your TV’s Rick Ellis quoted a network source: “I personally like Donahue, but our numbers were telling us that viewers thought he has too combative and often said things that some respondents considered almost unpatriotic.”

In February, 2003, MSNBC cancelled Donahue’s daily “liberal” talk show–the first of its kind–a mere six months after it debuted. The network claimed poor ratings as the reason, but at the time, Donahue was the highest rated show on MSNBC. His 440,000 viewers a night far exceeded viewer ship for the now long-running conservative MSNBC talk show “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and approached the numbers for “O’Reilly Factor.”

Donahue actively supports gay and lesbian equality; he served on the boards of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the Ryan White Foundation. In 1999, he received the Family Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign.

A press conference will be held with Donahue at 3pm 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 December 2, the reception begins at 6pm that evening and the awards dinner starts at 7pm. Tickets are $85, $800 for a table of 10, and you can call to place an ad in the program at 266-5915 or go to www.aclu-nm.org.

Public radio talk-show host Arcie Chapa will moderate the event and hand out the awards. ACLU-NM continues to grow, due to the work of many dedicated volunteers. This year we are honoring Bennett Hammer, Ousama Rasheed, Roger Smith, and Joyce Briscoe for their contributions to the ACLU of New Mexico.

ALBUQUERQUE—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a civil rights lawsuit today asking the federal court to declare Albuquerque’s recently-passed Voter I.D. Amendment “unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.”

The new law requires people who vote in person to present a “current valid identification card containing the voter’s name and photograph.” Among the acceptable forms of identification are a driver’s license, a credit card, and a voter identification card issued by the City Clerk. Absentee voters are exempt from any photo I.D. requirements.

“If you’re poor or homeless, there’s a good chance you don’t have any of the permissible forms of identification,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Wealth shouldn’t determine your ability to participate in democracy. Americans shouldn’t have to jump through unnecessary hoops to exercise their constitutionally-guaranteed right to vote.”

Under the Voter I.D. Amendment, an application for an absentee ballot simply requires that people provide their name, address, and the last four digits of the social security number. No photo I.D. requirement applies and the ballot may be cast by mail or delivered in person.

Simonson said, “Why should people who actually show their faces at the polling place suffer more rigorous identification requirements than someone who votes from a distance? It doesn’t make sense. We’re creating two classes of voters. The Constitution doesn’t permit that.”

The filing of the ACLU suit coincides with today’s decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a court ruling blocking another voter I.D. law in Georgia. Like the Albuquerque law, Georgia’s photo I.D. requirements only applied to in-person voters. Simonson said the Georgia decision “sets a very good precedent for our case.”

Attorneys James Scarantino, Joseph Kennedy, and Shannon Oliver are litigating the ACLU’s case along with ACLU Staff Attorney George Bach. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the ACLU of New Mexico and Barbara Grothus.

ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a lawsuit yesterday to protect the right of a Department of Health employee to post material that is critical of the Iraq war on the window in her office.

On August 22, the employee’s supervisor instructed her to remove the materials from a window that looks out onto an atrium in the Runnels Building in Santa Fe. For over a year, the employee had posted materials of similar political content without incident.

“It appears that they wanted the items removed because a senior staff meeting was to be held in the building that day,” said ACLU staff attorney George Bach. “But they didn’t seem bothered by other postings that were generally more favorable to the war effort. To us that smacks of viewpoint-based discrimination.”

In August and September, Bach sent letters to the Department of Health attorneys asking that the Department reverse its directive, but without effect. On October 20, he and ACLU Cooperating Attorney Julie Sakura said filed a lawsuit claiming violations of the employee’s First Amendment rights in State District Court.

Sakura added, “The Constitution protects speech that addresses issues of great public interest. No one would argue that the employee’s postings fail to meet that test. If others can express their opinions about the war, then she should have that right too.”

“It just doesn’t make sense to prohibit an employee of the Department of Health, of all people, from posting statistics about New Mexicans who perish in the war in Iraq,” said Bach

CONTACT:
Claudia Guevara, ACLU of Texas at 915-532-0921 ext. 27
Peter Simonson, Executive Director, ACLU of New Mexico at 505-266-4622

HACHITA, NM – Border Patrol authorities revealed to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that they arrested a member of the New Mexico Minuteman last week for smuggling/detaining a group of migrants outside of Hachita, New Mexico, a community on the U.S. border with Mexico.

The Minuteman volunteer, said to be from Colorado, was driving in Hidalgo County and came across a group of migrants who flagged him down for food and water. He was arrested while en route to the town of Hachita.

“We don’t yet have complete information on the Minutemen’s arrest,” said Ray Ybarra, Racial Justice Fellow for the ACLU of Texas, who has been monitoring the activities of the New Mexico Minutemen. “What we do know is that this individual was taken into custody, but that the charges eventually were dropped.

“If the report is corroborated, it would confirm our suspicions that the Minutemen are, at best, not well-supervised and, at worst, inclined to take the law into their own hands, including unlawfully detaining people who they think are undocumented immigrants.”

The Minutemen have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that states, “Minutemen do not verbally contact, physically gesture to or have any form of communications with suspected Illegal Aliens.”

The US Attorney’s office in Tucson is prosecuting Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss for transporting three migrants to a hospital on July 9th after finding them with symptoms of severe dehydration. Sellz and Strauss are volunteers for a humanitarian aid organization called No More Deaths.

Ybarra questioned why Sellz and Strauss would be more aggressively prosecuted than the Minutemen when they were performing as Good Samaritans. “Letting the Minutemen violate the law without accountability sends the signal that vigilante activity is welcome in New Mexico. This can lead to a very dangerous situation for migrants and New Mexican residents alike,” he said.

Rio Rancho—Rio Rancho science teachers are getting some advice from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico: don’t “be afraid to refuse to discuss or teach intelligent design…Any teacher who is disciplined in any way for declining to discuss or teach intelligent design should contact the ACLU immediately.”

The ACLU made those recommendations in an email letter (attached) that it sent yesterday to eighty science teachers in Rio Rancho middle and high schools. The letter responds to a recently-passed Rio Rancho school board policy on science education that many have interpreted as a tactic to introduce intelligent design, the belief that a supernatural creator ‘designed’ the universe, into science classrooms.

“We wanted science teachers to know that the ACLU supports them and that the Constitution does give them some control over this situation,” said ACLU executive director Peter Simonson. “Intelligent design is religion, not science. No credible scientist or science association endorses it. To allow the study of intelligent design in the science classroom not only would violate the school district’s standards on science education, but it also would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.”

Last Friday, a group that calls itself “Pastor’s Net” held a meeting at Destiny Church in Rio Rancho to encourage students in Rio Rancho schools to provoke discussions about intelligent design in their science classes. The ACLU letter urged science teachers to respond to such activity with “a brief comment on why intelligent design is not science–and therefore not appropriate material for the science classroom–and then direct the class to legitimate science curriculum.”

Simonson said, “One of the most troubling aspects of this controversy is the willingness of some Rio Rancho school board members to make a political battleground of the classroom–and the subtle ways in which they are enlisting students to carry out their campaign. Science teachers should be left alone to carry out the important mission of delivering a legitimate science education, instead of being made a focus of religious politics.”

The ACLU has vowed to file suit against the Rio Rancho school district if it requires science teachers to promote the study of intelligent design.

CONTACT:
Barbara Tegge, President, ACLU of New Mexico Southwest Chapter at 505-388-3407

SILVER CITY – The ACLU of New Mexico Southwestern Chapter will hold its annual meeting at 5:00 p.m.on Saturday, October 22 at the First Church of Whats Happening at 609 N. Arizona Street. ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney George Bach will give a talk entitled “The Bill of Rights is NOT discretionary: Defending the Constitution in New Mexico in the 21st Century.”

George Bach will speak about the ACLU of New Mexico’s work in defending privacy, liberty, and the separation of church and state.

“The war on civil liberties is unfortunately reaching every community in this country – and it’s our mission to be here in Silver City, Deming, Hobbs, Las Cruces, Reserve, Columbus, anywhere necessary to tackle these issues head-on,” said Bach.

Since he came on board as staff at the ACLU, Bach has traveled to Gallup, Hobbs, Clovis, Portales and consulted on and investigated civil liberties issues in Deming, Silver City, Farmington, Maxwell, Reserve, and Las Cruces. In addition to attacks on privacy and the latest on “Intelligent Design theory” in New Mexico, Bach will give an update on the ACLU legal docket in New Mexico, including the recent lawsuit against the city of Deming on behalf of a firefighters’ union. He will also elaborate on the ACLU’s Legal Observer project which monitors the vigilante presence on the U.S. - Mexico border. There will be time for questions about the ACLU’s activities at the meeting.

Bach has served as the Staff Attorney for the ACLU of New Mexico since February 14, 2005. He is the ACLU of New Mexico’s first staff attorney in its over forty year history as an advocacy organization. Prior to joining the staff at the ACLU, Bach worked as an associate attorney with Peifer & Cornell, LLP in Albuquerque, New Mexico, practicing primarily in civil rights, union-side labor law and employee-side employment law. He earned his B.A. degree from Centre College of Kentucky and his J.D. degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law. He is also a former president of the New Mexico Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association and currently a member of the Board of Directors for Equality PAC, a political action committee working for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in New Mexico.

Materials on the ACLU will be available at the annual meeting and donations are accepted at the door. For more information contact Barbara Tegge, Chapter President, at 388-3407.

ALBUQUERQUE – ACLU of New Mexico’s Central New Mexico Chapter, the UNM Law School Chapter, and the UNM Chapter will host a discussion featuring Mikey Weinstein on Thursday, October 6, at 5:30 p.m. in room 2401 at the University of New Mexico Law School.

Mikey Weinstein, Albuquerque attorney and businessman, is the leader and spokesperson for the much-publicized movement to restore constitutionally-mandated separation of church and state at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kevin Hoover, ACLU-NM Board Member, will introduce Mikey Weinstein and the talk will be followed by a question and answer session.

“If this country violates the Constitution by losing religious neutrality at a place like the United States Air Force Academy within the United States Air Force and Department of Defense, we will not only lose what makes us uniquely American, we will destroy ourselves in the process,” said Mikey Weinstein. Such a disaster would be made all the worse by the fact that we are currently engaged in combat in a region that already sees us, monolithically, as invading and occupying American/Christian crusaders and imperialists.”

In his talk, he will describe his personal and family background, which includes three generations of military academy graduates, how he became involved in and brought events at the Academy to significant national and international attention, how this serious situation impacts the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense and our nation as a whole.

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

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ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is screening “Undocumented: The Other Side of the Minuteman Project” at the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill on 3405 Central Ave. NE this Saturday, October 1 at noon. ACLU-NM Staff Attorney George Bach will facilitate discussion afterwards.

This new film documents the efforts of border communities to stand up to vigilante patrols in the Mexico-U.S. border region.

“Nothing good can come from people—civilians—taking the law into their own hands,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The situation only gets worse when they start carrying firearms and when their motivations are based on racial difference. By passively monitoring the vigilantes, we hope to dissuade them from falsely arresting people whom, because of their skin color, are assumed to be undocumented immigrants. The documentary illustrates the successes and experiences of such a project in Arizona.”

In April of 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and the American Friends Service Committee of Arizona joined forces to train ‘legal observers’ to monitor the Minuteman Project. The documentary contains detailed footage from patrols last April. Legal Observing is currently under way in California and will begin in New Mexico and Texas during the month of October.

The ACLU is training teams of volunteer “legal observers” to follow, photograph, and videotape the ‘Minutemen’ who are expected to begin hunting for undocumented immigrants on the border in October. The legal observers will gather evidence for possible civil rights lawsuits. Trainings are taking place in El Paso and Las Cruces.

Ray Ybarra, an Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow with the national ACLU, has been organizing concerned citizens to keep an eye on vigilante groups that are forming on New Mexico’s southern border. Last spring, Ybarra organized 130 volunteers to keep an eye on the Minutemen in Arizona. Observers are instructed not to converse or otherwise engage with the Minutemen in order to avoid confrontations.

“My hope is that like slavery and racial segregation, future generations will look back upon the Minuteman Project, and this period on the border as whole, with outrage and with disbelief,” said Ibarra.

The Minutemen will begin patrolling this Saturday and the ACLU will be out observing their activities. If you are interested in volunteering this weekend, please call Claudia Guevara at 915-532-0921 or meet at the Farm worker’s Center at 210 E. Ninth Ave. in El Paso at 12pm. We will conduct training for those who have not yet received it. There will be a group heading out towards the Fabens/Ft. Hancock area and another towards Columbus/Hachita. For more information go to: www.vigilantewatch.org.

“Undocumented: The Other Side of the Minuteman Project” will screen at the Albuquerque Guild Cinema in Nob Hill on 3405 Central NE Saturday, October 1 and October 15 from noon to 1:30 p.m.

ALBUQUERQUE – Judith Krug, founder of Banned Books Week, an annual celebration reminding Americans not to take the precious democratic freedom to read freely for granted, will kick off the week’s events at the downtown Albuquerque Main Library on 5th and Copper at 10:30 a.m. in a panel discussion that is free and open to the public.

Banned Books Week, celebrating the freedom to read, is observed during the last week of September each year and this year falls during the week of September 24 through October 1. Observed since 1982, Banned Books Week is now entering its 22nd year, and continues to raise awareness about censorship and remind Americans that our freedoms can be fragile if we’re not vigilant in protecting them.

Banned Books Week 2005 really hits close to home as Albuquerque’s own, Rudolfo Anaya, landed on this year’s top banned books list when his classic novel, Bless Me Ultima, was banned by a school district in Colorado. The ACLU sponsored 2005 Banned Books Week events this year features discussions with banned authors Rudolfo Anaya, Margaret Randall, and Judith Krug, a noted speaker and author in the area of intellectual freedom.

Krug remains unparalleled in her commitment to educating the public about their rights to free access of all expressions and ideas. She is the Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom since it’s founding in 1967. Krug has advised countless numbers of librarians and trustees in dealing with challenges to library materials. She helped to found the Freedom to Read Foundation, a sister organization of ALA, and has served as its executive director since 1969.

Each year, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom receives hundreds of reports on books and other materials that were “challenged” or asked to be removed from school or library shelves. The ALA estimates the number represents only about a quarter of the actual challenges. “Most Challenged” titles include the popular “Harry Potter” series of fantasy books for children by J.K. Rowling. The series drew complaints from parents and others who believe the books promote witchcraft to children.

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received a total of 547 challenges last year, up from 458 in 2003. Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War” topped the 2004 list—drawing complaints from parents and others concerned about the books’ sexual content, offensive language, religious viewpoint and violence.

All 2005 Banned Books Week events are free and open to the public:

9/23 3-5 pm UNM Law School Room 2405: “Whittling away the First Amendment: Implications of the Patriot Act” with Judith Krug and Constitutional Law Professor Jim Fitzpatrick.

9/24 10:30 am Main Library on 5th and Copper: “Challenges of Censorship in 2005”. This Banned Books Week panel discussion will focus on censorship in literature, corporate media as a censure and the need for media reform, and the problems posed by the Patriot Act in weakening standards of surveillance and the expectation of privacy. Keynote speech delivered by American Library Association Judith Krug followed by panelists: banned author Margaret Randall, media reform expert Belinda Rawlins, and librarian Kathy Matter.

9/24 7 pm Page One, SW corner of Juan Tabo and Montgomery, Reception: Featured Speaker, Judith Krug

9/27 7 pm Bookworks: Featured Speaker, banned author Rudolfo Anaya

Locally, 2005 Banned Books Week, supporters and co-sponsors include the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, Bookworks, Borders Books, Crosswinds Weekly, KUNM 89.9 FM public radio, New Mexico Library Association, New Mexico Media Literacy Project, Page One Books, and the University of New Mexico English Department.

Nationally, Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book.

A complete schedule is posted on the ACLU-NM website at www.aclu-nm.org.

ALBUQUERQUE – Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico joined two Locals of the International Association of Fire Fighters in filing legal challenges to ordinances in Farmington and Deming that restrict the union’s ability to act in support of political candidates.

Both ordinances also restrict the union’s use of municipal property, which the ACLU and union attorneys say violate the right to peaceful assembly.

“If private companies don’t have to suffer under these restrictions, why should unions?” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The firefighters should have the same right to participate in the political process as anyone else. To freely engage in First Amendment activities is the cornerstone of our democracy.”

In April ACLU and union attorneys sent letters to the cities of Deming and Farmington asking that they amend the labor ordinances to bring them in line with First Amendment guarantees. Neither city complied with the request.

ACLU Staff Attorney George Bach said, “The cities have left us no other choice but to resolve this issue in court. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the First Amendment has ‘its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office.’”

ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney George Bach and Cooperating Attorney Justin Lesky are handling the cases.

HOBBS – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Hobbs on Tuesday seeking the reinstatement of former Hobbs Police Chief Kenneth W. Bohn.

The ACLU alleges that Bohn was fired on August 11th in retaliation for his efforts to clean up a host of different problems in the department, most notably a pattern of missing weapons, transfer records, and homicide evidence from the department’s evidence room.

“Chief Bohn is a man who did his job a little too well,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “It appears that the City wanted someone who would not make waves. When it became apparent that Bohn had more integrity than to ignore the problems with the evidence room, pay equity among the officers, and other issues, the City fired him.”

Bohn’s first indication that city officials were bothered by his efforts to improve the department came in a job performance evaluation from 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, 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.

The ACLU complaint alleges other reasons for Bohn’s firing, including his discovery of apparent misuse of federal asset forfeiture funds, his objection to the use of illicit recording devices at police headquarters, his opposition to racially discriminatory practices, and his concerns about potentially inconsistent witness testimony in a lawsuit filed against the City by former interim Police Chief Donald Graham.

“The ACLU believes Chief Bohn’s First Amendment right to free speech has been violated and we hope to help him get his job back as soon as possible,” said ACLU-NM cooperating attorney Justin Lesky. “It’s the right thing for Chief Bohn and it’s the right thing for Hobbs.”

HOBBS – In a letter to Hobbs Mayor Monty Newman, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico demanded that Kenneth W. Bohn be reinstated as the Hobbs police chief. Bohn was terminated on August 11th, 2005 for unspecified reasons. The ACLU believes that Bohn was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about pay inequities with the police department and for insisting on a full investigation of the police evidence room.

“Bohn was a ray of hope within a seriously troubled police department,” said ACLU executive director Peter Simonson. “He enjoyed strong support from the Black and Hispanic communities. People were thrilled because someone finally showed the courage to try to clean up the department.

“Evidently Bohn’s commitment to improving the place threatened some people.”

In recent months the Hobbs police department has come under fire for complaints, all pre-dating Bohn’s tenure, of missing weapons, transfer records, and homicide evidence from the evidence room. Additionally Bohn 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.

On June 27th, Bohn raised concerns in a Hobbs City Commission meeting about disparities in the level of pay for different police officers. 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, 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, “The City denied Bohn any opportunity to explain his side of the story. In fact, to this day, he still does not know the formal reason for his termination. He was just cast out.”

The ACLU has given the City Commission a deadline of August 31, 2005 to reinstate Mr. Bohn immediately and according to the exact terms and conditions of employment that existed as of August 9, 2005.

ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is organizing concerned citizens to keep an eye on vigilante groups that are forming on New Mexico’s southern border. The first legal observer training will take place in Albuquerque on Wednesday, August 24 at 5:30pm at St. Francis Xavier Church on 820 Broadway SE.

This week the ACLU will begin training teams of volunteer “legal observers” to follow, photograph, and videotape the ‘Minutemen’ who are expected to begin hunting for undocumented immigrants on the border in October. The legal observers will gather evidence for possible civil rights lawsuits. Trainings in El Paso and Las Cruces are soon to follow.

“Nothing good can come from people—civilians—who are racially-motivated trying to take the law into their own hands,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The situation only gets worse when they start carrying firearms. By monitoring the vigilantes, we hope to dissuade them from falsely arresting people who, because of their skin color, they assume to be undocumented immigrants.”

Simonson added, “The strategy was pretty successful in Arizona.”

Ray Ybarra, an Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow with the national ACLU, will conduct the two-hour-long training. Last spring, Ybarra organized 130 volunteers to keep an eye on the Minutemen in Arizona. Observers are instructed not to converse or otherwise engage with the Minutemen in order to avoid confrontations.

“My hope is that like slavery and racial segregation, future generations will look back upon the Minuteman Project, and this period on the border as whole, with outrage and with disbelief,” said Ibarra.

The ACLU supports fair and constitutional immigration laws that are enforced by the proper authorities.

ALBUQUERQUE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico registered an important victory in state court on Tuesday when Judge Theresa Baca struck down an Albuquerque ordinance that empowered city officials to permanently take away motor vehicles for a first time arrest, not conviction, for “driving while intoxicated.”

Judge Baca said the ordinance had “huge problems with procedural due process.”

“The Constitution guarantees people a chance to defend their innocence in court before suffering the government’s punishment,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “This ordinance tried to take that right away. The ACLU doesn’t condone drunk driving, but it also doesn’t believe people should be punished for a crime that they may not have committed.”

During the hearing, Judge Baca underscored the importance of “the presumption of innocence that we have in this country.” She added, “Non-guilty people can be arrested for various reasons. That has long been recognized.”

In his arguments, ACLU cooperating attorney Paul Kennedy accused the city of “perverting nuisance laws to make up for perceived insufficiencies of the criminal justice system.” He urged Judge Baca to consider striking the ordinance down on grounds that it was “so poorly drafted.”

Simonson said, “The Mayor had an opportunity to write a law that would have had a real impact on drunk driving. Instead, he created a law that demonstrates his disdain for drunk drivers, but that was so poorly conceived; it immediately crumbled under the court’s scrutiny. It seems that the Mayor was satisfied with meeting his political needs rather than practical purposes.”

Judge Baca granted a permanent injunction which, she emphasized, was based on constitutional grounds and applied to the law “in its entirety.” In addition to due process problems, the ACLU claimed that the ordinance violated New Mexico Common Law and state law prohibiting double jeopardy and excessive fines.

ACLU Staff Attorney George Bach and cooperating attorneys Paul Kennedy, Ousama M. Rasheed, and Roger I. Smith argued the case on behalf of the ACLU of New Mexico.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Friday, June 17, 2005

CONTACT:

ALBUQUERQUE –The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico joined in a national campaign to reform the Patriot Act. Around the country, elected officials, community leaders and grassroots activists are picking up the pace to make sure the Patriot Act is fixed, not expanded. On Monday June 20th at 6:00pm in Albuquerque the ACLU and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee are hosting a “Reform the Patriot Act” town hall at the Peace and Justice Center at 202 Harvard SE.

“Nearly 400 communities - including seven states - have passed resolutions calling on Congress to amend the Patriot Act to restore basic checks and balances,” said ACLU of New Mexico Communications Manager Kimberly Lavender. “Here in New Mexico, thirteen communities, the NM State House of Representatives, the NM Library Association, the NM Municipal League and others, passed resolutions within months of the Patriot Act’s passage.”

As part of the nationwide campaign, ACLU members have been reaching out in Farmington, Gallup, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces to let their neighbors know how the Patriot Act affects them. Last week members in Gallup held a vigil on Flag Day and members in Albuquerque were at Nob Hill during rush hour wearing “sign” boards that displayed personal information, like “I took Viagra this morning” and “I keep a handgun hidden in my home office.” Their message: the Patriot Act puts Americans’ privacy at risk by allowing law enforcement agencies access to medical, financial, religious, and gun purchase records.

The ACLU has unveiled a new Web site, www.reformthepatriotact.org, to help Americans speak out and get more involved in the fight to protect the Constitution. Through this Web site, people can contact their lawmakers and urge them to oppose efforts to expand and make the Patriot Act permanent. They can also urge their lawmakers to support the common-sense reforms in the bipartisan SAFE Act.

Local elected officials from across the country, who represent communities that have passed resolutions calling for Patriot Act reform, visited Washington, D.C. to deliver copies of those resolutions and remind lawmakers that their constituents want the Patriot Act brought in line with the Constitution.

“In the coming weeks, Congress will debate whether some of the Patriot Act’s most sweeping provisions should be reauthorized and expanded,” said Lavender. “We encourage New Mexicans to urge our elected officials to fight to restore checks and balances, and bring the Patriot Act in line with the Constitution.”

For more information, go to:

http://www.reformthepatriotact.org

President Threatens to Veto Patriot Act Reform Legislation,
Dismisses Bipartisan Calls for Checks and Balances

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Will Potter
Thursday, June 16, 2005 (202) 675-2332

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has threatened to veto legislation passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives that would reform the controversial “library records provision” of the Patriot Act. The “Freedom to Read” proposal, offered by Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), denies funding for FBI access to library and bookstore records under section 215 of the Patriot Act, and was approved by a bipartisan majority (238-187).

The following can be attributed to Lisa Graves, Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy:

“This threat is the latest indication that the administration is willing to go to extreme lengths to maintain its power grab. Nearly 400 communities, including seven states, have passed Patriot Act reform resolutions. Conservative groups have lined up in opposition to some of the worst provisions of the act. And now lawmakers have come together, across the aisle, for change. But the administration continues to turn a deaf ear to these concerns.

“The legislation passed by the House puts reasonable checks on government power, without compromising the ability of law enforcement agents to investigate criminal activity where there is sufficient evidence. It merely safeguards against fishing expeditions into the reading habits of ordinary Americans. Yet again, the people have spoken that they want the Patriot Act brought in line with the Constitution by restoring proper checks and balances. It’s time for the administration to listen.”

For more on the ACLU’s concerns with the Patriot Act, go to:
http://www.reformthepatriotact.org

ALBUQUERQUE - American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico sued the New Mexico Orthopaedic Surgery Center for requiring patient Harold Folley to abandon his living will prior to receiving medical care.

The company’s medical procedures consent form asks patients to acknowledge that the Center will “not honor a request for ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ status and/or Advance Directives or Living Wills.” The ACLU claims that such a requirement violates the New Mexico Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act.

“Whether to be kept alive or to be allowed to die is perhaps the most private of decisions that any person can face,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Now a Texas-based company is claiming that power for itself. Patients should be in control of how they end their lives, not some insurance lawyer in Dallas.”

Lawyers for the Surgery Center allege that their refusal to honor advance directives is allowable under the New Mexico Act because it is based on a ‘reason of conscience.’ Simonson dismissed that argument as a “diversionary tactic.”

“They haven’t produced any policy or mission statement demonstrating that a commitment to religious ideals informs their refusal to honor living wills,” Simonson said. “If the Center really had a reason based in faith, why would they reject all advance directives, even those that would require doctors to try to prolong life?

“I don’t think they care a whit about religious faith,” said Simonson. “I think they are cynically using the ‘reason of conscience’ exemption to reduce their liability for medical malpractice.”

The plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, Harold Folley, receives periodic treatment from the Center for a spinal condition. “I have the highest regard for the doctors who treat me,” said Folley. “But I will literally fight to the death to protect my right to die.”

The lawsuit seeks an award of statutory damages and asks the court to enjoin the defendants to provide treatment in accordance with New Mexico law. Folley has committed to donate any recovery he receives from the lawsuit to charity. ACLU Staff Attorney George Bach and University of New Mexico Law School Professor Rob Schwartz are litigating the case on behalf of the ACLU.

Simonson said, “If Terri Schiavo taught us anything, it was to avoid ugly, painful controversies over the end of life by establishing your wishes in a living will. Mr. Folley did that; he took responsibility for himself and for his family. Now he has to fight off a big company to protect his most intimate wishes and we’re going help to him win that fight.”

NEW YORK – Calling it another blow to government secrecy over post-9/11 policies and practices, the American Civil Liberties Union today hailed a unanimous federal appeals court ruling that requires the Justice Department to disclose a secret legal memorandum that outlines the government’s legal position advocating for unprecedented power by local police to enforce civil immigration laws.

“The court has issued a powerful rebuke to the Bush Administration’s attempt to shield its radical legal views from public scrutiny and debate,” said ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project attorney Omar Jadwat, who argued the case. “The Justice Department’s attempt to evade the Freedom of Information Act has been resoundingly rejected.”

The ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of eight civil rights and immigrants’ rights groups brought the lawsuit in April 2003 against the Justice Department after filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking disclosure of an unpublished Office of Legal Council memorandum. The secret memorandum, which was prepared for the Justice Department in April 2002, was used by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to justify a major change in federal policy to try to cause state and local police to enforce civil, non-criminal federal immigration laws.

This policy was roundly criticized by the ACLU and many other groups, including chiefs of police and law enforcement officials. Yet, despite repeated requests, the government refused to disclose the supposed legal justification for its new policy and sought to shield the legal memorandum from public scrutiny.

In its ruling released late Tuesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals stated that, “we cannot allow the Department to make public use of the Memorandum when it serves the Department’s ends but claim [a] privilege when it does not.”

In the past, dozens of local police officials and law enforcement organizations have spoken out against state and local participation in immigration enforcement, saying that it would jeopardize their relationships with immigrant communities and divert local law enforcement resources from the more important job of trying to control crimes against people. As former Montgomery County (MD) Police Chief Charles Moose told a Washington radio station in May 2002: “This movement by the federal government to say that they want local officers to become INS agents is against the core values of community policing: partnerships, assisting people, and being there to solve problems.”

Other groups represented by the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and the NYCLU in this case are the National Council of La Raza, New York Immigration Coalition, American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Immigration Law Center, National Immigration Forum, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, National Employment Law Project and Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

The case is National Council of La Raza et al. v. Department of Justice. Attorneys for the groups are Lucas Guttentag, Lee Gelernt and Jadwat of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, Michael J. Wishnie, an ACLU cooperating attorney in New York, Christopher Dunn of the NYCLU and Linton Joaquin of the National Immigration Law Center.

TheSecond Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision is online at: http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=18391c=206.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE – Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed legal challenges in state court against two different “vehicular nuisance” ordinances recently signed by Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez.

One law empowers the City to take away a person’s automobile upon arrest for a first-time DWI offense. The second allows the City to fine car owners if their automobiles are videotaped running red lights by stoplight cameras, even if the owner is not driving the car at the time. Both laws punish people for owning or driving cars that the City has declared ‘public nuisances.’

“The ACLU deplores the human tragedies caused by drunk driving and running red lights,” ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson said. “However, the City has created a system whereby everyone who is accused of these crimes is automatically considered guilty. That’s not fair and it’s not constitutional. People deserve their day in court. The Mayor has been quite candid in saying that he is using the nuisance laws to get around that.”

Regarding the vehicle seizure law, ACLU volunteer attorney Ousama Rasheed said, “Simply because an officer thinks a person was drunk, families will be deprived of perhaps their only means of shuttling kids to school and getting to work on time. Before the City makes such a dramatic intervention in families’ lives, we think it should give people a chance to defend their innocence in court.

“We’re not saying, ‘don’t punish drunk drivers.’ We’re saying, ‘prove they are guilty first.’”

The ACLU cited similar due process concerns with the “red-light” ordinance. “Just as in the vehicle seizure law, the City is declaring vehicles ‘public nuisances’ in order to ‘leap-frog’ normal trial procedures and go right to the punishment phase,” said ACLU Staff Attorney George Bach. “They are stretching the legal definition of ‘public nuisance’ far beyond its intended bounds. We understand that the City finds going to court a time-consuming process, but no one ever said fairness and justice were easy.”

A hearing date for the ACLU’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the enforcement of the vehicle seizure ordinance has been set for Tuesday, May 17. Staff Attorney George Bach and ACLU volunteer attorneys Ousama M. Rasheed, and Roger I. Smith with Frechette & Associates filed that case. The complaint against the red-light camera ordinance was filed by Bach and ACLU volunteer attorney Alexandra Freedman Smith. Both cases will be heard by State Court Judge Theresa Baca.

ALBUQUERQUE - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico sued the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) today for failing to properly notify parents of their option to prohibit public schools from directly sending their children’s contact information to military recruiters.

The ACLU claims that the school district’s current practices violate students’ privacy and due process rights, as well as provisions in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“Not all parents want their children to be plied with mailings and phone calls pushing them to enroll in the military,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “At a time when people who enter the military face the very real prospect of going into battle, parents should have the right to control what the US Department of Defense knows about their children and how easily they can recruit them to become soldiers.”

Karen Meyers, a volunteer attorney for the ACLU said, “We sent letter after letter to the APS administration asking them to comply with the privacy protections in the No Child Left Behind Act. They responded by creating a form for parents, but didn’t fully address our concerns about the timing of the issuance of notice to parents. It’s important to get notice to parents that their children’s information is being disclosed in a timely fashion, in order for parents to be able to respond. We hope this lawsuit will finally clear this up.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if upon learning of this lawsuit many parents will find out for the first time that their children’s contact information is going straight to military recruiters, courtesy of the Albuquerque Public Schools,” Meyers said.

The complaint was filed in the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County by ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney George Bach, ACLU of New Mexico Co-Legal Director Maureen Sanders, and Cooperating Attorney Karen Meyers with Aguilar Law Offices, P.C.

SANTA FE - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico sued Chaves County Sheriff’s deputies yesterday for brutalizing two young men at a home in Roswell two years ago.

Michael Gustamantes and Ramon Garcia allege that officers Barry Dixon, Danny Moore, and Mike Wood shot them at close range with pepper ball rounds, beat and choked them while they were lying on the ground and restrained by handcuffs.

“This is an example of wanton abuse and willful disregard for the public’s safety,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Sheriff’s deputies essentially ambushed Miguel and Ramon. They didn’t announce themselves. Miguel was shot twice in the back,” said Simonson.

The youth claim that the assault was unprovoked following a verbal dispute with a neighbor that had ended with a handshake to resolve the disagreement. Officers followed the youth into a nearby house where they shot randomly into a room full of people who had gathered for a graduation party.

The sheriff’s department charged Garcia with resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, but the charges eventually were dropped.

“The only motivation for those charges was to cover up and excuse the injuries that the officers inflicted upon Ramon. Ramon wasn’t fleeing law enforcement officers. He was running to save himself,” said Simonson.

The complaint filed on behalf of the young men by ACLU of New Mexico Cooperating Attorneys Art Nieto and Michael Doyle seeks damages for excessive and unnecessary force, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, and malicious abuse of process.

***MEDIA ADVISORY*** ***MEDIA ADVISORY*** ***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE – At 10 a.m. on Saturday April 30th the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of New Mexico will host a panel discussion entitled “Abstinence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder: Faith-based Funding and the Assault on Reproductive Freedom” at the University of New Mexico Student Union Ballroom C in Albuquerque.

WHAT: The meeting begins with the ACLU of New Mexico Annual Report, delivered by Executive Director Peter Simonson. A keynote address and panel discussion will follow examining the implications of faith-based funding in New Mexico for religious liberty and reproductive choice. Suggested $10 donation.

WHO: Keynote Speaker: Julie Sternberg, Attorney, National ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. Her work at the Project focuses on the intersection of religion and reproductive health issues. She led the project’s successful lawsuit challenging the misuse of taxpayer dollars to promote religion in abstinence-only education programs in Louisiana.

Panelists:

Eve Espey, MD,MPH – Associate professor on faculty in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UNM; specializing in the field of family planning.

Tara Ford - Co-director of Pegasus Legal Services for Children and Cooperating Attorney with the ACLU of New Mexico.

Andy Schultz – President and Managing Director of the Rodey Law Firm. First Amendment Religious Freedom Law expert and Cooperating Attorney with the ACLU of New Mexico.

Jane Wishner - President of the Southwest Women’s Law Center and Cooperating Attorney with the ACLU of New Mexico.

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday, April 30, 2005. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. The program is from 10:00 a.m. to noon. University of New Mexico Student Union, Ballroom C. From I-25 take the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr./Central Ave. exit. Go east on Central about a mile. Turn left into the second entrance into UNM at the light at Stanford.

SANTA FE—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico asked Federal Court Judge Martha Vásquez to declare the City of Hobbs in “substantial non-compliance” with a Court-endorsed agreement requiring the Hobbs Police Department to stop discriminating and to uphold constitutional rights of African Americans.

The motion also asks the court to initiate contempt proceedings for the City’s failure to address a previous finding of non-compliance by Judge Vásquez.

“This is the second time in four years that we’ve had to go back and ask the Court to order the Hobbs police to do what they promised to do in the settlement agreement,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “ACLU-NM will keep going back to court until the department stops discriminating and starts respecting the constitutional rights of African Americans.”

ACLU-NM cooperating attorneys Richard Rosenstock and Daniel Yohalem filed a class action suit on behalf of African-Americans in Hobbs alleging race discrimination and unconstitutional actions in the police departments including 1) searches without warrants, 2) unlawful arrests and traffic stops, 3) the use of excessive force, and the filing of false criminal charges.

In 2001, a settlement was reached that resolved many of the claims against the Hobbs police, and that required the police to take certain remedial actions.

In 2003, the ACLU-NM went to Court asking Federal Judge Martha Vásquez to order the City of Hobbs to comply with the agreement. At that time the Judge agreed that the police had disregarded the terms of the agreement and in 2004 ordered the city to comply, extending the agreement by twelve months.

We believe that Governor Bill Richardson over-stepped his bounds in granting a half-day leave today to all state employees in remembrance of Pope John Paul II.

“Over the last few days our office has received numerous complaints from people who objected to the state using taxpayer dollars to recognize a world figure who is chiefly religious in his meaning and importance,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “In fact, several of those people identified themselves as state employees. The governor should know that his order offended many New Mexicans–some because they deplore government involvement in religion; others because they know that their religious leaders will never get equal treatment.”

Simonson said that his organization consulted with local and national civil rights experts to determine whether the Governor’s order violated constitutional guarantees of church-state separation and was vulnerable to legal challenge. He said there was no consensus on the legal merits of such a case, but “all of the attorneys we spoke with agreed that the order abridged the constitutional principle that government should not be seen as endorsing a particular religious perspective.”

Governor Richardson’s order complements a national presidential order to lower U.S. flags to half-mast in remembrance of the Catholic leader.

“We don’t take issue with the symbolic gesture of lowering the flag,” Simonson said. “But giving people a half-day off is an extraordinary measure. The State of New Mexico has never shut down on behalf of a world leader who has died. Not for Ronald Reagan. Not even for Yitzhak Rabin after he was assassinated for signing a peace agreement between Jordan and Israel.

“All that distinguishes the Pope from these noteworthy world figures is his religious importance. Even if the governor claims that his order is not intended to recognize the Pope for that purpose, I dare say most New Mexicans will interpret it otherwise. In the court of common sense, the governor has pulled a quick one on the Bill of Rights.”

SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson signed a genetic protection bill into law yesterday which will ban discrimination based on a person’s genetic code in employment, housing, and credit.

Representative Danice Picraux sponsored H B 183: The Genetic Privacy Act, which sailed through the House with a vote of 65-0 and the Senate with a vote of 38-0. This win is a culmination of years of commitment and advocacy for genetic protection on behalf of Representative Picraux.

“We applaud the New Mexico State Legislature and the Governor for recognizing the importance of providing safeguards against genetic discrimination by passing this cutting edge legislation,” said ACLU of New Mexico’s Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The genetic revolution has a vast range of potential implications for American life. New reproductive technologies are profoundly affecting the lives of women and children and represent new categories of reproductive choices, and biotechnology is transforming health care, insurance, employment, and the criminal justice system, and raises profound legal issues associated with genetic discrimination, privacy and intellectual property,” added Simonson.

The ACLU nationally and in New Mexico is a leading advocate for strong privacy laws. On August 21, 2004, the ACLU of New Mexico hosted a Data-Privacy Conference in Santa Fe that sparked a groundswell of interest on privacy issues in our state.

A coalition of organizations, led by the ACLU, committed to protecting privacy supported several bills this legislative session. Some of these groups include the New Mexico AARP, BioLaw Group, Foundation for Open Government, League of Women Voters, New Mexico Press Association and others.

This law recognizes that it is a violation of civil liberties for employers, landlords, or financial institutions to base important life decision of an individual upon genetic traits of a particular race, religion, alienage, sex or other group because it would have disparate impact upon that group

Decisions should be made on the basis of individual ability and character, not on the basis of stereotypes or generalizations about the groups to which an individual belongs. The fact that some, or even a majority, of the members of a particular group have a particular genetic trait does not mean that all members of the group have that trait.

Espanola Town Hall

When: Wednesday January 12th from 7-9 pm

Where: Mision Convento located on 601 Bond Street, Espanola (next to the post office)

What: New Mexicans oppose state funding for civil federal immigration law. Let’s pass this legislation at the State level! At the Town Hall we will hear Senator Martinez and other speakers discuss this important issue.

Background: In 2004, a coalition of New Mexican organizations, community members, and public officials passed municipal resolutions in Albuquerque and Santa Fe against funding civil federal immigration law enforcement. In New Mexico, Sheriff Darren White, the NM Sheriff’s and Police Association, the Albuquerque Chapter Hispanic American Police Commander Officer’s Association, and the Chicano Police Officer’s Association are on record stating their opposition to the proposed federal CLEAR Act which if passed, would have required state and local police to do the work of federal immigration officers.

For More Information: 505-266-5915

Watch this space for ACLU-NM Press Releases starting in January 2005.