ACLU

SCOTUS declines to hear challenge to warrantless pole camera surveillance

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear Moore v. United States, leaving in place a patchwork of lower court decisions on an...

The Privacy Lesson of 9/11: Mass Surveillance Is Not the Way Forward

Congress must ensure that the next generation of Americans is able to speak and associate freely, without fear of surveillance.

ACLU and EFF Sue Over Warrantless Phone and Laptop Searches at U.S. Border

Lawsuit on Behalf of 11 Travelers Challenges Searches of Electronic Devices as Unconstitutional

It’s Time to Reaffirm Our First Amendment Right to Boycott

The Supreme Court must affirm that politically-motivated consumer boycotts are protected by the Constitution.

Amazon’s Disturbing Plan to Add Face Surveillance to Your Front Door

Recently, a patent application from Amazon became public that would pair face surveillance — like Rekognition, the product that the company is aggressively marketing to police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — with Ring, a doorbell camera company that Amazon bought earlier this year.

ACLU Statement Opposing the 'Confronting the Threat of Domestic Terrorism Act' (2019)

In this letter to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, the ACLU urged Members to oppose H.R. 4192, Confronting the Threat of Domestic Terrorism Act. By reifying and broadening domestic terrorism authorities, H.R. 4192 would unnecessarily expand law enforcement authorities to target and discriminate against the very…

Trying to Keep the Internet Safe from Warrantless NSA Surveillance

Next month, President-elect Trump will be handed the keys to the NSA’s vast spying apparatus. As a candidate, he supported mass surveillance of Americans’ phone calls, called for expanded spying on American Muslims, and even invited Russia to hack the emails of his political opponent. With these threats to privacy and…

Out of the Darkness: How two psychologists and CIA devised torture program

How two psychologists teamed up with the CIA to devise a torture program and experiment on human beings.

Drone ‘Nightmare Scenario’ Now Has A Name: ARGUS

The PBS series NOVA , “ Rise of the Drones ,” recently aired a segment detailing the capabilities of a powerful aerial surveillance system known as ARGUS-IS, which is basically a super-high, 1.8 gigapixel resolution camera that can be mounted on a drone. As demonstrated in this clip , the system is capable of…

Pump the Brakes on Your Police Department's Use of Flock Safety

Even if you can’t stop Flock’s use entirely, you can still help protect civil liberties in your community.

Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches

The case of David Miranda got a lot of attention around the world after UK authorities were accused of abusing an anti-terrorism law to evade the normal constitutional restrains on police power and question someone because of their political associations. Well, a very similar abuse of power appears to have happened…

California Blocks Police Body Cam Use of Face Recognition

The state of California just made it clear: Face recognition surveillance isn’t inevitable. We can — and should — protect our communities from this dystopian technology.

The NSA Continues to Violate Americans' Internet Privacy Rights

A federal court will be scrutinizing one of the National Security Agency’s worst spying programs on Monday. The case has the potential to restore crucial privacy protections for the millions of Americans who use the internet to communicate with family, friends, and others overseas.

New TSA Policy May Lead to Increased Scrutiny of Reading Material

The TSA is testing new requirements that passengers remove books and other paper goods from their carry-on baggage when going through airline security. Given the sensitivity of our reading choices, this raises privacy concerns .

War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

Suing California for Throwing Out 45k Ballots Over Handwriting 'Mismatches'

In last year’s presidential election, 45,000 California voters were unknowingly disenfranchised. Their right to vote wasn’t curtailed because anyone questioned their eligibility or registration. They weren’t late sending in their ballot. They weren’t accused of doing anything wrong.

Your Facebook password should be none of your boss' business

Today, the Associated Press reports that some employers are asking applicants for their Facebook usernames and passwords. According to the article:

Flock Now Using AI to Report to Police If Our Movement Patterns Are "Suspicious"

Company crosses a dangerous line by beginning to offer AI suspicion-generation functions

ACLU: ICE and CBP Are Secretly Tracking Us Using Stingrays. We’re Suing

The public has a right to know if and how often ICE and CBP are using Stingrays.

The U.S Government Is Keeping a U.S Citizen Secretly Locked Up Without Charges

For nearly two months, the U.S. military has been detaining an American citizen at a secret jail in Iraq, denying him access to a lawyer and even refusing to release his name. The Trump administration is calling the citizen an “enemy combatant,” claiming he was fighting for ISIS in Syria, but it has not presented any…

NSA Interception Infographic

Late Friday afternoon , the government asked the Supreme Court to dismiss our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2008 law gives the government unprecedented authority to monitor Americans ’ international emails and phone calls.

Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers

We examined the injustices of prison labor nationwide — and lay the foundation for a more equitable path forward.

ACLU History

In the years following World War I, America was gripped by the fear that the Communist Revolution that had taken place in Russia would spread to the United States. As is often the case when fear outweighs rational debate, civil liberties paid the price. In November 1919 and January 1920, in what notoriously became…

5 Problems with National ID Cards

The terrorist attacks of September 11have revived proposals for a national identity card system as a way to verify the identity of airline passengers and prevent terrorists from entering the country. For example, the Chairman and CEO of Oracle Corp., Larry Ellison, recently called for the creation of a national ID…

Oppose Voter ID Legislation - Fact Sheet

What Is Censorship?

RECENT CENSORSHIP NEWS > Prosecution of TV Provider Raises Free Speech Questions (8/24/2006) > Massachusetts Education Department Liable for Unconstitutional Censorship (8/1/2006) > Library Association Supports Lawsuit Against School Board Over Censorship (7/7/2006) > ACLU of Florida Sues to Stop Book Censorship by…