Hawkeye Area ACLU

Upcoming Hawkeye ACLU Chapter Elections

We are soliciting nominations for the upcoming election for board members of the Hawkeye Area Chapter of the ACLU of Iowa. To be eligible, one must be a member in good standing of the American Civil Liberties Union and reside in one of the Iowa counties of Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Keokuk, Linn, Muscatine, and Washington. If you wish to be considered as a nominee, please contact Peter Hansen.

Obama's attorney general pick: Good on privacy?

Declan McCullagh of CNET
WASHINGTON, DC - Eric Holder, President-elect Barack Obama's pick for attorney general, drew applause from liberal Democrats earlier this year when he denounced the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

A review of Holder's public statements, speeches, and testimony when he was a top Justice Department official in the Clinton administration, however, reveals a more nuanced record on privacy. His remarks indicate support for laws mandating Internet traceability, limits on domestic use of encryption, and more restrictions on free speech online. He also called for new powers for federal prosecutors, some of which became law under President Bush as part of the USA Patriot Act.

The UDHR at Sixty … Human Rights Begin at Home

Jamil Dakwar (PDF)
Sixty years ago the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR has since become the foundation of the modern human rights system or, in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “the international Magna Carta.” Its passage brought about worldwide awareness of the basic rights and protections to be enjoyed by all human beings everywhere and it established the legal and moral basis for governments, NGOs and advocates to take action anywhere human rights are threatened. Sadly, as a result of eight years of ruinous Bush administration policies, one place where those rights are in jeopardy is right here at home.