Search Results: aclu (143)

Tim Casey, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s longtime lawyer, wants out of the hot-potato Melendres racial-profiling case now that it’s in a “compliance phase.”
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona don’t want him to leave so fast, though — not with questions and things left to discover related to corrupt deputy Ramon Charley Armendariz, who hung himself in May rather than submit to arrest.

The California Highway Patrol playing tough-guy dress up and photo shoot with taxpayer money all to intimidate YOU.


The American SWAT team has become a domestic extension of the United States military, conducting seek and kill thrill missions that have cost an increasing number of the average citizen in this country both life and limb. Not only are these raucous foot soldiers of the War on Drugs gaining sustutnance from their gnawing wrath against dark skin poverty, but their cutthroat infiltrations are without regard for public safety and ultimately, making enemies of a population they are paid to serve.
This is the consensus of the American Civil Liberties Union, whose recent study, entitled “War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing,” paints a vile portrait of the Land of the Free by revealing how state and local law enforcement agencies are bribed by Uncle Sam to make drug busts in exchange for federal funding – an incentive program that has armed local yokel police departments to the teeth. The ACLU finds this military-grade arsenal is in the hands of lunatics who have accomplished very little but a violent onslaught of no-knock savagery that has invoked fear and panic throughout entire communities.

Look, we know we don’t have to tell you all that marijuana prohibition just doesn’t work. We know it’s preaching to the choir to tell you all that marijuana laws are enforced wildly unequally between white people and minorities and that, despite the same rates of usage, a black man is far more likely to be arrested for pot than a white man is. And you certainly know that states spend millions upon millions each year fighting simple marijuana possession crimes.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, misdemeanor marijuana possession charges have dropped dramatically since voters passed Initiative-502 in 2012. Court records show that there were only 120 low-level cases brought to the courts in 2013 compared to a whopping 5,531 in 2012. They say that represents a major shift in law enforcement priorities towards real crimes.
But talk to the King County prosecutor’s office and you’ll get a different story: misdemeanor pot charges weren’t a major issue before the laws, and they aren’t really now.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court to resolve the issue of medical-marijuana extracts for a seizure-plagued boy.
Saying an oil from a low-THC strain of marijuana has dramatically reduced the seizures suffered by 5-year-old Zander Welton, the ACLU and the Weltons are asking the court to declare that extracts are legal under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act and block County Attorney Bill Montgomery from taking legal action against the family based on his “incorrect” interpretation of the law. Phoenix New Times has the full story.

Last week we gave you several headlines about a recent ACLU survey which showed that statistics covering marijuana arrests across the nation were falling along strict, and disturbing, racial lines.
According to the report, on the national level blacks are four times more likely to be arrested for a weed-related crime, despite the fact that blacks and whites use marijuana at relatively equal rates. That disparity in arrest rates jumps as high as 18 to 1 in cities like St. Louis where local Metro Police Chief Sam Dotson dismisses accusations of racial profiling with blockhead quotes like, “Law enforcement is not…black and white.”

THC Finder

​The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado has endorsed an initiative to legalize marijuana in that state — one which does not establish what some activists call an “illegitimate” DUIC (Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis) law. But the ACLU of Washington state, according to Seattle-based political activist Edward Agazarm, “still out of sync with voters and supporters, stumbles forward with fatally flawed Initiative 502.”

ACLU-WA has formed New Approach Washington (NAW), a political action committee with the stated goal of promoting I-502 to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. “Unfortunately, many citizen initiatives — though well intentioned — are riddled with errors and mistakes,” Agazarm said in an email to Toke of the Town and other media outlets. “Initiative 502 is a prime example.”
“In what appears to be Washington’s latest initiative blunder, I-502 contains last-minute DUI language that, because of science, has already been rejected by state state Legislatures (Colorado and Oregon) and a state Supreme Court (Michigan),” Agazarm said.

Medical Marijuana Blog

​The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says it is considering legal action over Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s decision not to license three medical marijuana dispensaries, as provided for in the state’s medicinal cannabis law.

State ACLU Executive Director Steve Brown said on Friday that he’s trying to put a lawsuit together on behalf of patients to force the governor to comply with the “compassion center” statute, which provides for state-licensed dispensaries, reports The Associated Press.
Brown said he’s been in touch with the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition (RIPAC) about possible legal action.
Governor Chafee on Thursday said he wouldn’t implement the state’s compassion center law because it could cause Rhode Island to become a target of federal law enforcement.

ACLU of Colorado

​The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has joined the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, a coalition supporting a 2012 ballot initiative to end cannabis prohibition in Colorado.

The initiative would make marijuana legal for adults, take it out of the black market, and establish a system in which it is regulated, taxed and sold similar to alcohol.
“In Colorado we believe our laws should be practical and they should be fair,” the group said in a statement. “Yet we are wasting scarce public resources in our criminal justice system by having police, prosecutors and the courts treat marijuana users like violent criminals.

Sentimental Journeys
Florida Governor Rick Scott: “We don’t want to waste tax dollars.” The new welfare drug testing program costs about $5 for every $1 it saves.

​The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it is filing a lawsuit challenging a Florida law that requires new welfare recipients to pass a drug test.

The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of a 35-year-old Orlando man, Luis Lebron, an ACLU spokesman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The group said that Florida’s drug testing law is unconstitutional, violating the Fourth Amendment’s constitutional protections against search and seizure.
No further details of the ACLU lawsuit were immediately available.
Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the welfare drug testing bill into law in July, saying it is “unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction.”
1 2 3 15