American Civil Liberties Union

Blacks Are Arrested for Weed Almost Four Times as Often as Whites in Broward

If you enjoy cannabis from time to time and appreciate your freedom, we advise you to treat your time in Florida with care. If you enjoy cannabis from time to time, appreciate your freedom and happen to be black, treat Miami-Dade County as if it's herpes because, odds are, it will leave you marked ... More >>

Former Republican Hispanic Outreach Chief Blasts GOP "Hate," Registers as Democrat

That GOP need to build bridges to the nation's Hispanic community? The need party elders have talked so much about since Barack Obama was re-elected largely due to Hispanic support? The need that's propelled Florida's own Marco Rubio to preeminence in the early scouting reports on the GOP 2016 presd ... More >>

Florida Armed Security Guards in Schools Bill Heads to House

Oh hey, lookit. A bill that would allow armed guards to walk around your kid's school has been introduced to the Florida House, because the state legislature is a fantastic entity of profound and wondrous ideas. It's called HB 1097. And it's gonna cure all our nation's ills. The answer t ... More >>

FAU Investigates Student Protestors. Will the School Conduct Itself Fairly? UPDATED

Administrators at Florida Atlantic University didn't have the gumption to stand up to a propaganda assault from the Christian right and investigate communications instructor Deandre Poole's report of threats from a disgruntled student. They chose instead to hang Poole out to dry in the idiot wind. A ... More >>

FAU Students, Faculty, and Allies Vow to Keep Fighting GEO Group Stadium Deal

Unappeased by Friday's charade of a "public forum" with FAU President Mary Jane Saunders, students opposed to the school's pimping out naming rights to its athletics stadium to private prison operator GEO Group are using spring break to plan a spring offensive.See also:-FAU Is a $6 Million WhoreIn a ... More >>

Rick Scott Has His Drug Test Appeal Shot Down by Federal Court

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta unanimously ruled that a lower court's decision to halt the enforcement of Rick Scott's law that forced welfare recipients to take drug tests was good. Back in May 2011, Scott signed into law a bill requiring that Florida's TANF welfare recipients ... More >>

Lake County School Board Would Rather Ban All School Clubs Than Allow A Gay Club

Bayli Silberstein wanted to start a Gay-Straight Alliance Club at her school, Carver Middle School in Leesburg, Florida. Basically the 14-year-old wanted to create a school club where her friends who had been "bullied for their sexual orientation"could have a place to talk about such things, and g ... More >>

Susan Bucher, Palm Beach Elections Chief: Champion of Civil Liberties

Friends in the Palm Beach Chapter of the ACLU recently asked us if we had any suggestions whom they might grace with its 2013 Harriette Glasner Freedom Award, "for a Palm Beach County resident whose life and work embodies the values and ideals of the Constitution and the ACLU." When do we ... More >>

Appeals Court Hears Challenge to Florida Drug-Testing Law for Welfare Recipients

Arguments were heard in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in Florida's appeal of a lower court Thursday on the decision halting enforcement of a 2011 state law mandating drug tests of applicants for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Basically, the law says that those w ... More >>

Drug Test for Welfare Recipients Fails to Save Money; Anyone Surprised?

Making the state's poorest residents piss in a cup before qualifying to receive welfare benefits was going to save Florida up to $77 million, Rick Scott said when he was campaigning for governor. The goal of the drug tests was "to make sure we don't waste taxpayers' money," Gov. Voldemort added when ... More >>

Florida Prayer In Schools Bill Passes Another Committee, Going to House

Math class​We told you earlier this month about SB 98, a bill that passed the Florida Senate that would allow prayer in Florida's public schools. It would have to be approved by both the Florida House and Gov. Rick Scott to become a law, and at the time nothing had happened in the House to indicat ... More >>

Boca Raton Teenager, ACLU of Florida Suing to Let Kids Donate More Money to Candidates

​With the way campaign-financing laws are going these days, this may not even be surprising -- the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and a 17-year-old girl from Boca Raton are challenging a state law that prohibits minors from giving as much money to state and local political candidates as ... More >>

Dear Federal Court: Please Help Florida Suppress the Vote

Racism? Not here.​To: U.S. District Court From: Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning We're having a small problem with voting down here in Florida. In May, our Legislature passed some brilliant new requirements designed to crack down on unnecessary voters -- specifically, people who are poor, ... More >>

Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich Agree With ACLU on Something: Criminal Justice Needs a Tweak

flickr.comHey, wasn't Cool Hand Luke a nonviolent offender?​Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is the latest to sign GOP group Right on Crime's Statement of Principles. It's being framed as a conservative approach to reforming the criminal justice system.Other conservative backers include Newt Gingrich, ... More >>

Florida Teachers Union Hops on the "Sue Rick Scott" Train

menwithfoilhats.com​In the fourth recent lawsuit targeted at policies of Gov. Rick Scott, the Florida Education Association is now suing over a 3 percent pay cut to the salaries of teachers and other school workers.According to a news release from the union, the lawsuit was entered today in circui ... More >>

Rick Scott Suspends Drug Testing for Most State Employees, Saying It "Does Not Make Sense" Yet

personalmoneystore.comThe governor may have just found out it could take 30 days to get any THC out of his system.​If you're a state employee -- not in the Department of Corrections -- you don't have to detox quite yet to get those doobies out of your system.Gov. Rick Scott sent out a memo to agen ... More >>

Gov. Rick Scott Invents A Scientific Study On Drug Use During Nationally Televised Interview

​Now for Gov. Rick Scott's charade of the day -- making up a scientific study on drug use by welfare recipients on a nationally televised CNN interview.As you know, the governor signed H.B. 353 into law last week, requires Floridians on welfare to pass a drug test before they get their cash.On ... More >>

ACLU To Florida: "Two Lawsuits. Three Days Apart. And It's Only The Beginning."

aclufl.orgACLU of Florida's Howard Simon​The American Civil Liberties Union says Florida is "ground zero" in their fight for civil liberties -- which explains why it filed two lawsuits in three days against Gov. Rick Scott-approved legislation.The ACLU filed two federal lawsuits last week -- o ... More >>

21 Jump Street Bust Sent Narcs in School for Small Target: Weed

Palm Beach County cops went all Johnny Depp in three schools.​Back when Johnny Depp played an undercover cop on 21 Jump Street, it seemed that gangs were the big problem in schools. Depp's character regularly infiltrated some murder-hungry group with the intention of bringing them down from the in ... More >>

Florida ACLU Backs Right of Church to Burn Qu'ran, Suggests Counterprotest as Remedy

FlickrThe Constitution allows Terry Jones to burn the Qu'ran, but it also gives you the right to call him a flaming asshole.​The September 11 Qu'ran burning at the Dove World Outreach Center places the American Civil Liberties Union in an awkward but familiar position: Its desire to protect the fr ... More >>

Get Out! Arizona and America Join Joe Arpaio in Rushing to Inquire: Are Your Papers in Order?

CityPlace Now a Venue For Protesters; Let's Protest CityPlace

Flickr: livingonimpulseCityPlace: Where they deliver lattes to the picket line​Do you have an issue close to your heart, but don't want to go anywhere scary to protest it? Do you define "scary" as any place without valet parking? Then have we got news for you! For the low, low fee of permanent yup ... More >>

Arizona Sheriff's Reign of Terror Becomes State Policy

An Opportunity to Stand Up

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Reign of Terror Becomes State Policy, Thanks to State Sen. Russell Pearce and Gov. Jan Brewer

An Opportunity to Stand Up

This Weekend, Pridefest of the Palm Beaches Has More to Celebrate

You could theoretically travel around the world for twelve months attending gay pride festivals, from Melbourne in January to Manila in December. Blackman: Getting wet at tomorrow's Pridefest​The big US celebrations, in New York and San Fransisco, are scheduled to coincide with the historic Stone ... More >>

CityPlace Then and Now: a Decade of Not-So-Free Speech

CityPlace lawyers didn't like the smell of protest.​It all depends on what your definition of free is. A decade ago, just as CityPlace was planning its grand opening in downtown West Palm Beach, lawyers and developers were debating just how much democracy, in the form of public speech, the new li ... More >>

ACLU Defends Artist's Right to Paint at CityPlace

Bates, expressing himself​When is a city not a city? When it's a shopping center disguised as something "reminiscent of an Italian town center." Note that word reminiscent. As West Palm artist Bruce Kevin Bates found out, you may be able to set up your easel at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli or next ... More >>

ACLU Sues Crist, Atwater, and Cretul for Failing Palm Beach County Students

courtesy euthisnthat.comACLU wants graduation day to look more like this.​ The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit Friday on behalf of Palm Beach County students and parents, naming Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, House Speaker Larry Cretul, Senate President Jeff Atwater, and Florida Commissioner of E ... More >>

Morning Juice: Let's Try a News Round-Up Sans Rothstein

​Well, it's worth a try anyway. Here's what's going on in Broward and Palm Beach counties:The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the state for its failure to provide Floridian family with a quality education -- a point for which the Palm Beach County School District drop-out rat ... More >>

Spellbinding Jeb Bush Speech on Education Ruined by Reality-Based Journalist

FlickrJeb Bush​Your former governor was in Atlanta recently, earnestly pretending to be a frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination for president. Or maybe he was testing a theory about mind control: that if you keep telling people something that's false, maybe they'll come to believe that it ... More >>

Tides Foundation Funds Florida Culture War

We'll be seeing a lot more of this in the next three years Ruh-roh. Just when you thought you'd finally stuffed all those pesky gay people back into the closet where they belong, along comes an organization like the Tides Foundation, which has just awarded a $150,000 grant to "educate and train ... More >>

LOLZ! ROFL! ACLU! Lawsuit Defends Student's Bitchy Facebook Page

Hey kids, good news! If you want to create a Facebook page that declares some teacher "the worst teacher in, like, the world," and then you are suspended for that, the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida will sue the damn school to protect your First Amendment rights, as ... More >>

Good Lookin’ Out

As Christmassy as Spiked Eggnog

Letters for September 29-October 5, 2005

Best Political Protest

Fort Lauderdale city employees'wearing gags

The Ludicrous 12 of 2004

Sure, it was the year of Bush/Kerry. But here are South Florida's really big stories.

Oom Paw Paw

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

United States of Jesus

The folks who are "reclaiming America for Christ" are pushing an agenda for a Taliban-like state where Scripture is law

A Queer Law

Florida's ban on gay adoption is not only unjust; it's downright homophobic

The Hate Man

Lloyd Shank is a poster boy for free speech. The Jews are to blame.

Grave Injustice

Do those who bury loved ones in Boca Raton's public cemetery have the right to decorate graves and erect markers? Apparently not.

Undercurrents

Piss Off!

When the City of Hollywood told an accountant he'd have to take a drug test, he told the city: See you in court.

Undercurrents

Undercurrents

Forgive Them, Father, For They Know Not Where to Pray

The ACLU will file suit against Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle for his proposed prayer meeting in the city commission chambers.