The Historic Thousands on Jones Street Coalition, which includes the ACLU-NC, will be holding a press conference to support the Racial Justice Act. Join us to show support for this important reform and for other important work to ensure equality in how the capital punishment system is applied.

When: Thursday, May 21st at 9:30 am

Why: To support the Racial Justice Act!

(For more info about the S 461, Racial Justice Act, see posts on May 14th and May 12th.)

Both SB 464 Prevent Racial Profiling and SB 461 Racial Justice Act passed the Senate this week. (See post on Tuesday, May 12th for more info about these two bills.) Even though both bills got overwhelming bi-partisan support, they were also both amended to weaken their impact for racial equality in this state. In particular, Republican Senator Phil Berger ran an amendment on the Racial Justice Act to overcome two judicial hurtles which have blocked executions for the last two years. This amendment, which would effectively restart executions, passed 37-11 on the Senate floor.

Senate Bills 461 and 464 passed out of the North Carolina Senate Judiciary I committee this evening and both are headed to the Senate floor tomorrow. House Bill 472 passed the House Judiciary I committee this morning and will be on the House floor tomorrow.

Some legislators have a plan to turn schools into prisons!

The ACLU has been working since 2003 to learn the truth about the use of torture directed by the U.S. government. In response to these efforts, the Obama Administration recently released four memos crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel under the Bush Administration. These memos were used to justify torture by government actors. Now there is a possibility that those who drafted the memos could get away with it. The ACLU believes that allowing those intimately involved in an illegal program off the hook sets a dangerous precedent.

Some might have you believe that opposing racial profiling means it does not happen.

The Bush Administration is attacking women's rights and health. Please read the following message from the ACLU's national office and TAKE ACTION!

The Bush Administration has proposed regulations that could seriously undermine the ability of American women to get basic reproductive health care, including birth control and abortion. The regulations put politics above women’s health care needs.

As currently written, the rule leaves open the possibility that based on religious beliefs institutions and individuals can deny women access to birth control. It also permits individuals to refuse to provide information and counseling about basic heath care services. And it expands existing laws by permitting a wider range of health care professionals to refuse to provide even referrals for abortions.

For years, federal law has carefully balanced protections for individual religious liberty and patients’ access to reproductive health care. The proposed regulations appear to take patients’ health needs out of the equation, leaving millions of Americans who depend on federally funded reproductive health care services with no protections.

Tell the Bush Administration to Reinstate Patient Protections and Stop the Health Care Refusal Regulations. Go to the ACLU's Action Center

Check out Sarah's editorial for NC Policy Watch.

Katy Parker, Rebecca Headen, and Sarah Preston will all be presenting at the upcoming North Carolina Civil/Human Rights Conference coming up on August 13th-15th in High Point. Rebecca Headen and Katy Parker will be leading a discussion entitled "What is Racial/Ethnic/Gender Profiling?" on Wednesday, August 13th. Sarah Preston and Katy Parker will be leading a discussion entitled "Steps for Enhancing & Expanding North Carolina General Statute Chapter 114-110 (Racial Profiling)" on Thursday, August 14th. There will also be sessions on areas ranging from employment discrimination to disability rights to the impact of gangs on human rights and much more. Go here to get the complete schedule and to register.

Happily, by tomorrow, I may have some good news to report to all our members and supporters in the state. HB 1366, the School Violence Prevention Act is on the N.C. House and Senate Calendars for concurrence this afternoon. This is the bill commonly referred to as the "bullying bill." This bill requires all schools to adopt a minimum procedure to deal with bullying and has a common definition of bullying, including enumerated categories of groups of students who may be most at risk of bullying. The enumerated categories were removed by the Senate last year but they have been restored and the bill is in a state we can all live with. That means, if all goes well this afternoon, by tomorrow the bullying bill could be on the Governor's desk!

Unfortunately, the ill-advised "Street Gang Suppression Act" is on the floor in both chambers as well. The ACLU-NC has been opposing this bill for the last two years because of the serious civil liberties concerns it presents. A gang is defined in the bill as a group of three or more people. That's an awfully small gang and will undoubtedly lead to youths in particular being punished based on their association with others. Characteristics that identify gang members are a common name and common sign or symbol. Once again, this part of the definition will likely result in youths being caught up because of how they associate and how they express themselves. This is troubling enough without adding in the fact that legislative staffers have indicated that 80% of the folks caught up under this bill will likely be misdemeanants and they will be bumped up to felony class offenders, packing the prisons with young people who have committed relatively minor offenses instead of offering them alternatives. Fortunately, we have worked to remove children under the age of 16 from the application of this bill and the Senate and House have agreed to that, with one exception. Fifteen year olds who solicit youngsters to participate in gang activity can be prosecuted under the language going to the floor. The bill also has an expunction option open to sixteen and seventeen year olds meaning that these youths can clear their records if they are first time offenders and they meet other requirements. However, the legislature has already passed a bill to direct community services helping young people to create gang involvement prevention and intervention programs and appropriated $10 million dollars to support these programs and law enforcement. There is also already a law that allows enhancement of penalties if a crime was committed at the direction or for the benefit of a gang. This bill is not only completely unnecessary, but we have seen in other states that these laws are used to target African American and Latino youths, usually resulting in more gang activity, not less.

In other news, the Senate still has not taken up HB 1291, the N.C. Racial Justice Act. This bill would allow a person on death row to challenge just his sentence of death if he can show that race played a role in the prosecutor seeking death or in the sentencing of death. We are told this will be taken up in the Senate Democratic caucus today, but time is running out. The bill ought to be heard publicly in committee not privately in caucus.

On the national legislative scene, the Senate voted on the FISA Amendments Act (HR 6304). This bill is a substantial weakening of the already weak FISA court which was established in the '70s in response to the overreaching of the executive branch at the time. The bill is lengthy and has many negative implications for the privacy of law-abiding Americans. The FISA court was set up to hear cases in secret, deciding whether the government has enough evidence to set a wiretap or otherwise listen in to private conversations. Only the government is permitted to present evidence and barely needs to show any evidence at all. The government can also start a wiretap in an "emergency" and then go back to the court and explain why it's necessary. One provision of the law that I find interesting is, if the government loses in its unopposed case before the FISA court, but the wiretap is already in place, the government can now leave it in place during the appeal. This is particularly interesting since the FISA court rarely rules against the government and can take as little as five minutes to hear and decide a case. To read the new law go to http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-6304. The FISA Amendments Act is a damaging blow to civil liberties, but the ACLU is already taking steps to address it. Last week, the ACLU filed in federal court in New York to challenge the law on behalf of a number of clients including journalists, non-profit workers, and others. To see the details of the claims and more reasons the ACLU opposes the new law, go to http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/faachallenge.html.

Stay tuned for more updates on the progression of the NC legislative session . . .