Saturday, June 8, 2002

American Bar Assoc. Calls for Unaccompanied Children's Protection The American Bar Association has joined the ACLU in advocating legal protection for immigrant children arriving unaccompanied to the United States: "'We need changes in the way we handle unaccompanied children who arrive in this country,' Robert E. Hirshon, the president of the A.B.A., said in an statement today. 'Many of them do not speak English and are not familiar with their rights under U.S. law, yet they are placed in harsh detention conditions, and are faced with the stressful and confusing ordeal of navigating our complex immigration system.'" 5:00:39 PM

"Ashcroft Proposes Rules for Foreign Visitors" More detail on Ashcroft's new immigration registration scheme. 4:51:02 PM

Amish Defend their Lifestyle in Traffic The Old-Order Amish, an ultra-plain sect, are being challenged by their local police in their choice of reflective traffic tape for their horse buggies, as opposed to the reflective orange caution triangles accepted by many other sects. "'Our country has sped up around these people, literally and figuratively,' said Donna M. Doblick, in defending the Amish with John A. Camp, her law firm colleague." "'No one should have to choose between worshiping God in the way they see fit and living in Pennsylvania,' Ms. Doblick said, noting that there have been no buggy collisions on local roads and that the tape may be safer than the triangle." "A visitor can see why the Amish moved here to a pastoral valley beyond town five years ago after deciding that their Ohio base had become overrun with Amish-seeking tourists. The land is serene and this town seems more than tolerant as shoppers look for the Amish's produce at the Saturday farmer's market." 4:47:47 PM

Religious Charities Opened to Terrorism Suits A federal court judge has ruled that the family of a boy killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem can try to prove Muslim charities in the United States knowingly supported terrorist organizations, which would hold them responsible under the Anti-Terrorism Acts of 1990 and 1992. 4:25:24 PM

Challenging Testing Censorship Rebecca Mead questions the issue of testing censorship: "It is not clear precisely which rules Chekhov broke; most likely, the Regents, alerted by the author's reference to "nakedness," unsettlingly endowed the act of strip-searching with a sexual-innuendo element. It is also possible, though, that students' unfamiliarity with the intricacies of a nineteenth-century Russian household violated another principle ("Does the material assume that the examinee has experience with a certain type of family structure?"); or, perhaps, that Chekhov's attitude toward the jewelry theft was insufficiently judgmental ("Does the material accept or fail to denounce criminal, illegal, or dangerous behavior?")." 4:04:17 PM

Office of Homeland Security Jeopardizes Liberty This Wired article addresses the danger that the Bush Administration's $37 billion organization will support and solidify the other security-directed civil liberty encroachments. Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center: "I think we've reached the point in the debate where we need to ask larger questions about where this administration is taking the U.S. government." Many Maine political candidates nonetheless support the new office. 3:45:50 PM

Suing For Television Fair Use GlennLog: "This morning, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of myself and four other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against a group of media companies which had themselves sued Sonic Blue, Inc., and ReplayTV, Inc. The full information is here . This lawsuit is a stand against the erosion of fair use. As a ReplayTV 4000 series owner, I have joined the suit in the interests of all individuals' fair use rights. "There really isn't an opportunity for the consumers voice to be heard in these cases," is what one of the attorneys, Robin Gross said this morning. Some of the stories filed on today's announcement in the major media: IDG News Service News.com New York Times (scroll down to the brief) Reuters San Jose Mercury News Washington Post (long analysis) Wired News And in a lot of other interesting places as well: LawMeme at Yale Don Marti in Linux Journal Slashdot . The Wall Street Journal weighed in with a brief article, which I excerpt a couple of relevant grafs from: The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it filed its lawsuit to ensure consumers' voices were heard in the debate about digital-video recorders. Technology enthusiasts have been particularly incensed by recent ... [GlennLog] 3:21:21 PM

Paper Runs Photo of Head of Reporter Who Was Killed The Boston Phoenix published a photograph of the severed head of Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal reporter who was killed by Islamic militants in Pakistan. By Felicity Barringer. [New York Times: National] 12:17:41 AM

Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech ... Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish sentiments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of this liberty;...

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