As the nation approaches the one-year anniversary of the USA PATRIOT Act, the American Civil Liberties Union today announced a new nationwide effort to recover the freedoms that Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Bush Administration have rolled back since last year's terrorist attacks. "Keep America Safe and Free: The Campaign to Defend the Constitution" is a national effort involving litigation, grassroots organizing, and community education in all 50 states.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is offering free legal advice to booksellers in the state who receive subpoenas or search warrants seeking disclosure of customer purchase records. The ACLU is making the offer in letters sent to booksellers statewide.

Washington Supreme Court found (in State v. Smith) that "exigent circumstances" existed when police searched a home without a warrant and therefore the search was valid.

The ACLU opposes the REAL ID Act, which will lead to a de facto national identity card, and threaten the privacy of personal information.

The ACLU is trying to put the kibosh on warrantless police searches of hotel registries. Suspicionless searches strike at people’s right to travel freely and violate protections against unreasonable governmental intrusion into one’s private affairs.

New documents show that the REAL ID Act will cost the state millions of dollars and cause major headaches at the Department of Licensing.

Increasingly, corporations and some police officials around the country are seeking to silence their critics by filing actions known as SLAPP suits, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. These suits aim to intimidate citizen activists with limited means by forcing them to spend time and money on baseless legal proceedings.

The ACLU-WA joined with several women's rights and civil rights groups in urging the WA Courts of Appeals to back the rights of domestic violence survivors to protect their privacy in court records.

You should have to give up all your privacy rights when you travel by car. A new ACLU-backed law passed by the 2009 legislature has moved Washington to the forefront of states in protecting the privacy of vehicle owners.

The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that police don't need a warrant or permission from a suspect before collecting genetic evidence from saliva used to seal an envelope. The ACLU had urged the Court to consider the risks to personal privacy from abuses of this practice.