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DADT on Trial: Like “Extracting a Parent from the Family”

Published: 
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Testimony from former members of Maj. Witt’s unit, the 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, filled the third day of the trial. Leading off was Jill Robinson, who spent 23 years in the Air Force. Inspiring her service was a recruiting poster for the Air Force Reserves that featured Maj. Witt on the cover. Read more
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DADT On Trial: "In the Military, Trust is Essential"

Published: 
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Day 2 of Witt v. Air Force started with testimony from Darren Manzella, who served in the Army for six years as a health care specialist after enlisting in 2002 and was twice deployed to the Middle East. His testimony focused on the need for honesty about oneself in building a team, saying “In the military, trust is essential.” Read more
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DADT on Trial: A "Dynamic" and "Exceptional" Service Member

Published: 
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
“Dynamic officer” … “A vital team player” …”Exceptional flight nurse” … “Excellent role model” … “Always ready to support the mission.” ACLU of Washington Legal Director Sarah Dunne led off her opening argument with these words from Air Force performance reviews for Major Margaret Witt at different times. Read more
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DADT on Trial: Maj. Witt's Dismissal "Negatively Impacted the Unit"

Published: 
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
After opening statements, Jim Schaffer, current Spokane Fire Department Captain and former 446th unit member, began his testimony. Before retiring from the Air Force in 2006, he and Major Witt served on the same flight crew on a number of missions and were deployed together a number of times. Schaffer spoke about Mjr. Witt’s stellar career and told stories of how her calm, cool, and collected nature, plus with her ability to include all team members, help their team succeed and save lives. He told of a particular occasion where a Dept. of Defense civilian went into cardiac arrest while aboard a plane, and Maj. Witt’s ability to accurately assess the situation made sure that the person survived. Read more
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The Right Way and Wrong Way for Dealing with Prescription Opiates

Published: 
Monday, September 13, 2010
Prescription opiate abuse (powerful pain killers) is a serious problem requiring smart policy solutions. Two policies intended to curb abuse of these powerful drugs highlight the right and wrong approach for dealing with the issue. Read more
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Volunteers -- Making a Difference at the ACLU

Published: 
Friday, September 10, 2010
The ACLU of Washington is privileged to have hundreds of dedicated volunteers help us out every year.  Indeed, the ACLU relies on individuals who care passionately about civil liberties and are committed to doing something to make sure the Bill of Rights is more than just a piece of paper.  We couldn’t do our work of defending and extending liberty without their efforts! Volunteers work with the ACLU for many different reasons and in many different ways.  Volunteers help with our public events in the community and provide information at our tables. In our office, they help with mailings, answer phones and greet people at our front desk, and – with special training – answer our legal intake lines.  Without these individuals, the ACLU of WA could not have the reach and scope that it does. Read more
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Who Moved My Border? Living in the Constitution-Free Zone

Published: 
Friday, September 3, 2010
Do you think Arizona, with its “papers please” law, is the only state where law enforcement officials are approaching travelers and asking about their citizenship? Think again. Federal immigration officials are asserting the authority to ask individuals about their citizenship far away from any border crossing or port. And they regularly question people as far as 100 miles away from any border. Nine of the most populous U.S. cities and two-thirds of our nation’s population reside within this “Constitution-free zone.” Read more
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Do you know just how bad the racial disparities are in Washington’s criminal justice system?

Published: 
Friday, September 3, 2010
On September 2, 2010, the Seattle Times ran an op-ed discussing startling details about longstanding racial disparities in Washington’s criminal justice system. The op-ed is written by NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys John Payton and Ryan Haygood. Way back in 1980, Washington state “officials asked themselves a hard question about why the state led the nation in the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans.”  Fast forward to 2007 and you can see how the problem still exists. The state’s own Sentencing Guideline Commission reported in 2007 that African Americans were 3% of the state’s population, but “received 14.91% of all felony convictions and were the most over-represented racial group ….” Read more
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Ending Violence Requires a Comprehensive, Community-Driven Strategy

Published: 
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Gangs present a serious public safety challenge to our communities.  But the approach that our state has instinctively turned to in the past—relying on arresting and jailing those believed to be involved in gangs—fails to get to the root causes of the issue, and likely makes it worse.  To be sure, for Washington cities dealing with violent crime, such as those in the Yakima Valley, meeting this challenge means appropriately punishing violent offenders.  But it is equally critical to find avenues through which individuals can leave gangs and reenter the community.  Simply imprisoning gang members and telling them to leave gangs doesn’t work if there’s nothing else for them to do, and no resources to help them get out. Read more
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Dollars, Sense, and No Handcuffs: Plummeting Rates of Tobacco Use and Lessons for Drug Policy

Published: 
Monday, August 30, 2010
In considering alternatives to arrest and incarceration for reducing substance abuse, it is useful to note that smoking rates continue to decline in Washington state -- and to understand how that decline came about. In 1997, almost 25% of adults were current smokers. By 2009, this number has decreased to less than 15%. In fact, we now have the third lowest smoking rate in the U.S. Well done Washington! What's even more exciting is that we didn't have to arrest, prosecute, or incarcerate any adults for smoking to achieve this result. Read more
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The ACLU-WA, Politics, and Free Speech in the Movies!

Published: 
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The ACLU-WA has been working for 75 years to protect the free speech rights of Washingtonians. But it’s not every day that one of our cases becomes the subject of a Hollywood movie with a famous director and real [reel?] movie stars!  The movie is called Grassroots, and it is being filmed all over Seattle this summer. According to the web site, here’s how the story begins: “A short-tempered, unemployed music critic who likes to dress as a polar bear thinks he can harness the power of the people to ride the monorail to political victory in Seattle. And he’s right. Almost.”  The man in the polar bear costume (Grant Cogswell) takes his free speech rights seriously. He decided to run for Seattle City Council in 2001 but found himself banned from criticizing his opponent (Richard McIver) in the city voter’s guide. Read more
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Why Washington Is a Leader in Ending the War on Drugs: Exhibit A

Published: 
Monday, August 23, 2010
Ending the War on Drugs means ending our over-reliance on the criminal justice system to address what is primarily a public health problem. It means replacing arrest, prosecution, and incarceration with prevention, education, and treatment as your primary strategies for reducing substance abuse and improving the health and safety of our communities. And it means ending the civil liberties, civil rights, and racial justice abuses that have flowed with terrible inevitability from our declaration of war not truly on inanimate substances, but rather on people - disproportionately people of color, young people, and poor people. But there is reason for hope that the War on Drugs is coming to an end. And Washington is a leader in making it happen. To support this claim, I offer Exhibit A. Read more
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