Several hours ago, the Massachusetts House voted 118-35 to strike down a 1913 law banning marriages by out-of-state couples. The Senate has already voted to repeal the law, and ... Read More

As the Senate debates a press shield law, civil libertarians are understandably concerned about the excessively weak compromise language that seems to be on the table. As ACLU senior ... Read More

As scapegoats go, George W. Bush sure makes a good one. Nobody in modern history has done more than he has to expand the power of the executive branch.So ... Read More

Verbatim, courtesy of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), committee chair: The Committee is expected to examine a range of legal and legislative responses to allegations of administration misconduct and their expansion of ... Read More

My colleague Linda Lowen calls attention to a bizarre new regulation that the Bush administration is currently considering, which would require any medical facility receiving federal funding to enact a ... Read More

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a $550,000 FCC fine leveled against CBS over the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake 2003 Super Bowl halftime "wardrobe ... Read More

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted to end our government's bizarre universal ban on HIV-positive immigrants.The ban, passed during the age of AIDS hysteria (and renewed in 1993 under President Bill ... Read More

Doug Kendall and Dahlia Lithwick of Slate are taking Obama to task for what they describe as, well, politically expedient Constitution-burning: But Obama appears to be compromising on the wrong constitutional ... Read More

My mayor--Jackson, Mississippi's Frank Melton--was indicted earlier today by the U.S. Department of Justice for civil rights violations and on charges of using a firearm in the commission of a ... Read More

During the May 2007 immigration rallies in Los Angeles' MacArthur Park, LAPD officers attacked a crowd of protesters, injuring an estimated 200 people. Among those assaulted were local television ... Read More

mdj writes in response to my controversial list of the 8 worst presidents on civil liberties issues: Jimmy Carter was the worst, then Bill Clinton for many reasons. The People ... Read More

Jesse Helms died today at age 86. His death shouldn't please anybody; he retired from the Senate six years ago, and at this point in life he was somebody's ... Read More

The New York Times reports that a government chart listing "alternative interrogation" techniques to be used at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp was actually plagiarized from an unlikely source: The 1957 ... Read More

So I've just written up the eight worst presidents in U.S. history on civil liberties issues, but I'm guessing some of you will disagree with my choices or their placement. ... Read More

In November, California voters will decide whether to modify their constitution to ban and invalidate thousands of same-sex marriages. Poll data on the health of the amendment is hardly ... Read More

University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey R. Stone would like to see the next president appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee civil liberties concerns: Presidents have a wide range of official ... Read More