Michigan News

Victory! Sexually abusive searches of female prisoners abandoned

This week, with the help of our supporters and a coalition of civil and human rights organizations, we've confirmed that the Michigan Department of Corrections has ended a routine and extraordinarily degrading body cavity search for female prisoners.

“There was no reason to make this incredibly invasive procedure part of the routine strip search,” said Mie Lewis, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “The new policy eliminates the worst aspects of the body search, helping to preserve these women’s dignity while maintaining a safe prison environment.”

Just because people are incarcerated doesn't mean that they should be denied their basic human rights. We are happy that the women at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility can visit with their lawyers, priests and children without being traumatized.

Legislator from Detroit introduces bill to create an animal abuser registry

You don't have to be a cop, a lawyer or a judge to know that animal cruelty is an awful crime. However, State Representative Harvey Santana is taking his dislike of animal abusers to extremes. 

Rep. Santana is proposing tracking convicted animal abusers with a complicated, expensive offender registry similar to the state sex-offender registry. No other states have such a registry, and for good reason. 

We already have laws to prevent animal cruelty and punish abusers. Piling additional punishments on people who’ve already paid their debt to society is not only thoughtless, it's unconstitutional.

Cybersecurity: Protecting Against Internet Attacks Threatens Civil Liberties

After the internet rose up en masse to defeat SOPA and PIPA, you'd think that legislators would be more cautious about violating our online privacy.

Unfortunately, Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers's proposal for combating cyberattacks contains many of the worst parts of SOPA and lacks explicit privacy protections.

The legions of people who took action around the globe to defend our digital privacy haven't forgotten so quickly: there's already a large group of organizations gathering in opposition to this new attack.

National News

ACLU Lens: Laura W. Murphy Speaks Out As a Mother on the Impact of Trayvon Martin's Death

The death of young Trayvon Martin has inspired thousands to share their own personal stories about how racial profiling has affected them.

Speaking at the National Action Network National Convention, ACLU Legislative Director Laura W. Murphy spoke out about how she has often feared her own son will be targeted like Trayvon Martin.

When her 22-year-old African-American son was visting her, she was so concerned that her neighbors in a predominantly white, upper-middle class neighborhood would call police she sent out an introduction email urging them not to call police.

Read more of Laura's story at the Blog of Rights.