News & Commentary

We all need to be able to hear the truth about the government, businesses and people who affect our lives. Alexandria Goddard and the people of Steubenville, Ohio know that better than most right now.  Across the internet, from Twitter posts to Youtube videos to photo sharing sites, evidence that appears to show local high school football players raping a teenage girl has emerged online.  After perceiving a lack of police enthusiasm for investigating the case, Alexandria and other internet detectives began blogging for justice... but ran into some shocking roadblocks. Alexandria Goddard runs the blog Prinniefied.com, providing a online forum for locals in Steubenville to share information. As the rape case became news, residents and internet activists began sharing evidence collected from the internet anonymously. A student who was mentioned demanded to know the identities of the anonymous commentators, filing a lawsuit through his parents. 

Last week, the Michigan Legislature passed a slew of dangerous bills that, if signed by the Governor, will have devastating impacts on our state's workers, women and families. This isn't the Michigan we voted for. Join thousands of other Michiganders as we rally in Lansing tomorrow, Tuesday the 11th to hold legislators accountable for their recent attacks. Headed to Lansing? Before you make the trip, make sure that you Know Your Protest Rights. At the ACLU of Michigan, we want everyone to be able to exercise their right to assemble, protest and be heard without interference. Read our Know Your Protest Rights guide to get a handle on important issues including:

They did it behind closed doors.  Yesterday, while the police locked the public out of the Capitol, the Michigan Legislature sneaked a set of extremist add-ons onto bills meant to reform Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance. Provisions tacked on to Senate Bill 1293 and 1294 contain extreme measures that would ban any health care policy issued in Michigan from providing abortion coverage, making comprehensive health care near impossible to obtain for a woman in our state. Urge Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Daniel Loepp to stand in opposition to these dangerous measures These provisions would force women to do the impossible — predict an unplanned pregnancy or a future medical crisis in order to purchase an expensive insurance rider in advance. Not only that, but shockingly insurers wouldn't even be required offer such riders: leaving many women without the support of their insurer in a time of need.  These last minute, politically-motivated additions would make it difficult, expensive  and sometimes impossible for women in our state to get the legal and medically necessary health care they need. Blue Cross Blue Shield is in the business of keeping Michigan healthy. Let's urge them to support a woman's ability to make health care decisions in a crisis. Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Daniel Loepp could use his influence to recommend the Governor drop these extremist measures. Urge him to stand up for Michigan women and for a truly healthy Michigan by emailing him directly at dloepp@bcbsm.com Read more about the Capitol Lockout, including videos and blogs

To: Governor Rick Snyder P.O. Box 30013 Lansing, Michigan 48909

Politicians in Michigan are at it again – pushing a revised version of the sweeping anti-abortion bill that could threaten to close women’s health care centers. We beat back this bill before and now it is urgent these state lawmakers hear from us once more. They silenced female legislators from speaking out in opposition to this bill. They prevented over 90 women from testifying against legislation that will directly affect them. They are ramming this bill through at the last possible moment in this year’s legislative session, despite public outcry.  And worse, today legislators locked out members of the public, including the ACLU of Michigan’s own legislative director and others who wanted to advocate against the bill.

A lame-duck session of the Michigan Legislature occurs whenever one of the chambers meets after its legislative successors are elected, but before their terms begin. This is the last opportunity for representatives to get priority legislation passed, which usually makes for a hectic, short period of time where anything can happen. This year, the Michigan House of Representatives is in lame-duck (Nov. 7th-Dec 31st), with 28 new representatives on their way to Lansing for the new term. Stay tuned for a profile of each new member in a future Capitol Watchdog post. But for now, here's some lame-duck legislation that we're watching that you should know about:

In the dreams of law enforcement, police are able to check instantly DNA at a crime scene against a vast, complete catalog of individuals to solve crimes quickly and cleanly. The only problem is that kind of invasion of privacy would only happen in a science fiction movie, right? For several years, law enforcement and legislatures have toyed with the idea of collecting and permanently storing DNA samples from Americans who have not been convicted of any crime, despite concerns about government abuse, practicality and unconstitutionality, . After watching too many episodes of CSI, misguided Michigan lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 1345 and 1346, which would create a forensic DNA database that would store the DNA of anyone arrested (not convicted!) for a felony. This legislation is a bad, bad idea. We oppose this legislation for many reasons, starting with the fact it would legislate an invasion of innocent people's privacy and an intolerable violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Our Facebook newsfeeds are full of friends posting a cut-and-paste status update that claims to protect users' privacy and copyright from the company. It's awesome to see how many people care about their privacy rights. So does posting a notice on your Facebook page protect your privacy?  Short answer: Nope. Why not? When you created a user profile on Facebook, you agreed to the company's terms of service. By using the service, you've already agreed to allow Facebook to use your intellectual property (your updates, photos, and other stuff). Specifically, you still retain your copyright, but you grant Facebook a license to use and display that content until you delete it. Basically, it's like you signed a contract: you can't change that contract with a status update.  But I care about my privacy! What can I do? Four things: