On Tuesday, March 16, experts on constitutional and military law, national security and criminal defense will participate in a panel discussion in Rochester to debate whether terrorism suspects should be tried in civilian courts or with military tribunals. Last November, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced plans to prosecute five men accused as co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks in federal court, but recent press reports indicate that the Obama administration could reverse course and try the men before military commissions.

A pilot program that would allow attorneys with the Civilian Complaint Review Board to prosecute “a portion” of substantiated police-misconduct cases is not the serious effort needed to improve police accountability, the NYCLU said today.

The NYPD stopped and interrogated at least 505,000 completely innocent New Yorkers in 2009, the most ever since the Department began collecting data on its troubling stop-and-frisk program. The new figures, released by the NYPD this week, represent a nearly 9 percent increase over 2008, when police officers stopped 465,413 innocent people. Nearly 9 out of 10 of those stopped and questioned by police last year were neither arrested nor issued a summons. And 9 out of 10 were black or Latino.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today filed papers in federal court supporting Senator Hiram Monserrate’s lawsuit challenging his recent expulsion from the New York State Senate.

The leadership of the New York Civil Liberties Union today expressed dismay over the New York State Senate’s vote to expel Senator Hiram Monserrate. The following can be attributed to NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman: “Hiram Monserrate has, without question, engaged in reprehensible behavior, and the New York State Senate is right to speak out against and punish him for his actions.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today expressed outrage over the treatment of a 12-year-old girl who was handcuffed and hauled to the local police precinct where she was detained by the NYPD for hours for doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker. News of the arrest comes on the heels of a federal class action lawsuit the NYCLU filed challenging the NYPD’s practice of wrongfully arresting and using excessive force against children in New York City schools.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has joined a coalition of community groups, legal service providers and advocacy organizations in calling for the timely release of immigrant detainees held at the controversial Varick Street Federal Detention Center in lower Manhattan. In a Feb. 1 statement delivered to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, 16 organizations, including the NYCLU, maintained that no person should remain at Varick Street or be transferred to another facility if they are eligible for release to their families in the New York area.

NYPD personnel assigned to New York City’s public schools have repeatedly violated students’ civil rights through wrongful arrests and the excessive use of force, according to a class action federal lawsuit filed today by the New York Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP.

At a press conference tomorrow morning, the New York Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP will announce major news regarding police in New York City’s public schools. Joining the organizations will be youth from the Bronx and Brooklyn who were subjected to excessive force and illegal arrests in local public schools.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has won a federal lawsuit challenging secrecy in the hearing process for people accused by police officers of offenses on New York City’s subways and buses. In a decision released today, a federal judge ruled that the secret, closed-door hearings violate the First Amendment and barred further enforcement of New York City Transit Authority’s court access policy.