Tomorrow in Manhasset, a panel of nationally renowned experts on religious liberty will discuss local and national issues involving the separation of church and state.

In a settlement agreement announced today, New York City, Long Island and New York State government agencies have agreed to a system for monitoring The Salvation Army to ensure that it does not impose religion on recipients of its government-funded social services.

In a major victory for civil liberties, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has signed orders that effectively end the exclusion of two prominent scholars who were barred from the United States by the Bush administration. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the denial of visas to Professors Adam Habib of the University of Johannesburg and Tariq Ramadan of St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, in separate lawsuits filed on behalf of American organizations that had invited the scholars to speak to audiences inside the United States.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today sued Suffolk County for records regarding advertisements placed on county buses after a local LGBT rights group’s attempt to place a bus advertisement expressing support for same-sex marriage was rejected.

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.

A State Supreme Court judge has ordered the NYPD to turn over to the New York Civil Liberties Union data concerning the race of all people who were shot at by police officers between 1997 and 2006. The NYCLU sued the NYPD in August 2008 for access to racial data about police shooting victims. In response to the lawsuit, the NYPD agreed to disclose the race of people who were shot by police officers between 1997 and 2006. It refused to release racial data about people who had been shot at by police officers but not struck by the bullets.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit against New York City and two police officers on behalf of a local environmental advocate who was targeted by police and unlawfully arrested last summer in retaliation for publicly criticizing Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro’s economic development policies and opposing his reelection.

Immigrants’ rights and civil rights advocates rallied today in front of Oyster Bay Town Hall demanding the repeal of a town ordinance that discriminates against immigrant day laborers and violates everyone’s core constitutional rights. In late September, the Oyster Bay Town Board enacted a local ordinance making it a crime to stand on a public sidewalk and solicit employment. The law, purportedly a public safety measure, unfairly targets day laborers, who are often Latino immigrants. It violates everyone’s constitutional rights to free speech and equal treatment under the law.

In a ruling issued late Monday afternoon, a federal judge has ordered the NYPD to produce 2,000 pages of documents to the New York Civil Liberties Union concerning the Police Department’s undercover infiltration of protest groups during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

In an effort to shed more light on the NYPD’s use of deadly force against civilians, the New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit in state court challenging the Department’s refusal to disclose basic facts about individual police shootings.