In a settlement approved by a federal judge, New York City will pay $25,000 to settle a lawsuit the New York Civil Liberties Union filed on behalf of a Brooklyn man who has been the repeated victim of racial profiling at NYPD subway bag search checkpoints. The city, however, rejected an offer to forego all monetary relief in exchange for the NYPD making changes to the search program.

A group of five civic and community advocacy organizations today released a white paper and report card showing that the New York City Department of Education (DOE) is falling short on its duty to protect public school students from bias-based harassment and bullying.

In a ruling that calls into question the U.S. Army’s practice of denying conscientious objector applications without providing a factual basis for those denials, a federal appeals court has granted a Brooklyn doctor’s request to be discharged from the military because he morally objects to warfare.

Today, during a second extraordinary session, the New York State Senate is scheduled to consider the marriage bill. The New York Civil Liberties Union, one of the largest membership organizations in the state with nearly 50,000 members, called on senators to put aside the fight for power and vote to protect all of New York’s families.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today commended Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the New York City Department of Education for issuing formal rules regulating military recruitment in the city’s public high schools. But while the new Chancellor’s Regulation is a significant step toward preventing military recruitment abuses in the schools, the DOE now must train principals on how to enforce it.

As hundreds of New York students descend on Washington today to advocate for passage of the DREAM Act, the New York Civil Liberties Union urged strong and swift passage of the civil rights legislation.

Thank you for calling the senate back for an extraordinary session. With control of the senate unresolved, New York needs your leadership now more than ever. Your leadership earlier this session was critical to achieving historic reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

A New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) report released today documents the negligence of Kings County Hospital Center and several medical staff in the June 2008 death of Esmin Green on the hospital’s psychiatric emergency room floor. The report provides further evidence of the need for systemic reform to ensure that patients are treated humanely and professionally and to prevent similar tragedies.

An agreement that regulates NYPD activity in New York City’s public schools that top city officials have for six years denied has come to light.