Following the recent suicide of an Iraq war veteran housed at the Nassau County Correctional Center – the fifth inmate suicide in less than two years – the New York Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit to compel county officials to comply with a 22-year-old unfulfilled charter mandate to establish an independent board charged with overseeing and reforming conditions at the jail.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed court papers challenging the Nassau County Police Department’s refusal to disclose public records concerning allegations that the Department launched an internal affairs investigation at the behest of Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly of a detective whom the TV personality believed was romantically involved with his wife.

New York Supreme Court Justice Eugene Devine today upheld New York’s law ending prison-based gerrymandering in the Little v. LATFOR lawsuit. His decision squarely rejects the plaintiffs’ claim that the New York law violated various provisions of the New York State Constitution. The New York Civil Liberties Union was among seven civil rights organizations representing 15 voters from around New York State who joined the suit as intervenor-defendants.

Police officers throughout New York State are consistently misusing and overusing Tasers, according to a report released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The report, Taking Tasers Seriously: The Need for Better Regulation of Stun Guns in New York, analyzes 851 Taser incident reports from eight police departments across the state as well as 10 departments’ policies and guidelines for using the weapons, which deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity and have caused the deaths of more than a dozen New Yorkers in recent years.

A coalition of inmate advocates and civil rights groups today urged the Nassau County Legislature to restore a long-dormant oversight committee to address inadequate medical and mental health services at the Nassau County Correctional Center. The committee, the Board of Visitors, is mandated by the County Charter, but apparently it has never fully operated since being established in 1990. The charter authorizes the seven-member committee to respond to inmate grievances and advise the sheriff on programs that would improve the care and treatment of people housed at the jail.

As the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads, the New York Civil Liberties Union is working in towns and cities throughout New York State to protect the right to protest. “The right to peaceful protest is a core constitutional principle,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “As the demonstrations spread across the state, the NYCLU is standing alongside the protestors to defend their right to speak their minds.”

Following New York Civil Liberties Union advocacy, the Hempstead Volunteer Fire Department has amended its admission requirements to allow non-citizens to serve as volunteer firefighters. The admissions policy, which previously required that only U.S. citizens could be considered to serve as volunteers, was recently revised by the Fire Department’s governing council.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today released a briefing paper examining the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment and anti-mosque activities throughout New York State. The briefing paper, Religious Freedom Under Attack: the Rise of Anti-Mosque Activities in New York State, explores the legal and cultural background against which mosque controversies have unfolded across the state over the past year. It calls on public officials to promote intercultural understanding of Muslim New Yorkers while respecting the First Amendment rights of those who oppose mosque projects.

A New York Supreme Court judge has cleared the way for civil rights organizations representing 15 voters from across New York State to join the Attorney General in defending New York’s law ending “prison-based gerrymandering,” a practice that had distorted representation across New York State.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that all new insurance plans under the health reform law provide women contraception without co-pays, deductibles or other out-of-pocket expenses. The new measure will ensure that millions of women in New York State and nationwide have greater access to a broad range contraception and preventative health services. A panel of experts at the Institute of Medicine had recommended the policy.