 |
Civil Liberties at LWVUS 2005 Council An issue of highest League priority Panel and workshop presented at LWVUS Council, Summer, 2005 -- a summary |
|
| Civil Liberties, a core element of the 2005 Democracy Agenda, has been a Tier I League priority since the 2004 LWVUS convention. LWV continues to focus on civil liberties through LWVUS advocacy, action alerts, press releases, visibility efforts, educational materials, facilitator training and information on the "Local Voices" project. (See LWVUS-EF "Local Voices" project in this article.) In a nutshell, the LWVUS' action position is that basic civil liberties - from judicial review of law enforcement actions to prohibitions on indiscriminate searches - must be protected as the nation guards against terrorism and other threats. Action alerts will continue through the congressional decision-making process on sunset provisions of the Patriot Act, due to be decided this fall. LWVUS supports the SAFE Act, a revision bill that provides authority for law enforcement officials to combat terrorism and at the same time protects against blanket and indiscriminant action. Groups and individuals whose political thoughts span conservative to liberal share the League's concern about the effects of the Patriot Act on civil liberties. The 2005 LWVUS Council schedule included a civil liberties panel which focused on "Balancing Liberty and Security" and a LWVUS-EF workshop which featured two Leagues' experiences with the "Local Voices" project: "Citizen Conversations on Civil Liberties and Secure Communities." Ten Leagues (or coalitions of Leagues) were chosen this spring to receive pass-through funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to conduct public dialogues on the balance between civil liberties and national security. The public dialogues are the initial focus of the Ed Fund's work on Local Voices. A final report on the ten Leagues' forums will be available this fall. [See Civil Liberties Workshop report in this article.] Council Panel: Panelists provided practical information on putting together panels in "your" community as well as issues that are a focus of their organizations. ISSUES: Bert Brandenburg (former Justice Depart. employee and Exec. Dir. of Justice at Stake) warned that we must achieve a "proper" balance between the 3 branches of government and that state courts are likely to be pressured to render decisions on [state] constitutional issues. B.B. cautioned that judges should not be cut out of the search and seizure process and that we need an eye on the executive branch, regardless of who occupies key offices at any given time. B.B. advised that panels that explore Patriot Act issues should include judges. Moderator Joseph Onek , Constitution Project, reminded that subpoenas are secret and that we, as a people, need to be focusing on doing the right thing re the Patriot Act . Kareem Shora, Exec, Dir. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said that measures that affect some populations are administrative acts. Example: racial/ethnic profiling – which is an ineffective tool as well as unconstitutional. Best Practice: Communicate with Arab community on what's happening locally. Have members of minority communities on a panel to understand how policy/practice is impacting the community. Local Arab organizations will help local groups with panelists. Michele Waslin, Dir., Immigration Policy Research, Nat'l Council of La Raza, largest civil rights organ. in U.S. Generally, she made the point that Hispanics here illegally but working in previously unfilled jobs tend to live in the shadows – a point she made in support of immigration reform. Immigration system needs realistic attention, needs to reflect economic needs of the country. She asked us to look out for post-9-11 measures that do not help security. States have La Raza organizations. Rick Blum (Dir., Freedom of Information Project, OMB Watch): There is too much government secrecy. Issues: how do we secure our open society [and protect national security]? Need to be alert to measures that cut the public out of the process. MESSAGE: We, as citizens, need to ask for justification for measures included in the Patriot Act. A Leaguer in the Q&A session made the point that we need to know what our citizen rights are, in case we are caught in a situation, and share that information with our communities. Civil Liberties Workshop: Information below is paraphrased and selected from Council material. Local Voices: Citizen Conversations on Civil Liberties and Secure Communities is a LWVUS-EF initiative to foster public dialogue on the balance between civil liberties and homeland security. Susan Kannel, Vice President of Lake, Snell, Perry & Associates, a League partner in the dialogue project, conducted focus groups on Patriot Act issues. She reported on her organization's efforts to measure where voters are on Patriot Act issues. Results: That there is a general lack of awareness that measures to secure the country against terrorism could be encroaching on civil liberties, that most don't perceive a threat to civil liberties. With information on provisions of the Patriot Act, concern about privacy and a decline in protection of personal information emerged. Many thought profiling is not right. Bottom line: when citizens get engaged in the issues, their concerns about civil liberties tend to increase. Results of the focus group sessions indicated a need to include factual information on the Patriot Act for forum participants – not to assume they came to the forum informed on the Act. The workshop featured two local Leagues (LWV Seattle, WA, and Lexington, KY) that completed public dialogues just prior to Council. These Leagues are two of the 10 Leagues that received pass-through grants, [All of the 10 forums were completed by the end of June.] Each forum had 100 or more participants. Both Leagues received good publicity on the forums - which lasted 4 to 6 hours. Each League representative reported that the forums got citizens to talk about the policy issue and created a visibility for the issue and the League. [Did not stay until the end of the Monday afternoon workshop because of return flight schedule.] The reach of Local Voices will extend far beyond the 10 Leagues and the final report. While the Congressional debate over the sunset provisions of the Patriot Act may conclude this fall, homeland security and civil liberties will remain critical issues for the foreseeable future. LWVEF hopes to involve as many Leagues as possible in this project, during 2005 and beyond. How can Leagues get involved in Local Voices? There are two main ways:
Why hold an event?
Materials on sponsoring a forum are available to Leagues. Submitted by Becky Sylvester, |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||