From: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU
To: ACLU Action Network Members
Subject: Urge the Senate to Stop Messing with the Constitution
1) Urge the Senate to Stop Messing with the Constitution
2) Tell the Airlines to Protect Your Data
In two weeks, the U.S. Senate will be considering yet another proposal to amend the Constitution. This time, some Senators are taking aim at the criminal justice system, proposing an amendment that would jeopardize the principle that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, and that everyone in this country has the right to a fair trial.
The proposed amendment seeks to enshrine victims rights in the Constitution and would give presumed victims significant influence over the criminal justice process. This influence would hinder law enforcement, impede prosecution and interfere the ability of the accused to get a fair trial.
In addition, every state has either a state constitutional provision or law protecting victims' rights, making this constitutional amendment unnecessary. Furthermore, numerous victims' rights groups oppose the amendment because they are concerned that battered women -- who are often arrested and charged with assaulting their batterers -- would lose the right to a fair trial and presumed innocence.
Take action! Tell Congress that this constitutional amendment is unnecessary and dangerous.
Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Members of Congress:
http://www.aclu.org/CriminalJustice/...?ID=9955&c=249
2) Tell the Airlines to Protect Your Data
The government may soon be performing background checks on you when you fly.
These checks, part of a government program called CAPPS II, will assign each airline passenger a threat level based on secret criteria and clandestine sources of information. If your threat level is too high, you could be stopped for extra searches or even banned from flying with no way to clear your name.
We all agree that airport security is vitally important, but this system will not make us any safer since terrorists could circumvent the system using simple methods like fake drivers licenses. Furthermore, since it is based on notoriously inaccurate government databases, this national system would only increase the delays and make it inevitable that innocent Americans -- regular people traveling for work or vacations -- would be delayed, hassled and even prevented from flying.
The nations major airlines are not actively opposing this program. They need to hear that you oppose their participation and do not want them to help the government conduct error-prone background checks every time you fly.
Click here for more information and to send a free fax to the major airlines:
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy....39&MX=1179&H=1
