American Civil Liberties Union

Latest Articles

The Impeachinator

Watchdog Fein
From Caligula to Bush...er Obama: Bruce Fein watches them all.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | November 20, 2008

An American Carol

A dissent-bashing tale
A Michael Moore–esque documentarian changes his stars and stripes after trying to abolish the Fourth of July.
By BETSY SHERMAN | October 09, 2008

Since Harvard came out

Freedom watch
It was a typical Harvard alumni event, but not a typical, self-congratulatory Crimson “glory days” fest.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | October 02, 2008

Freedom Watch
Free speech has won in the struggle between the MBTA and three MIT undergrads who claim to have uncovered flaws in the T’s electronic fare-collection system.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 20, 2008

Victory at last

Letters to the Boston editor, June 27, 2008
It may at first seem like hyperbole for Harvey Silverglate to call the Boumediene decision the most important of his lifetime. But it is important to acknowledge how deeply surreal and atavistic these cases have become.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | June 25, 2008

The 11th Annual Muzzle Awards

Silencing free speech
Freedom of expression may be guaranteed by the Constitution. But it’s an idea we have to fight for every day.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 05, 2008

Willful imprisonment

Letters to the Boston editor, June 20, 2008

By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | June 18, 2008

Letters to the Portland editor, June 20, 2008

Getting Michaud's record straight
We would like to thank and congratulate Jeff Inglis for his vivid and thoughtful account of his night in the replica of a cell from Guantánamo that was placed in Portland’s Monument Square.
By LETTERS TO THE PORTLAND EDITOR | June 18, 2008

Pride Week 2008

Sustaining community: the fun never stops
Boston Pride Week 2008 is shaping up to be a joyous smorgasbord of celebrities, literati, dancing, singing, boozing, schmoozing, friends, family, and joyful noises galore.
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | June 04, 2008

More police, less Harvard

Freedom watch
The Harvard Crimson reported this week the arrest of two non-student demonstrators at a student-organized protest in front of Holyoke Center.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | April 16, 2008

Ring of fire

The deadbeat FBI fails to pay its phone bills and jeopardizes its wiretapping program
An ugly squabble between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the nation’s biggest phone companies has, in one nasty blow, recast the image of all the entities involved.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | January 23, 2008

US Attorney Corrente and CVS CEO Ryan: two ‘regular guys’

Probing matters
The closely watched ongoing investigation of state legislators stars Robert Clark Corrente as the focused US attorney and Tom Ryan as the more enigmatic CVS CEO.
By MARY ANN SORRENTINO | December 05, 2007

A tragicomedy of errors

In an excerpt from his new book, The Fall of the House of Bush, author Craig Unger details how Bush is, well, screwing up the world
It was not until after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were narrowly re-elected that many Americans began to realize that the Iraq War represented a dangerous moment in American history.
By CRAIG UNGER | November 20, 2007

An unprecedented crime

Mass torture in America. And how to stop it
I have a true ghost story to tell: the story of 35,000 ghosts in America, the largely invisible inmates of our solitary-confinement “supermax” prisons.
By LANCE TAPLEY | November 14, 2007

Moldy justice

Archaic laws are often funny, but they’re no laughing matter
A California law prohibits a woman from driving while wearing a house coat.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND JAN WOLFE | October 12, 2007

Air apparent?

McNallica finishes fourth in the U.S.
Maybe New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell is a breast man.
By JEFF INGLIS | August 20, 2007

Screwing the youth

When the budget gets tight, young people become an easy target
Wole Akinbi was 16 when someone phoned to say his best friend had been shot.
By BRIAN C. JONES | August 20, 2007

Lessons of the fall

The Papitto controversy reveals some ingrained truths about race and institutions
The fall from grace of Ralph R. Papitto was remarkable in its speed and force.
By IAN DONNIS | July 25, 2007

The 10th Annual Muzzle Awards

Silencing free speech
Mitt Romney will say or do anything if he thinks it will help him become president.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 10, 2007

Maine prison bosses violate court orders

Department of Corrections ignores federal rulings going back to the 1970s
In the activist climate of an earlier era, a Maine legal-aid group brought and won three prisoner-rights lawsuits against state corrections officials.
By LANCE TAPLEY | June 27, 2007

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