Have You Seen Habeas?

ACLU Launches New Online Effort to Restore Habeas Corpus

	Help restore habeas corpus today: 1. Sign the petition. Help us collect 100,000 signatures and send a resounding message that we want Congress and the President to respect the Constitution. 2. Ask your friends to sign the petition by sending them an eCard. 3. Read the blog: Stay up to date on recent developments in our effort to reverse the damage done by the Military Commissions Act.

On April 18, 2007, the ACLU launched an aggressive Campaign to Restore Our Constitutional Rights — a far-reaching effort to reclaim our lost liberties, reverse bad laws and undo reckless assertions of executive power.

Our first priority is to reverse the damage done by the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which eliminates protections against unlawful imprisonment, convictions based on coerced evidence and numerous other violations of due process. It also gives the president absolute power to designate enemy combatants and to set his own definitions of torture.

To preserve American values of freedom and fairness, Congress must act now to reverse the damage done by this dangerous legislation and restore respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.

We’ve started a unique online campaign to educate and engage people, and it’s already gaining quite a bit of attention online and around the country. At the heart of the campaign is “Mr. Habeas Corpus,” a fictional character who’s meant to embody the very real issue that gives him his name: the fundamental freedom from unlawful imprisonment, which the Military Commissions Act has begun to strip away.

“Habeas” is an unflagging champion of justice and due process of law. He’s been looking out for us all for centuries and now he needs us to look out for him.

The campaign to “Find Habeas” already has dozens of blogs taking note, hundreds of people signing up to be Habeas’s friend on MySpace.com and thousands of people signing our petition to Restore Our Constitutional Rights. Stay tuned for other ways to be involved in this exciting effort by visiting FindHabeas.com for updates.

	Take Action Now! On Wednesday, April 18, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court unraveled more than 30 years of legal precedent protecting women’s health and reproductive rights. Contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives and ask them to show their commitment to women’s health by supporting and co-sponsoring the Freedom of Choice Act.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a devastating blow to women’s health, reproductive rights, and the ability of all Americans to make private medical decisions. In a 5-4 ruling that placed politics above women’s health, the Court upheld the first federal law banning certain abortion methods. The ACLU and other groups had challenged this extreme measure because it endangered women’s health.

The decision is significant -- and dangerous -- in several respects. For the first time, there is now a federal law banning abortion methods. For the first time, the Court upheld an abortion restriction that lacks a health exception. The ruling thus undermines a core principle of Roe v. Wade that women’s health must remain paramount. And, for the first time, the Court declared that other interests -- including “the State’s interest in promoting respect for human life at all stages in the pregnancy” -- could trump a woman’s right to protect her own health.

The Court’s willingness to turn its back on women’s health and its own longstanding precedent is ominous. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rightly explained in her stinging dissent, “[T]he Court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety.” At stake in this decision, Ginsburg adds, is a woman’s ability to determine her life’s course and participate equally in society. Notably, this is the first decision of the Court to address abortion since Justice O’Connor’s resignation.

Alarmingly, the decision invites politicians to pass additional abortion restrictions, regardless of their impact on women’s autonomy and health. Indeed, anti-choice extremists have already signaled their intentions. As Leslee Unruh, one of the architects of last year’s failed attempt to ban nearly all abortions in South Dakota, told the Los Angles Times, “I’m ecstatic. It’s like someone gave me $1 million and told me, Leslee, go shopping. We’re brainstorming, and we’re having fun.”

Clearly, the reproductive rights movement must be prepared to meet re-energized anti-choice forces on the ground and to fight back with every tool at our disposal -- from grassroots and legislative organizing to lawsuits and other legal remedies. With affiliates in every state and a team of nationally recognized reproductive rights lawyers and advocates, the ACLU is uniquely positioned to protect women’s health and equality. Immediately after last week's decision, we began working with physicians around the country to ensure that women continue to have access to safe and legal abortion care. We have joined forces with other reproductive rights groups to call upon Congress to pass the Freedom of Choice Act, a measure aimed at restoring a woman’s ability to make personal medical decisions free from government interference.

This blow to reproductive freedom has served to strengthen our resolve and commitment as advocates for women’s health and equality. We cannot and will not lose sight of what we know matters: women’s health and autonomy must remain paramount.

All of us at the ACLU promise to stand firm in defense of reproductive rights -- in the courts, in Congress and in every state across the nation. Please stand with us.