Operation Abolition: Defending the Civil Liberties of the “Un-American,” 1957–1961

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1043-1063
Author(s):  
RUTH MARTIN
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Red Scare ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
American Civil Liberties Union

In response to the House Un-American Activities Committee's attacks on legal defenders of political nonconformists, the six-year-old Emergency Civil Liberties Committee organized a publicity and test-case campaign to highlight the dubious constitutionality of HUAC's methods. Their drive to abolish HUAC helped to transform the defence of the constitutional rights of suspected subversives or “un-Americans” by undermining the governmental structures of the Second Red Scare. The ECLC's activity also prompted a shift in the policy of the nation's largest civil liberties group, the American Civil Liberties Union, in favour of abolition. HUAC's response of a mass propaganda campaign represented the culmination of a period when they sought to crush “un-American” dissent, inadvertently elevating the ECLC to a position of national prominence in the struggle for Cold War civil liberties.

scholarly journals NCOG-42. INITIAL PRESENTATION AND OUTPATIENT VISIT COMPLIANCE OF INMATES WITH BRAIN TUMORS

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii138-ii138
Author(s):  
Iyad Alnahhas ◽  
Appaji Rayi ◽  
Yasmeen Rauf ◽  
Shirley Ong ◽  
Pierre Giglio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Tumors ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Delayed Diagnosis ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Small Series ◽  
Initial Symptoms ◽  
The Ohio State University ◽  
American Civil Liberties Union ◽  
Lost To Follow Up

Abstract INTRODUCTION While advocacy for inmates with cancer has recently gained momentum, little is known about management of brain tumors in inmates. Delays in acknowledging or recognizing nonspecific initial symptoms can lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Inmates with cancer are reported to either be ignored or receive substandard care due in part to cost or logistics (American Civil Liberties Union; ASCO Post 2018). METHODS In this retrospective study, we identified inmates with gliomas seen in the Ohio State University Neuro-oncology Center between 1/1/2010-4/20/2019. RESULTS Twelve patients were identified. Median age at presentation was 39.5 years (range 28-62). Eleven patients were Caucasian and one was African American. Diagnoses included glioblastoma (GBM) (n=6), anaplastic astrocytoma (n=1), anaplastic oligodendroglioma (n=1), low-grade astrocytoma (n=3) and anaplastic pleomorphic xanthroastrocytoma (n=1). Patients were more likely to present early after seizures or focal neurologic deficits (9/12) than after headaches alone. Patients with GBM started RT 12-71 days after surgery (median 34.5). One patient’s post-RT MRI was delayed by a month and another with GBM had treatment held after 4 cycles of adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ) due to “incarceration issues”. For one patient who received adjuvant TMZ, the facility failed to communicate with the primary team throughout treatment. Two patients suffered significant nausea while on chemotherapy due to inability to obtain ondansetron in prison, or due to wrong timing. 7/12 (58%) patients were lost to follow-up for periods of 3-15 months during treatment. Three patients refused adjuvant treatment. CONCLUSIONS Although this is a small series, our results highlight the inequities and challenges faced by inmates with gliomas who are more likely to forego treatments or whose incarceration prevents them from keeping appropriate treatment and follow-up schedules. Additional studies are needed to define and address these deficiencies in the care of inmates with brain tumors and other cancers.

From Property Rights to Liberty Rights: We the Corporations, A Review Essay

2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-340
Author(s):  
Laura Phillips Sawyer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
State Action ◽  
Unequal Treatment ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right ◽  
We The People

A long-standing, and deeply controversial, question in constitutional law is whether or not the Constitution's protections for “persons” and “people” extend to corporations. Law professor Adam Winkler's We the Corporations chronicles the most important legal battles launched by corporations to “win their constitutional rights,” by which he means both civil rights against discriminatory state action and civil liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution (p. xvii). Today, we think of the former as the right to be free from unequal treatment, often protected by statutory laws, and the latter as liberties that affect the ability to live one's life fully, such as the freedom of religion, speech, or association. The vim in Winkler's argument is that the court blurred this distinction when it applied liberty rights to nonprofit corporations and then, through a series of twentieth-century rulings, corporations were able to advance greater claims to liberty rights. Ultimately, those liberty rights have been employed to strike down significant bipartisan regulations, such as campaign finance laws, which were intended to advance democratic participation in the political process. At its core, this book asks, to what extent do “we the people” rule corporations and to what extent do they rule us?

The Tariq Ramadan visa case

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Benthall
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberties ◽  
State Department ◽  
The State ◽  
Peace Studies ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Usa ◽  
American Civil Liberties Union ◽  
Political Opinions

This Chapter describes the case of Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss-born academic and commentator on Islamic matters, who was refused a non-immigrant visa in 2005 to enter the USA in order to accept a professorship in peace studies. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took up his case. Though it is probable that the real reason for his exclusion was opposition to Ramadan’s political opinions, the reason given was that between 1998 and July 2002 he had made donations totalling the equivalent of US$940 to a charity registered in Switzerland (the Association de Secours aux Palestiniens). In August 2003 this charity was designated by the USA as a terrorist fundraising entity, on account of its alleged links to Hamas-linked Palestinian charities (including zakat committees). Eventually, after two court hearings, the State Department decided in January 2010, in a document signed by Secretary Clinton, to lift the ban against Ramadan’s entering the USA. This Chapter recounts the progress of the case, and reproduces a letter sent by Benthall to Secretary Clinton in October 2009 in support of the ACLU’s representation of Ramadan.

Man! and the International Group

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Hillary Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Political Dissent ◽  
Critical Window ◽  
International Group ◽  
International Solidarity ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Civil Liberties Union ◽  
Print Publications

From January 1933 through April 1940, Man! A Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement served as the central connector for a transnational anarchist network that extended across multiple continents from North America to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. As the main organ of the “International Group”—an organization with chapters throughout the United States—Man! also linked radical immigrant communities throughout America. In addition to demonstrating the importance of print publications as an avenue for transatlantic and inter-ethnic connection, the story of Man! provides a lesser-known, early example of an international solidarity movement and critical window into political repression. With help from the American Civil Liberties Union, the several-year governmental effort to suppress the journal and deport its editors Vincent Ferrero and Domenic Sallitto as well as their colleague, Marcus Graham, became an international cause célèbre that sparked an international defense movement. Recounting the history of Man! and the International Group helps to bring this moment in transnational anarchist resistance to light, while elucidating the ways in which xenophobia-driven immigration policy can serve as a means for State-based suppression of political dissent.

From Protest to Dissent: Wartime Activism and the Founding of the ACLU

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-192
Author(s):  
Amy Aronson
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Global Democracy ◽  
Liberty Of Conscience ◽  
American Civil Liberties Union ◽  
American Union

In June 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act, suspending basic civil liberties in the name of wartime national security. Suddenly, peace work seemed dangerously untenable, even to some in movement leadership. Nevertheless, the American Union Against Militarism (AUAM) voted to test the new wartime laws, campaigning to prevent a draft and devising a new category of military exemption based on conscience. But continuing tensions threatened to rupture the AUAM from the inside. Lillian Wald and Paul Kellogg wanted to resign. Eastman proposed an eleventh-hour solution: create a single, separate legal bureau for the maintenance of fundamental rights in wartime—free press, free speech, freedom of assembly, and liberty of conscience. The new bureau became the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). However, Eastman’s hopes to shape and oversee that work, keeping it focused on internationalism and global democracy, were not to be. The birth of her child sidelined her while Roger Baldwin, arriving at a critical time for the country and the organization, took charge and made the bureau his own.

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-192
Author(s):  
Donald W. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Jersey City ◽  
Constitutional Protection ◽  
Congress Of Industrial Organizations ◽  
Industrial Organizations ◽  
Police Harassment ◽  
The Right ◽  
American Civil Liberties Union

This epilogue shows that Hague v. CIO had a legacy more complex than its reputation as a speech rights victory for workers and others over dictatorial city boss Frank Hague under the Bill of Rights. The American Civil Liberties Union and renamed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) immediately split over the decision’s ramifications. Moreover, while the ruling enlarged constitutional protection for the right of public assembly to the benefit of Jehovah’s Witnesses, civil rights demonstrators, and others, it did little to enhance picketing and other “labor speech,” or to shield union organizers from police harassment. And while the decision freed the CIO to organize in Jersey City, it did not destroy Mayor Hague, who accommodated CIO unions and was ousted later due to city politics.

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