ACLU of Kentucky

PHOENIX — The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against the State of Arizona on Monday and let stand a lower court decision blocking the most contentious parts of the state’s immigration law from going into effect...

Critics of the law, who have held protests and filed lawsuits to strike it down, were thrilled with the ruling.

“One of the reasons we have a judiciary is so that mobs don’t rule, so that when the Legislature oversteps its bounds there is someone to stop them,” said Omar Jadwat of the A.C.L.U. Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Read the Full NYT story here.

The Arkansas Supreme Court today declared unconstitutional a law that bans any unmarried person who lives with a partner in a sexual relationship, including those in same-sex relationships, from serving as an adoptive or foster parent. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arkansas filed a lawsuit against the ban on behalf of children, parents and couples harmed by the law, known as Act 1, in December 2008. The Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision today affirms an earlier ruling by the Pulaski County Circuit Court holding that Act 1 violates the Arkansas Constitution's guarantee of a right to privacy, a ruling that Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel appealed.

Read the full Press Release here.

The good news of the day is that the U.S. teen birth rate has fallen to a record low -- but most of the mainstream reporting on the Centers for Disease Control study avoids the question of why, and a cursory glance at the coverage can easily give the wrong impression.

Today, by ordering a military trial at Guantanamo for 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants, Attorney General Eric Holder finally put the Obama administration's stamp on the proposition that some criminals are "too dangerous to have fair trials."

In reversing one of its last principled positions—that American courts are sufficiently nimble, fair, and transparent to try Mohammed and his confederates—the administration surrendered to the bullying, fear-mongering, and demagoguery of those seeking to create two separate kinds of American law. This isn't just about the administration allowing itself to be bullied out of its commitment to the rule of law. It's about the president and his Justice Department conceding that the system of justice in the United States will have multiple tiers—first-class law for some and junk law for others.

Read the whole Slate story here.