American Civil Liberties Union

In Report Highlighting Racial Disparities Among Marijuana Arrests, No State Looks Worse than Texas

In one of the largest reports surveying the current state of marijuana enforcement in the nation, the ACLU released a 183-page text on Thursday examining the racial disparities among marijuana-related arrests across America. While the report is a damning look at the failure of the War on Marijuana, ... More >>

Weeks After Denial, Local Teen Finally Allowed to Wear Her Dress to Prom

Weeks after Tony Zamazal first asked Spring High School's administration whether or not she could wear a dress to her upcoming prom, the senior finally has an answer. After receiving a letter from the ACLU dated March 18, Spring ISD has finally announced it will allow Tony, who had long dressed in t ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Canadian Threat, Eh?

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

ACLU Wants Answers in DPS Shooting of Unarmed Men From a Helicopter During Chase

The ACLU of Texas wants state officials to investigate a Department of Public Safety sharpshooter's killing of two unarmed men during an intense chase Thursday in the Rio Grande Valley. The DPS agent was in a helicopter that was pursuing a pickup truck occupied by suspected illegal immigrants. Thre ... More >>

ACLU, Human Rights Watch Report Condemns Solitary Confinement for Teens

In June 2009, Chris Vogel wrote our story "For Their Own Good," detailing the problems created when teens are left in solitary confinement in jail for up to 23 hours a day. We'd like to think we made an impact -- well, we had some effect in Harris County, which is what we concentrated on -- but as ... More >>

ACLU: Police Seizing of Witness's Phone Illegal and Totally Not Cool

The ACLU of Texas is criticizing a Houston police officer's alleged seizing of a witness's cell phone at the scene where the officer shot an unarmed man. HPD says Officer J. McGowan shot Rufino Lara while investigating an alleged assault after he refused both English and Spanish commands to put his ... More >>

Rachel Bradshaw: HS Student Sent to Alternative HS with Her Alleged Rapist Gets Policy Changed

A Henderson High student who went public to fight the district's placing her in alternative school with her alleged rapist says she's happy the policy has been changed. Rachel Bradshaw, 19, eventually graduated from another district after the March 2010 incident. Bradshaw told authorities she had b ... More >>

Protecting Gay Kids

Schools are finally getting tougher on gay bullying.

Terence Johnson Throws American Flag into Traffic, But Is That Illegal?

There can be a thin line between ballsy and dumb. Terence Dwayne Johnson, 20, of the tiny East Texas hamlet of Bedias, apparently decided to test where that line might be. According to cops who talked to KLTV, security footage at a Lovelady hardware store shows him grabbing an American flag out of ... More >>

No More "Debtor's Prison" for Truants in Hidalgo County, ACLU Says

We didn't really think this happened much anymore, but apparently Hidalgo County was in the habit of jailing school truants who couldn't pay the sometimes large fines they racked up. It sounded -- to the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas -- like the debtor's prisons of old, so th ... More >>

This Year's Banned Books of Texas

Don't read that, kids.​The ACLU of Texas has released their annual report on books banned by the state's school districts. Among the usual suspects this time around: R.L. Stine, a Gossip Girl novel and the ever-popular gay penguins tale And Tango Makes Three. Another highlight: An elementary ... More >>

Gov. Rick Perry May Have Used Taxpayer Dollars To Promote "The Response", Says ACLU

Photo by Mandy OaklanderReverend Barry Lynn and Terri Burke are protesting The Response​Diversity-minded, Constitution-abiding folks are pissed at tomorrow's one-day Jesus camp called "The Response." Governor Rick Perry, of course, is the belle of the ball. It's a little complicated since he' ... More >>

Rick Perry's Prayerapalooza: ACLU Of Texas Wants To Know How Much Tax Money Is Being Spent

Give to Caesar​The ACLU of Texas has filed open-records request seeking information on how much tax money, if any, is being spent promoting Rick Perry's paryer meeting at Reliant Stadium next month. "We are concerned that Gov. Perry is using public office to endorse a sectarian religious even ... More >>

ACLU Questions Use Of Church For Lone Star College Graduation

Rumbles about using a church​The ACLU of Texas is looking into complaints from at least one faculty member about the Lone Star College System's decision to hold graduation ceremonies this weekend in two churches. They say they have been contacted by an LSCS faculty member, and quoted him as s ... More >>

Goose Creek ISD Can Get All Gay: ACLU Succeeds in Ending Web-Filtering of GLBT Content

Overzealous filtering ends in Goose Creek.​Last month we told you how Baytown's Goose Creek school district was one of four nationwide targeted by the American Civil Liberties Union in a complaint over blocking gay-related material from school computers. One Goose Creek student trying to rese ... More >>

ACLU Asks Goose Creek ISD to Stop Blocking Gay Content On Its Computers

Part of the "Don't Filter Me" project​The Goose Creek ISD is one of four in the country being sent letters from the American Civil Liberties Union saying students' civil rights are being violated because the district blocks gay-related content from its school computers. One student said he wa ... More >>

ACLU: When Facing Death, Lizards Are Treated More Humanely Than Humans

Does Cleve Foster deserve a death at least as humane as that of a lizard? The ACLU thinks so.​The pets of those on death row would be treated more humanely than their owners, if the animals were sitting in the execution chamber instead of them. According to a report released by the American C ... More >>

Judge John Clinton: Five Better Reading Options Than Christian Books For Defendants

Won't get you into ACLU trouble.​We were upset to see Harris County Criminal Court Judge John Clinton get pilloried by godless ACLU-types who had problems with him offering defendants the option of writing a book report on a "Scripture-based workbook." After some criminal defense attorneys, a ... More >>

ACLU Of Texas Moving Its Headquarters To Houston, Because This Is Where Civil Rights Get Trampled

ACLU of Texas, coming to town​After decades in Austin, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas is moving to a city that's apparently more fertile ground for civil-rights battles: Houston. "A city as dynamic and diverse as Houston is truly the face of the new Texas and the right setting fo ... More >>

Banned Books: HISD Goes From Worst To First

Denene Miller's Hotlanta: Banned in Cy-Fair​Banned Books Week begins Saturday, and the ACLU of Texas has put out its annual report on censorship in the state's schools.One highlight: "[W]e were pleased to see that Houston ISD, the largest school district in the state and the one with the most chal ... More >>

ACLU Says Texas Teens Being Sent To Debtors' Prison

Missing school, getting fined thousands. ​The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas is challenging officials in Hidalgo County because teenagers are being jailed in an adult detention center for skipping school and not paying truancy fines, which, according to a class action lawsuit filed Monday ... More >>

ACLU Can't Get Terry Grier To Listen To Its Complaints Against CEP

Big vote tonight​The Houston Independent School District's board is expected to vote later today to renew its contract with a controversial company that handles students with disciplinary problems. The ACLU of Texas isn't too happy about that.The ACLU wrote a letter to HISD superintendent Terry Gr ... More >>

ACLU Doesn't Like Obama's Border Plan; Cites Need For Further Studies

Time to do some more research, ACLU says​President Obama's plan to send a bunch of National Guard troops and a ton of cash to the U.S.-Mexico border has a new critic: The American Civil Liberties Union.The ACLU has come out against the plan, saying Obama needs to...do other things before he does t ... More >>

An Opportunity to Stand Up

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's reign of terror becomes Arizona policy, thanks to state Senator Russell Pearce and Governor Jan Brewer.

Banning Books in HISD... Plus: Metro cop involved in fatal shooting kills himself

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Everyone's a Critic: ACLU vs. Harris County vs. DOJ vs. HCJ

​The ACLU of Texas is criticizing Harris County's criticism of the U.S. Department of Justice's criticism of Harris County Jail. Hair Balls isn't sure who to criticize yet. In a press release, the state chapter's legal director calls County Attorney Vince Ryan's response to the DOJ ... More >>

The ACLU, Stirring It Up Again In Texas And Elsewhere

Muslims in Texas and around the United States aren't being allowed to practice one of the key tenets of their religion -- namely charitable giving -- because of our country's terrorism-finance laws, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.In its 164-report "Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity," ... More >>

Federal Judge Says Needville Shouldn't Have Kept Long-Haired Native American Boy Out of School

A federal judge ruled this week that the Needville Independent School District was wrong to keep a five-year-old Native American boy out of kindergarten because of his long hair. "You stand up for something that you believe is wrong, and you let people know and it gets fixed," says Adriel Arocha' ... More >>

You're Facing The ACLU Now, Needville

ACLU Wants Galveston Jail Evacuated Next Time

Community Education Partners -- Why It’s No Better for Atlanta Than It’s Been for Houston

Only Black Male Students Have to Attend School’s Special Session on Gangs and Thug Life

Warehousing Minority Kids in Atlanta and Houston

Drenched In Blog: El DeBarge Arrested? Somebody Notify Steve Guttenberg

News from the Fighting 478th

Re: Making the Banned

Playing by the Rules

A Houston softball team accuses Atlanta of being too straight

Situational Ethics

The good people of Klein ISD change the rules to keep out a gay club

Lethal Legacy

Yates isn't dying to prove the equity of Harris County executions

Mystery Code

Alvin ISD exempts conscientious objectors from dress code rules. But nobody can get that exemption.

Hard Knox

In an ACLU test case on brutality, jurors side with state prison guards

Left Return

Once burdened by debt and internal politics, a rejuvenated Texas ACLU is back mixing it up with those who dare to trample on the U. S. Constitution.

Party Lines

A judge has serious hang-ups over state prisons listening in on inmate-attorney calls

Unnecessary Roughness

Inmate Mark Knox claims Texas prison guards brutalized him. The ACLU fears that in an expanding and unwieldy TDCJ system Knox is far from alone.

Pray

In a small town south of Houston, they say school prayer is a matter of religious freedom. But even in Santa Fe, freedom for one student can be tyranny for another.

Letters

Letters

Letters

Uncivil Liberties

The ACLU returns from the dead in Houston