ACLU cooperating attorney Venkat Balasubramani will join professional photographers to present the free event See No Evil: Constitutional Rights of Photographers at the Seattle Public Library University branch Thursday, Aug 21st at 6pm.

As Washington state woke up and got to work this morning, President Bush signed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) into law. While Senators Cantwell and Murray voted against the bill, 69 Senators supported it, putting the bill in the President's hands to sign.

Barely an hour later, the ACLU's legal team filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of this new law based on privacy, free speech, and the separation of powers. As our national blog explains:

Written by Doug Klunder
Under the United States Constitution, a search warrant isn't required as long as police officers don't search any further than a private party has already searched. This "private search" exception allows, for example, law enforcement to open a box in shipment without a warrant if it's already been opened by the shipping company (even if not authorized by the recipient or shipper). As with so many privacy rules, however, the answer is better under the Washington State Constitution. The Washington Supreme Court recently decided that the private search exception doesn't apply to the state constitutional warrant requirement. Specifically, police can't enter a house without a warrant even when invited by a repairman and when the officers don't look any further than a private repairman already has. In other words, if you give a key to a cleaning service, you don't have to worry about them letting the police search your house while you're gone -- if you're in Washington.

After months of delay, the U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote tomorrow on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and whether telecoms should have immunity for assisting with warrantless wiretapping. H.R. 6304, the Hoyer/Bush FISA deal, would essentially gut FISA and allow mass, untargeted surveillance of Americans' conversations, and provide immunity to the telecoms who participated.

Under the bill, telecoms would be able to get out of the multitude of ongoing court cases by getting a congressional 'get out of jail free' card. As Caroline Fredrickson, the director of the ACLU’s Washington (D.C.) Legislative Office, put it:

Written by Christina Drummond
This morning, the Seattle City Council had an initial hearing on the mayor's proposal to authorize a video surveillance program for four parks as early as June 2008.

The ACLU does not support video surveillance and does not support Seattle's proposal for many reasons, which Jennifer Shaw, our legislative director, presented to the Seattle City Council Parks and Seattle Center Committee.

People living in a free society should be able to enjoy public spaces without having to subject their actions to constant government monitoring. This particular proposal would record the activities of innocent people, while illegal acts move to just out of sight of the camera. At the same time, this proposal includes no mechanism to "watch the watchers" and monitor abuses like racial profiling and voyeurism.

People carrying Washington's Enhanced Driver's Licenses or Identicards (EDLs) can rest a tad easier. While the person-specific, unique identification number on the EDL's EPC Gen2 tag can still be accessed remotely by compatible readers when not at the border, those salivating over the possibilities now have a deterrent. Washington just signed into law a bill that makes it a felony and a violation of the Consumer Protection Act to read and store the EDL's RFID number for any non-border crossing purpose, unless the entity has the cardholder's express knowledge and consent.

Written by Christina Drummond
Looking for something to do this Saturday? On February 23, I'll be talking about a variety of transportation related systems that gather location information while you go about your life. From driving your car to taking public transportation, from flying to crossing a border – data is being collected. Together with our legislative director, I’ll be outlining our concerns and activities in this area.

If you’re interested, come join the fun. The 2:15 p.m. talk is part of the ACLU-WA’s afternoon long 2008 Membership Conference. You don’t have to be a member to attend and donations are encouraged for admission (which is free).

Written by Christina Drummond

As I've written before, Washington state residents are the first in the country able to get an enhanced driver's license or identicard, which will double as an alternative to the U.S. Passport for land and sea crossings into Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

The ACLU-WA has listed out a number considerations for choosing between a passport and EDL. For those who care about their privacy, the key concern remains that the EDL contains an EPC Gen2 RFID tag that will hold a unique identification number assigned to you, and broadcast that number to anybody with a reader. The Department of Licensing acknowledges this and will send you a little sleeve to shield your license when not at the border.

The past 24 hours have been a civil liberties roller coaster. After the high of the Senate delaying consideration of surveillance rules for FISA, the FCC adopted new rules allowing an entity to own both a newspaper and a broadcast network in a single media market.

FISA and Telecom Immunity – Debate Delayed to the New Year

Written by Doug Klunder
Two recent P-I articles, here and here, discuss employee privacy, especially when it comes to email. The ACLU believes that employees should have a right of privacy in their personal communications, which employers should only be able to breach in cases of serious misconduct.

The articles do a pretty good job of describing the actual (and unfortunate) legal situation--virtually no employee privacy. Despite that legal background, it's important to recognize the reality that many of us do send and receive some personal email at work. So I thought some practical tips might be in order: