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Panel Discussion on Civil Liberties Implications of USA PATRIOT
Act Features High-Profile Attorney Caught in Anti-Terrorism Backlash
September 27, 2002
FT. LAUDERDALE ? In an effort to inform the public about alarming post 9-11 security measures that expand government powers and roll back fundamental constitutional protections, the Broward Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is hosting a panel discussion on the civil liberties implications of the USA PATRIOT ACT.
The event will be from 2 to 4 p.m. October 12 at the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center, 3305 College Avenue in Ft. Lauderdale.
"These hastily-passed provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are frontal attacks on the Bill of Rights that make us neither safe nor secure," said Broward ACLU board member Jennifer Van Bergen, whose six-part article series on Truthout.org details how the law affects everyone in very basic, important ways. Her recent article on www.criminaldefense.com raises important criminal defense issues under the Act.
Van Bergen will join several Nova Law School Professors, including Paul Joseph, Jim Wilets and Marc Rohr, to discuss human rights, free expression and privacy issues related to the USA PATRIOT Act.
Lynne Stewart, the New York attorney who was indicted in April for allegedly helping client Omar Abdel Rahman to pass messages to members of an Egyptian-based fundamentalist terrorist organization, will be the special guest speaker.
"The indictment, announced in a blaze of publicity by General Ashcroft himself, seeks to chill the defense bar," said Stewart's attorney, Michael E. Tigar. "The government's theory would sharply limit the rights of lawyers to practice their profession and to represent their clients. The 'evidence' in this case was gathered by wholesale invasion of private conversations, private attorney-client meetings and private faxes, letters and e-mails. I have never seen such an abusive use of governmental power."
In the year since the tragic September 11 attacks, the ACLU has led the resistance against a number of measures advanced by Attorney General John Ashcroft that jeopardize basic freedoms without increasing security from terrorism. The ACLU has filed litigation to open immigration hearings, compel the release of information about detainees and end the discriminatory treatment of airline passengers who are profiled based on race or ethnicity alone. In addition, the ACLU of Florida, including representatives of the affiliate's Broward Chapter, has spoken out against plans to deputize local police to enforcement immigration laws, the backlash against South Florida Muslims and the problematic nature of Operation TIPS, which uses ordinary untrained citizens as domestic spies.
Media Contact:
Barry Butin, Chapter Chair,
954-463-7669 or Jennifer Van Bergen, Board
Member, or Alessandra Soler Meetze,
Communications Director, ACLU of Florida, (305) 576-2337, ext. 16
(office) or 786-208-7203 (cell)
