News & Commentary

In 2012, the ACLU of Vermont made a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to federal agencies, asking for details about Border Patrol checkpoints on Vermont highways. Whan we reviewed the information we received, two things stood out. First, the U.S. government has prepared a detailed study of possible sites on which to build eight-acre, permanent Border Patrol checkpoints as many as 100 miles from the Canadian border along north-south Interstate highways in New England. Second, we found that most of the interdiction done at the temporary White River Junction (Hartford) Border Patrol checkpoint on I-91 is seizure of drugs, most of that marijuana, and most of that small amounts of marijuana. Securing the border against terrorists -- the justification for a greater Homeland Security presence in the state -- seems of minor importance, based on federal reports.

For many years there have been complaints that when the attorney general and local prosecutors investigate alleged police misconduct, the result is almost always the same -- the conduct is deemed acceptable and no charges are brought. But Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan tried a different route in the case of a Winooski officer who first Tased and then shot a mentally ill man in April. He called for a grand jury to hear testimony and consider whether charges should be filed against the officer. The grand jury has finished its work and this week "returned a true bill" -- the officer will be charged on one felony and two misdemeanor counts.

For the first time since the creation of the World Wide Web, Congress has made it clear that all private communications online require a search warrant based on probable cause. That's the word from ACLU legislative counsel Christopher Calabrese in Washington following a vote Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee to send the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 2013 to the Senate floor. The prime mover on the bill has been Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, who was in the Senate when the first ECPA law was passed -- in 1986. How long ago was that? Mark Zuckerberg was in day care.

Vermont Supreme Court OK's Limits on Electronic SearchesThe Vermont Supreme Court gave electronic privacy a big boost Friday when it approved restrictions placed upon police when conducting searches of electronic devices.

Vermont law enforcement has taken yet another step down the road of closing off police investigation records. This time, though, law enforcement has taken its fight to within the courts, claiming that information needed by a lawyer in a lawsuit can't be subpoenaed.

Two years after the arrest of an African-American man in his own home, the ACLU-VT has won Anne Galloway of the investigative online news site VtDigger.org the right to access information for a story on possible racial profiling by the Hartford Police Department.

The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to try to learn more about searches of laptop computers and other devices carried by travelers crossing into the U.S. A year ago CBP issued a policy that permits officials to search laptops and similar devices without suspicion of wrongdoing. The ACLU wants to know how the searches square with the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches, and other constitutional protections.