City officials in Piqua are overstepping their authority by rejecting petitions based on the ballot language.

“The ACLU of Ohio is very concerned that Piqua residents are being denied access to the ballot in violation of state law,” wrote Jeffrey M. Gamso, ACLU legal director, in a letter that threatens “immediate litigation” if the matter isn’t resolved.

[…]

The city’s rejection of the petitions came to the attention of the ACLU after a complaint was filed with them by Chuck Starrett, a petition backer and president of P.O.I.N.T. (Property Owners Improving Neighborhoods Together).

[…]

The ACLU contends municipalities, such as Piqua, are not granted the authority to approve ballot language or review the sufficiency of petitions - part of that authority rests in the hands of the Miami County Board of Elections. Ohio is a home rule state, which means municipalities can not enact ordinances or polices that conflict with state law, according to the ACLU.

[…]

Carrie Davis, an ACLU staff attorney, the letter’s intention was to bring the matter fully to the attention of the city.

“Our hope is that they will follow exactly what the law requires them to do,” Davis said.

We should stop putting up needless barriers to voting.

Thanks for the Aug. 19 editorial, “Don’t assume the worst about voters.”
Finger-pointing and allegations of fraud and conspiracy have tainted far too many recent elections. And far too many policy changes have resulted from misplaced fears of unproven fraud.

However, most people simply want to cast a ballot. They don’t care about election law or policy; they just want to be able to vote.

Rather than bickering or throwing up obstacles in their path, our elected officials should be doing everything possible to encourage every eligible person to vote.

No election is going to be perfect. There will be some flaws. We need to accept that. But we have to run elections with an eye toward encouraging voters rather than discouraging them.

As you so aptly concluded, we need to stop treating would-be voters as if they were out to sabotage the system.

Political signage, while sometimes an eyesore, is an important part of our free speech rights.

Many might think this issue is much ado about nothing. But the high courts do not. The Supreme Court has long recognized political signs placed in residential yards or in windows as an “important and distinct medium of expression.”

The Ohio Supreme Court, which interprets laws for Ohio courts on a regular basis, also believes the same way. Ohio’s highest court already has ruled on a similar case. Nearly eight years ago, the court essentially said strict regulations on signs were unconstitutional.

[…]

The best thing to do would be to repeal the ordinance and write a new one - one that better balances free speech with public safety concerns. The new ordinance can, among other things, specify places where signs can be safely displayed and what types of material they can be constructed from.

Due to pressure from the ACLU of Ohio and the people of Chillicothe, their mayor will not enforce an unconstitutional political sign ordinance.

Less than a week after saying he would enforce an ordinance restricting posting of political signs, Mayor Joe Sulzer has decided to suspend enforcement.

After talking with City Law Director Toni Eddy Friday, Sulzer said he will be asking council to form a committee to review the 1977 ordinance that restricts residents from placing political signs on their property until at least 45 days before the election.

“I will recommend amending the ordinance pursuant to recent court decisions,” Sulzer said.

[…]

The American Civil Liberties Union claims the city’s ordinance violates the U.S. constitution’s First Amendment right guaranteeing the freedom of speech. The ACLU feels its claim is supported by an Ohio Supreme Court ruling from 2000.

[…]

In the court’s opinion, it states, “The posting of signs displaying political messages is a traditional method of speaking … A law regulating a property owner’s right to erect a yard sign affects both the owner’s and the candidate’s First Amendment rights … Moreover, the First Amendment has ‘its fullest and most urgent application’ to speech uttered during political campaigns.”

[…]

Sulzer is unsure when the new ordinance could be presented to council, but said enforcement of the old ordinance will be suspended in the meantime.

Chillicothe citizen asks mayor to respect constitutional law.

I find it very interesting on the front page of the Aug. 27 Gazette, Mayor Joe Sulzer said he is going to enforce the city ordinance restricting use of political signs as a form of free speech even though he does not know if it is constitutional or not.

The American Civil Liberties Union has stated it is unconstitutional and “enforcing it would prompt legal action from their office.”

On Page 4 of the same issue of the Gazette, columnist Gene Policinski tells in detail the financial costs to three cities that attempted to suppress free speech. New York City paid a total of $3,230,000 in claims and legal fees. Seattle paid a total of $1,800,000 in claims, and Washington D.C. paid “millions.”

Obviously, Chillicothe would not be paying such claims, but the bottom line is the ordinance is unconstitutional. Our mayor is a lawyer. Did he not swear to uphold the constitution?

Let’s get legal, Mayor.

Final hearing on Cincinnati’s Collaborative Agreement marks seven years of progress toward community-involved policing.

U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott, in the final hearing on Cincinnati’s Collaborative Agreement, called it the “most successful plan” of its kind in the United States.

[…]

Police Chief Thomas Streicher struck exactly the right note in saying that he viewed the final hearing as “a starting point, not an ending point.” He urged the community and police to keep building a culture of continuous improvement and keep collaborating on a problem-solving approach to crime fighting.

[…]

[Saul Green, a court-appointed independent monitor] praised the police and the city for the tremendous progress that’s been made. Green said Cincinnati police officers are now far more judicious in using deadly force, the professionally led civilian review panel has won the respect of citizens and officers, and the police force has adopted community problem-oriented policing as its primary focus. But as if to warn that none of the reforms are necessarily irreversible, Green cautioned against backsliding.

[…]

But more importantly, the larger community has witnessed the growing collaborative spirit, and events such as last month’s national NAACP Convention held here testify to what a huge difference the reforms have made.

American will benefit from the immigration boom that a Census Bureau report predicts.

“America’s changes will be less than we think. We’ve already become a more open, dynamic country,” says Dan Griswold, an immigration expert with the libertarian Cato Institute. “What will happen to America is what has already been happening to California, Texas, New York City and other economically successful regions.”

By many accounts, immigration has improved employment and productivity while increasing the flexibility of U.S. labor markets. According to Wall Street Journal writer Jason Riley, most immigrants assimilate quickly because they share American values of freedom, hard work and democracy. Employment and homeownership - both good indications of assimilation - are up among immigrants. The 2000 census also reports that 91 percent of the second-generation and 97 percent of the third-generation immigrants speak English well.

[…]

The aging population in the U.S. actually may constitute a bigger problem than immigration, given that among the white population those older than 65 is expected to double. However, the Hispanic population will remain young and vital, with minorities expected to constitute a majority of 18- to 29-year-olds by 2028. The increase in immigration and birth rate among Hispanics will slightly delay the Social Security crisis in the U.S.

Strickland orders special election for recently deceased U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland. This brings representation back to the 11th District before the November election.

“My staff has carefully reviewed this situation and concluded that the U.S. Constitution requires me to call one,” Strickland said, adding that Attorney General Nancy Rogers agrees.

Strickland cited a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals case, ACLU v. Taft, which he said made it clear that a governor has a ‘mandatory’ obligation to issue a Writ of Election when a congressional seat is vacated.

[…]

“The court has said that every district should have representation, even when Congress isn’t expected to be in session, because Congress may need to hold unexpected, but important, votes at any time,” said Strickland.

Homeland Security discloses another breach of privacy

Another unwarranted assault on the privacy of Americans is taking shape with a long-term program within the federal Department of Homeland Security to collect information on the travel habits of U.S. citizens.

At issue is a plan for the department to set up a huge database of border-crossing information collected by the Customs and Border Protection agency at border checkpoints.

The records, which would be kept for 15 years, will be shared by federal, state, and local governments. It is yet another program in a growing number of government systems containing personal information about Americans, ostensibly for a broad range of law enforcement or intelligence purposes.

Mayor declares intent to enforce an unconstitutional ordinance that hinders political free speech.

Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer said he’s going to enforce the existing city ordinance restricting political signs on private property, though he admits he’s unclear as to whether the ordinance would be found unconstitutional.

[…]

Sulzer had postponed enforcement of the ordinance from an initial Aug. 15 deadline after the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union said the law was unconstitutional and enforcing it would prompt legal action from their office. He said he would consult Law Director Toni Eddy for an opinion, but since he hasn’t yet received one, he is going to enforce the law.

[…]

The ACLU said the city’s ordinance violates the U.S. constitution’s First Amendment right guaranteeing the freedom of speech and said an Ohio Supreme Court ruling from 2000 backs that claim.

“We’re not making this up,” said Jeff Gamso, legal director for the Ohio ACLU. “The Ohio Supreme Court said exactly, you can’t do this.”

[…]

In the court’s opinion, it states, “The posting of signs displaying political messages is a traditional method of speaking … A law regulating a property owner’s right to erect a yard sign affects both the owner’s and the candidate’s First Amendment rights … Moreover, the First Amendment has ‘its fullest and most urgent application’ to speech uttered during political campaigns.”

[…]

Gamso said the ACLU stands ready to back residents who display the signs and said it will begin legal action if the city removes signs from the yards of private property owners.

“If the mayor is itching for a fight that will cost the city attorney’s fees, he can have the fight,” he said. “I don’t want to sue him over this because it’s to no one’s benefit to litigate, but the law is clear on this, and we hope he reconsiders.”

[…]
Gamso urges people who have had their signs removed to call the Ohio ACLU at (216) 472-2220.

“If the good people of Chillicothe would like to let us know when their signs have been taken, we would be very happy to know their mayor has violated their civil rights,” Gamso said.

Comunity-police relations in Cincinnati shows promise, reaches milestone.

Monitor Saul Green said a tremendous amount of progress has been made.  For instance:

*Use-of-force reform. The department started out with huge problems in regards to use of deadly force and is now far more judicious about using it.

*Cincinnati now has a professionally led civilian review panel. It’s a process respected by the community and officers for its impartial work by professional investigators.

*The department embraced the philosophy of community problem-oriented policing.

[…]

ACLU lawyer Scott Greenwood, who along with Al Gerhardstein represented the plaintiffs in the case, said there has been a marked difference in eight years.

“Community relations are much different in 2008 than they were 2001 when we started,” said Greenwood. “In that timeframe we have gone from a community that distrusted the police department, a department that had a reputation for excessive force and misuse of race in policing to 2008 where the department has made significant strides, virtually eliminating use of deadly force and has strengthened police community relations far beyond what we could have imagined in 2001.”

The issue goes back to 2000, when several lawsuits accusing the department of racial profiling and excessive force were filed, prior to the civil unrest. In January 2001,those lawsuits were consolidated, with the ACLU of Ohio and Cincinnati Black United Front offering to represent a class of African-American citizens. They then would mediate a negotiated settlement.

The agreement called for the adoption of community problem-oriented policing, mutual accountability and evaluation, bias-free policing and the establishment of the Citizen Complaint Authority. It also incorporated the terms of an agreement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice which focused on the use of force and officer accountability.

Officials should prefer free society over sign regulation.

Imagine if we lived in a world where we could only say certain things at certain times, and we would be punished if we broke the rules. That’s exactly the type of world we would be in if Chillicothe’s ban on political yard signs is enforced (”Ordinance restricts period for election signage,” Gazette, Aug. 5). The ordinance prevents people from posting signs prior to 45 days before an election and requires the signs be taken down seven days after the election.

The United States was founded on the principle that all people should be able to express their views freely, especially on political issues. However, this ordinance prevents residents of Chillicothe from speaking out on pertinent civic issues for long periods of time during the year.

What is most disturbing is that officials should be encouraging residents to be engaged in political issues, but this ordinance accomplishes the exact opposite. The message being sent to residents of Chillicothe is that free speech is fine, so long as it is exercised only between certain dates.

If city officials were wise, they would not enforce this law, and consider eliminating it altogether. Free speech works best when it is free from restrictions, and this ordinance accomplishes nothing other than to silence those who take an interest in public affairs.

Pamela Free
Frankfort

Franklin County voters can cast early ballots for November election starting Oct 4th.

Citing high demand for absentee voting during the March primary election, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner decided yesterday to allow voters to cast ballots on the weekends leading up to the November general election.

Brunner’s decision breaks a tie vote on the issue by the four-member Franklin County Board of Elections.

[…]

The county needs to accommodate the work schedules of as many voters as possible, she said, because of the county’s large number of registered voters and its “complex economy.”

Political signs in Chillicothe  may become less restricted soon

City Councilman Dustin Proehl, D-At Large, said he may look at the validity of an ordinance restricting property owners from placing signs in their front yards.

[…]

“It seems like it certainly does violate people’s constitutional rights,” he said.

The ordinance, drafted more than 30 years ago, has come under fire from local residents and the Ohio branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.  The council mandate restricts citizens to placing political signs - including ballot issues - only 45 days before an election.

In a letter from Ohio ACLU Legal Director Jeffrey Gamso to the Chillicothe Gazette, Gamso said the Ohio Supreme Court ruled against such restrictions as a violation of free speech in 2000.

“Instead of seeking to stifle the political speech of residents, officials and others should encourage and celebrate the fact that so many people are interested in civic affairs,” the letter said.

He urges officials against enforcing the law, and asks City Council members to consider repealing the law. He also asked people who may be fined or have their signs removed to contact the ACLU.

We should organize to restore free speech rights, regarding yard signs.

No matter how long one lives in their hometown, they are liable to always be learning something new about where they live.

I, for example, was among many others that were unaware of City Ordinance #1193.18, enacted Jan. 24, 1977, instructing me when and where I, as an American citizen living in the City of Chillicothe, may be permitted to display a political sign in support of a favored candidate within the limits of my own property. I would like to thank Diane Carnes and the Chillicothe Gazette for bringing this bit of city zoning law to the forefront of the citizens’ awareness and would like to take this opportunity as well to encourage my fellow citizens in dismantling this obscene infringement upon our First Amendment rights.

According to ordinance language in article C, “A political sign shall not be erected earlier than 45 days before the election date and must be removed within seven days after the election.” It goes on to state in article D that “In the event a sign is erected without a proper permit or is not removed within the time period allowed in subsection (c) hereof, the Building-Zoning Inspector shall notify the person responsible for the sign and demand removal. If the sign has not been removed two days after the notification, the City will remove the sign and charge the person responsible for the sign the cost of removal.”

If you speak your political mind by means of a yard sign on your own property outside the time frame city government permits, you will be fined and some of your property - the sign in question - will be taken from you.
How American of them!

One of the strongest arguments I have in favor of the ordinance I have found pertains to protecting an individual’s right not to have their property devalued by a neighbor’s actions. Well, I’m sure there would be a lot of individuals who could stand to benefit financially if we all just kept our mouths shut and our political thoughts to ourselves, but there is a reason our First Amendment is the first amendment. Above all others, we have the right to speak freely without fear of intimidation or reprisal from our government. Ordinance
#1193.18 sections C and D are glaring violations of that right.

How would you feel if you happened to be walking down the street and a police officer asked you to remove your political button? Or perhaps if you were pulled over by the police because of a political bumper sticker on your vehicle? This issue involving yard signs is hardly different in my mind. What of all those people living within the city limits that have their political mantra stuck to the back of their vehicles that sit in front of their property?

According to section A of ordinance 1193.18, “No political sign shall be posted on public property.” The street is certainly public property, so is an individual in violation of the ordinance if their vehicle displays a bumper sticker, decal or sign while parked in a public space? Should that individual be fined?

[…]

I strongly recommend we mobilize to safeguard our rights to free speech and right this wrong committed so long ago. We must petition city officials to correct this violation of our First Amendment rights.

If they won’t do it, then we should be collecting signatures to place a referendum on the next possible ballot and let the people decide whether they want to secure their rights. Ordinance #1193.18, sections C and D in particular, are a slight against the people living within the city limits, and we should not stand for it.

Repressive political yard sign ordinance has to go.

It’s surprising such a freedom-squelching city ordinance ever got passed. In addition to spitting in the face of the nation’s forefathers who declared all citizens should have the right to free speech, it’s all but unenforceable.

The Chillicothe Police Department has more important things to do than impounding a John McCain yard sign. The engineering department shouldn’t have to drop its work on local infrastructure to yank a Barack Obama sign from a resident’s yard.

The idea, on its surface, is just silly.

But scratch the surface and you see it’s actually a very dangerous ordinance. It erodes at a very basic level the citizen’s right to free speech guaranteed by both the U.S. Constitution and Ohio’s own state constitution - and for which our local candidates and lawmakers should be fighting. It is such a violation of freedom of speech rights, in fact, that in 2000 the Ohio Supreme Court ruled against this sort of ordinance for that very reason.

It’s long past time for City Council to repeal [the ordinance]. Every American has the right to speak their mind, even through the use of yard signage, which should be promptly removed post-election by the candidate.

A group that was denied access to meeting rooms at the Upper Arlington Public Library, on religious grounds, gets win in federal court.

The library’s practice of prohibiting activities that it concludes are “inherent elements of a religious service” or elements that are “quintessentially religious” is unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge George C. Smith wrote in a 32-page decision.

Smith issued a permanent injunction to keep the library from using those reasons in the future to exclude activities in its meeting rooms.

[…]

[Previous to the injunction,] the library said the group was free to discuss religion, or any topic, in the meeting room. But library policy prohibits prayer and singing as “inherent elements of religious service.”

[…]

Smith did not give an opinion on the constitutionality of the library’s policy of precluding religious services.

Free speech rights include campaign signs.

Editor, the Gazette:

I was disturbed to learn that Chillicothe has an ordinance that restricts when people may display campaign signs. (”Ordinance restricts period for election signage,” Aug. 5) Such laws have been routinely thrown out by courts in Ohio and across the nation because they violate our core free speech rights.

In 2000, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that such restrictions violated free speech protections. The court said that by imposing time restrictions on when political signs could be displayed, the city effectively banned political speech during times it was not allowed.

Freedom to express political views without regulation is central to our most cherished rights as Americans. As the nation draws closer to the 2008 presidential election, many more Ohioans will exercise their First Amendment rights and place political signs on their property. Instead of seeking to stifle the political speech of residents, officials and others should encourage and celebrate the fact that so many people are interested in civic affairs.

I hope that Chillicothe officials will not enforce this illegal ordinance and that city council will consider repealing the law. If any person is fined or has a political sign removed from his or her lawn, I encourage you to contact the ACLU at (216) 472-2200.

High-crime neighborhoods, like Mt. Plesant in Cleveland, are moving toward a total-surveillance society.

With 100 cameras in Mt. Pleasant, several more downtown and 37 red-light cameras with video capability throughout the city - most of which are instantly viewable via remote access to a police lieutenant who was unavailable for interview - Stacho says any increase will only help to facilitate better monitoring effectiveness. “We are working to expand their use in other areas such as parking lots and on street corners downtown,” he says.

And here we go: all despite studies showing no overall effect on crime, no matter how many cameras go up.

In Great Britain, where the number of surveillance cams went from 100 in 1990 to 4.2 million today, the comfortingly named Home Office (their Homeland Security Department) performed two recent “meta-analyses,” which pooled data from various concurrent studies, and mostly found “displacement”
of criminality.

A 2002 study revealed a “statistically insignificant” impact on crime nationwide, though it noted that “cameras can be effective when used in specific environments and combined with other preventative measures.” In 2006, another found “no overall effect.”

[…]

In America, what few studies have been conducted deliver more lackluster news. A USC analysis of Los Angeles’ system showed “no impact on crime.” UC-Berkeley looked at San Francisco’s 68 downtown cameras and blamed “displacement” for no change in the level of violent crimes, though there was a slight decrease in property crimes.

[…]

With cheaper technology, improved centralization after 9/11 and unjustified feelings of camera comfort, the nation is fast approaching what the ACLU calls a “midnight” of total surveillance.

“The problem is, they don’t work,” says Chris Calabrese, counsel for the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Program. “They just push criminality around. So then you have to ask, what’s the cost? Wouldn’t this money be better spent having people patrolling? Wouldn’t you rather have an officer wandering the block and not some camera?”

Hamdan verdict damages U. S. reputation for reasonably fair trials.

The verdict handed down by a military panel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, one of Osama bin Laden’s drivers, … damaged America’s reputation for justice.

[…]

We suspect that the White House orchestrated this trial - and the outcome, since the jury of career military officers was picked by the prosecution - so that the process it created would be seen both as “fair” and as a reasonable punishment for an accused terrorist. It failed on both counts.

[…]

The painful part for American justice was the trial itself. Much of the evidence presented against Hamdan remains classified, presumably in the name of national security. Any discussion of whether torture was used to obtain that evidence also was kept secret. The name of the Central Intelligence Agency could not be mentioned during the proceedings because the government pretends the CIA was not involved.

[…]

Was the result - a split verdict against a minor defendant in the world of terrorism - worth the stain the process leaves on America’s reputation for adherence to the rule of law? We think not.

Anti-abortion protesters show graphic pictures, but appropriately use public forum as a place to share ideas.

But while Fountain Square wasn’t pretty on Friday, and it certainly wasn’t comfortable, it was vital and alive. There was plenty of thinking going on, and looking and discussing.

I found it to be a positive tension. The square should be a place where we confront ideas, where we step out from the anonymous, often one-sided consideration of issues on blogs and the Internet and face each other and our differences. Even displays we don’t agree with - sometimes especially those displays - can teach us something, if only about ourselves.

“This is really what America is all about, isn’t it?” asked Cecilia, a volunteer with the project. I hope that’s something upon which everyone on the square today could agree.

Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, receives split verdict, only being found guilty of “providing material support for terrorism.” Military tribunals at Gitmo are still woefully short of justice.

[Thursday], the panel sentenced Hamdan to 66 months in prison, the military judge having earlier signaled his intention to grant Hamdan credit for the 61 months he has been held. That translates to five months, a far less severe sentence than the 30 years proposed by the prosecution.

Will Hamdan then depart Guantanamo? Here’s the catch. The Pentagon maintains unlawful combatants can be held even if they have completed their sentence or been acquitted by a military tribunal.

[…]

What best serves Americans is a process that reflects their shared values, courts that are transparent and fair.

Joseph Chavalia, who shot dead an unarmed Tarika Wilson, found not-guilty. The community challenges itself to change the way police conduct raids.

This community needs to see changes so it never happens again. The jury’s verdict essentially means police are justified in shooting anyone in any home they enter if they perceive a threat, real or imagined.

[…]

At the time police obtained a search warrant to raid the home, they did not know children were present. Upon further surveillance, they noticed children’s toys outside the residence. Should police continue with a raid knowing children may be at risk?

[…]

The city and Chavalia now face a civil suit. The lawyers for the family said the suit is in part meant to change Lima police policy. It shouldn’t take a lawsuit for that change to come. One death, one maiming and one career cut short ought to be all the reasons necessary.

An anti-abortion group plans to use it’s free speech rights by showing pictures of aborted fetuses on Fountain Square in Cincinnati.

ACLU lawyer Scott Greenwood said the free-speech battle on the square has quieted, but Fountain Square remains a traditional public forum.

“The First Amendment is designed to promote and protect speech so the rest of us can think and participate in the marketplace of ideas, whatever one’s position on abortion and reproductive rights may be,” Greenwood said.

[…]

Greenwood, who represented the group, took that decision to federal court, prompting a judge to rule the city must allow access to everyone.

Subsequent attempts by the city to restrict use of the square were also ruled unconstitutional and the city began issuing a limited number of permits for private displays on a first-come, first-serve basis.

A 1995 Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision serves as a primer on Fountain Square, Greenwood said.

The court said Fountain Square is a “traditional public forum” that deserves the highest level of First Amendment protection.

University of Dayton student Justin Schaffer made deeply offensive comments on Facebook, which raises issues about freedom of expression and educating against intolerance on college campuses.

A private university such as UD is not an open society, said Jeff Gamso, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. “The Constitution does not protect him from discipline by a private university to which he goes.”

[…]

UD has started a dialogue with Schaffer “exploring our deepest values and UD’s community standards,” the university said Wednesday, Aug. 6.

Schaffer, the 19-year-old son of Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer of Colorado, on Monday apologized for an entry that had the words, “High Five … Who’s Gay,” over a photo of waving Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. It also had a picture of the pyramids with the words, “Slavery Gets (expletive) Done.”

[…]

Most universities don’t actively look at students’ Facebook pages or MySpace pages, Wright State’s [Gary] Dickstein said. “However, if information is brought to the attention of the university where there may be behavior that is depicted via a picture or written language that could violate the code of student conduct, then we have an obligation to follow up on that concern,” he said.

Voting locations receive scrutiny after disabled voters demand equal access.

The Stark County elections board recently had 62 complaints filed against it with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, alleging that polling sites were inaccessible and that the board had not addressed the problem.

The Tri-County Independent Living Center Inc., the group that filed the complaints, said the requirements for the disabled have been ignored for too long.

”Boards of elections are not being sensitive to the fact that this group of people have the civil right to vote,” said Rose Juriga, the group’s executive director, who says voters and poll workers have complained.

Her group, other disability advocates and the federal Election Assistance Commission say they plan to do spot checks for accessibility on Election Day.

[…]

With a site that fails, boards can apply to the state for money to make temporary fixes on Election Day addressing the problems; move the polling place; or apply for a one-year waiver from the secretary of state.

[…]

Of the 30 polling sites that will be used in today’s special election in Summit County, all but three failed the evaluations.

[…]

”Our best effort will be Herculean,” said Bryan Williams, the board’s deputy director. ”Our polling locations are going to be accessible.”

[…]

Both Williams and Marijean Donofrio, the Summit elections board’s director, said they will not sign the form.

”By not signing, we are not dismissing the issue,” Donofrio said. ”We are doing everything we can to be compliant. We may not be able to have them done within that time.”

Sue Strasser, deputy director of the Medina board, also doesn’t plan to sign.

”We only use the facilities four times a year, at most,” she said. ”For me to sign my name off on it - I just don’t feel comfortable with it.”

Both Obama and McCain could bring process for citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in America, despite hard-liner opposition.

Groups angry about illegal immigration have one word for the top presidential contenders — frustration.

Both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain — the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees — support giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship under certain requirements.

[…]

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a group that lobbies for lower levels of immigration, said that Obama and McCain will try to continue the policy of the current White House, which has not been successful.

President Bush pushed hard for an immigration plan that would have given many illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, created a large guest worker program, and enhanced border security.

The measure failed in the Senate last year after strong opposition from conservatives and an outcry by groups such as FAIR.

As federal legislators wrestle with the broken immigration system, immigrants deal with fear of harassment, profiling and deportation.

With reform legislation stalled in Congress, and the presumptive presidential nominees seemingly talking about everything but immigration, frustration is boiling over on both sides of the immigration debate. Everybody seems to agree on one thing: The system is broken.

[…]

[In Ohio], fifty-five percent said undocumented workers should be allowed to work to apply for legal status, the poll found, while 38 percent said they should be deported.

[…]

Workplace raids increased. Last August, 160 suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, assisted by deputies of Sheriff Richard K. Jones, raided Koch Foods in Fairfield.

[…]

[Miami University professor Shelly Jarrett Bromberg] said immigrants increasingly fear being pulled over and jailed by police for minor traffic violations — a process that ends in deportation for some.

“They call it ‘driving while brown,’ ” she said. “We’re removing people for misdemeanor crimes while all sorts of homicides and other crimes are going on unchecked.”

Immigration attorney Leah Webb of Cincinnati said she has consulted with clients pulled over because they had improper reflectors on the bicycles they were riding. They were riding bikes, she said, to obey the law: Ohio bars unauthorized residents from receiving driver’s licenses.

[…]

“They feel like they’re being targeted,” Scott Hicks, an immigration attorney in Lebanon, said, saying many of his clients feel as if they’re pulled over if they look Hispanic. “The overall atmosphere is one of fear and distrust of authority, specifically the sheriff’s office.”

[…]

Jones says immigrants are being exploited by employers. “These people have no say. They’re not unionized. They work them 16 hours a day and they can fire them when they want or tell them to leave,” he said. “Lots of abuse goes on.”

However, at least one frequent employer of foreign workers — farmers — say the government doesn’t make it easy to obey the law. Farmers traditionally use the H2A agricultural visa program to hire migrant workers, but they say the process has become so cumbersome you almost need an immigration lawyer to navigate the bureaucracy.

Immigration debate is heating up in local and national political campaigns. GOP seeks to use as wedge issue.

Republicans like [Fred Dailey] will try to use immigration as a wedge issue in 2008, predicted Frank Sharry, president of America’s Voice, an immigrant advocate group that is monitoring political campaigns.

[…]

“In the battlegrounds, immigration will be an issue,” [Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA] said.

[…]

Immigrant advocates say using immigration as a wedge isn’t always successful. They point to the defeat earlier this year of Republican Jim Oberweis in a special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who retired.

[…]

Sharry said immigrant advocates and Hispanic groups will be closely monitoring campaign ads and literature from across the country to expose anything they deem racist or xenophobic.

Broken immigration system ruins lives, breaks up families.

The next president will inherit an immigration system in tatters, with no consensus on how to fix it.

[…]

[Many view immigrants as people] who risked their lives to get here for jobs that Americans shunned. Most, they say, came for the same reason that immigrants have traditionally come here: economic opportunity and the chance to give their children a better life.

That’s [Armando Mondragon, 29, who sits in jail while his wife, Gabriela Cabrera, waits fearfully in their West Chester apartment along with the couple’s five children].

[…]

“We came here because it was very difficult for us in our country,” Cabrera said. “I hope that God helps us to release my husband and have him here with us and not separate us.”

Recent arrests by ICE highlight need for strong leadership on immigration reform.

Late last month, federal immigration agents raided eight Casa Fiesta restaurants in Northern Ohio and arrested 54 men and four women, all Mexican citizens, all believed to be working here illegally. Most remain in custody at this writing and those with no criminal history probably will be deported. No employer or manager was arrested in the raid, but federal authorities say some may yet face charges of recruiting and harboring illegal immigrants.

[…]

The total number of illegal workers arrested during the fiscal year that ends next month is less than 5,000 - in a country with millions of undocumented employees. Roughly 100 managers or corporate officials were also arrested.

Scattershot enforcement won’t resolve immigration issues.
At best, some federal officials will argue, highly visible arrests send a message to potential lawbreakers. Frankly, anyone smart enough to grasp the message probably can also calculate the odds against being caught. At worst, say advocates for the immigrants, sporadic actions sow fear among people who already have plenty of it and cause enormous personal pain to those nabbed.

Play about the Lucasville uprising, will be performed in Warren before heading to New York Fringe Festival.

[Youngstown State University theater major Brandon Martin] said he found a perfect vehicle to [move people to action] - a play that suggests five prison inmates were unjustly sentenced to death row for their roles in a riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville 15 years ago.

The Youngstown man will direct “Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising” at the prestigious New York International Fringe Festival next week.

[…]

But before heading to New York, the show will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday at the Kent State-Trumbull Campus in Warren.

Staggeringly large racial disparities in Cuyahoga County drug prosecutions recognized by community leaders, academics, and even judges.

A lunchtime discussion on disparities in the justice system, lead by Terry Gilbert will take place this Wednesday at the ACLU of Ohio headquarters.

Watching a handful of grand juries operating at once, two days a week, each hearing about 60 cases a day, Rev. Marvin McMickle soon perceived a disparity: Around half the cases were against low-level drug offenders, almost all of whom were black. At a tour of the county jail at the beginning of his term, McMickle “had to work hard to find a white face” on the other side of the bars.

[…]

“The grand jury process had an apartheid feel to it,” he wrote to Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle in February 2002, with an “established pattern of quick indictment of persons on petty drug offenses.”

[…]

McMickle concluded that the circumstance “lends to the suspicion that the criminal justice system in Cuyahoga County practices its own brand of racial profiling, and that street-level drug activity seems to be the most efficient way to pursue that policy.”

[…]

Exactly one year after McMickle took the helm of his grand jury, Ursuline College adviser Dorothy McCombs was just sitting down to her term. She wasn’t in charge as foreperson and she isn’t a black woman, but she couldn’t stay silent about what she was seeing. In December 2002, she penned a report about Cleveland defendants charged with felonies, while suburban offenders faced misdemeanors and small fines.

[…]

Cleveland and CMHA cops, she noted, “seemed to enforce this law with a vengeance, while in one instance a suburban police department chose to call the pipe with residue ‘paraphernalia’ and handle the misdemeanor charge at the city level. There were few if any pipe-residue cases from anywhere else in Cuyahoga County.”

By the time Common Pleas Judge Burt Griffin impaneled a new grand jury in May 2003, he’d heard all about these disparities and was prepared to do what he could to end them. He selected Phyllis Crocker, associate dean of law at Cleveland State, as one of two forepersons and stapled McMickle’s and McCombs’ reports to his handout instructions. He told jurors about how suburbs treated these cases differently and that “you may also make that decision if you believe justice so requires.”

County Prosecutor Bill Mason, of course, wasn’t having any of this. He immediately called for the disbanding of the grand jury and pressed all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. The matter was resolved mostly in Griffin’s favor, but Crocker’s grand jury heard just one day of cases, on August 27, 2003, their last day of service.

[…]

In 2005, 81 percent of all county drug arrests involved black people, despite evidence of equal drug use among all races. A series of Drug Policy Project studies from the Federation of American Scientists found that, nationwide, white people are just as likely to engage in illicit drug use. Whites make up 67 percent of the county.

In January 2006, C. Ellen Connally, a Cleveland Municipal Court judge from 1980 to 2004, took the helm of a grand jury and resuscitated the crack-pipe issue, something she believes points toward deeper-rooted problems within the system.

[…]

After three weeks of service, Connally recused herself from any more crack-pipe cases. “If it is a felony in Cleveland to possess a crack pipe, it should be a felony in Westlake, Eastlake and every other suburb,” she wrote to Gallagher.

Today she says, “All we’re doing is filling up our jails with people at the end of the line. I’m not going to say that these people are not supposed to be punished. I’d have liked to have seen these people getting help. It’s easy to just pick up the low-hanging fruit.”

Connally, who’s still assigned cases at the municipal level, says this is just one type of law that inordinately punishes Cleveland citizens, particularly African Americans. She plans to issue an opinion this week in a case that would strike down a local ordinance that allowed a police officer to arrest and charge a local man for handing keys to his girlfriend through the open window of a car, illegal since 2002 in Cleveland. No one at the scene got caught with anything illegal, Connally says, but still, the man got charged because the law prohibits the exchange of anything to and from a vehicle.

[…]

In a series of discussions under the moniker Incarceration Nation, the ACLU of Ohio has brought together a variety of voices on the subject of disparity. It’s been fertile ground for some telltale revelations. Like this discovery: A Justice Policy Institute report in March 2006 found that new “Drug-Free Zones” - which rack up police overtime costs - don’t keep children from using drugs, but instead perpetuate racial disparities in arrest, charges and sentencing.

With that dynamic in mind, those involved in those early speeches created Citizens for a Safe and Fair Cleveland in March 2007.

“Our contention would be if we put the same attention into many white suburban neighborhoods, we’d find drugs there too,” says Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio, whose organization is part of the committee. “We might not find a crack pipe, but we’d find a corollary drug problem. White people are using drugs just as much as African Americans, if not more, but you don’t have these kinds of drug squads running through Strongsville looking for them.”

The uneven enforcement has been devastating to neighborhoods where black people are more likely to be raised, says Shakyra Diaz, ACLU of Ohio’s education director: “We’ve helped to create an economic drought. We’re removing social capital from every corner in the city, when we don’t even have to.”

Shortly after forming, the CSFC contacted the ACLU and asked for help financing a complex analysis. Mona Lynch, then the dean of justice studies at San Jose State, came soon after to pore through the facts.

[…]

For [the new report of Mona Lynch, then the dean of justice studies at San Jose State,] published this week at www.safefaircleveland.org, Lynch examined Cuyahoga County’s grand jury reports along with demographic data to conclude officially that the racial disparity in crack-stem cases exists here. What’s still a bit muddy are the causes.

[…]

Robert Tobik, the county’s chief public defender, … hopes a move in June by county judges to finally shift a decade-old and critically praised drug court from Cleveland Municipal Court to the county level will help.

Over the last decade and a half, drug courts nationwide have proven effective by holding the gavel over the heads of participants, wiping criminal records clean for those who stay clean themselves. The problem: The city has the resources to serve just 200 or so suspects in drug court a year.

[…]

Bill Kelly, the public defender at the city drug court since its inception, speaks to the financial incentives too: “The real bottom line is, it costs like $35,000 to jail somebody for a year, but it costs about $5,000 to send somebody through drug court. And something like 80 percent [of defendants] don’t come back. To me, what matters is helping a person. The real question is, are you addicted? I’m telling you, at least 75 percent of the people who are caught with a crack pipe have some drug problem. Whether you charge them with a misdemeanor in Rocky River or a felony in Cleveland, the fact is, they need to say, ‘I’ve got a problem.’”

Judge Larry Jones volunteered to lead the city drug court a decade ago, when county judges voted against starting one of their own. A former assistant county prosecutor, Jones says he used to have a throw-the-book-at-them approach. “I’ve gone 180 degrees on this subject,” he says, “and it’s been based on the facts.”

Senate is currently considering legislation that would protect the confidentiality of journalistic sources, and therefore protect the flow of information about government and corporate corruption.

Society has recognized the value of protecting reporter-source confidentiality to the point that 49 of 50 states have shield laws or case law that protect reporters from having to reveal the names of their confidential sources.

[…]

The consequences of having no federal shield law protection were seen dramatically in 2005, when reporter Judith Miller, formerly of the New York Times, refused a prosecutor’s demand that she name the source who had told her that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent.

[…]

Miller was jailed in an effort to coerce her to testify. She spent 85 days behind bars to protect the name of her source, and she was freed only after her source released her from her confidentiality obligation.

At Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, a transgender woman is fighting for equal treatment and equal access.

Karen Deamons wants to use the women’s locker room, like a normal woman.

[…]

“I can’t do it anymore,” Deamons said. “Every time I go through there, it’s tearing my insides out.”

[…]

A gender-neutral locker room - the goal of college student groups from California to Massachusetts - is not being considered. And the city will not consider clearing the women’s room for Deamons.

[…]

Last month, while she was dressing, a little boy asked why there was a woman in the men’s room. Embarrassed, Deamons tried to change in an enclosed area in a separate women’s restroom - a move for which pool workers banned her from the pool for a week.

[…]

“I’m opening myself to get beat up,” said Deamons, who refuses to sign the men’s sheet and so is not allowed to swim.

[…]

She says she must swim. She suffered three strokes in 2003 and 2004, and doctors have prescribed water exercises to help keep mobility in her left arm and leg.

The Village of Silver Lake may soon repeal political sign bans.

In May, the village decided to stop enforcing its political sign regulations after the ACLU of Ohio contended that three of the requirements infringed on citizens’ free speech rights under the U.S. and Ohio constitutions.

[…]

“We’ve arrived at this position only because nobody really seems to know what kind of restriction, if any, would pass … constitutional muster,” said Heydorn. “We have no indication that any court in this basic jurisdiction would uphold any kind of restrictions.”

[…]

“They [the ACLU] managed to show that that restriction was unreasonable,” said Heydorn.

[…]

The proposed change has now been sent to the Silver Lake Planning Commission, which is scheduled to review the issue July 28 at 6 p.m. at Village Hall, 2961 Kent Road.

After receiving a recommendation from the commission, Council must then host a public hearing on the issue before putting the matter to a vote, said Heydorn.

The national Free Flow of Information Act is needed to protect confidentiality of journalists’ sources.

For years, the confidentiality of sources was generally understood and respected, with a few exceptions. But in the last few years, the climate has dramatically changed. Two reporters, including the New York Times’ Judith Miller, were sentenced to jail; another faced large fines if she refused to reveal her sources. More than 40 other reporters have been threatened with contempt of court if they didn’t reveal their confidential sources. All this strongly indicates the need for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill establishing a federal “shield law” that would protect reporters from having to reveal their sources.

[…]

Reporters are not and should not be above the law, and the Free Flow of Information Act has safeguards. It allows judges to ask for the identity of a source in cases where that would help prevent a terrorist act or where failing to disclose a source would significantly threaten national security.

In a section of the bill that is certain to worry reporters, judges are also authorized to compel disclosure if concealing the name of a confidential source could significantly harm a prosecutor’s case.

In a new report by The National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA), defense of indigent in Hamilton County found to be severely lacking and unconstitutional.

Read the full report here: Gideon’s Pulse: An Assessment of the Right to Counsel in Hamilton County, Ohio

The NLADA provides evidence to support what many area residents have known for years: Defense for the poor is disproportionately under-funded.

[…]

The current staffing pattern results in caseloads that equate “to 30 attorney positions handling the work of 74 attorneys. As troublesome as an excessive workload is on an attorney who must handle more than double the number of cases recommended by national workload standards, the true outcome measure of work overload is the tangible effect it has on clients. In Hamilton County the workload means that on average a public defender can spend only one hour and 42 minutes per misdemeanor case (including trials).”

Resources are critical, but what the current allocation of resources says about the priorities of our state and local community is where , wants to focus.

[…]

Janet Moore, staff attorney and clinic administrator for the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, says there are between 30,000 and 45,000 new misdemeanor cases filed every year in Hamilton County, two and a half times more cases per capita than are filed in Franklin County (Columbus).

“That says something about the choices we’re making about the way we’re using our resources,” she says. “It may well be that the taxpayers of Hamilton County choose to use their resources in this way. What I suspect is that there’re not really aware of the enormous costs that are born by the taxpayers in funneling this many cases thought the system.”

[…]

[From the report]:”The State of Ohio … is one of only two states that are actually going against the national trend toward 100 percent state funding by reducing its reimbursement percentage over the past 30 years,” the report says. “There is one primary reason why the State of Ohio has yet to effectively and efficiently implement their constitutional mandate to provide a meaningful right to counsel: the constituency most directly impacted by the failure of government to ensure equal access to justice is the one most limited to affect public discourse.”

[…]

“Though we understand that policy-makers must balance other important demands on their resources, the Constitution does not allow for justice to be rationed to the poor due to insufficient funds. The issues raised in this report serve to underscore the failure on the part of the State of Ohio to live up to the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court Gideon decision.”

The report recommends a number of changes, beginning with the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners advocating for the state to meet its constitutional demand to fund and administer a proper public defender system. Addition recommendations are geared to the county, which should pay public defenders more and provide them with proper support and equipment.

Judge in military trial throws out statements made by Salim Hamdan, driver for Osama bin-Ladin, when he was tortured in Afghanistan.

But Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, left the door open for the prosecution to use statements Salim Hamdan made at Guantanamo, despite defense claims that all of his statements were tainted by alleged abuse, including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement.

[…]

The judge said the prosecution cannot use a series of interrogations at the Bagram air base and in Panshir, Afghanistan, because of the “highly coercive environments and conditions under which they were made.”

[…]

Michael Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel, described the ruling as a major blow to the tribunal system that allows hearsay and evidence obtained through coercion.

[…]

In addition to the other interrogations, the judge said he would throw out statements whenever a government witness is unavailable to vouch for the questioners’ tactics. He also withheld ruling on a key interrogation at Guantanamo in May 2003 until defense lawyers can review roughly 600 pages of confinement records provided by the government on Sunday night.

The prosecutor said he still has enough evidence to convict Osama bin Laden’s driver.

Local towns have tried to ban lawn signs, which are protected as part of free speech rights.

Some local officials say the bans stem from complaints that the signs are an eyesore, but what they really are is an infringement of free speech, and more and more angry citizens are going to court to defend their constitutional rights. Some civil libertarians hope that a recent lawsuit in the northern New Jersey town of Hawthorne will shift the momentum their way.

[…]

Officials agreed not to enforce the ban and at least one of the signs has reappeared. But the town has yet to repeal the ordinance or acknowledge that it violates the Constitution, so the A.C.L.U. is pursuing the case.

[…]

Officials justify the restrictions by saying the signs are messy and clutter up the neighborhood. Democracy is messy. It tends to clutter up the neighborhood - with things like newspapers and political rallies and voting booths and churches and, yes, signs.