ACLU of Ohio Associate General Counsel speaks out about a recent editorial critical of the organization’s recent inquiry into the use of drones for targeted killings in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The syndicated story criticizing the ACLU’s request for documents relating to the federal government’s use of drones was grossly off-base (“ACLU has strayed far from its mission,” February 19, 2010.)

The ACLU has had a long history of ensuring government officials do not operate in the shadows and are subject to full accountability from the American people.

The right to know is perhaps one of the most fundamental rights granted under the Constitution. In order for democracy to function, the people must have unfettered access to information about government programs, policies and actions. Without consistent oversight from the people, there is a greater chance of corruption, wrongdoing or negligence.

In addition to advocating for full government transparency, the ACLU continues to address a variety of civil liberties issues in the courts, legislature and community.

Recently, the ACLU filed a legal brief in the Ohio Supreme Court arguing that cell phones cannot be randomly searched by police officers. The Court made a landmark ruling in the ACLU’s favor in late December 2009.

As the nation’s oldest civil liberties organization, the ACLU has long been on the forefront in the fight for fairness, privacy and accountability. While the nation, courts, and lawmakers may change over the years, the fundamental rights we defend do not.

Karyn Justice

Associate General Counsel

American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio

Soon after the ACLU sounded the alarm on closed door meetings in Cuyahoga County, leaders appeared to back down. However, the ACLU will continue to monitor the process to ensure all meetings are open and accessible to all residents.

After citizen outcry and threats from the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, Cuyahoga County transition leaders have decided to make all their committee meetings open to the public.

Martin Zanotti, the former mayor of Parma Heights and one of the most visible faces of the volunteer transition effort, informed The Plain Dealer of the move this morning.

The backtrack comes one day after the ACLU blasted a plan by Zanotti and county Administrator James McCafferty to hold many transition meetings behind closed doors. The committees will suggest cost-savings and other measures to a new county executive and 11-member council that will take office next year in a new, voter-approved charter government.

[…]

Christine Link of the ACLU of Ohio is pleased that transition leaders have agreed to open their meetings but promises to watch closely to make sure they are true to their word.

“We will be vigilant, as will the citizens now,” Link said. “This is an example of the system working.”

Various community members sounded off agreeing with the ACLU’s belief that committee meetings involving the Cuyahoga County trasitional government should be open to the public.

The public has discovered the first bump in the so-called “road to reform,” and open government advocates are not pleased.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has asked Cuyahoga County transition leaders to open up transition committee meetings to the public and media. “Transparency is absolutely essential to build public trust and ensure that officials are serving the people,” says Christine Link, executive director of ACLU Ohio.

The ACLU’s request comes a day after transition co-chairs Zanotti and Jim McCafferty appeared on WCPN’s “Sound of Ideas” radio show. During the show, Zanotti and McCafferty told host Dan Moulthrop that reporters and citizens wouldn’t necessarily be allowed into all meetings.

A dozen committees will meet throughout 2010 to craft recommendations for Cuyahoga County’s new charter government, which goes into effect January 1, 2011. Voters adopted the charter last fall during a campaign in which Zanotti and other proponents promised government reform.

“It is an inherent contradiction that an advisory committee meant to reform county government wishes to do so behind closed doors without the full participation of the public,” says Link in a news release.

The Ohio Surpeme Court rightfully granted a motion to block a gag order imposed by a Henry County judge that would have prevented local media from reporting on a criminal trial.

A Henry County judge cannot enforce his order preventing journalists from promptly reporting on an involuntary manslaughter trial - at least for now.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio applauded the decision. The organization said there was a good chance it may seek to intervene in the case as it proceeds.

“We’re all about civil liberties and constitutional rights, and we recognize that the press and the public have free speech rights under the First Amendment, but we also believe the defendants have rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth amendments to receive a fair trial,” staff counsel Carrie Davis said.

“The reason it’s important to have this freedom of the press in the courtroom is all about transparency,” she said. “It’s the public’s right to know what’s happening in their government, including the courts.”

Ms. Davis said challenging the judge’s unusual gag order is important, not just for journalists, but for members of the public who may attend court proceedings and blog about what they observe.

“If it was allowed to stand, it creates this horrible precedent that anytime anyone even raises a concern about a trial or whatever proceeding, they would prohibit the press or the public for that matter from reporting on it,” she said. “It really affects a lot of us.”

The Dispatch makes a persuasive argument for keeping teachers’ records open to the public.

If the Ohio Education Association has its way, it will withhold from the public the addresses of those who hold Ohio teaching licenses. If the teachers union succeeds, Ohio parents, who have more of an interest than anyone in the backgrounds of those who teach their children, will be blocked from one of the few avenues to get that information.

In November, the Ohio Republican Party sought the names, addresses and other contact information of all Ohio teachers from the Ohio Department of Education. The GOP intended to send materials to teachers about its positions on education.

The OEA sued the Education Department in the Franklin County Common Pleas court, trying to prohibit anyone from getting hold of the list.

People understandably are protective of their privacy. But public servants, by virtue of being the employees of the taxpayers, should expect to receive more scrutiny than private-sector workers. The public that employs and pays government workers has a right to know who they are. That goes double for public servants entrusted with the care of children.

The Blade discusses recent revelations about the Transportations Security Administration’s practices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and War on Terror.

AFTER 19 hijackers commandeered four airliners with box cutters and crashed three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, improving security at U.S. airports became a top government priority. The problem: It sometimes seems as if a modern-day version of the Keystone Kops was put in charge of the operation.

Further questions about the competence at the federal Transportation Security Administration have been raised by reports that the agency posted closely guarded secrets about passenger screening practices online for the entire world to peruse.

An old version of a 93-page TSA operating manual put on the Internet, inadvertently, officials say, spells out procedures and technical details for screening operations, metal detectors, and explosive detection systems at U.S. airports.

A disturbing story out of Portsmouth regarding the mayor attacking a resident who requested public records.

Robert Forrey regularly skewers city officials in Portsmouth while pontificating on their perceived sins on his River Vices blog.

The self-styled government watchdog concedes that Mayor Jim Kalb is a favorite target, but he never expected the rant that landed in his in-box at 1:47 a.m. Sunday.

The e-mail was from Kalb, who informed Forrey that he could drop by the mayor’s office in the Ohio River city to pick up a public record he had requested.

The mayor went on to write, asterisks and all: “I think that you’re a worthless piece of s**t and I wouldn’t p**s on you if you were on fire You’re a poor, lonely, jealous old man with aspirations of being a writer.

Cleveland Scene files a great report on the secrecy of the death penalty in Ohio and how frighteningly incompetant the state is in performing executions.

Romell Broom achieved a macabre notoriety this past month when he became the first man to survive his date with the needle. Not just in Ohio, but anywhere.

The convicted rapist and murderer endured more than two hours of poking and stabbing before his date with death was called off indefinitely. His executioners could not find a vein to plant intravenous shunts, and they prodded him with needles at least 18 times to no avail, says Tim Sweeney, his lawyer.

The eyes of the world are on Ohio now, and many are questioning our death-penalty apparatus.

A recent Ohio Supreme Court decision limited the public’s access to test records of Ohio students taking annual semester exams.

The Ohio Supreme Court today sided with the Cincinnati Public School officials who argued that annual semester exams given to all ninth-graders are not public records subject to disclosure.

In a 5-2 decision, the court said the tests fall within an exemption to public records law for trade secrets. School attorneys argued that allowing public access to the tests could induce cheating and cost the district more than $270,000 each year to replace questions on the test, making it unaffordable.

“Ordering disclosure of the semester exams would open the door for students to have access to these tests as well, undermining the tests’ effectiveness in measuring student ability if the test is given in the future,” Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote for the majority.

A great victory for ensuring that the guilty are sentenced, rather than those who may be innocent.

A death row inmate scheduled for execution in September will get a chance to convince a judge that information discovered after his conviction could have exonerated him.

Romell Broom, 53, was sentenced to death in 1985 for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton. Tryna, a ninth-grader at Shaw High School in East Cleveland, had been walking home with friends from a Friday night football game when she was abducted at knife point and forced into his car.

The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that 165 pages of records from the East Cleveland Police Department can be presented to the original trial court as possible grounds for a new trial.