ACLU

A federal court in California has ruled that an unnamed internet critic of an international spiritual organization can maintain his anonymity -- at least for now.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department over its written policy designating photography in certain public places as suspicious activity.

The suit comes after three separate incidents where photographers on public property were detained by the sheriff's deputies, which the suit says violated the photographers' First Amendment rights to free expression and their Fourth Amendment rights to be free of unlawful searches and seizures.

A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has denied the American Civil Liberties Union access to documents held by the Department of Homeland Security regarding deaths of immigration detainees.

The court found for the ACLU regarding Homeland Security's attempt to withhold e-mail and records as exempt internal agency memoranda under exemption 5. The court also held, however, that the government had properly withheld or redacted other records under privacy and law enforcement exemptions.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated and remanded a federal appeals court ruling that ordered the the release of photos depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. custody.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week blocked the further release of any pictures depicting abuse of foreign detainees in American custody, the Associated Press reported.

The long-fought battle to release images depicting the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody appears over after Congress passed legislation today that specifically exempts them from public disclosure.

The images were initially the center of a denied request under the Freedom of Information Act, that later became the subject of a lawsuit -- which dragged on for years -- and recently were dropped into the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill as an amendment specifically exempting them from the law in an effort to supersede court decisions on the issue.

Barring the release of photos depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. custody was again the subject of a legislative amendment in the U.S. Senate this week when language that supports President Obama's intent to keep the photos from public disclosure was attached to the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's controversial practice of randomly searching laptops upon U.S. entry quietly began last year but has quickly drawn attention, including a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union for records related to the practice.

The Obama administration formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to overturn a lower court decision requiring the relase of the controversial "torture photos" -- images depicting abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

President Obama said today in a speech on the Guantanamo Bay detainees and national security that he remains committed to transparency in government despite his recent about-face on the release of photos documenting torture.

After discussing the decision to release the controversial Office of Legal Counsel opinions on torture, Obama spoke about the photos taken of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2004.