Aclu

We can't tell the real Americans who love and defend our country from the liberals who hate America anymore ("Paul's victory," March 8). When Barack Obama became president liberals thought that he would close Guantanamo and stop drone strikes. President Obama apparently found that when you are in charge you have to view things differently. Now. Sen. Rand Paul, a defender of the American way of life, sounds like the ACLU. What is a common citizen to think? David Ingalls, Severna Park Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

"When I first came to work for the American Civil Liberties Union," Lea Gilmore is saying, "my friends would give me this really strange look and say things such as, 'Why would you want to work for them?'"The perception," continues Ms. Gilmore, "was that the ACLU is a white organization focused on white concerns and that if I wanted to work for social justice I should work for black social justice.""So how did you answer?" I say."Well, the real answer is that civil rights and civil liberties have no color," says Ms. Gilmore, speaking passionately now. "Social justice has no color.

WASHINGTON -- Autopsy reports on 44 prisoners who died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan indicate that 21 were the victims of homicide, including eight who appear to have been fatally abused by their captors, the American Civil Liberties Union reported yesterday. Detainees were smothered, beaten or exposed to the elements, sometimes during interrogations. Many of these cases had been brought to light previously but now have been confirmed through autopsies; some of the deaths followed abusive interrogations by elite Navy SEALs, military intelligence and the CIA, the ACLU said.

Based on Dan Rodricks' column ( "Farley Grant still hoping governor's heart can be turned," Nov. 23), I think The Sun should publish a front page editorial demanding that Gov. Martin O'Malley publicly state his reasons for not paroling or pardoning Mark Farley Grant, a man who apparently has spent 27 years of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit. I also think other Sun columnists should join in this demand, as well as the ACLU and the NAACP. Since Governor O'Malley apparently has the authority to grant or deny Mr. Grant his freedom, he also has the responsibility to publicly state why he has not used that authority to free Mr. Grant.

In the past two days, readers of The Sun saw diametrically opposed views on education spending that show that, as a society, we still do not agree about the value of early education programs. Bebe Verdery of the ACLU decries cost cutting adjustments to the Thornton formula which, among other things, has funded the State's successful expansion of pre-K ("Proposed education cuts break a promise to Maryland's children," Feb. 27). David G. O'Neill writes that Head Start is a waste of money (Readers respond, Feb. 28)

IN HIS FINAL days at Park School, Zachary Gidwitz got himself an education. He thought he had gotten a great one over his previous 12 years at that fine Baltimore County private school. But then Zachary went to Somerset County's Princess Anne. There, he was educated about that part of America called Maryland, which persists in calling itself the Free State even in our confused little era. Zachary, 18, went to Princess Anne to see Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. stage his veto of a health care bill at a Wal-Mart store.

Give the ACLU credit for backing rights, when popular and notThe ACLU does much more than represent unpopular causes. Yet a reader of The Sun's editorial page could well get the impression that's all we do.For example, while we were featured in your editorial "A road best not traveled" (March 10), nary a mention was made of the American Civil Liberties Union in your piece lauding our landmark pro-family case vindicating the right of a state trooper under the Family and Medical Leave Act to stay home with his newborn infant ("Wrongful retaliation," Feb. 27)

Wars on terror, drugs damage civil liberties Gregory Kane's assertion that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has given short shrift to the civil liberties threats of the war on drugs, relative to the excesses of the war on terrorism, is puzzling and untrue ("Drug war, not the Patriot Act, infringes on our freedoms," Oct. 22). In addition to lobbying for more rehabilitation and less punitive federal drug sentencing in Washington and the states, the ACLU maintains an in-house Drug Policy Litigation Project in New Haven, Conn.

Maryland could become one of a handful of states that grant special driver's licenses to illegal immigrants under legislation garnering strong support in Annapolis. The bill, passed by the Senate on Monday, would expand and make permanent an existing two-tiered driver's license system to include more than 100,000 people whose immigration status currently prevents them from applying for a license. Gov. Martin O'Malley backs the plan, which now moves to the House of Delegates. "It's a safety issue," said Del. Jolene Ivey, a Prince George's County Democrat who introduced the House version.

As a woman in the Army, Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt is barred from serving in the infantry. But that didn't stop commanders in Afghanistan from tapping her when they needed a female soldier to accompany men on their door-kicking missions. Hunt's job on those house-to-house raids was to search any women and girls they came across. Not having trained with the teams, she says, made the work more dangerous. "The infantry operates together," she said. "Then I get kind of dropped in on them, and I don't know what their operating procedures are. If 'X' happens, what is their reaction to it?"