The Civil Libertarian

The Civil Libertarian
Newsletter of the ACLU of Nevada
Fall/Winter 2012
2013 LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW
some New Faces, many similar fights
by Vanessa spinazola
T
In This Issue
Executive Director’s Note
. . . . . . . . page 2
Legislative & Advocacy
Director Hired . . . . . page 3
Meet Our Interns . . page 3
Banned Books . . . . . page 4
Prisoner’s Rights . . page 6
First Amendment . . page 7
Burning Man . . . . . . page 7
Early Case Resolution
. . . . . . . . page 8
(Un)Civil Liberties Show
. . . . . . . . page 8
Police & Inquests . . . page 9
Automated License Plate
Readers . . . . . . . . . . page 10
Looking to 2013 . . . page 12
he November election brought
many new faces but few changes to
the partisan demographics of the Nevada legislature. Democrats still hold the
majority in both the Senate and the
Assembly, with Mo Dennis as the
Senate
Majority
Whip and Marilyn
Kilpatrick, a woman
with a reputation
for working well on
both sides of the aisle,
as the lead in the Assembly. However, Democrats still
do not have enough votes, along party
lines, to override vetoes from Governor Sandoval, which ended some very
good legislation in 2011. Term limits and
other factors have brought us 20 brand
new legislators who, rumor has it, tend
to adhere staunchly to party rhetoric as
a manner of navigating the overwhelming number of issues they will face. This
does not bode well for compromise.
Nevada also has four LGBTQ members
in our legislature, if Andrew Martin is
permitted (or appointed) to keep his seat.
LGBTQ persons would compose 6.3%
Continued on page 5
Every Vote Counts
Protecting the right to vote across nevada
by DAne S. Claussen
T
he ACLU of Nevada worked with
a large network of other organizations during early voting and on Election Day to resolve voters’ problems,
train and assist poll monitors, educate
voters about their rights, warn public officials about voting problems, and provide voter protection-related news to
the mass media.
can Labor Alliance (APALA) to train poll
monitors and to answer legal questions
about voting during early voting and on
Election Day. The ACLU of Nevada
also distributed nearly 3,000 Nevada
nonpartisan voting rights postcards and
brochures, in both English and Spanish,
to voters in Washoe County and Clark
County, with assistance from the League
of Women Voters, Progressive LeaderCommitted to working with nonparti- ship Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), Amerisan poll monitors, the ACLU of Nevada caVotes, Mi Familia Vota, and other orteamed up with the Lawyers Coordinat- ganizations.
ing Committee, Lawyers Committee for
Civil Rights, Mi Familia Vota, Advance- On Election Day, November 6, attorContinued on page 11
ment Project, and Asian Pacific Ameri-
BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
Robert Chester
President & National
Board Representative
Rachel Anderson
Vice President
Robert Langford
Treasurer
Todd Eikelberger
Secretary
Ruben Garcia
Affirmative Action Officer
Stephen Bates
Lisa Rasmussen
Richard Siegel
Patricia Vázquez
Roger Vogel
STAFF
Dane S. Claussen
Executive Director
Phil Hooper
Administrative Director
K. Randall
Development Director
Paige Thie White
Communications
Coordinator
David Kaplan
Intake Coordinator &
Administrative Assistant
Legal Department
Staci Pratt
Legal Director
Allen Lichtenstein
General Counsel
Katrina Ross
Staff Attorney
Tamika Shauntee
Paralegal & Legal
Advocacy Coordinator
Reno Office
Vanessa Spinazola
Legislative & Advocacy
Director
Angela Francis
Outreach Coordinator
Lu Ann Pillar
Administrative Assistant
Edited and designed by:
Paige Thie White
The Civil Libertarian is published
twice a year by:
ACLU of Nevada Foundation, Inc
1325 Airmotive Way, Ste. 202
Reno, NV 89502
2
Obama’s Civil Liberty Record
A NOTE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
N
ow that Barack Obama’s first term
as president is almost over, it is a
good time to assess his record on civil
rights and civil liberties. In 2008, candidate Obama ran as a forward-looking,
moderate Democrat. When he was
elected, it was reasonable to believe that
this Democrat, the first African-American president, and first president who
was a former constitutional law professor, would be a safe bet on almost every
ACLU issue. It didn’t turn out that way.
President Obama has been praised by
the national ACLU for his positions
on contraception, the Violence Against
Women Act, Family Medical Leave Act/
paid sick leave, Lillie Ledbetter Fair
Pay Act, Title IX, creationism in public
schools, using religion to discriminate,
religious freedom, voter suppression,
Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, and other issues.
The ACLU usually agreed with him
in other areas, such as abortion rights,
women in combat, ending torture, and
same-sex marriage.
But President Obama’s record is somewhat mixed after that. On government
funding of religious activities, he expanded the federal faith-based program
started by President George W. Bush.
President Obama promised changes
to ensure its constitutionality, but then
didn’t do it. He has not publicly opposed prayer in school.
President Obama backtracked on promises to close Guantanamo Bay, and his
administration uses civil courts to maintain a system of indefinite detention,
permitting military commission trials
to continue. President Obama failed
to hold accountable those responsible
for past torture and other cruelty, and
he has blocked alleged torture victims
from having their day in court. President
Obama also has supported all reauthorizations and extensions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the country’s most police/
military state-like law.
He failed to reform the Guidance Regarding the Use of Force in Federal Law
Enforcement, which allows racial profiling in national security and border integrity investigation (allowing the FBI’s
racial and ethnic mapping program).
President Obama also has expanded,
and failed to remedy civil rights problems in, the immigration enforcement
program, “Secure Communities,” running in all 17 Nevada counties. Elsewhere in humane immigration policy,
President Obama continued building a
border fence and increased the border
security budget, adding more border patrol agents. His administration deported 1.1 million persons in its first three
years, the most ever.
The consolation of President Obama’s
reelection is that he (along with Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson), have
much stronger civil liberties records
than Mitt Romney, who the ACLU has
dramatic disagreements with on nearly
every issue except religious freedom
and separation of church and state. The
ACLU, its allies, courts, and the general
public must keep President Obama and
Congress accountable during his second
term.
In Liberty,
Dane S. Claussen
Executive Director
OUR NEW Legislative & Advocacy Director
Vanessa Spinazola Joins ACLU of Nevada and heads up Reno office
She
attended
Loyola University New Orleans School of
Law. When Hurricane Katrina
struck, she organized thousands
Vanessa heads the
of law students
Reno office and is
from
around
our primary lobbythe country to
ist, advancing and
volunteer in the
protecting civil liberGulf Coast to
ties and civil rights at
help legal serall levels of governanessa pinazola vices organizament, from the legistions
recover.
Legislative & Advocacy
lature to local school
Director
Vanessa clerked
boards. Vanessa is
with
Planned
coordinating our presence at the state Parenthood of the Great Northwest,
legislature, which begins February 4, organized legal observers with the
2013, so she has hit the ground run- Louisiana ACLU, coordinated with
ning (see Legislative Preview on page 1). the NAACP on election protection
programs, and served as president of
Vanessa is uniquely qualified to be Loyola’s National Lawyers Guild.
the ACLU of Nevada’s Legislative
and Advocacy Director. “Vanessa After passing the Louisiana bar, Vanwill be a powerful presence lobby- essa remained in New Orleans and
ing the state legislature,” said Dane S. worked for the Workplace Justice
Claussen, Executive Director of the Project at Loyola University. There
ACLU of Nevada. “She has an exten- she represented low-wage and imsive breadth and depth of experience migrant workers in wage claims, inwith many issues that are of top pri- cluding litigation in support of comority to the ACLU.”
munity organizing and advocating for
proactive worker rights’ legislation.
Originally from Massachusetts, Vanessa attended Whitman College in “I am extremely enthusiastic about
Washington state. After college, Van- having returned to the West to tie toessa worked in various social service gether my legal, advocacy, and orgaorganizations in Seattle, served as the nizing experiences for the ACLU and
president of her AFSCME local, and Nevada,” she said. “I will be working
co-founded Women’s Freedom Cen- very hard to protect the broad variety
ter / Centro para la Liberacion de la Mu- of civil liberties which the ACLU of
jer to educate Spanish-speaking survi- Nevada defends and fights to expand,
vors of intimate partner abuse.
and which are close to my heart.”
V
S
interns
V
anessa
Spinazola joined the
ACLU of Nevada
on September 24 as
our new Legislative
and Advocacy Director.
thank you
by paige white
(top left)
Tyler Winkler
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
William S. Boyd School of Law, 2L
I am grateful for the work and experiences at the ACLU of Nevada. The
work we do here is critically important
to a free society. I went to law school
to be of service to others, and the
ACLU has provided me opportunities
again and again to do so.
(front, from left)
Allison Bowmer
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Master of Social Work
ACLU of Nevada’s work aligns with
social work values such as promoting
social change, respecting the worth
and dignity of a person, and advocating for the needs of oppressed, vulnerable, and underprivileged populations.
Jacqueline Alvarado
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Master of Social Work
I strongly believe in social justice and
fighting for others and their rights.
I joined the ACLU of Nevada as a
practicum student because I have a
drive for change in social policy.
Amanda Morgan
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
William S. Boyd School of Law, 3L
With an intense devotion to public interest law, education rights, and reproductive justice, I am honored to work
at the ACLU and participate in the
type of advocacy that makes a lasting
difference.
3
the many faces of censorship
recognizing banned and challenged books for banned books week
by phil hooper
Pop quiz: what do the English-language dictionary, the Harry Potter
series, and To Kill a Mockingbird have
in common? You guessed it—all of
these titles have been, at some point,
banned or challenged in communities
throughout the United States. The
institutions and motives that endorse
such censorship are varied, but they
all threaten our society’s commitment
to the free exchange of ideas.
Each year, in response to this ongoing trend, the American Library Association sponsors “Banned Books
Week” in late September or early
October, a chance for educators, free
speech advocates, and book-lovers
of all ages to gather and celebrate
literature that has been banned or
challenged at some point in its existence. As part of our own ongoing
dedication to the First Amendment,
the ACLU of Nevada produced three
special events in 2012 exploring censorship in its many guises.
Photo by Joel Coombs
Panel discussion at the Las Vegas Banned Books event,
Uncensored Voices: Celebrating Literary Freedom
(from left) Professor Jeanne Price, Trevor Timm, Steve
Sebellius, Tony Diaz, and Auggie Romero
Banned Books event, produced in partnership with the University of Nevada Reno Writing Center, Washoe
County Libraries, and Grassroots
Books. Readers of banned literature included Reno City Councilman
Dave Aiazzi, Nevada Humanities Executive Director Christina Barr, and
our very own Legislative and AdvoOn Friday, September 21st, the Las cacy Director, Vanessa Spinazola.
Vegas office sponsored 50 for Freedom of Speech, an evening dedicated Finally, on Saturday, October 6th, the
to books removed from classrooms Las Vegas office produced the thirdin Tucson, Arizona, after that state’s annual Uncensored Voices: Celebrating
legislature outlawed ethnic studies Literary Freedom, in partnership with
courses in 2010. Part of a nation- the Vegas Valley Book Festival, the
wide initiative coordinated by the Las Vegas-Clark County Library Disactivist group Librotraficante (www. trict, and the Black Mountain Instilibrotraficante.com), 50 for Freedom of tute at UNLV. This year’s event feaSpeech featured local Latino commu- tured dramatic readings of banned
nity members and leaders, including literature by students from the UNLV
State Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, Department of Theatre and the loreading from a number of the chal- cal acting group Speeding Theatre—
lenged books.
Over 55. It also included a special
panel discussion on censorship, feaOn Tuesday, October 2nd, the Reno turing Librotraficante Founder Tony
office co-sponsored its annual I Read Diaz; Professor Jeanne Price, head of
4
the law library at Boyd Law School;
Auggie Romero, Arizona education
expert and ACLU of Arizona board
member; and Trevor Timm, Activist
for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. The moderator for the evening was Las Vegas
Review-Journal political columnist
Steve Sebelius. Topics included the
history of censorship, the response
to book banning in Arizona, and the
new frontier of digital censorship on
the internet.
Censorship of the written word has
taken place for centuries, and it is not
likely to go away, though the actors
and contexts may evolve. But as long
as there is a threat to the expression
of ideas, no matter how controversial, the ACLU will be there to advocate for more speech, not less.
Banned Books Week is a chance for
all of us to pause and feel grateful
for the freedoms we enjoy, and to rededicate ourselves to defending those
freedoms when they are challenged.
...Legislature
continued from page 1
of the Nevada Legislature or 4.7%
without Martin, either way making
Nevada second only to California’s
with 6.7% LGBTQ legislators prior
to the 2012 elections.
The big issues at all candidate forums
were education, jobs, and taxes. The
ACLU rarely takes positions on jobs
or tax bills, but the ACLU of Nevada
will be monitoring bills in those areas
for disproportionately negative impacts on minority groups and other
disadvantaged citizens. The ACLU
of Nevada, as usual, also will take
positions on education bills that have
privacy, due process, or equal protection implications, including vouchers.
Legislative Building in Carson City
The ACLU is extremely concerned
by the mass over-incarceration that
plagues Nevada and, indeed, the entire USA, so we will acting accordingly on BDRs that so for call for
20 new proposed crimes, including
allowing police to stop and cite individuals merely for not wearing a seatbelt, which opens the door to racial
Nearly 600 requests for bill drafts profiling. At least a half dozen BDRs
(BDRs) have already been submitted concern sentencing; three of them
to the Legislative Counsel Bureau. would chip away at the prison population, but the others would increase
sentences already on the books. The
bill permitting a DNA-collecting
mouth swab after any felony arrest,
which we won a hard fight against in
2011, will return.
Including the ACLU in your
will is worth more than
words can convey.
Many BDRs relate to public records,
but we don’t have details yet. Almost
In fact, it can be worth up to
$10,000 today.
a dozen bill requests relating to voter
registration and elections have been
Here’s how:
submitted, including former ACLU
1. Name the ACLU in your will
of Nevada staffer Lee Rowland’s
or trust or as a beneficiary of
felon re-enfranchisement bill, sponyour retirement plan or life
sored by Tic Segerblom.
insurance policy.
Take the
Challenge!
2. Tell us about it - 702.366.1536
x210 or [email protected]
3. A matching cash donation of
10% up to $10,000 will be made
today, through the Lu Esther
Mertz Legacy Challenge.
If you have already named the
ACLU in your estate plans, please
notify us so it can qualify for an
immediate matching gift! good bill on court interpreters and
another on the regulation of “immigration consultants” have been submitted.
ACLU of Nevada will be pro-actively
lobbying for positive change with numerous coalition partners. With the
Public Health Alliance for Syringe
Access, we hope to sanction a needle
exchange program. With Planned
Parenthood and others, we will work
to pass a bill requiring comprehensive sex education (similar to the one
we supported in 2011, which unfortunately did not make it out of committee). We will support our partners
at the LGBTQ coalition, whose agenda includes revising the “infamous
crimes against nature” statute (which
discriminately defines a different age
of consent for homosexual partners
than heterosexual partners), recognizing out-of-state domestic partnerships under the full faith and credit
clause, and limiting the exemption
for non-profits from discriminating
against LGBTQ people. The ACLU
Proposals have been submitted for of Nevada is participating in crafting
revising requirements for drivers’ li- and will also support the Nevada Imcenses and ID cards, requiring an ID migrant Coalition’s legislative agenda,
to vote, requiring that all DMV ex- which will be determined in the comams be administered in English, and ing weeks. We also will be working, as
usurping the federal government on usual, with PLAN, Nevada Women’s
general regulation of immigrants Lobby, and many other organizations
without documents. On the pro- across the political spectrum.
immigrants’ rights side, a potentially
5
medical Care in Nevada’s prisons
8th amendment guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment
by Katrina ROSS
T
he ACLU of Nevada has at last
seen a great success in prison
medical reform in Nevada. The ongoing case of Riker v. Gibbons was
finally successfully concluded in
September of 2012. In the Riker
case, the ACLU of Nevada and the
ACLU’s National Prison Project sued
Ely State Prison and the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC)
over egregious and drastically insufficient medical care being provided to
the prisoners at Ely.
As a solution to the lawsuit, the
ACLU and NDOC agreed to a settlement that included a two-year
monitoring period that would cover
six areas related to healthcare at Ely:
pharmacy, infirmary, intra-system
transfer, sick call, chronic care, and
specialty clinics. The ACLU of Ne-
Volunteer
Being a volunteer with the
ACLU of Nevada – in any
capacity – means standing
up for freedom. Your time
and effort help ensure our
civil rights and civil liberties
continue to be protected
in Nevada and across the
country.
Whether you have time to
come in regularly to one
of our offices or want to
experience tabling at an
event first-hand, we can use
your help!
Learn more at
aclunv.org/volunteer
6
system at Ely, we were very pleased
by the improvements made and the
level of care prisoners now receive.
After a very long litigation and settlement progress, the ACLU of Nevada
is proud of its work and the cooperation of the Nevada Department of
Corrections to achieve success.
vada accompanied an independent
medical expert on four site visits
conducted throughout the two-year
settlement period. During each visit,
relevant physical areas of the prison
were inspected and medical records
of randomly selected patients were
reviewed in each of the six areas. Additionally, as part of the agreement,
prison officials agreed to build a
better system of ensuring that necessary medications are provided to
prisoners in a timely manner, develop
health care treatment plans for any
prisoners suffering from a chronic illness requiring ongoing medical care,
and provide prisoners with access to
qualified medical staff seven days a
week for any routine or emergency
medical ailments.
In a separate but related prison medical care case, the ACLU of Nevada
filed a friend of the court brief in
2011 on behalf of John Snow, and
inmate at Ely State Prison who was
not allowed to leave the prison for
surgery and as a result is now nearly crippled. The ACLU argued on
behalf of Mr. Snow that there was
enough evidence that officials at the
prison had been deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs, in
violation of the Eighth Amendment’s
ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Recently, after a long and hard
fought legal battle, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in Mr. Snow’s favor and sent
the case back for a trial. The Court
of Appeals recognized that Mr. Snow
had legal grounds on which to assert
When the ACLU began its monitorhis Eighth Amendment rights.
ing period, the medical care at Ely
was among the worst the medical Currently the ACLU of Nevada has
expert had ever seen. Patients were one other case pending regarding a
waiting over a month to receive refills woman prisoner who was shackled
on much needed medication, sending at the ankles during child birth. We
prisoners to the infirmary was being are also beginning to investigate the
used as punishment with little to no conditions at county and city jails
oversight, and prisoners were often throughout the state. The ACLU of
not allowed to go to hospitals for Nevada is very committed to prisonnecessary surgery and care.
ers’ rights and will continue to ensure
that the constitutional rights of all
Throughout the two-year period,
Nevadan’s, incarcerated or not, are
many changes were seen in the treatupheld.
ment of patients at Ely. At the end of
learn more at aclunv.org/prison
two years of monitoring the medical
FIRST AMENDMENT fights
It’s Déjà vu ALl Over Again
I
f the ACLU of Nevada’s experience of having to remind (or teach)
long-settled First Amendment law to
public officials is any indication, free
speech will be a major part of our
work for a long time to come.
new ordinance applies to all handbills,
many of which are store, restaurant,
or hotel advertisements or coupons;
political campaign materials; religious
leaflets; and other items.
Separately, the ACLU of Nevada has
been working to protect the First
Amendment rights of several individuals from Native American and
environmental organizations, including “No Bear Hunt” of Nevada and
members of the American Indian
Movement of Northern Nevada,
who spoke at public meetings against
an organized bear hunt in northern
Nevada. Reports soon came through
that the FBI was investigating these
individuals for speech that should
receive the fullest First Amendment
protections. That the FBI would treat
these individuals as if they are potential domestic terrorists because they
The first major U.S. Supreme Court publicly and peacefully expressed
decision—and First Amendment vic- their opinion about hunting practictory—in this area was Schneider v. State es and environmental policies is exof New Jersey in 1939, and almost ev- tremely disturbing.
ery case since has concluded with a
decision that First Amendment rights The ACLU of Nevada has filed a fedtrump fighting litter, even as control- eral Freedom of Information Act reling litter has been ruled a substantial quest with the FBI to determine the
government interest.
extent of the information collected.
On August 7, the Clark County Commission passed an ordinance allowing
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers to cite handbillers on the Las
Vegas Strip for litter created by persons who take handbills from them,
and requiring handbillers to pick up,
every 15 minutes, discarded copies of
their own handbills within a 25-foot
radius. The ACLU of Nevada has
repeatedly warned the Commission,
both publicly and privately, that the
ordinance was unconstitutional, and
especially that unequal enforcement
of it would prompt litigation.
“Cities and counties have been trying
to control litter, with the side effect
of limiting free speech, and also deliberately trying to limit free speech
through anti-litter laws for decades,”
said Dane Claussen, Executive Director. “We don’t know of any previous statute or ordinance passed in
the United States in which government attempted to hold a handbiller
responsible for the recipient’s litter.”
Most handbilling on the Las Vegas
Strip is for escort services, but the
BURNING MAN
T
he ACLU of Nevada returned
to Burning Man to act as legal observers at the week-long
event. Our attendance this year
was motivated in part by the new
hostile stance toward Burning Man
by Pershing County. Prior to the
event, the county considered an
ordinance that would ban nudity
and children’s attendance at Burning Man. The ACLU of Nevada
lobbied Pershing County about
the constitutional implications of
the proposals and also advised the
Burning Man organization, which
ended up filing a lawsuit against
the county. Because of this work,
participants, young and old, were
able to freely express themselves in
whatever they chose – or chose not
– to wear.
The ACLU of Nevada sent several
employees and volunteers for the
entire week of Burning Man. Our
team monitored police activities,
answered questions, held “Know
Your Rights” presentations, collected complaints about citizens’ interactions with law enforcement, and
distributed “Know Your Rights”
cards with information about participant’s legal rights.
“Verbally opposing the hunting of
bears should never lead to harassment by law enforcement officials,”
stated Staci Pratt, ACLU of Nevada
Legal Director. “We aim to discover
the full extent of the FBI’s efforts
and ensure that there is accountability for investigatory behaviors that do
not accord with the Constitution.”
learn more at aclunv.org/speech
Katrina Ross, Staff Attorney,
sharing “Know Your Rights”
information at Burning Man
7
Early Case
Resolution
Washoe County has instituted a pilot
program of an Early Case Resolution (ECR) system. ECR programs
are designed to shorten the resolution of criminal cases, and supposedly resulting in cost savings.
However, ECR programs deprive
defendants of their due process
rights under the Sixth Amendment.
Under Washoe County’s pilot program, the prosecutor has discretion
over whether an indigent defendant
is appointed a public defender. If a
defendant is diverted into the ECR
program, they are appointed an attorney who only has the narrow administrative authority to negotiate a
plea bargain.
This “plea-negotiator” would not
act as the defendant’s counsel in any
meaningful way. The Constitution
demands that those accused of a
crime have meaningful access to independent counsel throughout their
case, including the important decision of taking a plea.
In June 2012, the Washoe County
Public Defender challenged the pilot ECR program, and the case is
currently at the Nevada Supreme
Court. In July, Nevada Attorneys
for Criminal Justice (NACJ) filed a
friend-of-the-court brief in support
of the challenge, and the ACLU of
Nevada is seeking to join their amicus. NACJ argues that ECR creates
legal ethics violations for both public defenders and private criminal
attorneys. It also states that costs
can be reduced, while constitutional
rights are preserved, through the use
of an appropriate mandatory status
conference program.
8
ART & the constitution
(UN)Civil Liberties Art Show
by Angela Francis
T
he ACLU of Nevada
worked with Reno artist Erik Holland to produce
the “(Un)Civil Liberties Art
Show,” held in Reno on October 25. By showcasing the
work of Northern Nevada artists, the exhibition highlighted
the necessity of protecting
constitutional rights and liberties and brought awareness to
the urgent need to fight against
the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“Central Scrutinizer”
The NDAA was signed by
President Obama on the last
day of 2011. This act codified indefinite military detention
without charge or trial into law for
the first time in American history.
The 2013 NDAA is currently under
consideration in the United States
Congress - it passed the House in
May and will be voted on by the
Senate soon.
The power to detain someone indefinitely without charge or trial “is
completely at odds with American
values, violates the Constitution,
and corrodes our Nation’s commitment to the rule of law, which generations have fought to preserve,”
said Dane S. Claussen, Executive
Director of the ACLU of Nevada.
The fight against the NDAA is “an
ongoing battle,” said Erik Holland.
“One way to do that is through art,
because it can educate, stimulate,
challenge, and entertain.”
“(Un)Civil Liberties Art Show” featured local artists who have turned
Jeffrey D. Johnson
their reactions to the NDAA into
both visual and performance art.
The show was held at the Rainshadow Community Charter High
School and was attended by many
community members who browsed
the art on display and enjoyed light
refreshments.Thank you to all who
contributed this event, especially cosponsor Erik Holland, Rainshadow,
and the local artists and performers.
Got Books?
Help support the ACLU of
Nevada by donating your
gently used or new books. All profits from the sale of
the books benefit the ACLU of Nevada.
You may drop books off at
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normal business hours. Las Vegas
601 S. Rancho Drive, Ste B-11
Reno
1325 Airmotive Way, Ste 202
Questions? 702.366.1536 x210
Police accountability in Las Vegas
Reforms at Metro and the Clark County Coroner’s Inquest
by Dane S. Claussen
During all of 2012, the ACLU of Nevada and the NAACP of Las Vegas
continued to have regular meetings
with top officials of the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department on
reforms at Metro, both before and
after the Department of Justice released its management consultants’
report on Metro on November 15.
Separately, the ACLU of Nevada
also met with Metro and representatives of handbilling firms about First
Amendment rights, litter, and safety
on the Las Vegas Strip.
15 released a report on Metro,
completed by the CNA management consulting firm under the
supervision of DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS). The ACLU has long
warned Metro and DOJ that the
long-awaited report is inadequate
if only because its recommendations are unenforceable. The
report makes 75 findings or recommendations, many of which the
ACLU agrees with (such as endorsing
Metro’s revised use-of-force policy
and giving the Use of Force Board
more authority), although they generally do not go far enough. The ACLU
of Nevada opposes several other recommendations, most notably discussion that essentially recommends that
Clark County drop its Coroner’s Inquest process in favor of better investigations by the Clark County District
Attorney’s office, and CNA’s lack of
strong recommendation about cameras in police cars and on uniforms
other than testing and otherwise
studying them is a good idea. Overall, however, police union opposition,
cost issues, and other impediments
will probably prevent all 75 findings/
recommendations from being acted
on. Moreover, the ACLU of Nevada
expects that it will take months, even
years, for those that are implemented
to be in place, and knows that even
implementing all CNA/COPS recommendations will not accomplish
the necessary reforms in, transparency of, and accountability of, the Las
Vegas Metro Police Department.
To improve officer accountability, the
ACLU of Nevada and the NAACP
are recommending that Metro officers wear cameras on their uniforms
and also install cameras in police cars.
Throughout the summer and fall,
Metro continued to field test various cameras and reported that even
initially skeptical officers were being
won over to implementing cameras.
Unfortunately, Metro also decided to
take action to upgrade its radio system and now may claim that it doesn’t
have the money to implement cameras even if it wants to. While talks
about cameras have dominated meetings with Metro, the ACLU of Nevada is committed pursuing reforms
in numerous aspects of Metro’s operations, ranging from recruiting and
training of new officers, to the Use
of Force board, to discipline or even
termination of bad cops, and more.
Meanwhile, the ACLU of Nevada’s
January 2012 petition to the U.S. Department of Justice for a civil rightsbased investigation of Metro is still
sitting on a federal DOJ desk.
On October 25, the Nevada Supreme
Court sided with the Clark County
The Department of Justice on Nov. government and the ACLU of Ne-
vada in ruling that the current Clark
County coroner’s inquest system,
which the ACLU of Nevada helped
to design, did not violate officer’s due
process rights, contrary to arguments
by Nevada Highway Patrol officers
who sued to strike it down. While
the Nevada Supreme Court struck
down the inquest ordinance in its entirety, the Court did so only because
it ruled that justices of the peace cannot run coroner’s inquests in counties with appointed coroners (Clark
and Washoe), a problem that can be
easily fixed. Indeed, the Clark County Commission started considering
ways to fix its ordinance at its regularly scheduled November 6 meeting.
In September, the Clark County
Commission passed an ordinance
penalizing handbillers on the Las Vegas Strip for litter caused by persons
who take their handbills. This was
despite the fact that the Commission did not bother to find out from
Metro whether litter and safety problems had declined through a detailed
voluntary agreement between Metro
and handbilling companies, and the
ACLU of Nevada’s repeated warnings that penalizing one person for
another person’s litter is clearly unconstitutional.
learn more at aclunv.org/police
9
tracking you?
NOMINATIONS What’s
Automated license plate Readers IN Nevada
NEEDED
by Angela Francis
Help protect the civil
liberties and civil rights
of ALL Nevadans.
Apply to join the ACLU
of Nevada’s Board of
Directors!
HOW TO APPLY
The ACLU of Nevada has an ongoing
board recruitment process. We are
looking for individuals who would like
to join in the near future and those
who have an interest in serving on the
board, and its committees, in the coming years. Committee work includes
planning our annual event, board development, finance, fundraising and
human resources policy.
Each Board member must be a member of the organization. One-third of
the board members are elected each
year and a single term of office consists of three years.
If you would like to be considered as a
potential candidate for board membership, please submit a written letter of
intent with a brief biography to:
ACLU of Nevada, Board Governance
Committee
601 S. Rancho Drive, Suite B-11
Las Vegas, Nevada 89106
An interest form is available on our
website, www.aclunv.org. All such letters must be received by March 1, 2013.
Nominations for board elections may
also be submitted by petition. Members
interested in being nominated by petition should submit signed statements
of nomination from ten active members. A candidate nominated by petition
who provides a short statement of his/
her background and qualifications will
have a brief biography included on the
ballot in the Summer 2012 newsletter.
Nominations must be received no later
than March 1, 2012. A nomination form
is available on our website and can be
sent to the mailing address above.
Letters of interest from women, people
of color, people living with HIV, people
with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals are
strongly encouraged.
We encourage you to explore the opportunities for board service by reaching out to a board or staff member, using the interest/nomination forms on
our website, or emailing us at aclunv@
aclunv.org.
10
A
utomated license plate
readers (ALPRs) are cameras mounted on stationary
objects that photograph every
license plate within view, capturing up to thousands of images
per minute. Images are tagged
with the location and time/date.
ALPRs check photographed
plates against designated databases of
license plate numbers, and alert the
patrol officer when a match appears.
When ALPR is used in a carefully
controlled manner, it can assist law
enforcement officers in recovering
stolen cars and/or arresting individuals with outstanding warrants. However, ALPR systems currently create
databases with location information
on every motorist who encounters
the system, not just those matching
the wanted plates. When used in such
a broad manner, ALPR systems cease
to be a mechanism enabling efficient
police work and essentially become a
warrantless tracking tool. Therefore,
the public needs to learn how ALPRs
devices are used, how long the data
collected is stored, and who has access to the database.
The ACLU of Nevada participated
in a nationwide ACLU public records request, demanding information from local and state police
forces on whether and how they
use ALPRs. We contacted: Henderson Police Department, Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department
(LVMPD), Nevada Highway Patrol,
Office of Criminal Justice Assistance
of the Nevada Department of Public Safety, Reno Police Department,
and Washoe County Sheriff ’s Office.
NO SPYN
Records provided show that ALPRs
are not used extensively in Nevada.
Four contacted agencies each use a
very small number of ALPRs. Nevada Highway Patrol and Washoe
County Sheriff ’s Office forward the
collected information to the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration,
the Las Vegas Metro Police Department stores data for five years (starting Aug. 21, 2010), and the Henderson Police Department stores such
data for only 60 days. The Reno Police Department does not currently
use any ALPR system but told the
ACLU that it is negotiating with the
State of Nevada for such technology.
One core principle of our democracy
is that the government respects individual privacy. Thus, governments
must not collect or store information about someone just in case they
do something criminal in the future.
Clear regulations must be put in place
to keep authorities from tracking
our movements on a massive scale.
State and federal law should prohibit
ALPR devices from storing data for
no longer than absolutely necessary
where there is no immediate match
to an offender list or other evidence
of wrongdoing. As the deployment
of ALPRs is increasing rapidly, the
ACLU of Nevada will continue to
monitor the acquisition and use of
ALPR systems in Nevada.
10
...Elections
continued from page 1
neys for the ACLU of Nevada and
the Lawyers Coordinating Committee handled countless telephone
calls and emails, primarily from poll
monitors. Because various agencies
and websites could answer questions
about whether a person was registered, where their polling place was,
hours, and so on, assigned lawyers
could handle other calls from Washoe
County and Clark County. Just some
of the problems included:
bring identification with them.
• Clark County poll workers not redirecting citizens at the wrong
polling place to their correct
voting locations (even though
such redirection is required by
state law), and instead handing
them a provisional ballot to
use at the wrong polling place.
• A Washoe County poll worker
overly/aggressively chased away a
voter with Obama gear on (voter
later came back and voted sans
t-shirt), which does not count as
electioneering.
• Citizens who registered to vote
being told at a Clark County polling place that there was no record • Clark County poll workers incorrectly telling voters that provisionof their registration. (Most were
al ballots are treated the same as
allowed to vote provisionally.)
regular ballots.
One reason for this was that registrations at government agencies • Confusion among both poll workother than the central elections ofers and citizens with felony confice received after Oct. 6 were not
victions over voting eligibility and
valid for the 2012 general election.
voting registration by such ex-of(Citizens could still register for
fenders.
this year’s election until Oct. 16 at
the county elections office.)
Many voters expressed gratitude
when our advocacy with election of• Mall access issues in Washoe ficials resulted in the acknowledgeCounty: both malls’ security ment of their ability to vote.
guards didn’t want to let Lawyers
Coordinating Committee volun- Leading up to Election Day, some of
teers get close enough to voters to the other steps the ACLU of Nevada
talk with them, incorrectly treating took were:
poll monitors as if they were electioneering.
• Reorganized the home page of
• Clark County poll watchers stationed in places in which they
could not really observe the voting.
• Washoe County high school running out of provisional ballots.
• A Las Vegas television journalist
telling viewers to bring identification to polling places even though
very few Nevadans needed to
our website to have elections information front and center for the
last few weeks before the election,
including pdf versions of all of
our know-your-rights materials,
some of it also in Spanish.
• Set up a dedicated telephone number, also on our website, for the
public and campaigns to call for
assistance.
• Reviewed and helped revise poll
monitor training materials for the
Lawyers Coordinating Committee
and the Advancement Project.
• Assisted with and participated in
poll monitor trainings done both
in-person and online.
• Made radio appearances on voting
rights in Reno and Las Vegas.
• Met with, sent letters to, and otherwise contacted Washoe County,
Clark County, and state elections
officials before Election Day
about our concerns, rumors, predictions, past problems, etc.
• Sent a letter to all Nevada county
clerks advising them about aspects
of Nevada elections and Nevada
elections laws of particular concern to the ACLU of Nevada, and
including with it another copy of
our felon re-enfranchisement brochure.
• Answered questions about Nevada politics, Nevada government,
Nevada election law, etc., for the
Lawyers Coordinating Committee, Advancement Project, Fair
Elections Legal Network (FELN),
the Obama campaign, the national
ACLU staff in New York, etc.
11
Looking ahead to 2013
The American Civil Liberties Union
and its affiliates, such as Nevada’s,
are widely known for defending principles: freedom of speech, privacy,
reproductive choice, not punishing
victimless crimes, humane conditions
for prisoners, that the United States
must not become a police state, and
many others, that are the basis of, and
flow from, the U.S. Constitution.
But our work at the ACLU, both
locally and nationally, is also about
helping individual people who have
legitimate complaints about egregious
actions (or inactions) by government
officials. Some of those people are:
Stanley Gibson, unarmed and ill when
killed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan
Police Department, and his surviving
relatives and friends; Valerie Nabors,
a former inmate at Florence McClure
by K. Randall
Women’s Correction Center who the rights of all people. So thank you
was illegally shackled during labor; to all of our members, donors and
Ethan Bryan and Nolan Hairr, sixth other friends who have given their
grade students who were continually time, resources, and talents to supharassed and bullied in the Clark port the ACLU.
County schools; Rubbie McCoy,
who is losing her home because of But in order to continue protecting
predatory and discriminatory lending and preserving the civil liberties and
practices, and many others. They rights of people such as Stanley,
are everyday people who have had Valerie, Ethan, Bryan and Rubbie,
their civil rights grossly violated. now and well into the future, we
Any one of them could be your need your financial support and
family member, one of your friends commitment. Please consider giving
or your neighbors. It could be you. a gift of $25, $50, $100, or more. You
can donate online securely through
our website aclunv.org/give, or
become a national Guardian Of
Liberty and sign up for a recurring
monthly gift.
That’s where you do come in: as loyal supporters, you know about the
progress we have made. You know
about the ACLU’s work, both locally
and nationally. Our victories are in
part because of you, our faithful supporters and members who care about
We need your support because
Freedom Can’t Protect Itself !
Go to www.aclu.org/sustain to sign-up online.
It’s fast, easy, and secure.
Help us fight against efforts to undermine our
basic freedoms, become a Guardian of Liberty
today.
The program is easy for you and efficient for
us—with more of your contributions going
right to work on our most urgent campaigns.
Your monthly gift of $25, $20 or even $15 can
provide the vital support that helps us to fight
for all of our rights whenever and wherever
they are under attack.
Guardians of Liberty are a special group of
members who make monthly donations that
support our work defending the freedoms
guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights.
You Make the Difference
Sustaining Freedom’s Defense
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