News Releases

The Lake Washington School Board in Redmond, WA has decided not to impose restitution or community service on three Eastlake High School students who created a Web site on which someone else posted a death threat last fall.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Washington National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) today announced the filing of a class-action lawsuit against Regence BlueShield, the state's largest insurer, for its exclusion of prescription contraceptives from the health care insurance policies it sells to small employers.

The Washington Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled that the City of Seattle’s program of requiring urine tests of successful applicants for employment violates the state constitution.

U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour has issued a permanent injunction barring enforcement of a City of Medina law which required people to apply for a license from town officials and submit to a police background check in order to exercise their free speech rights.

The ACLU is working to reform the excesses of the PATRIOT Act and is seeking passage of the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act (SAFE Act) to provide needed checks and balances.

Senator Patty Murray and Representatives Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott were among the brave members of Congress who opposed the renewal of the PATRIOT Act. Show your support for their decision!

The federal Equal Access Act requires schools to give all noncurriculum-related student clubs – such as Gay-Straight Alliances - equal access to school facilities, regardless of the content of the speech in their meetings.

Shirley Scheier was frisked, handcuffed, and detained for taking photographs of power lines as part of an art project. The ACLU-WA has reached a settlement of her lawsuit against the City of Snohomish.

On June 23, 1998 ACLU-WA Board member Doug Klunder testified before the Commercial Electronic Task Force on Spam.

Okanogan County has paid a settlement of $35,000 to a young woman for subjecting her to an illegal strip search at the county's juvenile detention facility in 1999. The young woman was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. The County changed its strip search policy for juveniles shortly after the ACLU initially contacted officials about the matter.