BLOOMFIELD, NM—Yesterday afternoon, District Court Judge James Parker ruled that the granite monument featuring the Ten Commandments installed on the lawn of Bloomfield City Hall violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, and must be removed by the city by September 10, 2014. The lawsuit was filed in 2012 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico on behalf of two Bloomfield residents who objected to the monument, believing it to be an unconstitutional endorsement of a particular religion.

 
“This decision is a victory for the First Amendment’s protections against government endorsed religion,” said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson. “We firmly support the right of individuals, religious groups, and community associations to publicly display religious monuments, but the government should not be in the business of picking which sets of religious beliefs belong at city hall. We hope that the Ten Commandments monument will find a new home on private property in the city where people can continue to enjoy it.”
 
In its decision, the court concluded:
 
“…The Ten Commandments monument is government speech regulated by the Establishment Clause because the Ten Commandments monument is a permanent object located on government property and it is not part of a designated public forum open to all on equal terms…In view of the circumstances surrounding the context, history, and purpose of the Ten Commandments monument, it is clear that the City of Bloomfield has violated the Establishment Clause because its conduct in authorizing the continued display of the monument on City property had the primary or principal effect of endorsing religion.”
 
The religious monument was first installed on government property in July, 2011 and dedicated on July 4th with a religious themed ceremony. Former city councilor Kevin Mauzy, who originally proposed the 2007 city ordinance that allowed for the Ten Commandments monument to be displayed on the city hall lawn, presided over the dedication ceremony.
 
“Bloomfield residents come from many different religious traditions, and the government should never discriminate amongst them by lifting up one above the other,” said ACLU of New Mexico Legal Director Alexandra Freedman Smith. “Not only does this monument run afoul of the First Amendment, but it sends an exclusionary message to members of the community who do not subscribe to the particular set of religious beliefs inscribed there. The government belongs to us all, and it should not marginalize community members because of their faith.”
 
A copy of the court’s decision can be read here: Felix District Court Opinion
 
Read the legal complaint here: Felix v. Bloomfield

El Paso hospital and doctors compensate New Mexico woman for their role in an illegal body cavity search performed at the border 

EL PASO, TX—The University Medical Center of El Paso and emergency room physicians have paid a New Mexico woman $1.1 million for their role in the traumatic body cavity searches she suffered at the facility, announced the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico and the ACLU of Texas today. The hospital has also agreed to review recent revisions to its internal policies governing law enforcement searches with ACLU lawyers. According to charges in a lawsuit filed in December of last year, medical professionals performed the highly invasive searches without a warrant at the behest of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

“We are very pleased that the hospital has taken steps to alleviate the great wrong done to our client,” said ACLU of New Mexico cooperating attorney Laura Schauer Ives. “We hope this settlement will stand as a powerful reminder to other doctors and medical facilities that they have the right and responsibility to refuse to carry out unjustified, unnecessary, demeaning searches on behalf of law enforcement.”

The ordeal began when a K-9 unit allegedly “alerted” on the ACLU’s client, a 54-year-old woman from New Mexico, as she attempted to return to the U.S. from Mexico via a bridge in El Paso. CBP agents frisked and strip-searched her. Despite finding no contraband, they then transported her in handcuffs to the University Medical Center of El Paso, where doctors subjected her to an observed bowel movement, X-ray, speculum exam, rectal exam, vaginal exam, and a CT scan.  After a period of six hours of fruitless searches, the agents released the plaintiff without charge. 

The plaintiff is deeply traumatized by the painful cavity searches government agents forced her to endure and continues to suffer emotional and psychological after effects.
“Despite the trauma and humiliation endured by our client, she had the courage to step forward,” said Rebecca L. Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas. “Because of her, the hospital has changed its policy to prevent this from happening to others. Now we hope that CBP will also take responsibility and stop subjecting innocent people to unconstitutional and abusive searches.”

The plaintiff’s claims against CBP personnel for the illegal searches remain pending in federal court. A copy of the original legal complaint can be read here: Doe Complaint
 

Report Shows Injustice, Suffering, Caused by SWAT Teams Deployed for Low-Level Police Work, Not Crises

 
NEW YORK – After obtaining and analyzing thousands of documents from police departments around the country, today the American Civil Liberties Union released the report War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing. The ACLU focused on more than 800 SWAT raids conducted by law enforcement agencies in 20 states and on the agencies’ acquisition of military weaponry, vehicles, and equipment.
 
“We found that police overwhelmingly use SWAT raids not for extreme emergencies like hostage situations but to carry out such basic police work as serving warrants or searching for a small amount of drugs,” said Kara Dansky, Senior Counsel with the ACLU’s Center for Justice. ”Carried out by ten or more officers armed with assault rifles, flashbang grenades, and battering rams, these paramilitary raids disproportionately impacted people of color, sending the clear message that the families being raided are the enemy. This unnecessary violence causes property damage, injury, and death.”
 
The report documents multiple tragedies caused by police carrying out needless SWAT raids, including a 26-year-old mother shot with her child in her arms and a 19-month-old baby critically injured when a flashbang grenade landed in his crib.
 
“The national trend of police militarization is clearly felt here in New Mexico,” said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson. “We have towns like Farmington operating armored vehicles and the Albuquerque Police Department shooting civilians at alarming rates. This military mindset coupled with assault style tactics and weapons positions the public as the enemy, rather than human beings they have sworn to serve and protect.”
 
The report calls for the federal government to rein in the incentives for police to militarize. The ACLU also asks that local, state, and federal governments track the use of SWAT and the guns, tanks, and other military equipment that end up in police hands.
 
“Our findings reveal not only the dangers of militarized police, but also the difficulties in determining the extent and impact of those dangers. At every level – from the police to the state governments to the federal government – there is almost no recordkeeping about SWAT or the use of military weapons and vehicles by local law enforcement,” noted Dansky.
 
In addition, the report recommends that state legislatures and municipalities develop criteria for SWAT raids that limit their deployment to the kinds of emergencies for which they were intended, such as an active shooter situation.
 
The report is available here: www.aclu.org/militarization.