Suit Follows Year of Complaints and Lawsuits to Stop Abuses along the Border

EL PASO, TX – Agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB), working with medical professionals, subjected a U.S. citizen to a series of highly invasive searches—including rectal and vaginal probes—without a warrant, according to charges in a lawsuit filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and the ACLU of New Mexico.
 
CBP agents frisked and strip-searched the plaintiff at a border checkpoint, 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.
 
“What is truly frightening about this incident is that it could have happened to anyone,” said ACLU-NM Legal Director Laura Schauer Ives. “The failed drug war and militarized border region have created an environment in which law enforcement officials increasingly inflict extreme and illegal searches on innocent Americans. We need to ensure that no one is ever again subjected to a nightmare like our client suffered.”
 
The plaintiff, a 54 year old woman from New Mexico, was attempting to return to the U.S. from Mexico via a bridge in El Paso. She is deeply traumatized by the cavity searches  government agents forced her to endure and continues to suffer emotional and psychological after effects.
 
“Securing the border has become an excuse for outright abandonment of Constitutional principles that protect our privacy and dignity,” said Adriana Piñon, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas.  “Enough is enough. The hand of the government should never have unfettered power to invade our most intimate bodily spaces.”
 
The suit comes as the nation debates a “border surge” that would further militarize border communities despite strong criticism of increased civil rights abuses along the border.  ACLU affiliates and other civil rights advocates along the Southwest border have challenged a pattern of unlawful conduct by local and federal law enforcement personnel this year:
 

• In November, 2013 an Albuquerque civil rights law firm filed suit after Deming, NM police officers subjected a man pulled over during a routine traffic stop to three enemas, two anal probes, and a colonoscopy—finding no drugs.
• In October 2013, the ACLU of Texas filed suit on behalf of a disabled U.S. citizen who was physically abused when she questioned a CPB official’s search of her purse.
• In March 2013, ten damages cases were filed alleging unlawful CBP conduct by an alliance of immigrant advocacy groups, private attorneys, and a law school clinic.

 
Attorneys with the ACLU of Texas and ACLU of New Mexico represent the plaintiff in the suit filed today. Because of the sensitive nature of the allegations, the suit was filed under a pseudonym.
 
View the complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division: https://www.aclu-nm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Complaint-Jane-Doe-v-Various-Defendants-12-18-13.pdf
 

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NMPA files amicus brief in Morris v. New Mexico in support of expanded end of life choices

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—Today, the New Mexico Psychological Association (NMPA) filed an amicus brief in support of Morris v. New Mexico, the lawsuit filed by the ACLU of New Mexico and Compassion & Choices’ that asks the court to clarify that physicians who provide aid in dying to  mentally competent, terminally ill patients do not violate New Mexico’s law against “assisting suicide.” The NMPA, the largest organization of professional doctorate-level psychologists in New Mexico and the leading source of professional standards and policy for psychologists who practice within the state, unequivocally states in its brief that aid in dying and suicide are fundamentally  different.

“The NMPA is affirming what most medical, health policy, and mental health professionals increasingly  acknowledge: aid in dying for mentally competent, terminally ill patients is no kind of suicide,” said Rob Schwartz, University of New Mexico law professor, nationally recognized authority on health law,  and co-author of the brief. ”We believe it is important that the law reflects this distinction so that doctors are not prevented from providing patients with more comfort and control during their dying process.”

The NMPA states:

The NMPA and its members recognize that AID [aid in dying] and suicide are fundamentally different psychological phenomena, and that these different categories of patients must be treated differently by the law for their patients to be able to get adequate psychological support at the end of life. Psychologists think of suicide as their greatest challenge, and they work tirelessly to prevent their patients from committing suicide.  They also recognize that AID involves almost no substantive theoretical overlap with suicide…

“Medical, mental health, and health policy experts recognize that the choice of a dying patient for a peaceful death through aid in dying  is no kind of ‘suicide’. This case asks the court to recognize this, so that physicians in NM willing to provide aid in dying to their mentally competent, terminally ill patients feel safe doing so,” said Kathryn Tucker, Director of Legal Affairs and Advocacy for Compassion & Choices. “The growing support for  aid in dying is evident. Five states already allow patients to seek aid in dying if they find their dying process becomes unbearable, and this week we will argue before the court that New Mexico law does not prohibit this practice.”

The ACLU of New Mexico and Compassion & Choices will take Morris v. New Mexico to trial on Wednesday, December 11 and Thursday, December 12 in New Mexico’s 2^nd Judicial District.

Read the NMPA’s amicus brief here.
 
 

The ACLU of New Mexico is pleased to announce the 2013 Bill of Rights Celebration Awards, the annual recognition of the New Mexicans who have made significant contributions to the cause of liberty in our state.
The ACLU of New Mexico will present the awards on Friday, November 22 at the 2013 Bill of Rights Celebration at the Sheraton Uptown Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tickets can be purchased online through the ACLU of New Mexico website.

Cooperating Attorney of the Year

Every year the ACLU of New Mexico recognizes a stand out attorney who has donated their time and talent towards a legal case of great importance to the future of civil liberties in New Mexico. This year, the ACLU of New Mexico recognizes Molly Schmidt-Nowara.

Molly Schmidt-Nowara 
Born and raised in Albuquerque, Molly graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 2001. She is a partner at the law firm of Garcia Ives Nowara and is a litigator with a focus on criminal defense, civil rights litigation, and administrative law. Molly has been listed as a Rising Star in Super Lawyers since 2012. Molly has been a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union since 1991, when she was 16 years old.
Molly receives this year's Cooperating Attorney of the Year Award for her work defending an Albuquerque clinic against frivolous and malicious medical complaints filed by the anti-abortion extremist organization Operation Rescue. Schmidt-Nowara successfully proved in hearings before the New Mexico State Medical Board that the doctor in question treated her patients with the highest standard of medical care.
Operation Rescue has used these types of targeted medical complaints against abortion providers in other states to harass and intimidate doctors out of the field. Her strong defense blunted this tactic here in New Mexico and helped ensure that women in our state continue to have access to safe and legal abortion.

Guardian of Liberty Awards

The ACLU of New Mexico Guardian of Liberty Awards are presented to members of the New Mexico community who perform outstanding service towards the protection and extension of basic freedoms in our state. This year, the ACLU of New Mexico is proud to present Guardian of Liberty Award to the five cooperating attorneys who helped litigate Griego v. Oliver, the historic legal case that seeks to win the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in New Mexico.

Lynn E. Mostoller
Lynn has practiced law since 2004 and has been an associate attorney with the Sutin Thayer & Browne law firm since 2010, practicing primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, employment law, and appeals.
 
 

Peter S. Kierst
Peter S. Kierst is with Sutin, Thayer and Browne PA, is a Senior Lecturer in Constitutional Law at UNM, and has been practicing law for 29 years.
 
 
 

N. Lynn Perls
N. Lynn Perls is a board certified family law specialist, working on behalf of LGBT New Mexicans for over 24 years. What makes a family, who is counted as family for legal purposes, and how to strengthen all of our families in all forms and functions is one of the most exciting and rapidly-evolving areas of Lynn's legal practice in the new millennium. The Law Office of Lynn Perls is a boutique law firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico providing services for family creation, protection and dissolution.
 

Maureen Sanders
Maureen has been involved with the ACLU of New Mexico since the mid-1980s as a legal panel member and a cooperating attorney. She is honored to have been involved in the marriage litigation efforts over the last several years and was honored to represent our wonderful clients.
 
 

J. Kate Girard
After careers as an Olympic-level swimmer, AmeriCorps member, Peace Corps volunteer, teacher and community organizer, Kate is honored that as an attorney, she gets to work with a growing community of loving, ferocious litigators who dare to fight for and to create justice for us all. Because of this community, Kate is now legally married to Shannon McKigney, her spouse of 14 years, and mom to life’s two greatest gifts - Bridget and Patrick.