"Don't Ask, Don't Tell", the law that forbids gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military, has taken a deep toll on our military. Since 1993, over 13,000 service members have been discharged due to their sexual orientation. We can no longer afford to lose some of our most talented linguists, doctors, intelligence analysts and soldiers to this discriminatory and unconscionable policy.
Now is the time to change this policy. Stand with the ACLU in urging the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

STREET ARTS is here! Check out the great events that we're cosponsoring with 516 ARTS.
Read the full guide here. 516 ARTS, in partnership with the ACLU-NM and local arts organizations, presents STREET ARTS: A Celebration of Hip Hop Culture & Free Expression, a multi-layered collaboration during October and November 2010 in Albuquerque, featuring local, national and international artists in a major exhibition at 516 ARTS, and a packed schedule of performing and literary arts events, mural projects, tours of street arts projects, panel discussions, a Hip Hop Film Festival and a Spoken Word Festival.The STREET ARTS project celebrates art in the urban environment and explores issues of freedom of expression. It centers around the two-part exhibition Street Text: Art From the Coasts & The Populist Phenomenon at 516 ARTS, examining Street Art and its evolution into an international cultural movement. Art from the Coasts, curated by Andrew Connors, Curator of Art at The Albuquerque Museum, compares masters of graffiti art from Los Angeles and New York, including the work Chaz Bojorquez, Gajin Fujita, John Lorne, Lady Pink and Henry Chalfant. The Populist Phenomenon, curated by Francesca Searer of 516 ARTS, examines street artists’ work as a means of expressing a message to the masses. Featured New Mexico artists include Ernest Doty, Jaque Fragua, Stevan Gutierrez, Thomas Christopher Haag and Albert Rosales; and national and international artists include Shepard Fairey, Gaia, Mark Jenkins, Alexandre Orion, Chris Stain, Slinkachu, SWOON and Chip Thomas. Several of these artists are also featured in a series of new Downtown murals.Many of the programs and events for the STREET ARTS celebration focus on educating young people about their civil liberties. This project helps connect New Mexico artists, performers and audiences with a larger dialogue that is happening around the globe. Special guest performers for the Spoken Word Festival, titled SHOUT-OUT: A Festival fo Rhythm & Rhyme (November 4-7), include Amiri Baraka and Cecil Taylor, Kevin Coval, Amalia Ortiz and Idris Goodwin, and featured New Mexico poets include Carlos Conteras, Hakim Bellamy, Saywut?!, Sina Soul and Tanaya Winder. Additional guest performing artists for STREET ARTS include South African poet/actor Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala, Cuban born drummer/composer Dafnis Prieto with rapper Kokayi, the dance company Molodi from New York, and more. The schedule features many talks and panel discussions such as History of Style with art and cultural critic Dave Hickey, Connecting the Dots: Street Arts and Public Funding presented by the City of Albuquerque Public Art Program, and Defending Artistic Liberty presented by ACLU-NM.
The lead organization for this collaboration is 516 ARTS, a vibrant, independent, nonprofit center for contemporary art in New Mexico and a hub for the arts in Downtown Albuquerque’s revitalization.
Read the full guide here.

Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal observance that recognizes the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on September 17th, 1787. In 2004, Congress approved September 17th as an official federal holiday (sorry folks, no time off work!).  The act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.
This year, the Montessori Elementary School in Albuquerque invited ACLU-NM for Constitution Day to make a presentation to their 6th and 7th grade students on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We, or course, were delighted.
ACLU-NM Staff Attorneys Leon Howard and Jennifer Cohen had the pleasure of giving a short presentation on the history, meaning and significance of the U.S. Constitution to a class of bright, interested students--who seemed to know all the answers!
At the end of the presentation we handed out a list of made up scenarios and asked the students to identify which amendment to the Constitution applied to the situation. The students split up into small groups and discussed, then came back together to give their answers a few minutes later. Every group got almost every question right.
So, you think you know the Bill of Rights? Do you think you know it better than a 6th grader? Take the same quiz to find out!:

Bill of Rights
Which Amendment Applies?

1. In Ohio, on a trip back from vacation in Miami, Florida, LeBron James is arrested for the crime of betrayal (assume that this is a real crime in the State of Ohio).  An attorney represents Mr. James in a trial and he is convicted by a jury of his peers.  While in jail for 6 months, the guards do not allow Mr. James to play basketball or ever go outside.  In addition, the guards in the jail only allow LeBron James to eat 3 Ohio-State-Buckeyes (a type of chestnut) a day, one for breakfast, one for lunch, and one for dinner.
2. Petey Pablo is arrested by the police for trying to bring illegal things on an airplane. He tells the police officers that he wants an attorney. They refuse to provide him with one.
3. Justin Bieber is walking down Gold Street when two police officers run up to him. One of the officers holds him down while the other cuts his off a bunch of his hair and puts it in a bag for DNA testing.
4. The Governor of New Mexico declared Green Chili as officially better and hotter than Red Chili.  The next day a Red Chili lover by the name of Rojo wore a t-shirt around town that said, “Red Chili is HOT, Green Chili is NOT!”  To Rojo’s surprise he was confronted by a police officer that forced him to take his shirt off for disagreeing with the Governor.
5. Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad, and Taylor decide that they are going to all wear red arm bands one Friday to show their protest of the school board’s decision to extend the school year into July. The principal threatens to suspend them if they do not remove the arm bands.
6. Peter Griffin is arrested at the mall.  He is sent to jail without ever having a trial or being told the crime with which he was accused.
7. Uma Stella Adams is walking home from school and she is stopped by a Border Patrol Agent.  The Agent asks Uma if he can go through her back pack.  Uma replies, “No.”  The Agent goes through her backpack anyway.
8. Ned Flanders petitions the City of Springfield to make Christianity its official religion. The City requires every family to put a cross in its front yard and to go to church every Sunday.

Post your answers in the comment section below!