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URGENT ALERT!
ACT NOW TO SAVE SENATE MEMORIAL 30
SJM30 was tabled on Thursday due to Democrats Griego, Maes, and Nava's absence, to the rejection by Republicans Adair, Ingle, Hurt, and Duran, three of whom said that we must just give up our freedoms! We can revive this memorial by letting the following Senators know that giving up our freedoms is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Rod Adair 986-4385
Allen Hurt 986-4373
Stuart Ingle 986-4702
Diane Duran 986-4701
Phil Griego 986-4265
Roman Maes 986-4856


PLEASE CHECK What you can do for email and mail addresses for the Senators, for
A Letter to New Mexicans, and other ways to help protect your rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, rights to privacy, information, and due process.

MEETINGS FOR NM STATE CAMPAIGN

MEETING: Thursday, Feb 27
6-7PM Presentation on threats to our freedoms + Q&A
7-8PM Letter writing!
Santa Fe Main Public Library
Downtown - corner of Marcy and Washington Upstairs meeting room
Please arrive early to help set up chairs

RALLY FOR YOUR RIGHTS!!
Rally and press conference
Friday, FEB 28, noon-1:30,
West steps of the Capitol, corner of Paseo de Peralta and Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe


EDUCATION:

Compilation on Civil Liberties I
by the Global Dialog Project

The Bill of Rights

9-11's Endangerment of Civil Liberties

-Legislation related to the attack of September 11,2001

Democracy Links

ACTION ALERT: WAR ON IRAQ?


PLEASE NOTE

NEWS UPDATE



CONTACT US

New Mexico Joint Memorial Affirming Civil Liberties

Read down for actions to take!

Joint memorials in the New Mexico House and Senate are set to challenge federal actions that violate or infringe on constitutionally guaranteed liberties. Senate Joint Memorial 30, sponsored by Sen. Cisco McSorley, and House Joint Memorial 40, sponsored by Rep. Max Coll, affirm civil rights and liberties and oppose federal measures that infringe on them.

The state memorials, introduced on February 3, broaden a nationwide movement at the local level to support and defend the Bill of Rights from federal encroachment. In New Mexico, the City of Santa Fe passed a Resolution In Support of the Bill of Rights on October 30, 2002, while cities around the state, including Albuquerque, Socorro, and Taos, are proposing similar resolutions to their city councils. Nationwide, 34 cities have passed comparable resolutions, including San Francisco, Detroit, and Denver.

Constitutional scholars and public watchdog groups on both left and right claim that federal legislation, presidential Executive Orders, and FBI edicts since 9-11 violate many of the amendments to the Constitution contained in the Bill of Rights. For instance, the USA PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001,

  • authorizes secret searches and seizures without notification;
  • grants federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies broad access to personal, medical, financial, library and educational records;
  • allows wiretapping and internet monitoring without customary judicial oversight.
Recent Presidential Executive Orders established military tribunals, along with secret detainments, secret evidence, and secret trials. They give President Bush the power to single-handedly label American citizens 'enemy combatants', thus stripping them of civil liberties, including rights to due process. In a blow to freedom of speech and association as guaranteed by the First Amendment, the FBI is allowed to conduct surveillance of religious services, internet chat rooms, political demonstrations and public meetings of any kind- actions not seen since the days of COINTELPRO operations that targeted activists like Martin Luther King, Jr.

Additional proposals by the Bush administration have included plans for organized spying by mailmen, cable installers, and service people (the TIPS program); creation of a dossier on every American with complete personal, medical, financial, communications and other data (TIA, the Total Information Awareness program); and reconfiguration of the internet for ease of surveillance, allowing direct monitoring of all internet and email communications without the need for a warrant.

Plans to extend the USA PATRIOT Act in the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003" were leaked from the Justice Department February 7. The new Act would remove judicial oversight on phone taps and search warrants, allow police spying on American citizens and groups, and in some cases strip Americans of their citizenship and rights. Critics of the plan charge that trampling the Constitution is not necessary to national security. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, top Democrat on the U. S. House Judiciary Committee, said the legislation "turns the Bill of Rights completely on its head."

To support these memorials, please do the following:

Cities Claim Constitutional Freedoms
Cities around the country and across New Mexico are passing Resolutions supporting the Bill of Rights! 32 U.S. cities have passed resolutions; more than 100 additional cities have them in process. Here in New Mexico, Santa Fe passed A Resolution In Support of the Bill of Rights on October 30, 2002. Now citizens in Socorro, Albuquerque, Taos, and Las Cruces have resolutions in process.

CivLib Santa Fe

ISSUES
Cities Defend the Bill of Rights

--PATRIOT ACT
--HOMELAND SECURITY
--DOMESTIC SPYING
-- Corporate threats to democracy

Coming soon:
--CYBER ISSUES
--CORPORATIONS
--TERRORISM
--U.S. POLICIES
--WAR ON DRUGS