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March 7, 2003 ACLU Hails Landmark Racial Profiling Settlement News and Action: Stop Patriot II!, Students' Rights What YOU Can Do to Protect Our Freedoms
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 A secretive new system for conducting
background checks on all airline passengers threatens to create a
bureaucratic machine for destroying Americans' privacy and a
government blacklist that will harm innocent Americans. The system, known as CAPPS II -- Computer
Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System II -- will be tested at
several airports around the United States starting sometime in
March.Like the Pentagon's controversial "Total Information Awareness" program, CAPPS II would collect information about individuals including "financial and transactional data," which could include credit card and other consumer data, housing information, communications records and health records. It would also make use of public source information such as law enforcement and legal records. "This system threatens to create a permanent blacklisted underclass of Americans who cannot travel freely," said Katie Corrigan, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. Under the program Americans will be labeled as a "green," "yellow" or "red" security risk. The red code would be reserved for those on terrorist watch lists. Far less clear is who would get a yellow code in their file; those passengers would be subject to extra-intensive security screening. Details of the program reveal that a yellow code in a person's file could be shared with other government agencies at the federal, state and local level, with intelligence agencies such as the CIA and with foreign governments and international agencies -- all of which could use those designations for many purposes, including employment decisions and the granting of government benefits. "Once the infrastructure for a system of government files and security ratings on American citizens is built, it won't be limited to air transportation for very long," added Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program. "Nothing like it has ever been done in this country." To learn more, click here
 In response to an ACLU lawsuit, the California Highway Patrol has agreed to adopt sweeping reforms intended to end the practice of racial profiling on California's highways. The settlement agreement bans consent searches and drug-related pretext stops, which means that CHP officers can no longer use minor traffic violations as an excuse for stopping and searching a car for illegal drugs unless the officers have probable cause or reasonable suspicion of drug activity. The ACLU contended in its lawsuit that giving officers the discretion to seek consent when they did not have probable cause to search resulted in a disproportionate number of motorists of color being subjected to searches. "We believe this important agreement is a win-win proposition for the people of this state and for law enforcement -- it protects motorists from racial discrimination and, if vigorously implemented, will increase public confidence and trust in the CHP," said Alan Schlosser, Legal Director of the ACLU of Northern California. See more, including a copy of the settlement, here
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