Also appearing at the news conference was Shabbir Safdar, director of Voter's
Telecommunications Watch (VTW), a grassroots Internet watchdog group, which
is
acting as technical consultants to the ACLU. Safdar said the group plans to
file an
amicus brief in the case.
Michael Hertz and Michele Pyle of the New York firm Latham & Watkins provided
pro- bono assistance to the ACLU and NYCLU; Michael Bamberger of
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in New York is also co-counsel in the case.
Lawyers from the ACLU are Christopher Hansen, Ann Beeson and Art Eisenberg,
legal director of the NYCLU.
More information about 
he
 lawsuit challenging the New York internet law can be found on the ACLU's
Freedom Network at http://www.aclu.org/news/nycdahome.html>>
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ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Strike Down
 Georgia Law Requiring Drug Tests for Candidates
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 14, 1997
WASHINGTON -- In an important review of drug testing policies, the American
Civil Liberties Union today urged the Supreme Court to strike down a Georgia
From: ACLU Newsfeed Owner 
law requiring candidates for statewide office to submit to, and pass, a urine
drug test before qualifying for nomination or election.
The ACLU, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, said the
invasive drug tests violate the Fourth Amendments protection against
suspicionless searches.
"This law demonstrates how our constitutional rights are being sacrificed in
pursuit of the so-called war on drugs," said Steven R.  Shapiro, the ACLUs
national legal director.  "The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that
suspicionless drug testing passes constitutional muster only where it is
aimed at specific or immediate threats.  No such threat exists here."
The ACLU also argued that the drug tests are an invasion of privacy and
intrude upon a candidates bodily integrity.  
The case heard today was brought by three political candidates in Georgia who
challenged a 1990 law requiring them to produce a urine specimen at a
state-certified laboratory in order to test for marijuana and other Schedule
I or II controlled substances such as cocaine, opiates, amphetamines and
phencyclidines.
The law covers many of the states highest offices, including the Governor,
Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State School
Superintendent, Justices of the Supreme Court, appellate and lower court
judges, and members of the General Assembly.
"Although I passed my test, refusal to undergo suspicion-free tests must be
upheld as a valuable civil liberty," said Walker Chandler, a plaintiff in the
case who unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor in 1992 as a Libertarian.
 "The Supreme Court cannot allow the war on drugs to take our civil liberties
hostage."
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Federal Appellate Court Upholds Religious Liberty in New Jersey
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 14, 1997
NEWARK, NJ -- The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
yesterday upheld a federal district court ruling that the city of Jersey City
violated the Establishment Clause of the federal Constitution by displaying a
Menorah and Nativity Scene in front of the City Hall during Hanukkah and
Christmas.
The appeals court also reversed a later finding by the district court that
the addition of a plastic snowman, Santa Claus and a red sleigh had
sufficiently secularized the display to avoid Establishment Clause concerns.
The decision came in a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of
New Jersey on behalf of four residents of Jersey City. The ACLU-NJ argued
that the display, which is similar to those put up by a number of towns
throughout New Jersey, constituted impermissible governmental endorsement of
the religious beliefs of two major religions.
"We are extremely pleased with this decision," said ACLU-NJ staff attorney
David Rocah, who argued the case before the Third Circuit.  "The Third
Circuit has reaffirmed a bedrock principle of constitutional law --
government bodies may not single out one or more religions for special
treatment.  That is exactly what Jersey City did when it erected this holiday
display."
The Court of Appeals rejected Jersey City's argument that the display was a
permissible celebration of cultural diversity, reasoning that the
"celebration of more than one religion cannot magically transform a
government endorsement of religion into a 'secular celebration of diversity
and pluralism.'"
The Court also agreed with the ACLU-NJ that the addition of a few plastic
figures was not sufficient to transform the display into a celebration of the
secular holiday season.  
Quoting the ACLU-NJ's brief, the Court reasoned that "however confusing the
presence of a snowman in Bethlehem may be from a canonical perspective, a
reasonable observer . . . would invariably characterize [Frosty, Santa, and
the sleigh] for what they are -- attempts at evasion of constitutional
prohibitions through superficial secular tokenism."
"The Court's opinion gives other cities and towns very clear guidelines on
which displays are permitted, and, more particularly, which are not," said
ACLU-NJ cooperating attorney Ronald Chen.
"Government cannot erect religious displays, such as the Nativity Scene and
the Menorah, regardless of whether they put up Santa and Frosty as well,"
Chen said. "There are a myriad of alternatives open to municipalities to
celebrate the holiday season.  And each of us, as individuals, is free to
celebrate our religious traditions wherever we choose.  The ACLU has always,
and will always, defend that right."
The case was litigated for the ACLU-NJ by cooperating attorney Ronald Chen,
Associate Dean and professor of constitutional law at Rutgers University
School of Law, and by ACLU-NJ staff attorney David Rocah.  The City was
represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an organization devoted
to challenging the Supreme Court's church state jurisprudence.  The Fund sent
a letter to 400 mayors across the country in 1994, offering to represent any
city that was sued for displaying a creche or menorah.  The City has
indicated in the past that it intends to appeal any adverse decision.
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