- Title: Nobel Peace Watch: A look at ACLU's fight against Trump
- Date: 29th September 2019
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 5, 2017) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING BANNERS AND POSTERS MARCHING IN FRONT OF WHITE HOUSE WOMAN CRYING MAN CHANTING INTO MEGAPHONE YOUNG MAN DRUMMING DURING DEMONSTRATION VIEW FROM SIDE OF PROTESTERS MARCHING NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 28, 2017) (REUTERS) ACLU LOGO ACLU OFFICE DOOR
- Embargoed: 13th October 2019 20:09
- Keywords: ACLU ACLU immigration cases ACLU vs Trump Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Peace nominee ACLU American Civil Liberties Union human rights free speech
- Location: SAN DIEGO AREA NEAR BORDER WITH MEXICO, CALIFORNIA; TORNILLO, TEXAS; UNDISCLOSED LOCATION; NEW YORK, NEW YORK; WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: SAN DIEGO AREA NEAR BORDER WITH MEXICO, CALIFORNIA; TORNILLO, TEXAS; UNDISCLOSED LOCATION; NEW YORK, NEW YORK; WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Fundamental Rights/Civil Liberties,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA008AYQ7NEV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is among the contenders for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for their legal fight against several of U.S. President Donald Trump's policies and executive orders, Nobel watchers say.
Among its high-profile legal actions, the ACLU sued the administration for its November 2018 immigration proclamation that would effectively ban migrants who illegally cross the U.S. border with Mexico from qualifying for asylum.
In its lawsuit - jointly filed with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights - the ACLU said the administration was violating both the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Trump administration unveiled that proclamation on Nov. 9, 2018 to sharply limit migrant asylum claims by barring individuals who cross the U.S. southern border illegally from seeking asylum. Trump said at the time that people had to come into the United States at points of entry.
The proclamation and the ACLU response followed another battle between the administration and the civil rights group. The two battled over Trump's bid to end a federal program that protected hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who were brought into the country as children, known as Dreamers.
On Sept. 5 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration would be winding down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Amid the wind-down, the ACLU sued the administration, accusing federal immigration authorities of illegally stripping "DACA protections from DACA recipients who have only been accused of a crime or found guilty of a minor misdemeanor that doesn't affect their DACA status."
In addition, the ACLU also filed suits against the Trump administration's attempt to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census and against the administration's blocking of young immigrant women in federal custody from obtaining abortions.
In the citizenship case, the ACLU - which worked with 18 U.S. states, 15 cities and various civil rights groups on the case - said that asking census respondents whether they are U.S. citizens would frighten immigrants and Latinos into abstaining from the count. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court where judges in a 5-4 ruling blocked Trump's contentious citizenship question planned for the 2020 census because officials gave a "contrived" rationale.
On abortion, the ACLU in 2017 filed multiple suits against the Trump administration accusing the government of preventing young immigrant women in federal custody from obtaining abortions. The first case involved a 17-year-old illegal immigrant who underwent an abortion in October a day after an appeals court overruled the Trump administration's objections.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Oct. 24, 2017 that the girl, whose name and nationality have not been disclosed but was referred to as "Jane Doe" in court papers, could have an abortion immediately, rejecting the administration's opposition. The case later went before the U.S. Supreme Court where justices threw out the lower court ruling that let the woman have the abortion. The decision provided a legal victory to Trump's administration even though the teenager already had the abortion because it eliminated a precedent at the federal appeals court level that could have applied in similar circumstances in which other detained minors sought abortions.
Two months later, the ACLU filed on behalf of two additional young women. The two young women in the latest legal action, known to the court as Jane Roe and Jane Poe, requested abortions, but the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement refused to allow them access to the procedure, the ACLU said in a statement on Dec. 15, 2017. A U.S. District Court judge several days later ruled that the administration must allow access to abortion for the two pregnant teenagers who are in the country illegally. In her ruling, Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote that the girls' "constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term" needed to be preserved.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday, October 11, at 0500 EDT (0900 GMT) and the prize, worth 9 million Swedish crowns ($ 1.12 million) will be handed over on December 10, 2019. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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