The Minnesota Independent

Justice/Civil Liberties - Latest Stories

ACLU of Minnesota issues travel alert for Arizona

By Andy Birkey | 06.30.10 | 1:02 pm

The ACLU of Minnesota issued a travel alert Wednesday for Minnesotans planning to travel to Arizona over the July 4 weekend. It issued the advisory in response to Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070, which directs police to check citizenship…

National Lawyers Guild: What police seized was not ‘weaponized’ urine

By Andy Birkey | 08.30.08 | 10:55 pm


The National Lawyers Guild has released a statement about the items seized in police raids on Saturday targeting the homes of anti-RNC protesters. Of particular note: buckets of urine that Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said were going…

Pre-RNC homeland insecurity: Police abuses of power ramping up as convention nears

By Andy Birkey | 08.27.08 | 7:44 am


As the Republican National Convention draws closer, fears of police overreach are already being realized. In just the past four days, a number of incidents have raised the suspicions of Twin Cities civil libertarians.

All Sides Supportive of Anti-Abortion Protest Ruling

By Jeff Fecke | 08.09.07 | 4:14 pm

The Supreme Court of Minnesota ruled unanimously last month that anti-abortion protesters cannot be cited for disrupting traffic even though their signs were, by all accounts, graphic.  And that ruling has earned support from what might seem an unlikely group.…