Defending Your Rights in the New Year: News from the ACLU

[ACLU of Michigan <action@aclumich.org>]

Title: ACLU

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January 4, 2011 1. Our Legal Year in Review 2. Patients Take on Cities Banning Medical Marijuana 3. Another Round in the Fight for Public Defense Are you a card-carrying member of the ACLU of MI? Join today!

Our Legal Year in Review Brushing the confetti from New Year’s Eve off our shoulders, the ACLU of Michigan celebrates another year of protecting our Constitutional rights by looking back at our 2009-2010 legal docket. With your support, this past year the ACLU ensured that: students in Detroit are no longer illegally searched in school. poor people in Michigan aren't jailed in modern day debtors' prisons because they can't pay court fees and fines. a firefighter in the Upper Peninsula can speak out against the city he serves without choosing between his job and his rights. Read more in our 2009-2010 legal docket. Patients Take on Cities Banning Medical Marijuana When Michiganders overwhelmingly voted to decriminalize medical marijuana, Linda Lott felt relief for the first time in years. Linda would finally be able to treat the painful symptoms of multiple sclerosis with the drug as recommended by her doctor. Unfortunately, her relief was short-lived. The cities in which Linda lives, socializes and owns businesses—Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia—all passed ordinances making it a a crime to grow or use medical marijuana. Linda, her husband Robert and the ACLU of Michigan recently challenged these ordinances in an attempt to send a clear message across the state—medical marijuana patients shouldn't live in fear for following state law. The ACLU is also challenging a similar ordinance on behalf of a patient in Wyoming, Mich. This is the first legal challenge to such ordinances in Michigan. If successful, the outcome could have far-reaching implications for thousands of patients who have chosen compassionate care. Read what Linda has to say about the ordinances in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia. Another Round in the Fight for Public Defense Our state is one step closer to fixing its broken justice system after the Michigan Supreme Court reinstated its decision to allow a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan to proceed. In 2007, the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit asking a state court to force Michigan to fix its system for providing attorneys to poor people accused of crimes. As it stands, Michigan’s public defense is ranked as one of the worst in the country by leading legal experts.  Not only does the broken system lead to the incarceration of innocent people, it’s also costly. Some estimate that Michigan spends 40 percent more than other states on its prison system due to inappropriately long and often unwarranted sentences. Read more about our fight to reform the public defense system.

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