WWW.ACLU-IN.
ORG
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
2 LEGISLATIVE WRAPUP
The ACLU of Indiana had some
wins, losses and draws during the
extended 2009 Indiana session.
Read Joan Laskowski’s recap.
3 TINY TEAM, BIG WORK
Our staff is smaller -- but busy as
ever, with 800 calls per month
coming into our office. Legal
director Ken Falk tells you how
our team responds to every call.
4 A MOVING PICTURE
American Violet captured the
hearts of national and local
moviegoers. Learn more about
our exclusive screening in
See
Google, page 5
Indianapolis.
5 MEET GIL HOLMES
A longtime force within our
organization is back. Get to know
our interim executive director as
he discusses the importance of
outreach.
6 OUR VISION, MISSION
Where are we going? Read our
new 2009-2012 strategic plan.
****************
ELECTION DO-OVER!
Due to a delivery mixup, we are
asking all members to vote again
- even if you already sent in your
ballot. Only the new ballots will
count. We appreciate your
understanding and participation.
CANDIDATE GUIDE
Look for a clip-and-mail ballot,
candidate list, map and vote info.
ACLU OF INDIANA
FALL 2009 NEWSLETTER
VOL. 9, ISSUE 2
Board President’s message: Cathy Gibson
Googling away our privacy
“The fundamental problem inherent in the to find a rare or
Settlement is the complete absence of any ephemeral book
limitations on collection and use of reader can only applaud
information and no privacy standards for this effort;
retention, modification, deletion or disclosure of h o w e v e r, a
that information to third parties or the
t r o u b l i n g
government. Without those limitations, an
complication has
unprecedented quantity of granular information
emerged. The
about reader’s activities will be, and indeed
already is, being collected – including the identity G o o g l e
of readers, every book searched for, browsed, technology also Cathy Gibson
purchased, and read.” allows a data trail on who is accessing
-- Written statement of the specific materials. The ACLU got
American Civil Liberties Union involved to highlight the privacy issues
involved. Recently a friend commented
before the House Judiciar y
Committee hearing on the Google that this involvement was another
Books project, Sept. 10, 2009. example of causes that make it difficult to
defend the ACLU. To this friend it was a
Google’s project of digitizing as
nuisance issue. I understand that
many books as possible has caused mixed
reaction, but as a former librarian
reactions. The scope of the project is
involved with intellectual freedom issues,
enormous, and the copyright issues alone
I have to disagree. Those of you over
are mind-boggling. Anyone who has tried
ACLU of INDIANA annual dinner Nov. 13, 2009 * Save the Date!
Juan Williams, author/TV host
Your Annual Dinner Committee has
begun cranking up for this year’s
celebration, and as a result we now have
a date, location and a theme.
Join us starting at 6 p.m. Friday,
Nov. 13 at The Marrott, 2625 N
Meridian Street in Indianapolis.
Following our Safe and Free, and
Growing! theme, we are gearing up for
an amazing time.
Don’t forget about our distinguished
k ey n o t e s p e a k e r Ju a n Wi l l i a m s,
commentator on National Public Radio
and Fox News. Along with his impressive
journalistic skills, Williams wrote the
critically acclaimed biog raphy dinner speaker is made possible through a
“Thurgood Marshall: American bequest from the estate of Marian
Revolutionary” which was released in McKay Walley, a passionate advocate of
paperback in February 2000. Go to civil liberties and a longtime supporter of
www.aclu-in.org to reserve a table or the ACLU of Indiana. Members of her
become a sponsor. Tickets are $100 family will be present to acknowledge our
He is also the author of the gratitude for her generosity and vision.
nonfiction bestseller Eyes on the Prize: Special thanks to Nora Hiatt for
America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, securing Juan, and to our Annual Dinner
the companion volume to the critically Committee for their efforts.
acclaimed television series. This year’s We’ll see you in November!
 ACLU OF INDIANA
Joan Laskowski wrapup
Highlights of the 2009
General Assembly
Members of the 2009 General Assembly
had two imperatives: to pass a state
budget and to insure re-election. The first
required special
session overtime
for the
legislators; the
second required
overtime for the
defenders of
civil liberties.
This effort was
l a r g e l y Joan Laskowski
successful. Most
Hoosier liberties survived. The ACLU of
Indiana, led by Legislation Director
Gavin Rose, followed over 100 bills,
testifying and working with coalitions on
many. Results for some of the priority
bills follow.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Once again there was a powerful
attempt to make reproductive healthcare
even less accessible in Indiana. A bill to
require physicians who perform abortions
to obtain hospital admitting privileges in
the county or the county adjacent to
where the procedure is provided made its
way through both chambers. Under the
color of patient safety, the legislation
imposed stricter regulations on one class
of doctors than on any others doing
riskier outpatient surgical procedures. It
also ignored the fact
that because fewer
than 0.3% of
abortion patients
have complications
r e q u i r i n g
hospitalization,
hospitals have little
interest in granting
admitting privileges.
As a result of strong coalition work and
emails and calls from ACLU-IN Bill of
Rights Lobby members, supportive
legislators succeeded in passing daunting
amendments late in the process. These
required admitting privileges for all
invasive surgical procedures and
established the provision of breast and
cervical cancer screening for uninsured
women. Insistence on these amendments
ultimately defeated the bill in conference
committee. Your efforts were the vital
2
FALL 2009
force in defeating this legislation. Thank
you. None of the many other bills
i m p e d i n g a w o m a n ’s a c c e s s t o
reproductive healthcare were passed.
However, none of the reproductive
freedom bills we supported were passed
either. These included measures
requiring pharmacies to fill contraceptive
prescriptions in a timely manner; defining
contraception and exempting it from
abortion statutes; requiring a principal to
notify parents if the school is providing
abstinence-only sex ed courses; and
makes the diversion from public to
requiring medically accurate age-
religious schools permissible. This is not
appropriate sex education.
the end of the fight.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Legislative backers promise to return to
Our keenest loss came in the special
try to increase both the present 50% tax
session, when the state budget was passed
credit for each contribution and the
with a neovoucher provision giving a tax
present $2.5 million cap. This is the time
credit for contributions to nonprofit
to talk with your state legislators about
scholarship-funding organizations. This
your concerns regarding public school
takes up to $2.5 million of Hoosier taxes
funding, which is a state constitutional
away from public schools and, for the first
mandate, and the preservation of
religious liberty if government is
permitted to use taxpayer money to
How did they vote? benefit religious institutions.
VOTING RIGHTS
Track your state legislators’ votes
on these issues and more key civil The ACLU-IN supported a number of
bills to ease Indiana’s most restrictive in
liberties bills by clicking 2009 Voting
Records on our www.aclu-in.org the nation voter ID requirements; to
extend poll hours; to expand the
website.
franchise and simplify voting procedures.
Only two bills passed, one of which was
Whether your legislators have a high
or low civil liberties score, your vetoed. Legislation specifying that a voter
who casts a provisional ballot must be
activism makes you part of a
movement to preserve freedom. told within three days of the election why
the ballot is treated as provisional and
what steps must be taken to have the
Ke e p i n c o n t a c t w i t h y o u r
representative. Your interaction with ballot counted was passed by House and
Senate but vetoed by the Governor. The
your legislators and your
contributions make it possible to legislation that was signed protects the
voting rights of the military and public
hire a staff lobbyist to keep this
movement alive. safety officers and permits online voter
registration for people with a valid
driver’s license or state ID.
time, makes them available to K-12 A much-lobbied measure authorizing as
private schools, most of which are sufficient voter ID an ID document with
religious. The ACLU of Indiana strongly no expiration date or an indefinite date
opposed this legislation. from an Indiana post-secondary
educational institution or the military or
The Indiana Constitution forbids the Peace Corps died in conference
drawing any money from the treasury for committee.
the benefit of any religious institution.
State legislators who supported this Joan Laskowski, vice president of legislation, is
current voucher-funding plan, and the a board member of the ACLU of Indiana and
Governor, argued that the funds are the national ACLU.
“uncollected” tax dollars and that this
 ACLU OF INDIANA
FALL 2009

IN THE NEWS
KEN FALK ON THE FOURTH
The Independence Day 2009 edition
of the Indianapolis Star profiled Ken
Falk, talking - naturally - about civil
liberties on the country’s birthday.
Wrote the Star’s Will Higgins: “Ken
Falk, who as the legal director for the
ACLU of Indiana invariably is on
privacy’s side, figures at least one of
every 10 lawsuits he files is privacy-
related. Some he wins, some he loses.
In 2006, Falk won a case against the
Indiana attorney general, who had
sought to seize medical records of
minors from Planned Parenthood. In
the fall, Falk appealed to the Indiana
Supreme Court over a lower court’s
decision to uphold a Plainfield, Ind.
ordinance that bars sex offenders from
public parks. Not all share his view, but
to Falk, “it’s a right of personal privacy
to be able to walk in public places.”

Ken Falk wrapup and I would encourage required to register v. Murphy, Chadwell v. Indiana
you to review it on our from entering a city’s Family and Social Services
Small staff, but website (www.aclu- parks (Dowdell v. City Administration); a challenge by
heavy caseload in.org). Among our of Jeffersonville). We motorists who claimed they were

for legal
Since my last report, the legal
staff has shrunk. Jackie Bowie
Suess has resigned after more than
a decade of service. Although no
longer employed as a staff attorney,
Jackie continues to work as a
cooperating attorney so we still
receive the benefit of her presence
and excellent work. However, her
absence as a full time attorney with
the office is, and will continue to
be, felt. No new attorney has been
hired and no new hiring is planned
for the foreseeable future. As a
result, the entire legal staff is now
two attorneys − myself and Gavin
Rose − and our legal assistant,
Kandy Kendall. Nevertheless we
continue to receive 600-800
requests for assistance a month, all
of which are processed by Kandy
and a small number of dedicated
volunteers. We continue to have an
extremely active litigation docket
recent successes: A
preliminary injunction
order that was later
turned into an agreed
judgment resulting in the
permanent removal of a
Ken Falk
church trailer from school
grounds that was being used for
religious instruction during the
school day (H.S. v. Huntington
County Community School Corp.);
successful defenses, in a number of
cases, of homeless individuals who
received citations for being on
Indianapolis sidewalks (City of
Indianapolis v. McClellan; City of
Indianapolis v. Byrd); a settlement
allowing the posting of an atheist’s
group message on Bloomington
buses (Indiana Atheist Bus
Campaign v. Bloomington Public
Transportation Corp.); an appellate
decision striking down as
unconstitutional as applied a
municipal ordinance that banned a
sex offender who was no longer
continue to litigate a
wide range of cases
across the spectrum of
civil liberties. Some of
the cases include: a
challenge to the failure
of administrative law
judges to consider additional
evidence in Medicaid hearings
(Curtis v. Murphy); a case claiming
that the Americans with Disabilities
Act is violated by the intrusive
questions concerning past mental
health treatment demanded of those
applying for the Indiana bar (Doe v.
Individual Members of the Indiana
Board of Law Examiners); a
number of litigation challenges to
policies and practices which
impinge upon prisoners’ religious
practices in both the state and
federal prison systems; cases
attacking the policy of the State of
reducing the number of hours for
respite and attendant care services
for some Medicaid recipients (B.N.
wrongfully stopped and detained in
a traffic stop (Lockridge v. City of
Lawrenceburg); challenges, on self-
incrimination grounds, to
requirements imposed on sex
offenders both while in prison and
on parole (Clark v. Buss, Fields v.
Buss). The extensive docket
reflects the dedication and
commitment of the staff who
manage an enormous amount of
litigation at one time.
Thank you for your continued
help and support and please feel
free to contact me with any
comments or questions.
Ken Falk came to Indiana in 1977
to work for Legal Services in Muncie
and has been with the ACLU of
Indiana since 1996. He is the
organization’s legal services director
and an adjunct professor at the
Indiana University School of Law -
Indianapolis.

3
 ACLU OF INDIANA FALL 2009

Q&A A look inside the ACLU of Indiana

What exactly is the relationship The ACLU of Indiana is one of 50 state or regional affiliates of the American Civil
between the ACLU and the ACLU of Liberties Union. Our agreement with the ACLU is that most Indiana donations and
Indiana? some Indiana membership fees are shared with the ACLU, and we work with ACLU on
some of our public education, litigation and legislative advocacy efforts.

How does ACLU of Indiana decide
what cases to accept for
representation?
In the mail, on the phone, in person, and over the internet, we receive over 800 requests
for assistance each month, and several volunteers help our legal staff sort through these
requests. Of course, with a legal staff of just two full-time attorneys, a part-time
attorney and a paralegal, we can only take on a small fraction of these cases. Our
priorities are defending Hoosiers from government actions that violate the Bill of
Rights, which leads us to have an active docket of cases involving freedom of speech,
free religious expression, equal protection and due process rights of children and people
with disabilities, and prisoners’ rights to be free of cruel and unusual punishment. Our
current docket can be viewed on-line at http://www.aclu-in.org/

Moving MAKE A CONTRIBUTION

picture I would like to make a tax deductible contribution to the ACLU of
On Sept. 17, the Indiana Foundation.
American Civil
Liberties Union MEMBERSHIP
brought a Sign me up!
national case
home to
Indianapolis. That
day honors the Membership categories Individual Joint
Constitution of Student membership $5
the United
Basic membership $20 $30
States and the
organization Contributing membership $35 $50
hosted two free Supporting membership $75 $75
s c re e n i n g s o f Sustaining membership $125 $125
American Violet,
a real-life-
turned-movie
portrayal of a
ACLU of Indiana. “This Enclosed is my check for: $_________________________
mother falsely charged as a
film is a prime example of
drug dealer. The ACLU
how the organization
took on this case and VISA_________MASTERCARD________EXP DATE ___/____
comes to the aid of
wo n . M o re t h a n 2 5 0
persons who lack the
people attended the
resources to defend ACCOUNT
screenings – and some
themselves.” More details
movie-goers actually
at americanviolet.com. #__________________________________________
dropped in dollar bills on
t h e i r w ay o u t ! “ Fo r
This community outreach
decades, the ACLU has
event was courtesy of the
been at the forefront of
ACLU, Madame CJ Walker
helping individuals keep
Theatre, Mays Chemical SIGNATURE_________________________________________
their rights as guaranteed
Company, Indianapolis
by the U.S. Constitution
Urban League, and IU
and the Bill of Rights,” said Mail checks or cash to ACLU of Indiana, 1031 E. Washington St.,
School of Law
Gilbert Holmes, interim Indianapolis, IN 46202-3952
(Indianapolis).
executive director of the

4
 ACLU OF INDIANA
GOOGLE, from
page 1
Gil Holmes wrapup
sixty will remember the charge slips in
the back of library books that listed the
prior readers of the book. I remember
thinking that this information was
fascinating and offered insights into
people I knew. Therein is the rub. This
information was none of my business,
and over the years libraries have done all
they could to protect the privacy of their
readers, listeners, and viewers. From a
privacy consideration, one of
the best features
of the newer
l i b r a r y
c o m p u t e r i ze d
circulation
systems is that
the link with a
particular
borrower is
broken as soon as
the item is
returned. In the old days of photographic
transactions it was possible to reread the
film and determine what items a specific
user had borrowed. The Indianapolis
public library system required a court
order before it would provide any
information to law enforcement agencies.
The Patriot Act added a new and
disturbing rule that required libraries to
reveal to federal officials items that had
been loaned to a particular person, but
prohibited them from reporting that such
requests had been received.
(It is impossible to know how much
of this process went on or is still going
on.)
Recently I have been thinking more
seriously about the data trail we all leave
behind us when we use those store cards
that fit on your keychain (think CVS and
Marsh) and probably many others that I
haven’t thought about. The statement of
the American Civil Liberties Union is
that “we have been the nation’s pre-
e m i n e n t a d vo c at e i n s u p p o r t o f
individual free speech rights and one of
the foremost protectors of individual
privacy”.
I can tell you what I have been
reading if I choose to do so, but “Big
Brother” should not be able to pry into
my reading habits via Google on a whim
or suspicion.
5
building, add to its value, and provide
Carrying the torch
Several adjectives come to mind when
describing the events that are now
unfolding in the world as we know it, and
in our own ACLU of Indiana affiliate.
The times are exciting, exhilarating,
challenging, promising, and even
frightening when considered in the
context of civil liberties, and where the
path will take us on our journey to
continue to uphold the constitutional
guarantees of all who reside within our
borders and shores.
There is general excitement that we have
elected and installed for the very first time
a president who is unlike any of the
previous inhabitants of this office, a man
who is of
A f r i c a n -
American
descent. While
the excitement
about this
historical event
is clearly
universally
high, there is
both a positive
and negative
Gil Holmes
response to this
phenomenon. It is not unreasonable to
think that the Bill of Rights, particularly
the 1st Amendment, will face challenges
as we struggle to both define and protect
free speech. Here in our affiliate, there is
a feeling of exhilaration which plays out
in several ways. We are seeing a surge of
renewed and growing interest and active
participation in the work of the ACLU of
Indiana. Our board has recently
completed a very comprehensive strategic
plan (see page 6 for details), and this issue
of the newsletter details how we
successfully hosted a community outreach
project -- the screening of the movie
“American Violet” -- and our plans for
our Annual Dinner which will take place
on Nov. 13. HOLD THE DATE! You
will receive more information on the
dinner very soon. Our keynote speaker
will be Juan Williams, nationally featured
commentator on PBS and Fox News. Our
dinner theme will be “Safe and Free, and
Growing!” This captures the national
ACLU theme of “Safe and Free” along
with our own new posture of growing.
We have launched a project to plan for a
significant upgrade of our home in the
Price Building. Ultimately, this plan,
borne of necessity will preserve our
FALL 2009
both a functionally efficient, as well as
attractive environment that our members,
supporters and staff can be proud of. For
a number of reasons we face significant
challenges, as do all sectors of our society.
The most critical challenge we face is
financial. We simply must generate
renewed efforts to reengage our
historically loyal and generous supporters;
sustain and grow our membership; reach
out to those who would become
supporters if given the opportunity. The
board of directors has thrown its support
behind a plan to create a functional
development operation which will guide
this effort. Each of us has a role to play if
we are to be successful in meeting this
challenge. We face an incredibly
promising future. We see mounting
interest on the part of young people who
are expressing high interest in being more
engaged in the cause of civil liberties. We
have had requests for participation
ranging from already active chapters such
as the Indiana University SE Student
Chapter, to the Notre Dame University
Law School where there is an emerging
chapter. We must, in my opinion,
continue to do outreach to those
populations that have not heretofore been
engaged in our work. There is also an
element of fear that hovers over our civil
liberties. The rancid air of incivility,
distrust and suspicious rhetoric seems to
me to suggest that unless we as civil
libertarians set a course of maintaining
objectivity and hue to the time tested
precepts of liberty, we face the risk of an
erosion of the freedoms we hold dear. So
become a member and donate what you
can. See page 4 of this newsletter for
details. Come join us!
Gil Holmes is interim executive director
of the ACLU of Indiana and a longtime
board member.
“WE HAVE SIGNIFICANT
challenges facing us. If you
truly believe in the strength,
beauty and genius of our
Constitution and Bill of Rights,
then you must consider
yourself a civil libertarian and
a person who does, and will,
support the ACLU of Indiana.”
 ACLU OF INDIANA
FALL 2009

OUR STRATEGIC PLAN

2009-2012
MISSION: The ACLU of Indiana promotes, protects,
and defends the rights, liberties and freedom guaranteed
to all people in our state by the U.S. and Indiana
Constitutions.

VISION: The ACLU of Indiana will be widely

recognized as the preeminent organization in the State of
Indiana that carries out its mission of defending and
protecting the civil liberties of Indiana residents through
the development of vital, visible, sustainable programs of
advocacy, education, outreach, litigation, and legislative
engagement.

This summer, the ACLU of Indiana created a blueprint

for our next three years – a strategic plan for
2009-2012! There is a truly budding sense of excitement
and energy that now permeates the ACLU of Indiana
environment. It’s our future to either own or watch fail.

BRIEFLY ...
Cong rats, Fran!
Fran Quigley, former Executive Director of the ACLU of Indiana
and current board member of the ACLU of Indiana Foundation,
is the author of a book recently published by Indiana University
Press. Walking Together, Walking Far is the story of the
partnership between the I.U. School of Medicine and Moi
University School of Medicine to combat HIV/AIDS in Kenya.
The paperback book is $19.95 and is available in local bookstores,
from Amazon, and in many local libraries.
Learning from the past
History is important! In August, ACLU of Indiana interim
executive director Gil Holmes met with Rebecca Shepherd
Shoemaker, a retired professor of history at Indiana State
University. Shoemaker, a historian, has written a history of the
ACLU/ICLU from its beginnings through the early 1990s but
believes that there is a need for another volume covering 1990s to
date. Gil has had preliminary discussions of this project with
several board members and other supporters, and hopes to get
some traction on it in the near future. Everyone associated with
the ACLU of Indiana should indeed all be proud of all of the
hard work and dedication that has kept us going for over 55 years.
Share your own photos or memories with us. E-mail Laurie at
lrice@aclu-in.org. The story needs to be told!
Indiana board members meet with individual ACLU members to
discuss the state of civil liberties in Indiana, concerns the member
may have, and whether the member will, in addition to paying
membership dues to the Union, continue to help us defend the
Bill of Rights by making a tax deductible contribution to the
ACLU of Indiana Foundation.
We’re hiring
Indiana’s premier civil liberties advocacy organization seeks a
dynamic, effective leader to direct and successfully implement the
recently approved strategic plan for the American Civil Liberties
Union of Indiana, which has a membership of 4,500 and an
annual budget of $625,000.
The principal goals identified in the plan are to improve the
efficiency of the administration, promote public awareness of the
ACLU in Indiana and increase membership. The ED will
supervise a renewed interest in fund raising and development,
including major donor cultivation. The ED joins a legal director
who has an outstanding reputation for successful litigation
contributive to civil liberties. Our successful applicant will have
the enthusiastic support of a committed and diverse Board.
Applicants should possess a strong commitment to civil liberties
and be willing to address challenging and rewarding goals.

Please send a cover letter, resume, references, and a writing

We need you - and a friend! sample to Executive Director Search, ACLU of Indiana, P. O.
Become a member by visiting www.aclu-in.org, or call Box 441660, Indianapolis, IN 46204-9998 or, jobopening@aclu-
317.635.4059. Donations are also accepted to further our work. in.org.

Bill of Rights fundraising drive Twitter for us

An annual tradition resumes in November and December, as the
ACLU of Indiana conducts its most important fundraising drive
of the year, the “Bill of Rights” campaign. The campaign is
grounded in the firm belief that personal outreach and one-on-
one conversations with members and potential supporters are the
most cost effective and friendly way to raise funds. ACLU of
The ACLU of Indiana is interested in social media. We’re already
on MySpace, but we’d love volunteers to help us get the message
out on both Facebook and Twitter, and do so regularly and
professionally. Contact us if you are interested at lrice@aclu-
in.org or to get more information.

6
 ACLU OF INDIANA FALL 2009

CALENDAR:
NOVEMBER
13th - annual dinner with keynote
FALL 2009 NEWSLETTER
SPECIAL SAFE,
speaker Juan Williams

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER
“Bill of Rights” fundraising drive
ELECTION FREE ... AND
JANUARY
Our annual report recapping
events of 2009 GUIDE GROWING!
APRIL
Our yearly financial report and see inside for details!
summary