LWVC DELEGATES CONCERNED OVER ERODING CIVIL LIBERTIES

SACRAMENTO ­ Delegates attending the recent League of Women Voters of California (LWVC) Convention in Oakland passed a resolution expressing great concern about the erosion of civil liberties in the United States of America.  This follows a recent vote by the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS) board of directors to add civil liberties to its current legislative agenda.

In passing the resolution, delegates to the League's 60th statewide convention expressed their concern that several executive orders and legislative acts, such as the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Homeland Security Act, are contrary to such basic League positions as opposing major threats to basic constitutional rights and individual liberties; protecting the citizen's right to know; and facilitating citizen participation in government decision-making.

League members will urge state and local officials to closely oversee the implementation of these acts and executive orders to ensure constitutional protections are not abridged. League members will also promote education efforts to increase public awareness of the need to protect Constitutional rights.

Since its birth in 1920, the League of Women Voters has worked to protect civil liberties and foster open government for all.  The "witchhunt" period of the early 1950s led the League to undertake a two-year Freedom Agenda community education program dealing with issues such as freedom of speech.  The LWVUS announced the current position on civil liberties in 1982.

The League of Women Voters of California is the largest state League organization in the United States, with 70 local Leagues and four county/area Leagues and more than 11,000 members.