NEWARK - School is out for Newark's students, but Mayor Cory Booker's junior-year report card on civil liberties has just been released by the ACLU-NJ. The mayor passed, but not with flying colors. At the end of his third year in office, the Stanford and Yale-educated All-American and Rhodes Scholar earned a "C" average in civil liberties, with his worst grade, a "D," in the area of Police Practices.

"Mayor Booker deserves high marks in public speaking, but he has room to improve on the subject of civil liberties," said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs. "The Mayor came to City Hall promising to protect civil liberties, but when it's time to put those principles into practice, he hasn't lived up to his potential."

The good news: Mayor Booker earned a "B" on Immigrant Rights, and a "B" in Open Government.

The bad news: Mayor Booker earned a "C-" for Free Speech, and a "D" in Police Practices - and just barely.

To review the Mayor's report card in full detail, see: http://www.aclu-nj.org/newarkreportcard (230k PDF)

"This report card is more than just handing out a grade -- we're looking at the real lives of people in this city and adding up the costs to their rights," said Jacobs. "The Booker administration still needs to learn that you can't have public safety without public trust, and you can only earn that trust by respecting the rights of the people."

Paul Fishman is still expected to become New Jersey's next United States Attorney, but his appointment is taking a while.  It's been ten weeks since U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez wrote the President recommending his nomination, but the White House has not really begun the appointment of federal prosecutors for each state. 

Such delays are typical with a new administration.  It took George W. Bush nearly a year before settling on Christopher Christie as his pick.

Last week, when Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra defended his office after the American Civil Liberties Union released documents on the use of cell phone GPS tracking, some Democratic operatives viewed it as a defense of Christie, Marra's predecessor and a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor.  But sources close to the state's Democratic U.S. Senators say there has been no discussion about pushing the White House to speed up the appointment process so that Fishman can take office sooner.  And Marra was simply stating that the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey had always acted legally and with court approval of its actions, and not in defense of any particular person.

Marra's appointment as Acting U.S. Attorney, which was made by Attorney General Michael Mukasey in December, ends on June 29, unless a new U.S. Attorney is nominated and confirmed before then.  The new Attorney General, Eric Holder, will have the option of keeping Marra or making another 120 day interim appointment.

MERKT VOICES CONCERN OVER REPORT U.S. ATTORNEY USED CELL PHONES TO TRACK PEOPLE  WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANT
-
ISSUES STATEMENT ON ACLU COMPLAINT AGAINST CHRISTIE

Without judging the merit of the American Civil Liberty Union’s complaint against former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie for tracking suspects’ cell phones by court order instead of getting a warrant, rival gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan said that the issue “clouds the election.”

“It’s another distraction.  It’s an issue of what could be viewed of overzealous prosecution or perhaps overstepping bounds.  It’s another issue that can be used in the campaign. In a highly competitive race, Republicans cannot afford to have that,” said Lonegan, who is competing with Christie for the GOP nomination for governor.

While Lonegan said he usually disagrees with the ACLU, he conceded that the group is "occasionally correct on issues." 

The American Civil Liberties Union says it has discovered that while serving as U.S. Attorney, Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie approved tracking the precise location of targeted individuals through their cell phone without a warrant. 

In a statement released today, the ACLU says that Justice Department documents they obtained reveal that federal prosecutors in New Jersey and Florida did not obtain a search warrant before using technology to track their whereabouts.

"This is just the newest example of our privacy rights careening over the edge with federal officials drunk at the wheel," said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs. "Big Brother is tucked away in our cell phones, and the man behind the curtain is Chris Christie,"

But Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, Jr. defended the practices of his office.

"In all instances, the United States Attorney's Office has acted and continues to act lawfully and appropriately by seeking court approval as required under the law as it exists at any given time.  That is the case with this or any other investigative technique that requires court review," Marra said today.  

Marra says that  cell phone GPS tracking is used in "limited circumstances" and is used in cases involving "known, dangerous criminals or in the apprehension of fugitives."