LOS ANGELES, Calif. - A high-school class president who was prohibited from wearing a homemade 'Prop. 8 Equals HATE' T-shirt at school must be allowed to wear it because the message is protected free speech under both the federal and state constitutions as well as state statute, the ACLU of Southern California has told officials of Big Bear High School.

Attorneys for the ACLU/SC have sent a letter to the officials demanding that they acknowledge their action was unlawful and allow sophomore Mariah Jimenez to wear the T-shirt to school if she so chooses.

Citing extensive federal and state law on free speech, ACLU/SC staff attorneys Peter Bibring and Lori Rifkin state in the letter that a school may not simply prohibit speech because it presents a controversial idea and could incite opponents of the speech to cause a disruption. Schools can only prohibit speech that incites disruption because it specifically calls for a disturbance, or because the manner of expression is so inflammatory that the speech provokes a disturbance.

'School administrators can't silence a student whenever they fear someone might be annoyed or offended by the student's views,' said Bibring. 'The First Amendment's protections are at their strongest for political speech, which often deals with controversial issues.'

On Nov. 3, one day before California residents were to vote on Proposition 8, Jimenez wore a T-shirt to school on which she had written, 'Prop. 8 Equals HATE.' The proposition sought to amend the state constitution and prohibit same-sex marriage.

Jimenez encountered no problems during the morning hours, other than a few students who disagreed with her by telling her, 'Vote yes on Prop. 8.' But during Jimenez' sixth-period class, teacher Sue Reynolds objected to the shirt, telling Jimenez that she should not be wearing such a divisive message. Reynolds sent Jimenez to the principal's office.

Principal Mike Ghelber insisted Jimenez either take off the shirt or remain in the principal's office. Jimenez took off the shirt and returned to class.

'The answer to controversial speech isn't censorship, but more speech,' attorney Rifkin said. 'Instead of stopping Ms. Jimenez from wearing a shirt because other people may disagree with its message, the school district should use this as an opportunity to educate both teachers and students about the importance of free speech and nondiscrimination.'

Image: Mariah Jimenez, wearing her DIY shirt.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The U.S. Embassy will protest to the government of the United Arab Emirates regarding the treatment of American citizen Naji Hamdan, who was severely tortured during the three months he was imprisoned by state security forces in the U.A.E.

Sean Cooper, chief consul at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said that, acting at Hamdan's request, the embassy will 'engage' U.A.E. officials 'on this most serious matter' when they return to work next week after the Muslim Eid holiday.

Hamdan, who has been detained in the U.A.E. since August 29, 2008, reported that he believes the U.S. is responsible for his detention, and that U.S. officials participated in his interrogation and possibly his torture while in U.A.E. state security custody. Hamdan said that several of the interrogators spoke American English and did not speak fluent Arabic. He could not see these individuals because his captors always blindfolded him during torture and interrogation sessions. Hamdan also reported that his captors interrogated him about information that only U.S. federal agents had access to, such as his behavior during a prior interrogation by FBI agents at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi. They also questioned him extensively about his life in the United States, where Hamdan lived for more than two decades.

'These and other details provide strong evidence that U.S. officials not only sought Hamdan's arrest by a foreign government, but apparently participated in his interrogation and torture in violation of federal criminal law,' said Ahilan Arulanantham, director of immigrants' rights and national security for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. Hamdan was charged and transferred to the Al Wathba prison late last month, only one week after the ACLU/SC filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C. seeking his release from the custody of the United States.

'U.S. officials must now take every step possible to end the brutal treatment of this American citizen by a foreign government acting as our proxy, and ensure that he is not prosecuted based on evidence obtained through torture,' Arulanantham said.

Hamdan told his brother, Hossam Hemdan,(CQ) that his captors routinely beat him and kept him in a freezing underground room during portions of his months-long detention by U.A.E. state security forces. His torturers severely beat him on his back, legs, head, and the soles of his feet. The torturers sometimes kicked him in the location of his liver, knowing that he has a liver condition. On at least one occasion, they strapped his arms and legs down to an electric chair, while suggesting that they would use it. They deprived him of sleep by shining a bright spotlight on his face for hours at a time, and engaged in other abuses.

The torture was so severe that he often passed out from the pain, Hamdan told his brother. The agents also threatened to punish Hamdan's wife and family if he did not confess to their allegations that he had engaged in terrorist activity.

It is a crime under U.S. federal law - 8 U.S.C. 2340A -- for U.S. officials to engage in or conspire to commit acts of torture.

'This is a nightmare for Naji and for his whole family,' said Hossam Hemdan. 'People in the United States need to know that this is happening. It's terrible that an innocent U.S. citizen would be treated this way by his own government.'

Last week U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the U.S. government to respond to the ACLU/SC's habeas corpus petition to free Hamdan. The government must respond by mid-January.

Over three months ago, a U.S. citizen named Naji Hamdan was arrested by the State Security forces of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). He was detained without charges or access to a lawyer until the ACLU filed a lawsuit on his behalf. He has since been released into criminal custody in the U.A.E., and reports that he was severely tortured while in detention, apparently in the presence of American officials. Throughout, the U.S. government claimed to know nothing about why he was detained.

A few weeks before his arrest, FBI agents from Los Angeles flew to the U.A.E. and interrogated Mr. Hamdan at the Embassy for several hours. This interrogation and the subsequent arrest were only the latest episodes in a two-year period during which the FBI intensively surveilled Mr. Hamdan.

Mr. Hamdan's description of the torture and interrogation he endured strongly suggests that American agents have been involved. Although his captors blindfolded him, his interrogators spoke native English with an American accent and were not fluent in Arabic. In addition, the agents interrogated Mr. Hamdan on topics about which only federal agents could have knowledge, such as a meeting he had with FBI agents at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi. His interrogators also asked him in extreme detail about his life and activities when he lived in the United States.

After his transfer into criminal custody, Hamdan told both his family and the U.S. consular officer who visited him that he had been severely tortured. He was repeatedly beaten on his head, kicked on his sides, stripped and held in a freezing cold room, put in an electric chair and made to believe that he would be electrocuted, and held down in a stress position while his captors beat the bottoms of his feet with a large stick. During this horrific process he said whatever the agents wanted him to say, and those statements may now be used against him in a criminal trial in the U.A.E.

We believe that Mr. Hamdan is the latest victim of the U.S. government's practice of asking foreign governments to detain terrorism suspects whom the federal government cannot itself detain and interrogate under U.S. law -- a practice known as '''proxy detention.' By asking other countries to detain on our behalf, the U.S. government apparently believes it can avoid the constraints of the U.S. Constitution, allowing federal agents to interrogate individuals held in secret, incommunicado detention, without charge or access to a lawyer, and while subject to torture. The countries we partner with, like the U.A.E., typically have poor human rights records and weak protections against prolonged arbitrary detention. Although our government has revealed very little about the proxy detention program, it has been documented by groups such as the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.

In a perverse way, the government's proxy detention program represents a logical response to the Supreme Court's rulings in the Guantanamo cases. The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected the government's attempt to create a law-free zone at Guantanamo, ruling most recently in as the government has done far too often in terrorism cases over the last several years ''' they appear to have asked the U.A.E.'s security forces to imprison him so that they could interrogate him free of the constraints of U.S. law. In doing so, American officials would have known that the U.A.E. State Security forces regularly torture those whom they detain. Amnesty on the U.A.E.'s torture record is here.

Our country owes better to its own citizens. The ACLU's habeas petition asks the government to correct its error by seeking Naji Hamdan's release. In addition, we ask the court to order the government to reveal the nature of its involvement in his detention. I hope the courts will step in to correct this grave injustice. Obviously if Hamdan has done something wrong, he should be charged with a crime. But the basis for those charges cannot be statements obtained under torture. If there is no evidence against him, he should be released. Our government owes him nothing less.