Top 10 Civil Liberties News Stories of the Week - August 11, 2006 Edition

Several months ago, I blogged about a creepy and strangely-worded city ordinance in Black Jack, Missouri that essentially bans nontraditional families by preventing any three people who are not related (by "blood, marriage, or adoption") from living in the same home. In the current and most notorious case, it is being enforced against an unmarried interracial couple taking care of three children--two that they had produced together, and one to which the mother had previously given birth.

The expectation was that the city would back down rather than face negative publicity from the suit, but the City of Black Jack continues to discriminate against the couple by refusing to grant them a housing permit. Now the ACLU has gotten involved. If the city continues to press the matter, the ordinance will most likely meet the same fate as North Carolina's anti-cohabitation law (see item #10).