Town Hall Meeting with Special Guest and Speaker Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky

On Sunday, July 17, CAIR-Chicago and the other organizational members of the Civil Liberties Coalition of Illinois (CLCI) held a town hall meeting to discuss the issues involved in the expiring, or sunset, provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. The town hall meeting occurred between 1 and 3 pm on the campus of Loyola University and had greater than 120 attendees in a packed house from a diverse cross-section of the Chicagoland community. “The purpose of the town hall meeting was to inform the public at large about the deleterious effects that the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act have on our civil rights and liberties. Increasing national security is a priority, but it should not be at the permanent expense of the civil rights and liberties upon which our country was built,” said Fadi Farhan, Director of Governmental Relations. Member organizations of the CLCI include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, Chicago Council of Lawyers, Cook County Bar Association, Council on American-Islamic Relations—Chicago, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Independent Voters of Illinois – Independent Precinct Organization, Japanese American Citizens League, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Muslim Bar Association, Muslim Civil Rights Center, and National Lawyers Guild. A member of each organization and Congresswoman Schakowsky sat on a panel and answered questions the crowd had about the provisions in question and the act in general.

Please direct any questions or comments regarding the CLCI or the Town Hall Meetingthis meeting to Fadi Farhan, Director of Governmental Relations, at gov.relations@cairchicago.org.

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