ACLU TO TAKE UP FIN AID CASE

Lawsuit Seeks To Repeal Federal Law Denying Aid To Convicted Drug Users

Anti-drug policies often stress the importance of avoiding drugs for
health reasons. For potential financial aid recipients, however, drug
use can lead to scholarships going up in a puff of smoke, an issue
the American Civil Liberties Union plans on addressing.

The ACLU intends to represent the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy
in a South Dakota case regarding the legal status of a 1998 amendment
to the Higher Education Act. Specifically, the two groups hope the
class-action case will lead to the repeal of the law which makes a
student convicted of any drug offense ineligible for federal aid. "We
believe that the current harsh drug policy hurts our generation more
than helps it," said Tom Angell, the campaign director for the SSDP.
"We are the DARE generation. We grew up with the War on Drugs."

The law is being challenged on the grounds that it violates the
double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment -- "the right to not be
tried twice for the same crime. Students have "already been punished
once," said Allen Hopper, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU's
Drug Reform Project. Students with a drug conviction lose aid in
addition to whatever penalties the court assigns them, such as
rehabilitation programs or jail time. The lawsuit argues this
unfairly singles out drug offenders while "any non-drug offender,
from a murderer to a shoplifter, can receive financial aid."

Of the approximately 17 million undergraduate students last year, the
U.S. Department of Education provided aid to about 10 million.
According to the lawsuit, about 200,000 students have been affected
since its adoption. "We implement the laws passed by Congress," said
DOE spokesperson Valerie Smith. "When it comes to the health and
safety of students, we are fully supportive."

The lawsuit also claims that the law discriminates against low income
families, who rely more on federal aid dollars, to cover the expenses
of higher education. "Wealthy families can have all the drug
convictions they want," Hopper said, "while working class families
pay a price."

The original Higher Education Act was passed in 1965 to make college
more accessible to working class and lower income families. "When a
penalty is added it's really against the spirit of the law." Angell
said. The law revokes aid for one year for the first drug offense
with consequences rising as the number of convictions grow.

Another charge is that the law is racially biased, with the
African-American community constituting 12 percent of the U.S.
population and 62 percent of its drug convictions, according to the
lawsuit. The SSDP and ACLU believe that the current law
disproportionately limits aid for the African-American community, and
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has
also called for the law to be repealed.

At Columbia University, a€oein a typical year, between 45 percent and
50 percent of our students receive federal aid,a€ said David
Charlow, executive director of financial aid in an e-mail, a figure
lower than the national average of 63 percent recorded by the DOE. It
is unknown if any Columbia students have been denied their federal
aid award as a result of drug convictions, making them plaintiffs in
the lawsuit.