On Friday, a federal court judge ordered Los Angeles County to fix the massive backup in the jail’s Inmate Reception Center (IRC) after county lawyers conceded to revelations of horrific treatment of people confined at the jail’s booking facility. U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson’s order prohibits the county from keeping people in the IRC […]
ACLU
Louisiana Will Pause Planned Transfer of Youth to Angola Prison
BATON ROUGE, La. August 24, 2022 — Louisiana’s Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) will pause its plan to move youth from a juvenile facility to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. The pause comes as a result of a federal lawsuit filedlast Friday by attorneys representing youth who were in imminent danger of being […]
Injunction on Florida’s 15-Week Abortion Ban Revoked Automatically Upon Appeal, Law to Remain in Effect
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. July 5, 2022 — Shortly after a state trial court officially issued an order blocking the state’s 15-week abortion ban on the ground it likely violates Florida’s state constitution and will cause irreparable harm, the state appealed the ruling, triggering an automatic stay of that injunction under Florida state law. The law, which […]
ACLU Report: Dozens of Sheriffs Partnering on Federal Immigration Enforcement Have Records of Racism, Abuse, and Violence
WASHINGTON, April 27, 2022 — The American Civil Liberties Union released a new research report today on Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, which delegates federal immigration enforcement authority to local and state law enforcement agencies and which expanded five fold under the Trump administration. The report, License to Abuse, is the first in-depth and comprehensive […]
ACLU Promises Legal Action After Gov. DeSantis Signs 15-Week Abortion Ban
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis today signed into law HB 5, a bill passed by the Florida Legislature earlier this month that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and criminalize doctors who offer abortion care to patients after that point. HB 5 would have devastating effects due to the myriad of […]
NEI/ACLU Comment on Air Force Inspector General’s Investigation Into Deadly U.S. Drone Strike in Kabul
NEW YORK, November 3, 2021 — At a press briefing, the U.S. Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Sami Said today provided a summary of his classified report investigating the Aug. 29 drone strike in Kabul that killed aid worker Zemari Ahmadi and nine members of his family, including 7 children. Mr. Ahmadi was employed by […]
Supreme Court declines to review ruling in favor of California patient who was denied care for being transgender
WASHINGTON November 1, 2021 – The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear a challenge to a California court decision in favor of a patient who was turned away from a hospital for being transgender. Evan Minton was scheduled to undergo a medical procedure in 2016 at Mercy San Juan Medical Center, a Sacramento hospital […]
ACLU, Lawyers Committee File Lawsuit Challenging Oklahoma Classroom Censorship Bill Banning Race and Gender Discourse
OKLAHOMA CITY, October 19, 2021 — A diverse group of students and educators filed a lawsuit today challenging an Oklahoma classroom censorship bill, HB 1775, which severely restricts public school teachers and students from learning and talking about race and gender in the classroom. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Oklahoma, […]
ACLU Rebukes President Biden for Breaking Campaign Promise to End Privatized Immigration Detention
The Biden administration has entered into at least one new Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agreement to expand its use of private prisons, despite a campaign promise and an executive order from President Biden to end the use of privately run detention facilities. On Tuesday, commissioners in Clearfield County, PA approved an agreement for Moshannon Valley […]
Civil Rights Organizations Appeal FBI’s Refusal to Disclose Government Records on the “China Initiative”
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2021 – The American Civil Liberties Union and Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC administratively appealed the FBI’s decision to close their joint FOIA request for records related to the “China Initiative” on Wednesday. The “China Initiative” is a wide-ranging government effort to scrutinize, investigate, prosecute, and take other measures against U.S.-based scientists […]
ACLU Seeks Public Records to Uncover Information About People Released from ICE Custody on Their Death Beds
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2021 — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a public records request today under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents related to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s practice of releasing hospitalized detainees from custody prior to their imminent death. The request comes after multiple reports that ICE has formally released people from […]
ACLU, Disability Rights Orgs File Amicus Brief Urging Court to Allow Britney Spears to Select Her Attorney in Conservatorship Case
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, with the support of 25 civil rights and disability rights organizations, filed anamicus brief with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on Monday in support of Britney Spears’s right to select her own attorney for her conservatorship proceedings. The brief also urged […]
ACLU, Partners Respond to United Nations High Commissioner Report on Systemic Racism and Police Violence
NEW YORK, June 28, 2021 — The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights released a long-awaited report today addressing systemic racism and law enforcement violence against Black people and people of African descent. The report calls for “transformative agenda” to uproot systemic racism and provides detailed recommendations that countries, including the United States, must […]
First-of-Its-Kind Report Reveals ICE’s Abuses Against Hunger Strikers
WASHINGTON, June 23, 2021 — A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) provides for the first time an in-depth, nationwide examination of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s abuse and retaliation against people who initiate hunger strikes in U.S. immigration detention to protest their conditions of confinement. “Behind Closed […]
Supreme Court Decision Does Not Create a License to Discriminate Based on Religious Beliefs
WASHINGTON. June 17, 2021 — The Supreme Court today ruled in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia that city officials’ decision not to renew Catholic Social Services’ foster care contract was impermissible because the city’s contract contained a mechanism for offering individual discretionary exemptions to agencies, which the court held that the city could not refuse to extend to CSS. The court did not, however, establish a general right for religious organizations to violate non-discrimination laws. The decision comes […]
ACLU Statement on Removal of Hyde Amendment from President’s Budget
WASHINGTON, May 28, 2021 — President Biden released his first full budget proposal today, eliminating the Hyde Amendment, a harmful ban on insurance coverage for abortion — marking the first time in decades that a president has taken this critical step. For more than 44 years, the Hyde Amendment and related abortion coverage bans have pushed […]
ACLU and EFF Ask Supreme Court to Review Case Against Warrantless Searches of International Travelers’ Phones and Laptops
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2021 —The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU of Massachusetts today filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the Department of Homeland Security’s policy and practice of warrantless and suspicionless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at U.S. […]
ACLU Statement on Derek Chauvin Guilty Verdict
MINNEAPOLIS — A jury has found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all charges in the murder of George Floyd. Jason Williamson, deputy director of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project: “George Floyd will never make his way home to play games with his daughter, Gianna. He’ll never go on walks through […]
ACLU of Maryland Comment on Former Maryland Medical Examiner Defending Police Killings of George Floyd, Anton Black
GREENSBORO, Md. April 14, 2021– One of the witnesses for Derek Chauvin defending him in his murder trial in the killing of George Floyd, Dr. David Fowler, is currently being sued by the family of Anton Black, a 19 year old Black teenager killed by police in Maryland. As Maryland medical examiner, Fowler claimed that […]
ACLU Statement on Arkansas Legislature’s Vote to Override Veto of Transgender Health Ban
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. April 6, 2021 – The ACLU of Arkansas today issued the following statement regarding the Arkansas Legislature’s vote to override Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of House Bill 1570, which aims to prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or even referring transgender young people for medically necessary health care. Multiple doctors and all major […]