NEW YORK March 4, 2019 – On the heels of the one-year anniversary of the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the American Civil Liberties Union released a comprehensive analysis of federal civil rights data from 2015–16, highlighting severe under-resourcing in schools and a failure to follow mental health professionals’ recommendations for adequate support systems […]
ACLU
Posted inCalifornia
ACLU Statement on Sacramento DA Decision in Stephon Clark Shooting
SACRAMENTO March 2, 2019 – Today, Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced that her office will not press charges against the officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark in his grandmother’s backyard on March 18, 2018. Clark was unarmed, holding a cell phone, at the time he was killed. Lizzie Buchen, legislative advocate for […]
Posted inUS
ACLU: Supreme Court rules that 8th Amendment applies to civil seizures
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2019 – The Supreme Court today ruled that the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause is incorporated by the Bill of Rights and applies against state and local fines, fees, and forfeitures. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a friend-of –the-court brief in the case. Nusrat Choudhury, deputy director of the ACLU […]
Posted inUS
ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging National Emergency Declaration
SAN FRANCISCO February 19, 2019 – The American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club, ACLU of Texas, and ACLU of Northern California today filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s emergency powers declaration to secure funds to build a wall along the southern border. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern […]
Posted inUS
Judges, District Attorneys, Cops Ask N.C. Supreme Court to Declare Death Penalty Unconstitutional
DURHAM, N.C. Feb. 18, 2018 — A group of former prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials are asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to find the death penalty unconstitutional. In a friend-of-the-court brief, the group argues the death penalty is now used so rarely that it serves no purpose and should be considered “cruel or […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Michael Tan and Julie Veroff: Trump Administration Is Illegally Forcing Asylum Seekers Out of the United States
Feb. 15, 2019 – Michael Tan is Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; Julie Veroff is Skadden Fellow, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Last September, Bianca* was forced to flee Honduras because her partner’s father threatened to kill her for being a lesbian. Bianca could not go to the police in Honduras because they do […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Heather L. Weaver: The One Wall Trump Doesn’t Like — The One Separating Religion and Government
Jan. 29, 2019 – Heather L. Weaver is Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief President Trump may be the world’s most renowned fan of building walls, but there’s at least one wall he loathes: the wall of separation between church and state. From the Muslim ban to his so-called “religious freedom” executive order, […]
Posted inUS
Trump Administration Moves to Allow Discrimination in Child Welfare System
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2019 — The Trump administration granted permission today for government-contracted child welfare agencies in South Carolina to turn away would-be foster and adoptive parents based on religion. The decision comes in response to a request by the South Carolina governor, asking the Department of Health and Human Services to use the federal […]
Posted inUS
New Senate Proposal Would Eviscerate Asylum Protections
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2019 – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has put forth a hard-line immigration proposal in exchange for reopening the government, which has been shut down since December — the longest in U.S. history. Lorella Praeli, deputy political director at the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following response: “This proposal is substantially […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Patrick Toomey: The Justice Department Shouldn’t Be Snooping on Journalists
Jan. 18, 2019 – At a time when President Trump regularly attacks the news media, the Department of Justice may be preparing to make it easier for the government to obtain journalists’ private communications data. The public relies on both journalists and whistleblowers for vital information about our government’s most controversial activities. Weakening the current […]
Posted inUS
ACLU Sues Federal Government for Social Media Surveillance Records
NEW YORK January 17, 2019 – The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Northern California today sued the federal government for information on its social media surveillance activities, including practices to monitor immigrants and visa applicants under President Trump’s “extreme vetting” initiative. The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court for the Northern […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Jennifer Chang Newell: Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Policy Gutting Asylum for People Fleeing Domestic and Gang Violence
Dec. 19, 2018 – The Trump administration’s campaign to dismantle our asylum system just suffered another major setback. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., permanently blocked a June 2018 “expedited removal” policy that gutted asylum protections for immigrants fleeing domestic violence and gang brutality. Holding that “there is no legal basis for an effective categorical […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Jay Stanley: There’s Nothing Inevitable About Apps That Track Your Every Move
Dec. 12, 2018 – The New York Times on Monday ran an extensive article on how the locations of millions of American are being tracked by apps on their cell phones, bought and sold, and used for advertising and other commercial purposes. Is your location data among them? Do you know for sure? Every time […]
Posted inOp-Ed
David Cole: No Relief: William Barr Is as Bad as Jeff Sessions — if Not Worse
Dec. 7, 2018 – Donald Trump’s nomination of William Barr to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general ought to raise alarm bells across the country. Barr is as bad as Sessions was on the full range of civil rights issues that fall with the Justice Department’s purview. And he’s a longstanding advocate of expansive executive […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Scott Nicol: There’s No Real Difference Between Border Walls and Border Fences
December 6, 2018 – Sometime between now and Dec. 21*, when the current appropriation for the Department of Homeland Security will expire, Congress needs to provide the agency with another’s year’s funds. A single word has become a sticking point for the politicians who will vote on that funding: “wall,” as in President Trump’s border […]
Posted inUS
ACLU Sues CIA to Find Body of Torture Victim
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2018 — After nearly two decades of requests for information, the family of Gul Rahman, who was tortured to death in CIA custody in 2002, is suing the agency to determine what it did with his body. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the family, filed the lawsuit in the federal […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Madhuri Grewal: How Trump Weaponized the Government’s Refugee Resettlement Agency
November 28, 2018 – The American November 28, 2018 – Back in April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both under the Department of Homeland Security, entered into a memorandum of agreement with an obscure government agency known as the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Sameer Ahmed and Imaan Patel: Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Military Enlistment Policy
Nov. 21, 2018 – Sameer Ahmed is Staff Attorney, ACLU of Southern California. Imaan Patel is Law Clerk, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department. Despite attacking family members of fallen war heroes, criticizing Sen. John McCain for being captured in war, and recently deploying troops to the border for a costly and unnecessary political stunt, President […]
Posted inUS
ACLU Responds to Reports CBP is Using Tear Gas Against Migrants at the Border
WASHINGTON November 25, 2018 – Reports released today indicate that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are using tear gas against migrants attempting to seek asylum at the San Ysidro port of entry at the Mexico/California border. Lorella Praeli, deputy political director at the ACLU, had the following response: “Under no circumstances should CBP be using tear […]
Posted inOp-Ed
David C. Fathi: Prisoners Are Getting Paid $1.45 a Day to Fight the California Wildfires
November 15, 2018 – As firefighters in California battle the deadliest wildfires in the state’s history, they are joined by unlikely allies against the blaze. About 200 prisoners in California’s Conservation Camp program are fighting the fires alongside civilian employees, earning just $1.45 a day for their work. Their pay as workers is a fraction […]