The movement for racial justice has shown us what democracy looks like. The Biden-Harris administration must make that vision a reality.
By Charles Lawrence, III
Wonderful people,
I see you marching by the millions, raising your voices in dissent, shouting “Black Lives Matter,” demanding an end to police violence. On a single day this summer, more than half a million people join your demonstrations: in every state, in cities and small towns, in red states and blue. …
The company’s shareholders have it within their power to stop Amazon’s deployment of its invasive face surveillance technology, Rekognition.
To Amazon shareholders:
Before you are two shareholder proposals concerning Amazon’s face recognition surveillance technology. Your vote on these proposals will help chart the course for the kind of society we’ll have to live in, and whether that society will be forced to suffer under continuous, inescapable, and dangerous government surveillance.
The first proposal would ask the Board of Directors to stop sales of “Rekognition” — Amazon’s face surveillance technology — to the government. …
The for-profit bail industry condones trauma and incentivizes violence to improve their bottom line.
By Andrea Woods, Staff Attorney, Criminal Law Reform Project
& Alex Rate, Legal Director, ACLU of Montana APRIL 17, 2019 | 3:00 PM
Around 9:20 p.m. on Sunday, April 23, 2017, Eugene Mitchell, Shayleen Meuchell, and their four-year-old daughter were in bed at their home in Lolo, Montana, when they heard a violent crash. “It sounded like a truck had driven straight into our house,” Mitchell later said. In a surreal flash, armed bounty hunters kicked in the front door, broke into the bedroom, pointed assault rifles and pistols at the family, and shouted at them not to move.
The bounty hunters terrorized the Montana family. But the trauma and harm did not end there. …
If legislators know these laws violate the First Amendment, they should repeal them, not pass half-measures designed to thwart judicial review.
By Brian Hauss, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project APRIL 16, 2019 | 7:45 PM
Last year, an Arizona federal court blocked the state from enforcing its anti-boycott law, ruling that the law — which requires government contractors to certify that they are not participating in boycotts of Israel or Israeli settlements in the West Bank — violates the First Amendment. In response, the state appealed the court’s decision and asked the Ninth Circuit to allow it to continue enforcing the unconstitutional law pending appeal. …
We’re asking all presidential candidates to end unjust laws that strip citizens of their fundamental right to vote due to criminal convictions.
By Bobby Hoffman, Advocacy & Policy Counsel, Voting Rights , ACLU APRIL 17, 2019 | 2:45 PM
At the founding of our nation, women, African Americans, those who were unable to read or write, poor people, and individuals with felony convictions were excluded from the ballot box. Over the course of our nation’s history, the right to vote has expanded to include African Americans and women. Additionally, poll taxes and literacy tests have been banned. …
Gavin McInnes’ attempt to silence those who have every right to call him out for his bigoted views should fall flat.
By Vera Eidelman, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project APRIL 17, 2019 | 3:00 PM
For years, Gavin McInnes has spewed bigoted views on everything from race and religion to gender and immigration. He has described a transgender person as “[a] hideous man who thinks he’s a woman;” claimed that “Muslims can rape children with reckless abandon;” and argued that a Black man who is “mistaken for a homeless man,” should be “mad” not at the person who mischaracterizes him, but “at all the homeless black men who . . . created this stereotype in the first place.” …
Revenue-oriented mayor’s courts subvert justice. They must be reformed to protect the rights of Ohioans.
By Sri Devi Thakkilapati, PhD, Police Researcher, ACLU of Ohio APRIL 15, 2019 | 1:15 PM
Karen G.’s daughter still remembers the day when “mommy had her pink bracelets on.” Unfortunately, Karen was wearing pink handcuffs, not bracelets.
On May 10, 2010, the day of Karen’s youngest daughter’s birthday, Karen and her daughters were on their way to pick up a birthday cake. They stopped by Lockland Mayor’s Court to present documentation that Karen had renewed her driver’s license. But once she arrived at the court, Karen was told that she had to pay a $600 fine for driving without a license before she could leave. …
Considering the “extraordinary public interest” in the Mueller report, any redactions made by Attorney General Barr must be limited and defensible.
By Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, Staff Attorney, ACLU APRIL 11, 2019 | 4:15 PM
Few matters are of greater public interest than the contents of the report produced by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on his recently completed investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, alleged collusion with the Trump administration, and any interference with the Mueller investigation. Attorney General William Barr has conceded that there is extraordinary public interest in the report. Yet there remain grave concerns that he will redact significant facts from the report, denying the public access to information. …
Opponents of equality are spewing myths about transgender people and nondiscrimination protections on Capitol Hill.
By Rose Saxe, Senior Staff Attorney, LGBT & HIV Project | APRIL 10, 2019 | 4:30 PM
In the past seven days, the House of Representatives has held two historic hearings on the Equality Act, HR 5, a bipartisan bill that would add explicit protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to our civil rights laws, and update the laws to provide increased protection for all women and people of color. …
The groundbreaking, comprehensive bill takes on workplace harassment and discrimination.
By Vania Leveille, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU
& Lenora M. Lapidus, Director, Women’s Rights Project, ACLU | APRIL 10, 2019 | 11:15 AM
For more than a decade, Tarana Burke and survivors across the country have used #MeToo to share their experiences of sexual violence, raise women’s voices, and respond to the needs of survivors. In its current incarnation, #MeToo has sparked an unprecedented examination of sexual harassment, including sexual assault, in our workplaces, and illuminated the multiple manifestations of workplace discrimination.
In the midst of this historic reckoning, the ACLU and coalition partners drafted and shared with members of Congress a blueprint — our Principles and Priorities for Legislative Action to Eliminate Workplace Harassment — for addressing the scourge of discrimination in every workplace across the country. We said it was long past time that Congress confront the reality that our current laws had not done enough to stamp out harassment and discrimination, especially for our most vulnerable workers — those in low-wage jobs (who are predominantly women of color), those facing language barriers, and undocumented workers. …
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