News & Commentary

In what looks like a coordinated attack on constitutional rights, the U.S. government has reportedly been targeting journalists, activists, and lawyers working to raise awareness of issues facing migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. On Wednesday, the NBC affiliate in San Diego

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified on Wednesday before the House Committee on Homeland Security, just days after the House passed a resolution to overturn President Trump’s emergency declaration on the border wall.   Nielsen has helped Trump push lies and fabrications about the supposed security crisis at the border, when in fact the only crisis was a

Members of Congress are expected to vote this week on H.R. 1, the For the People Act of 2019. There is a lot to like about the bill. To begin, its aim is to strengthen and expand participation in our democracy. We are at a crucial moment where our democratic institutions are not adequately protecting the will of the people, and we strongly support the goals of H.R. 1 to correct these infirmities.  But, as we detail in a recent letter to Congress, there are provisions within the bill that, while well-intended, are overly broad and vague. If enacted, they would violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens and public interest organizations. Unless those provisions are fixed, we will oppose H.R. 1 and recommend that members of Congress vote against it.Let’s begin with what’s good with the legislation. H.R. 1 includes numerous federal protections for the right to vote, which has been under laser-like assault since the election of our first African-American president. The ACLU has long-supported many of the proposals H.R. 1 seeks to advance, especially the provisions aimed at unobstructed and equal access to voting.  In this regard, H.R. 1 addresses several of our top federal voting rights priorities, including: Restoring the

We may be one step closer to putting the final nail in the coffin of the National Security Agency’s massive phone records surveillance program, if a New York Times report bears out. Ending this program is a good first step, but as Congress debates expiring Patriot Act provisions this year, it needs to do much more to protect individual rights, including eliminating the phone record authority altogether. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had been collecting the phone records of virtually every single American, relying

On April 20, 1999, two male students walked into Columbine High School and started shooting. By the time it was over, 15 students were dead and 24 more had been injured. America had changed forever. But in some ways, it hasn’t changed at all. Nineteen years later, 17 students were murdered on Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. That eve

Last Friday, a Honduran asylum seeker suffered an unthinkable tragedy when she had a stillbirth while in ICE detention in Texas. While the facts of this case are still coming to light, it is only one of many tragic incidents involving immigrants detained by the federal government in recent months. According to

In a win for free speech, a federal court in North Dakota recently dismissed a baseless $900 million lawsuit brought by the Dakota Access Pipeline company against Greenpeace and a number of individual protesters. The company should have learned its lesson. Instead, it refiled the case in state court. These meritless cases are textbook examples of “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,” or SLAPPs. This tactic is increasingly used b

This year, I moved from one city in Connecticut to a new one. On top of the usual stress of trying to find an affordable, comfortable place to live, I was burdened with extra anxiety. Despite my success in the 12 years since being released from prison, I dreaded explaining my criminal record again. Weeks i

President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security frequently claims to be motivated by a dedication to law and order, but its immigration enforcement tactics are often directly contrary to local communities’ legal and electoral choices. Recent raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in North Carolina were a failed attempt to achieve by