News & Commentary

In the middle of a government shutdown, the Senate leadership’s first order of business in the 116th Congress is not legislation to reopen the government. Instead, and incredibly, the Senate is again trying to slip a measure intended to suppress protected political expression past public

This piece originally appeared at The New York Times.  After The New York Times 

Imagine a symphony orchestra barred by the state from performing again because a musician was found to have sold marijuana to a colleague backstage. Imagine a bookstore being shuttered by the government because peace activists planned acts of civil disobedience in a backroom. Imagine a movie theater permanently closed because an employee assaulted a patron. In Providence, Rhode Island, you don’t have to imagine it, because it happened to a strip club called the Foxy Lady. On Dec. 19, the Providence Board of Li

Imagine a symphony orchestra barred by the state from performing again because a musician was found to have sold marijuana to a colleague backstage. Imagine a bookstore being shuttered by the government because peace activists planned acts of civil disobedience in a backroom. Imagine a movie theater permanently closed because an employee assaulted a patron. In Providence, Rhode Island, you don’t have to imagine it, because it happened to a strip club called the Foxy Lady. On Dec. 19, the Providence Board of Li

Last year, letters from the state of Arkansas began drifting across my desk, demanding that our weekly newspaper, the Arkansas Times, either sign a pledge not to boycott Israel or forfeit all state advertising. The letters were the result of an obscure, cookie-cutter law passed in 2017 by our Republican-controlled legislature. Spe

The past two years have been challenging times, as we have witnessed attacks on our shared values and civil rights from the Trump White House and a Republican-dominated Congress. It can sometimes feel difficult to make change happen, but even in this hostile climate, ACLU activists helped drive key legislative victories to advance civil liberties during the 115th Congress, which ends tomorrow. As the new Congress is sworn in on Thursday, these victories should remind us that people power works in Washington, too, and should prepare us to take on emerging fights in the new year.   Following pressure from advocates, Congress approved a criminal justice reform package that will help reduce mass incarceration in the U.S., and

President Trump has followed through on his threat to shut down the government in order to feed his border wall obsession. In fact, he’s gone further, stating that he’ll loot his cabinet departments, including the military, if necessary. After Trump refused to sign a

This article was originally published in The Los Angeles Times.  For immigrants, there’s no way to sugarcoat 2018. The Trump administration enacted a series of draconian policies targeting n

The enactment of the First Step Act earlier this month will bring some much-needed change to our criminal justice system. But the First Step Act remains just that, a first step — particularly with respect to the impact that mass incarceration has had on cisgender women and trans people. The legislation ends two gender-specific indignities of federal incarceration: the