News & Commentary

Wednesday morning I woke up in a better America when it comes to criminal justice reform.  On Election Day, voters in states across the country said enough is enough to America’s hor

Imagine a national department store chain holding a “Back to School” sale in late July instead of in August. People who show up close to when school actually starts are told, “You’re too late.” That’s what voting in New York is like. Each election cycle, thousands of New Yorke

Last Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it will decide whether a state government’s display of a gigantic, 40-foot Latin cross as a war memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, violates the separation of church and state. On the surface, the case appears to be about one religious monument located at one busy intersection in one town but the stakes are, in fact, much

All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government impose criminal liability on correctional facility staff who have sexual contact with people in their custody. These laws recognize that any sexual activity between detainees and detention facility staff, with or without the use of force, is unlawful because of the inherent power imbalance when people are in custody. Yet, one immigration detention center is trying to avoid responsibility for sexual violence within its walls by arguing that the detainee “consented” to sexual abuse. E.D., an asylum-seeker and dom

Editor's Note: On Nov. 6, a federal appeals court will hear a challenge by Catholic Social Services to the city of Philadelphia's requirement that tax-funded child welfare organizations accept all qualified parents, including same-sex couples. Shannon Graves and Paige Davis are following the case closely for good reason: They are same-sex foster parents who often take care of LGBTQ kids.  When we learned that

Almost a decade ago, I ran the Minkwon Center for Community Action, a grassroots organization serving the Korean-American community in Queens. Getting immigrants to participate in the 2010 census was one of our top priorities. Why? Because I knew we could use the census to build power for our communities, just by standing up and being counted. And we did, but it wasn’t easy.  First, we had to educate people about the census's importance. After all, it's not just a head count. The census dete

Ramona Ripston, who led the ACLU of Southern California for nearly four decades, died on Saturday. She was 91.  Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued the following statement: “

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court will hear oral argument in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case of great concern to advocates for children in foster care, the LGBTQ community, faith leaders, and states that are committed to ensuring non-discrimination in government programs. The ACLU is arguing in court for the Support Center for Child Advocates and Philadelphia Family Pride, who have intervened in this case to advocate on behalf of children in the foster care system in Philadelphia and families headed by same-sex couples who seek to care for them. In this case, a foster care agency — Catholic Social Services (CSS) — is asking the court to force the city of Philadelphia to enter into a tax

We sign things all the time – to pay for groceries with a credit card or end a letter to a friend, for example. Rarely do our signatures come under scrutiny. Yet, a number of states are denying people the right to vote because the signature on their absentee ballot – and sometimes even on their application for a ballot itself– doesn’t exactly match their signature on the voter registration rolls. And in many cases, the state does not even tell the affected voter that their ballot has been rejected. Ballots being rejected because of a perceived signature mismatch heavily affects voters already at the margins -- people with di