News & Commentary

Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan sharply criticized the government for deporting two ACLU clients — a woman and her child who had fled rape and other brutality by her husband and a gang in El Salvador — who are challenging the Trump administration’s draconian new policies applicable to the initial “credible fear” asylum screening system.    “This is pretty outrageous,” Sullivan said. “Somebody in pursuit of justice who has alleged a credible fear i

On January 21, 2017, the day after Trump took office, women throughout the country (and indeed the world) took part in the largest protest march in U.S. history. They protested the election of a man who had demonstrated his disdain for women throughout the campaign and demanded policy change on numerous fronts necessary to ensure gender justice.   That march embraced a diverse movement focused on issues of concern to a broad range of women,

On Tuesday, a federal judge struck down a New Hampshire law that disenfranchised hundreds of voters each general election because of their handwriting. The law in question required election moderators to compare the signature on a voter’s absentee-ballot application to the signature on an affidavit that the voter sends with the absentee ballot. If the election official felt that that the signatures did not match, they would simply throw out the vote.  In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty called the process, “fund

The idea of facial recognition technology conjures up scenes from books and films set in dystopian futures in which freedom and liberty have been forfeited in exchange for the illusion of security. From 1984 to Minority Report, these are worlds where everyone is suspect, and no one is safe.  Today, you don’t need to look to fiction to imagine these consequences. Facial recognition technology — unregulated, prone

“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit,” as Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, frequently explains. “The real question of capital punishment in this country is, ‘Do we deserve to kill?’” For those of us who are most familiar with the legal deficiencies and human cruelties of capital punishment, the answer is a resounding no.  Nebraska’s execution of Carey Dean Moore this morning proves the point.  As a society, we have determined that a death sentence requires tha

Zainab Merchant has a long and growing list of achievements. She is the Orlando-based founder and CEO of ZR Studios, a multimedia site about current affairs, politics, and culture. She is also a graduate student at Harvard University and mother to three young children. But for the last two years, Zainab, who is a U.S. citizen, has been subjected to excessive and humiliating searches, questio

Last year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled federal government retrenchment on ending debtors’ prisons — the unlawful incarceration of poor people who cannot afford to pay court fines and fees — when he withdrew a critical 2016 guidance on the constitutional principles violated by this practice.  But civil society has stepped in to take the lead.  Last week, the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates

“You’ve come a long way, baby.” That was a slogan of my youth. It was a marketing campaign for Virginia Slims, a cigarette marketed to women. The ads featured sexist images of the past — “Give women the right to vote and, by heavens, next thing you know, she’ll want to smoke like a man” — to mark progress.  Now, nearly two decades into the 21st century, I wonder how far we have really come. More

Franklyn Williams is a 32-year-old Black Ohioan who, at his sentencing hearing, was talking. Judge John Russo thought he was talking too much. So with Williams surrounded by six officers, Judge Russo ordered them to place red tape over Williams’ mouth.  The judge explained his reasoning for having tape put over Williams’ mouth. It was to “maintain decorum.” After silencing Williams with