News & Commentary

It was nearly a year ago that President Trump announced the end of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that gave some 800,000 young people who grew up in this country the opportunity to live and work here legally. Since then, there have been multiple lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s decision to shut down the program, but also one challenging the legality of continuing it. With new developments every few weeks, it is easy to lose track of what’s been happening in the courts. Here’s what you need to k

Last week, civil rights groups, including the ACLU and Lambda Legal, urged the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to accept the case of Charles Rhines, a gay man in South Dakota whose sexual orientation may have played a role in his death sentence in 1993.  In a related appeal, the Eighth Circuit denied relief on many of Mr. Rhines’s claims the day after the friend-of-the-court filing. But the feder

Anybody who has watched at least one episode of Law & Order knows that in America, anyone accused of a crime is considered “innocent until proven guilty.” That’s the way it should be, at least. When a person is accused of a crime, the burden of proof belongs to the accuser. But what most people don’t realize is that police routinely use a constitutionally dubious form of legal jiu-jits

You can read every article ever written about discrimination and it wouldn’t prepare you for meeting an undocumented student who has crossed the country to stand in the rain and address a rally of young activists. It’s also not easy to hear someone like that and not feel called to action. I have always been passionate about issues close to home, and activism in those areas has come naturally. However, I also fell prey to the idea that there were no real ways as a marginalized person that I could help other marginalized communities without putting myself at risk of being targeted. My two trips to the ACLU Summer Institute in 2017 and last week, however, made me realize how wrong I was. Through talks

Chrystal McCadden thought she had done everything necessary to ensure an appropriate, safe educational environment for Cameron, her 7-year-old son who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In addition to obtaining appropriate professional services for her son, she also worked with the school district in Flint, Michigan, to develop an individualized education plan, or IEP. Over the course of 13 months, she also met repeatedly with the administrators of an after-school program run by the local chamber of commerce to discuss Cameron’s condition, needs, and strategies for addressing his disability-related challenges.  Nevertheless, on Oct. 12, 2015, when Cameron allegedly ran across bleachers and kicked a supply cart — conduct c

In the first and possibly only congressional oversight hearing on family separation, top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Matthew Albence made a truly shocking statement — even by Trump administration standards — claiming that the best way to describe the detention centers where hundreds of immigrant families are currently locked up “is more like a summer camp.”  Albence didn’t keep it at that, though. Instead, he doubled down saying amenities include that “24-7 access to food and w

Learn about what's happening across the most pressing civil liberties issues of our time, and what you can do.

This piece originally appeared at The New York Times.  Have conservatives hijacked the First Amendment? Critics are increasingly making this

Fourteen years ago, Mitesh Patel lost his father Hasmukh in a robbery-murder at the family’s store in San Antonio. The man who killed his father, Chris Young, was sentenced to death. Leading up to Young’s execution last week, Patel called for Texas officials to halt Young’s execution and replace his death sentence with one of life without parole. His calls fell on deaf ears, and the state executed Young.  Patel’s decision to push for clemency shows how the death penalty can betray wha