News & Commentary

The comments by John Kelly, President Trump's chief of staff, about the Civil War either reflect his ignorance on the topic or a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the other serious troubles facing the administration he serves.  Sadly, ignorance is the more forgiving assumption. Kelly said: “I would tell you that Robert E. Lee was an honorable man. He  was a man

President Donald Trump today provided the perfect lesson in how not to respond to tragedy. Eight people were killed and nearly a doze

The attacks on reproductive rights just keep coming. Today, Congress held a hearing on a bill that would outlaw abortion as early as just six weeks of pregnancy. This amounts to an effective ban on abortion, as many women do not even know if they are pregnant by that time. In fact, it’s the second unconstitutional pre-viability abortion ban that the House has considered in the last month. Just a few weeks ago, the House passed a bill banning abortion beginning at 20 weeks. And President Trump said that he would sign that bill if it landed on his desk. It is clear that the goal of the president and leader

At this very moment, the Office of Refugee Resettlement is detaining Rosa Maria Hernandez, a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who recently underwent gallbladder surgery, and is refusing to release her into the care of her family, despite her doctor’s advice. How exactly did this child with developmental delays become the Trump administration’s target for deportation? It’s an egregious case of government overreach, and now the subject of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit. On Oct. 24, 2017, Rosa Maria was traveling to Driscoll Children’s Hospital, which is 15

Most of the innocent people whose emails and phone calls the government spies on never find out. Not so for Professor Xiaoxing Xi, a Chinese-American physics professor at Temple University. One morning in May 2015, FBI agents showed up at Professor Xi’s house before dawn. They arrested him at gunpo

In 2009, the Boston Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office initiated a program called “Operation Indonesian Surrender,” which it characterized as “a humanitarian effort” meant to “bring folks out of the shadows” and send the message to Indonesian Christian community members that “we will work with you.” Eight years later, ICE is trying to deport all the participants. The American Civil Liberties Union has joined a

In September, the board of supervisors in Dane County, Wisconsin, passed a resolution to protect immigrants from the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. The board, which represents the half a million people who live in Dane County, endorsed the ACLU’s Freedo

“But darling, all of America is waiting for you!” These words from a stranger comforted my grandmother, Chawa Guterm

An invasive spying law is set to expire at the end of this year, and Congress is gearing up for a fight over what will replace it. As lawmakers weigh various proposals to reform that law, they would do well to consider the sordid history of warrantless surveillance in this country, and the people who have most suffered from it. Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the National Security Agency colle