News & Commentary

On July 1, 2017, former ACLU President Norman Dorsen died due to complications from a stroke. Susan Herman, current president of the ACLU and a former student of Dorsen’s, remembers the impact the man had on her as well as the country’s understanding of what civil liberties and civil rights meant in the latter half of the 20th century. Norman Dorsen was my role model as constitutional law professor, as ACLU gen

When North Carolina lawmakers in March passed a fake "repeal" of House Bill 2, the state’s sweeping anti-LGBT law, we promised we would continue our fight for the rights and dignity of all LGBT people in our state.Today we delivered on that promise. Along with our partners at Lambda Legal, the ACLU and ACLU of North Car

Earlier this week, the ACLU sent a letter to members of Congress opposing the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. The bill would amend existing law to prohibit people in the United States from supporting boycotts targeting Israel — making it a felony to choose not to engage in commerce with companies doing business in Israel and its settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Violations would be punishable by a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison. The bill is aimed at advocates of boycotts targeting Israel, most notably the Boycott, Divestment, San

In Rowan County, North Carolina, the county board of commissioners was intent on taking government prayer to a whole new level. Every board meeting opened with a prayer. But it wasn’t just government prayer. It was government prayer on steroids.The prayers were delivered by commissioners themselves. No one else was allowed to give the prayer. Over the years, the prayers referred to only one faith — Christianity — and were proselytizing. Multiple prayers, for example, described Christianity as “the one and only way to salvation.” In others, commissioners apologized for the community’s sins and failure to follow Jesus Christ, suggested that Christianity is a superior faith, and expressed a desire for meeting attendees to accept Christ.Before every prayer began, a commissioner instructed audience members to stand and directed those assembled to join in the prayer. When some residents objected to the prayers, several commissioners loudly recommitted to the practice. One even announced he would go to jail before ending the prayers while another declared that he was being persecuted. In 2013, the ACLU and ACLU of North Carolina

Four months ago, activists and volunteers all over the country came together to launch the People Power movement, seeking to bring meaningful policy change to their local communities and the nation.  Melissa Bruzzano of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was one of those volunteers, and

If it’s a secret, it’s surely one of the worst kept secrets in the world. Although the U.S. government has tried for more than a decade to shroud its use of drones to conduct targeted killings abroad in official secrecy, its latest effort is extraordinary. In August 2016, the government blacked out a

In Texas, transgender young people and their families have become accustomed to sustained attacks on their basic humanity. Throughout the last legislative session, which concluded in May with most of the anti-trans bills failing to pass, trans Texans and their loved ones traveled to the capitol in Austin from across the state to plea for decency, justice, and the basic opportunity to participate in public life. When SB6, the sweeping anti-trans bill modeled after North Carolina’s

In Illinois, you’ll often hear police officials say that the only way to fight back against the Scarfaces of the world is to make sure crime doesn’t pay. The primary tool police use to do that is through civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow law enforcement to confiscate people’s private property based on the mere suspicion that the property was involved in criminal activity. The property can be taken by police regardless of whether the property owner is convicted of a crime or, get this, even charged with a crime for that matter. This powerful tool was supposed to be reserved for disrupting large-scale criminal syndicates, but

Increasing border detentions and a ballooning American watchlisting system are two major drivers of government abuse. A lawsuit the ACLU filed last week challenges both. We represent Abdisalam Wilwal, Sagal Abdigani, and their four young children — all U.S. citizens whose