News & Commentary

We at the ACLU are often criticized for our unyielding defense of free speech rights. Even our closest allies complain when we defend the free speech rights of Klansmen and assorted other racists, misogynists, online haters, fake news creators, and other toxic speakers. In particular, we hear that such defenses of free speech rights serve not to protect the weak but to protect the powerful in their attacks on the vulnerable. Recently I’ve been re-reading Taylor Branch’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Parting the Waters: America in the

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska had it right: “If the First Amendment means anything, it means you can’t body-slam a journalist.” Sadly, that lesson seems to be lost on some of Sen. Sasse’s colleagues. On Wednesday, Greg Gian

Approved in 1901, the Alabama Constitution disqualifies from voting any citizen convicted of a “crime involving moral turpitude.” That may at first seem racially neutral, but the document as well as the moral turpitude provision were designed with clear racist intent. The drafters intentionally sought to subvert the 14th and 15th Amendments’ protection against racial discrimination in voting by using the moral turpitude provision, in conjunction with discriminatory criminal justice enforcement, to target Alabama’s Black citizens. As the Supreme Court

Rumors of the demise of the War on Drugs have been greatly exaggerated, but there have been some recent signs of a draw down. Both red and blue states have been taking steps to reduce incarceration for people charged with drug-related offenses. At the federal level, changes to sentencing guidelines and policies giving prosecutors more discretion in prosecuting drug crimes, implemented by former Attorney General Eric Holder, is credited for a major part of the 14 percent drop in the federal prison population. That progress, however, did not sit well with the current attorney general, Jefferson Beauregard Se

We should all feel proud today. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to allow the Muslim ban to go into effect. Step by step, point by point, the court laid out what has been clear from the start: The president promised to ban Muslims from the United States, and his executive orders are an attempt to do just that. The bottom-line question, the court recognized, is whether the Constitution establishes the ru

On April 25, I was thrilled to deliver a TED Talk in Vancouver. I’m a lover of Italian art, and one of my favorite old masters is Ambrogio Lorenzetti. In 1339, Lorenzetti finished a series of frescos whose message resonates with us today as President Donald Trump attacks the values that define America.Lorenzetti’s “Allegory of Good and Bad Government” is a reminder that good government is characterized by Justice, Concord, Peace, and Wisdom while bad government is animated by Division, Avarice, Fury, Vainglory, even Tyranny. When good government reigns, all is well. When bad government plagues the realm, the Tyrant usurps the power of the people and the citizens suffer.For me, and I hope for you, the paintings are a call to action. Democracy, as I say in the talk, is not a spectator sport. Since January 20, bad government is ascendant. But good government — in the form of people taking to the streets and the courts working as they should — has shown that the American people and our form of government will persevere if we stay vigilant and jealously guard our liberties. Our choice is clear: We can either stay in the

This piece originally appeared at The New York Review of Books.  Tangled in self-inflicted chaos, President Donald Trump has been unable to accomplish mu

This piece originally appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.  On January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the c

In a critical victory for privacy and the rule of law, a federal court of appeals ruled unanimously today that an ACLU challenge to NSA internet surveillance, Wikimedia v. NSA, can go forward. As the court explained, Wikimedia, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, persuasively argued that its communications are searched by the NSA. As a result, we’re one step closer to ensuring that secret, warrantless spying will be subject to scrutiny in the public courts. At issue is the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance, which involves the continuous monitoring of international int