News & Commentary

This month, the ACLU is celebrating, and saying goodbye to, one of its biggest change-makers. Matt Coles, deputy legal director and director of the ACLU’s Center for Equality, is retiring after 29 years. Here’s why he’s my hero.  Matt’s most recent work at the ACLU has focused on racial justice, voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and j

A version of this article originally appeared in STAND magazine, a publication for ACLU members and supporters. THE POLICE SHOOTING AND KILLING of an unarmed Black teenager named Michael Brown on August 9,

A crusty old newspaper editor once warned me that investigative reporting can be one of the toughest jobs in journalism: A grueling pursuit of greed and callousness, the worst in human nature. I’ve written about affordable housing developers who squandered millions of public dollars meant

This piece originally ran at The Marshall Project.  On Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice inspector general released a

One day last fall, Niya Kenny was sitting in her math class at Spring Valley High School in Richland County, South Carolina, when a police officer came into the classroom. A girl in her class had refused to put away her cell phone, and the teacher had summoned an administrator, who called on the officer assigned to the school. Niya thought the officer was bad news — his name was Ben Fields, but he was so aggressive that students knew him as Officer Slam. As soon as he entered the room, she called out for other students to record him.Three different students made cell phone videos of what happened next. Fields picked the girl up, flipped her in her desk, and then grabbed an arm and a leg to throw her across the room. Niya stood up and called out, she recalled later. “Isn’t anyone going to help her?” she asked. “Y’all cannot do this!”Fields yelled at Niya to sit down and be quiet. She was so scared that she was yelling and crying. As Fields handcuffed the other girl, he turned toward Niya and told her she was going to jail, too. Niya was arrested, taken to jail for the day, and released with criminal charges of “disturbing a school.”Today she’s fighting back. On her behalf, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against South Carolina to challenge a law that makes “disturbing a school” a criminal offense. 

One day last fall, Niya Kenny was sitting in her math class at Spring Valley High School in Richland County, South Carolina, when a police officer came into the classroom. A girl in her class had refused to put away her cell phone, and the teacher had summoned an administrator, who called on the officer assigned to the school. Niya thought the officer's appearance was bad news — his name was Ben Fields, but he was so aggressive that

Politicians of all stripes have been embracing watchlists lately.   Legislators in both parties have

As a Black woman who works to expand reproductive rights and justice every day, I feel personally incensed by Baltimore Ravens’ Ben Watson’s comments claiming that Planned Parenthood was created to exterminate Blacks. The “plan,” Watson claims, “is working.” This is a playing field he shouldn’t step on. Planned Parenthood is

We assume every American adult has a basic right: to vote. But state legislators in recent years have created barriers that limit that right. They have restricted the forms of ID voters must provide, eliminated same-day registration, and narrowed time periods for voting —  mainly affecting people of color. Now the tide is changing for voting rights, as judges in cases in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, and North Dakota have