News & Commentary

A version of this article originally appeared in STAND Magazine, a publication for ACLU members and supporters. For months, political parties and presidential candidates fight for the highest

In response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, the FBI has released more than 18 hours of video from surveillance cameras installed on FBI aircraft that flew over Baltimore in the days after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015. The videos, which were released to the ACLU before being posted online by the FBI this week, offer a rare and comprehensive view of the workings of a government surveillance operation. While the release of the footage addresses some questions, it leaves others unanswered.

A few weeks ago, a mom named Jessie Maher was breastfeeding her baby in the cafeteria of a Target store in Connecticut when a belligerent man approached and said she was “F*ing disgusting” and “nasty.” Fellow shoppers and Target employees quickly sprang to Maher’s defense, shielding her from the man. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of feeding your baby,” one of them said to Maher. “Th

The Supreme Court granted an “emergency” stay yesterday to stop Gavin Grimm, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Virginia, from using the boys’ restroom at school. Gavin has facial hair, a deep voice, and a state ID that identifies him as male. In every aspect of his life outside scho

Throughout our 96-year history, the Constitution has guided so much of what we do at the ACLU — we strive to help people understand and care about our founding document and show how it’s relevant in our everyday lives. And suddenly, during this year’s election cycle, the Constitution ended up being an especially hot topic. After Khizr Khan’s speech urging Donald Trump to read the Constitution, we decided to offer our pocket Cons

Today marks a pivotal fight in the restroom wars.  This morning, we will ask a federal judge to suspend North Carolina’s hateful anti-transgender law, known as HB2, which requires transgender people in all public buildings to use restrooms that accord with the gender on their birth certificate, regardless of their gender identity.  Simply put, the law bars transgender people from participation in public life.  For our client,

The U.N.’s special rapporteur  on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association completed a 17-day mission to the United States this week, and he drew some concerning conclusions about the state of those rights in this country. Maini Kiai

A federal appeals court today struck down the entirety of North Carolina’s voter suppression law in a sweeping victory for voting rights. The ruling blocks voter ID and restores preregistration, a week of early voting, same-day registration, and out-of-precinct provisional voting. The ruling is a stinging rebuke of the North Carolina legislature’s attempt to undermine Afri

Imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning received a document from Army officials informing her that she is being investigated for serious new charges related to her July 5th attempt to take her own life. If convicted of these “administrative offenses,” she could be placed in indefinite solitary confinement for