News & Commentary

In today’s digital world, people rely on online advertising platforms for critical information such as job opportunities or available housing. But unfortunately, thanks to practices known as “digital redlining” the use of technology to perpetuate discrimination — any ads for housing or jobs that you are likely to see (or not see) in your newsfeed can largely depend on who you are, including your gender, race, or age. D

As President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office one year ago this month, the ACLU published a civil rights and liberties wishlist for the new administration. The Biden-Harris White House had its work cut out for them: In the wake of the previous administration, the list of harms to repair was long. But simply undoing bad policy isn’t enough: We called on President Biden to proactively fortify and protect our rights across issues areas, from racial justice, to LGBTQ rights, to immigration.

The ability to decide whether and when to have children is essential to allowing people to control their own lives and futures. For many, having access to affordable abortion care opens the door to fulfilling educational and career goals, better parenting, staying true to gender identities, and other critical parts of life that everyone should have the ability to choose for themselves. No politician should make those decisions for us. T

In Montana and throughout the United States, privacy is a fundamental right. But in recent years, the right to privacy has come under threat — not because of any changes in law, but thanks to the technology in our pockets. Advancements in technology that were simply unimaginable when the U.S. and Montana Constitutions were adopted mean that the breadth of personal data housed on personal digital devices has become subject to constitutional protections developed for a world with far less revealing information about us available to the government. While the foundations of those rules are time-tested and wise, this new reality in which each of us carries our entire life in the palm of our hand means courts must ensure that they adequately impose constitutional limits on searches of digital information. A

This year, abortion is under fire like never before. Multiple abortion cases have been heard by the Supreme Court, which could gut or overturn Roe v. Wade while an onslaught of abortion bans continues to sweep states. T

In his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that “[w]e are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny” and that “[a]nyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.” Dr. King was specifically addressing the charge that he was an “outside agitator” who had come to Birmingham to stir up trouble. However, Dr. King’s words also reflect a broader vision of inclusivity — that all who come to this country immediately form part of its fabric. T

A recent poll commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union and YouGov found that 68 percent of voters want the federal government to stop pursuing contracts with for-profit prison corporations to open private immigrant detention centers. Americans have become more aware of the inhumane conditions and twisted business model of the private prison industry, and want President Biden to follow through on his promise to “end for-profit detention centers.” P

Twenty years have passed since the first detainees arrived in Guantánamo Bay, making it the longest-standing war prison in U.S. history. Since 2002, 779 Muslim men and boys have been held at Guantánamo, nearly all of them without charge or trial. Today, 39 men remain indefinitely detained there, and 27 of them have never even been charged with any crime. Fourteen of those 27 have been cleared for transfer or release, some for years. Many of the remaining men are torture survivors; the CIA formerly disappeared some of them at “black sites” before our government sent them to Guantánamo. All of the prisoners have been exposed to the physical and psychological trauma associated with prolonged indefinite detention. A

On January 11, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Garland v. Gonzalez, the latest in a series of cases the court has taken on immigration detention. The case presents a basic question: whether the federal government can lock immigrants up, for months or even years, without a hearing to determine if their detention is justified. And the Biden administration is decidedly on the wrong side of this fight. T