News & Commentary

(Ciudad Juarez, Mexico) The sting of tear gas was still in Julia’s eyes when she ran into a public park in the center of the Nicaraguan city of Estelí on June 20, 2018. Earlier that day, she’d wrapped her face in a blue-and-white bandanna – the colors of the Nicaraguan flag – and joined a student-led march against the government of President Daniel Ortega, whose proposed cuts to social benefits were sparking tense street demonstrations across the country. [Note: ‘Julia’ is a pseudonym; the ACLU is protecting her identity for her safety.]

Adham Hassoun completed his criminal sentence and was set to be released from prison almost three years ago. But the government — now claiming unprecedented and unconstitutional powers under the USA Patriot Act — continues to hold Adham in detention, indefinitely and without charge.

Congress today temporarily extended the NSA’s spying powers that time and again have been used to violate our rights. Disturbingly, this three-month extension was snuck into a broader funding bill, forcing members of Congress to choose between extending this program and causing a government shutdown. The extension is an unnecessary lifeline to spying programs that are plagued with compliance violations, have no proven intelligence value, and violate our rights.

As part of a coordinated effort that undermined the freedom of the press, the U.S. government tracked, detained, and interrogated journalists who were reporting on conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, we’re suing on their behalf to defend their First Amendment rights.

The ACLU and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a lawsuit against the Smith County School System for violating the separation of church and state on Monday. According to the lawsuit, four students who are atheists have had to contend with school officials promoting Christianity through official prayers, Bible distributions, religious posters, and even a giant cross painted in one of the school’s athletic facilities.

Inhumane. Cruel. Abusive. What other words could possibly describe a Pima County, Arizona Sheriff Deputy placing a 15-year-old quadruple amputee who posed no threat into a headlock and then pinning him to the ground at a group home? What if the Deputy then screamed at another teenager videotaping the abuse and yelled at him repeatedly “shut the hell up” and, “Am I your bitch?” before slamming the teenager’s head into the wall while handcuffed?

President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine spoke on the phone. The president insists the call was “perfect.” Others are concerned that, during the call, the president intimated he would withhold financial aid appropriated to Ukraine unless the Ukrainian president agreed to investigate former-Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival of the president.

This is a cross-post from the ACLU of Northern California.

Lea Allison is a 30-year-old Alamance County resident and mother to a 6-year-old daughter. She has been living with relatives because she cannot afford to live on her own, but was about to start a new job that she hoped would provide her and her daughter with financial stability.