With 10 deaths and more than 500 positive COVID-19 cases in the nation’s federal prisons, wardens must “move with dispatch” to “move vulnerable inmates out of these institutions.” These are the words that Attorney General William Barr used on April 3rd …
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down many businesses, but the work of preserving civil liberties and civil rights continues, as essential as ever. Reports of courts closing down can be misleading. While public trials that require jurors and in-person …
On Monday, I ended a 12-hour day returning emails to incarcerated queer folks, providing direct aid for housing to folks living with HIV & AIDS who have been incarcerated and challenging the state of Nebraska to provide humane conditions for …
Imagine a day in the future when everyone, from the moment they step outside their home, has to live with the knowledge that their every movement is being recorded by powerful cameras circling in the skies above. Not just where they work, shop, eat and …
COVID-19 is ravaging many parts of the United States, but nowhere more than in Black communities. Early data from the Midwest and the South reveal that Black people are contracting and dying from the virus at far higher rates than whites. Louisiana just …
Mario Rodas, Sr. first found out there was a deadly virus spreading through the country while he was watching television at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. In early March, Rodas had been pulled over and arrested by Immigration …
Louisiana has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot, with among the highest contraction and growth rates in the nation. The state also has the highest prison and pretrial incarceration rates in the world. Those two facts might not seem related, but they are …
In a desperate effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, state and local officials are following the advice of public health experts to impose severe restrictions on American life, such as social distancing and shelter-at-home orders. Unfortunately, the …
Every 10 years, the federal government conducts a census to count everyone living in the United States. For people of color, especially Black people, the census has traditionally been exclusionary and deeply flawed. Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution …
Congress’ third bill addressing the impacts of COVID-19, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), was a necessary attempt to respond to this public health crisis but its exclusion of immigrant communities is downright racist and …
Last year around this time, my biggest worry was how the inclusion of the Trump administration’s proposed citizenship question would depress participation in the decennial census. Thankfully, our Supreme Court victory means there is no citizenship question …
I was fired from my job as funeral director of a Detroit-area funeral home in 2013. I always received good reviews and had recently been promoted. The reason I was fired: I am a transgender woman. What happened to me wasn’t right, and I know it happens …
This piece first appeared on Just Security. If asked to give up their privacy in the interests of stemming the coronavirus, many Americans might be inclined to say yes. But the answer requires more nuance, both because there are serious tradeoffs to be …
The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak that has ravaged our nation and world has had many jarring moments. For parents and their children, one of those came with the mass closing of our schools. Tens of millions of children faced having their educations grind …
Since the Trump Administration first unrolled its policy of forcing migrants to wait in Mexico for their asylum hearings, advocates have been warning that the practice places them in danger. Now, the global coronavirus outbreak is putting an exclamation …
Many of us are scared for our families and friends right now because of COVID-19. Every day we learn new information about the virus. Today we know that all of us, even the young and healthy, are at risk of this disease and serious complications from it. …
To ensure elections proceed and eligible Americans can vote, any federal legislative package addressing the impact of COVID-19 on our elections must include an immediate, substantial infusion of federal funding and federal requirements for no-excuse mail- …
Two years ago, the ACLU set a clear goal: push Greyhound to refuse Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers access to their buses to conduct warrantless searches. As part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, CBP officers were targeting …
Earlier this month, the Prison Law Office and the ACLU National Prison Project filed an emergency motion in federal court in Phoenix. The motion asks the judge to order the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) to consult with a correctional health care …
There’s an old saying that goes, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” This adage is especially applicable to the Trump administration’s approach toward border policy, which is ever more militarized. On March 6th, U.S. Customs and …
