Empish Thomas is a 51-year-old voter from DeKalb County, Georgia who is blind and needs help filling out and mailing in an absentee ballot. In 2020, she was able to get that help from a sighted friend she trusted. But after the state of Georgia passed a …
On Tuesday, voters in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania sent a resounding message: They want solutions to prevent crime in the first place, not just politicians stoking fear after it happens. By an 11-point margin in the primary election, voters chose the …
This week was a heartbreaking one for those of us who believe in the freedom to fully control our bodies, lives, and futures. Anti-abortion legislators pushed their extremist agenda in three states simultaneously, and as they did they showed the world …
It’s graduation season, and students are getting ready to put on their caps and gowns to celebrate this rite of passage. For many Indigenous students, this milestone event cannot be fully realized without wearing traditional tribal regalia, which are …
Known as the “land of steady habits,” Connecticut represents a microcosm of the racist legacy of voter suppression nationwide — but that might change soon. While some people think of Connecticut as progressive, in truth, we’re behind on protecting the …
For decades, the ACLU has worked alongside our allies to protect the right to seek asylum. Families and individuals have long sought safety in the United States after fleeing danger in their home countries, and those with a “well-founded fear of …
Few fights are more pivotal to ending systemic inequality than the fight for fair and stable housing. When Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a campaign to end slums in 1966, he connected the struggle to obtain decent housing with the need to end what he …
Every year, people, including families with small children, come to the U.S. seeking safety from violence and persecution. The U.S. is bound by both international and domestic laws — born out of the tragedies of World War II — to allow those with a “well- …
In 2019, police in Castle Hills, Texas arrested Sylvia Gonzalez, a 72-year-old first-time city council member, because they didn’t like that she was advocating for the removal of the city manager, a police ally. Since police can’t constitutionally arrest …
Recent decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court are, to use a complex legal term, not great. In many areas, from abortion to voting rights to tribal sovereignty, the current court has curtailed civil rights and individual freedom, even at the expense of …
Every person deserves equal, effective treatment and safety, especially when in crisis. In such a vulnerable circumstance, people need professionals trained to provide support and care. But too often, when a person is experiencing a mental health crisis, …
This piece was published in partnership with The Nation. What if you lived in a country where you could be jailed for criticizing a public official? What if that country were the United States? In May 2018, Bob Frese, a resident of Exeter, N.H., posted on …
In May 2020, a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd for nine and a half minutes, ending his life. Nearly three years later, starting this week, United Nations experts on racial justice will embark on a first-of-its-kind visit to …
When the Supreme Court overturned a half-century of precedent last June and eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion first recognized in Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion politicians claimed that the court was doing nothing more than sending the …
The Biden administration has been quietly deploying and expanding programs that surveil what people say on social media, using tools that allow agents and analysts to invisibly monitor the vast amount of protected speech that occurs online. For years, …
In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King left their single-family home in Atlanta’s Vine City neighborhood and moved into an apartment on Chicago’s west side. Their goal? To draw attention to the fight for equitable housing. “If Martin …
Newborn screening programs are a vital public health measure implemented in the U.S. and across the world, with about one third of babies born globally undergoing some screening. As part of this program in the U.S., nearly every baby born has blood drawn …
Everywhere you look lately, people are discussing the potential negative uses and consequences of the AI-driven chatbot ChatGPT. Many are concerned about the potential for ChatGPT and other “large language models” (LLMs) to spread a fog of disinformation …
The highly anticipated finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race will feature incredible ensembles, sensational lip sync performances, and of course, the revelation of the season 15 winner. Alongside the competition, the finale will also highlight a joint effort with …
Leo Jones, a Black man, was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white Florida jury in 1982 for the killing of a white police officer. The conviction rested on a key witness who later recanted his testimony, and a coerced confession from Mr. Jones, …
