ACLU legal director Ben Wizner warns that Donald Trump’s war on dissent endangers the First Amendment, urges Americans to protect speech they dislike, and reflects on Edward Snowden’s enduring legacy.
That strategy, which rejects the possibility of sincere disagreement, is poisonous to rational debate.
Lawyers at America's largest civil liberties group say the agency’s lack of transparency violates federal disclosure requirements.
California tried to use drones to find illegal marijuana operations, but they found building code violations instead.
A federal court concluded the official was entitled to qualified immunity in a case that united two unlikely allies.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit is considering whether the president properly invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members.
A bill awaiting the governor's signature represents a stark reversal from a 2019 law aimed at promoting "uninhibited debate."
The IGO Anti-Boycott Act would dramatically expand U.S. anti-boycott laws. The House quietly postponed a vote after running into unexpected Republican opposition.
The Trump-appointed judge found that the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act "exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute's terms."
A new ACLU lawsuit argues that the government still is not giving alleged gang members the "notice" required by a Supreme Court order.
The pro-censorship post was quite the Freudian slip from the Trump administration.
Although the Court lifted an order that temporarily blocked removal of suspected gang members, it unambiguously affirmed their right to judicial review.
Massachusetts outlawed flavored tobacco. Now, just as criminal justice groups warned, a vape shop owner is serving time.
Iowa has one of the most aggressive court systems in the country when it comes to billing defendants for court-appointed attorneys, even in cases where they're acquitted or charges are dropped.
South Carolina bans all media interviews with incarcerated people, a policy the state's ACLU chapter says is the most restrictive in the country and infringes on its First Amendment rights.
The city plans to ban people accused of some drug and prostitution crimes from visiting designated areas.
Officers should have known that handcuffing a compliant 10-year-old is unnecessary, the court ruled.
The former president's loss of his Second Amendment rights highlights an arbitrary restriction that applies to many people with no history of violence.
The ACLU, another polarizing organization, was willing to defend the NRA in court. That should tell you that some things aren't partisan.
Filming cops is a First Amendment right, and there are already plenty of laws against harassing them.
Reproductive freedom initiatives are advancing toward November ballots, putting the matter of abortion access in voters' hands.
"There were many of us who opposed censoring pornography...precisely because of our commitment to feminist goals and principles," says the former ACLU chief.
The former civil liberties group continues morphing into a progressive organization.
FIRE and the ACLU of Vermont are now representing the man in a free speech lawsuit.
The ACLU will represent the gun rights group in a case with widespread relevance for free speech.
Children held in the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center are routinely subjected to solitary confinement, inadequate meals, and filthy cells, according to legal documents.
A coalition including the state ACLU, Sierra Club, and Native Hawaiian cultural groups argue Gov. Josh Green vastly exceeded his emergency powers when he waived most regulations on homebuilding.
The law makes it harder to record and observe police activity.
HOPE Fair Housing Center argues in a new federal complaint that an Illinois landlord's blanket refusal to rent to people with eviction records amounts to illegal sex and race discrimination.
Both the state attorney general and the state legislature declined to defend the law in court after the ACLU of Arizona and news media organizations sued to overturn it.
The ruling draws back the veil on routine police practices that victimize innocent drivers.
Drug tests for new moms are "unnecessary and nonconsensual," argues the ACLU.
In a federal lawsuit on behalf of legal U.S. residents from China, the ACLU argues that "Florida's New Alien Land Law" is unconstitutional.
Michael Friend was arrested in 2018 for holding a sign that read "Cops Ahead" near a police checkpoint. That arrest violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights, a federal appeals court has ruled.
"Under the new rule, the State would have been able to prolong the botched execution process indefinitely," the Equal Justice Initiative wrote in a press release.
Thousands of local, state, and federal law-enforcers have access to sensitive financial data.
New mechanisms to threaten liberty are brought to bear on those who need the government's permission to do their jobs.
The New York Civil Liberties Union is fighting about a dozen different lawsuits against stonewalling police departments.
Missouri law bans those under 21 from witnessing executions. Despite attempts to challenge the law, 19-year-old Khorry Ramey will be barred from attending her father's execution on Tuesday.
The state is threatening to punish doctors whose advice deviates from the "scientific consensus."
Two chapters of the organization say the law violates the First Amendment.
"The Court fails to see how the presence of a person recording a video near an officer interferes with the officer's activities," the judge wrote.
The FBI's long history of using informants and manufactured plots to prosecute extremists
The venerable champion of civil liberties is increasingly indistinguishable from myriad progressive advocacy groups.
The lawsuit argues the new law will chill protected First Amendment activities and keep media and the public from holding police accountable.
How do you justify government speech mandates? Apparently, you deliberately pretend that businesses have no right to control the messages they choose to present.
