How the ACLU is Responding to the Pandemic, Visualized
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down many businesses, but the ACLU’s work of defending and expanding civil liberties and civil rights continues, essential as ever. At the ACLU, our most immediate focus has been on issues arising from the government’s response — or lack thereof — to the pandemic.
Since the start of the outbreak, we’ve filed over 140 legal actions and have seen thousands of people released from prisons, jails, and immigration detention.
We and ACLU offices across the country are working in nearly every state to save lives, advocate for vulnerable communities, safeguard the right to vote, protect abortion rights, and guard against unjustified government overreach.
Expanding the right to vote by mail
This crisis may well still be with us in November, and we are committed to ensuring that no one has to choose between their health and their vote. We’re in court in Georgia, Montana,, Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, Connecticut, and South Carolina to ensure that every eligible voter can vote by mail, and to protect their rights when doing so.
Thousands released from jails and prisons
Most prisons, jails, and detention centers cannot ensure adherence to the social distancing guidelines the CDC urges all of us to follow. Due to the work of ACLU affiliates across the nation, at least 37,000 people have been released from jails and prisons or never brought into the criminal legal system in the first place.
The ACLU has active campaigns in 25 states pressuring governors to adopt our model executive order, and pressuring prosecutors and sheriffs to reduce their jail and prison populations. We’ve filed multiple lawsuits against federal prisons, and at least 13 state affiliates have petitioned their state supreme courts for the release of individuals from jails and prisons. We are also running paid digital or TV ads in 13 states, and People Power campaigns in 5 states. This work has already generated 15 executive actions.
Over 40 lawsuits filed against ICE
We’ve filed over 40 lawsuits against ICE detention centers nationwide seeking the release of individuals most vulnerable to severe illness or death due to COVID-19. Detention should not be a death sentence.
More than 430 clients have been released.
Demanding states turn over demographic data
The ACLU and at least 13 ACLU state affiliates have petitioned local elected officials to collect and release race/ethnicity and other demographic data of COVID-19 testing, infections and deaths in states where that data has not been released at all, or there are huge gaps in reporting. The data released so far has shown that by and large Black people are dying at disturbingly disproportionate rates. We’re urging states and cities across the country to collect and release this data so we may better protect all communities and identify those that are in particular need of support.
Challenging efforts to block abortion access
We and our state affiliates have sued in seven states to fight back against politicians cutting off access to abortion during the crisis. After facing litigation, abortion is available in Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
Demanding tech equity and privacy protections for students
Over 25 ACLU state chapters warned in letters to state and local leaders nationwide that they have a legal obligation to provide all students equal and safe access to an adequate education. To help meet this obligation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACLU is demanding Congress and state and local governments ensure all students have equal access to the technologies that make effective remote learning possible, and that strong and uniform privacy safeguards are in place to protect students in the virtual classroom.
Our children shouldn’t have to stress about falling behind their peers simply because their families can’t afford internet access or a computer. Nor should they have to fear being outed as LGBTQ or putting family members at risk of deportation because current remote learning technologies lack basic privacy protections. ***
This is just the start. Once this emergency ends, the ACLU will be leading the fight to ensure any intrusions on liberty end with it.
Learn More About the Issues on This Page
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News & CommentaryDec 2024
Civil Liberties
We Need to Know More About State Supreme Court CasesWe Need to Know More About State Supreme Court Cases
State Supreme Courts interpret laws that impact some of the most intimate parts of our lives. Communities have a right to know what’s on the docket. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
Civil Liberties
New ACLU Report Reveals Most State Supreme Courts Fail to Meet Key Transparency MeasuresNew ACLU Report Reveals Most State Supreme Courts Fail to Meet Key Transparency Measures
NEW YORK — Nearly half of all state supreme courts across the country fail to regularly post new cases they are considering, with only six meeting four key transparency measures already implemented by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a new report published today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The report identifies significant steps that state supreme courts should take to inform the public about their cases, which have only grown in importance as the federal judiciary has become more hostile to protecting core rights and advocates have turned to state protections and state court litigation in response. Based on an analysis of the practices and policies of the highest courts in each state, including D.C., the report “Scorecard for State Supreme Court Transparency: How Does Your State Stack Up?” ranks each state supreme court in five tiers based on compliance with four key transparency measures. These measures include posting new cases online in a timely manner, providing timely information about legal issues presented by cases, making dockets accessible and free for the public, and making merits briefing accessible and free for the public. “State courts regularly hear — and are the final word on — cases affecting abortion rights, voting rights, criminal justice reform, and more. Yet, in many instances, the highest state courts do not provide meaningful public access to information about cases affecting the rights and liberties of millions of people. We urge state supreme courts to bring more transparency to the critical work they do,” said Julie Murray, co-director of the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative. “In the face of a federal judiciary increasingly unwilling to protect core rights and an incoming administration that threatens to exacerbate that problem, state courts are an important defense for our liberty. They should be leaders in transparency, too,” said Bridget Lavender, Skadden Fellow with the Initiative. The report emphasizes that state courts “play an outsized role” in many parts of the law, but their ability to “guard our liberties depends in significant part on whether those courts adopt transparent processes.” It further highlights that state supreme courts have led the way on enormously consequential decisions in recent years. In particular, some state supreme courts have recognized the right of same sex couples to marry, and did so long before federal courts. They have also declared the death penalty unconstitutional under state law despite contrary federal law, protected access to reproductive health care as a right even as that right was being stripped away at the federal level, and provided more robust protection to people subject to unreasonable searches and seizures. The report urges state supreme courts to take action to improve their transparency practices, taking notes from the courts that have already implemented these measures. It notes that regularly posting new cases and the issues they represent, and providing timely access to dockets and merits briefing allows the public, the press, and the legal community to track cases as they unfold, identify cases with statewide consequences, and understand what’s at stake. -
Press ReleaseNov 2024
National Security
+2 Issues
ACLU Urges House to Kill Bill that Could Give Trump Admin Power to Crush Dissent and Go After Political EnemiesACLU Urges House to Kill Bill that Could Give Trump Admin Power to Crush Dissent and Go After Political Enemies
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urges the House of Representatives to vote NO on H.R. 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which would grant Donald Trump and his handpicked secretary of the Treasury power to investigate and effectively shut down any tax-exempt organization — including news outlets, universities, and civil society groups — by stripping them of tax-exempt status based on an unilateral accusation of wrongdoing. “Passing this bill would hand the incoming Trump administration a dangerous new tool it could use to stifle free speech, target political opponents, and punish disfavored groups,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU. “The freedom to dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy, which is why Congress must block H.R. 9495 before it’s too late.” While there is a 90-day “cure” period in which a designated nonprofit can mount a defense, it is a mere illusion of due process. The government may deny organizations its reasons and evidence against them, leaving the nonprofit unable to rebut allegations. This means that a nonprofit could be left entirely in the dark about what conduct the government believes qualifies as "support," making it virtually impossible to clear its name. Last month, the ACLU and a diverse array of over 130 other tax-exempt organizations — including human rights, reproductive health, and immigrants’ rights groups — wrote to Congress urging them to vote no. The letter also explains that the groups do not oppose the provisions in H.R. 9495 that relate to preventing the IRS from imposing fines and penalties on hostages while they are held abroad. Indeed, these provisions have already passed the Senate on their own, and if the House of Representatives were to pass a version of this bill that did not include the text of H.R. 6408, it could be sent immediately to President Biden for his signature. -
News & CommentaryNov 2024
Civil Liberties
Donald Trump Will Return to the White House in January. The ACLU is Ready.Donald Trump Will Return to the White House in January. The ACLU is Ready.
Starting in 2016, the ACLU filed more than 400 legal actions against Trump and his administration. As Trump returns to the White House, we’re ready to return to the courts and Congress to fight for our civil liberties.