This year marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demonstrate how vitally important it was that black Americans be able to exercise their fundamental right to vote. In Selma, people , suffered , and for that right. President Lyndon B. Johnson into law a few months after the Selma march – but we're still fighting voter suppression on many fronts half a century later.
The specific means of suppression have changed, but the objectives haven't: People in power are still trying to keep specific groups of Americans from voting. Here are a few things to keep an eye on as we keep fighting into 2015.
Winter: The U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to hear appeals from Wisconsin and North Carolina voter suppression cases.
- After our trial judge struck down Wisconsin's voter ID law, an appeals court overturned that ruling and would have allowed the law to be implemented for the November 2014 elections. The Supreme Court then forbade Wisconsin to require ID for those elections, as the case proceeds through the courts. We have now asked the Supreme Court for a full hearing to decide whether the trial court's decision will stand permanently.
- In October, an appeals court restored same-day registration and allowed people to have ballots counted outside their precinct in North Carolina for the 2014 elections, while the case works its way through the courts. The Supreme Court then put that ruling on hold, allowing North Carolina to conduct the 2014 elections without these options, and the state has now to fully review the decision of the appeals court.
Spring: Circuit court hears appeal on attorneys' fees in the Shelby County case.
- Back in 2013, Shelby County, Alabama, persuaded the Supreme Court to of the Voting Rights Act – the part that the court itself had called the "heart of the Act" in . The county then asked for $2 million in compensation, which the district court . They've now appealed to the D.C. Circuit, which will likely hear the case sometime around the . Ironic, no?
Summer: Final judgments expected in North Carolina and Ohio district courts.
- While the Supreme Court considers whether to hear the North Carolina appeal, we also have a full trial scheduled for July in the district court. Whereas last summer's proceedings dealt with whether to stop the voter suppression law from going into effect just for imminent elections, this summer's trial will deal with whether to permanently strike down the law. This includes the new voter ID provision, which is set to take effect in 2016. (Here's a on all the gory details of North Carolina's law.)
- We're also expecting a final decision on our early voting case in Ohio, potentially by summer's end. Both sides will be presenting the judge with briefs and expert witness reports throughout the next several months, and we could have a ruling in August or September.
Dr. King , "Voting is the foundation stone for political action." We all must work together to make sure that it is not placed in jeopardy.
Learn more about voter suppression and other civil liberty issues: Sign up for breaking news alerts, , and .
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Racial Justice
ACLU Statement on House AI Task Force ReportACLU Statement on House AI Task Force Report
WASHINGTON — Today, the House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) issued its final report, marking an important step in recognizing the serious risks of discrimination and bias posed by AI systems — particularly in law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology. The report recognizes that discrimination and bias may arise in AI systems due to their design, training data, or failures by end users. The report also investigates the complex considerations around deepfakes, open AI systems, and free speech, and urges Congress to pass narrow legislation to address concrete harms. In response to the House AI Task Force final report, Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, issued the following statement: “The ACLU commends the Task Force for recognizing that AI systems are harming people right now through discriminatory outcomes and supercharged surveillance. Curbing those abuses of AI is not a partisan issue, and more concrete action is needed to protect civil rights, while maintaining states’ authority to build on those protections. The Task Force is appropriately cautious when wrestling with issues around deepfakes, open-source AI, digital identity, and other issues, recognizing that legislators should consider a wide array of tailored tools to address real, not speculative, harms while respecting civil rights and civil liberties.” The House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence report can be found here. -
News & CommentaryDec 2024
Racial Justice
Human Rights
Why the Fight for Racial Justice is a Human Rights IssueWhy the Fight for Racial Justice is a Human Rights Issue
On International Human Rights Day, the ACLU is advocating for a long-sought after reparatory justice to end the continued abuses against Black and brown communities. -
Press ReleaseOct 2024
National Security
+2 Issues
ACLU Warns that Biden-Harris Administration Rules on AI in National Security Lack Key ProtectionsACLU Warns that Biden-Harris Administration Rules on AI in National Security Lack Key Protections
WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris administration today released its National Security Memorandum on Artificial Intelligence (AI), establishing guidelines for how the U.S. government uses AI in national security programs, such as counterterrorism, intelligence, homeland security, and defense. The use of AI to automate and expand national security activities poses some of the greatest dangers to people’s lives and civil liberties. Agencies are increasingly exploring the use of AI in decisions about who to surveil, who to stop and search at the airport, who to add to government watchlists, and even who is a military target. While the government’s policy includes some important steps forward — such as requiring national security agencies to better track and assess their AI systems for risks and prohibiting a subset of dangerous AI uses — it falls far short in other critical areas, leaving glaring gaps with respect to independent oversight, transparency, notice, and redress. The policy imposes few substantive safeguards on a wide range of AI-driven activities, by and large allowing agencies to decide for themselves how to mitigate the risks posed by national security systems that have immense consequences for people’s lives and rights. As we have repeatedly seen before, this is a recipe for dangerous technologies to proliferate in secret. “Despite acknowledging the considerable risks of AI, this policy does not go nearly far enough to protect us from dangerous and unaccountable AI systems. National security agencies must not be left to police themselves as they increasingly subject people in the United States to powerful new technologies,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project. “If developing national security AI systems is an urgent priority for the country, then adopting critical rights and privacy safeguards is just as urgent. Without transparency, independent oversight, and built-in mechanisms for individuals to obtain accountability when AI systems err or fail, the policy’s safeguards are inadequate and place our civil rights and civil liberties at risk.” For years, the American Civil Liberties Union has been urging far stronger safeguards and transparency about the AI tools that national security agencies are deploying, the rules constraining their use, and the dangers these systems pose to fairness, privacy, and due process. -
Press ReleaseOct 2024
Racial Justice
ACLU Comment on the Department of Labor’s AI Guidelines for Employers and VendorsACLU Comment on the Department of Labor’s AI Guidelines for Employers and Vendors
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a roadmap for artificial intelligence (AI) best practices, designed to ensure that emerging technologies such as AI enhance job quality, benefit workers, and comply with existing employment laws when they are used in the workplace. The best practices, pursuant to President Biden’s executive order on the development and use of AI, include recommendations for AI system developers and employers that prioritize workers’ experiences and empowerment throughout the entire AI lifecycle – from design to use and oversight. These practices also call on employers and developers to create standards and processes to identify and mitigate risks from AI systems, such as threats to health and safety, civil rights, privacy, fair labor rights, and labor organizing prior to a developer marketing them or an employer deploying them, and recommend turning to different systems when sufficient mitigation is not possible. “We applaud DOL for issuing best practices for use of AI that center workers’ empowerment, civil rights, privacy, and safety protections and call on developers and employers to adopt critical guardrails in developing, procuring and using AI systems. Employers and developers should take note, as many have been burying their heads in the sand on their risk of legal liability with respect to AI tools,” said Olga Akselrod, senior staff attorney of the ACLU Racial Justice Program. “Following these best practices for AI can help employers and developers ensure that they do not violate existing civil rights and other employment laws that protect workers.” The best practices also recommend transparency measures through conducting and publishing impact assessments, notice and recourse for impacted workers, and measures to minimize worker displacement. The DOL also stated that employers should minimize electronic monitoring and avoid unnecessary collection or retention of worker data.