At Liberty

Joel Castón was incarcerated when he was 18 years old. He’s now 45 and in November of last year, just two months ago, Joel was released after serving over 26 years. While incarcerated, he received a degree through the Georgetown Prison Scholars Program and started a mentorship initiative called Young Men Emerging. And, because D.C. changed the law to allow incarcerated people to vote, he ran for office, and he won: he is now an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Washington D.C. representing the 7th Ward including the jail that he just walked out of. He’s the first incarcerated person in D.C. history to win elected office. Joel joins us today to talk about his experience, what he’s focusing on as a newly elected commissioner in D.C., and how he’s changing the public narrative about incarcerated people.

Today, we’re checking in with LaTosha Brown, Co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund and the Black Voters Capacity Building Institute. We first spoke to LaTosha a year ago after her work in expanding voting access in Georgia proved so successful. But that was then, and this is now. Challenges abound this year, likely as a direct reaction to her work. New restrictions making it harder to vote, so-called election reforms, and redistricting will have a direct impact on the 2022 midterms. It’s why we are so focused at the ACLU on expanding and protecting access to the ballot and stopping restrictions in their tracks. LaTosha Brown joins us to discuss.

For our 2021 holiday special, we are taking you through the holiday food traditions of ACLU staffers and their families. Food is often the glue holding families and cultural identity together. We wanted to celebrate that and share it with you. Listener note: you may find yourself unusually hungry during this episode. We recommend you have something tasty on hand. We are joined by ACLU staffers Blanca Gamez, our Deputy Organizing Director, Zara Haq, a Senior Campaign Strategist, and Rotimi Adeoye, one of our Communications Strategists.

On the podcast, we’ve chronicled some of the year’s biggest stories: the insurrection, the rescinding of the Muslim ban, devastating police brutality, state after state attacks on the rights of trans kids, the abusive system of conservatorships, and the rollback of abortion access, just to name a few. Today we’re going to follow up with guests on some of this year’s most popular episodes to see what progress there’s been since we last spoke, and where there is still work to be done. Zoe Brennan-Krohn of the ACLU's Disability Rights Program, Haya Bitar of the podcast team, and Somil Trivedi of the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project join us.

As we near the end of the year, we are bringing you an episode of reflection. A lot has happened in the world, in our country, and in our work at the ACLU. We all felt the high stakes of last week's oral arguments at the Supreme Court on abortion. And while that has left us with concern, there is still so much to celebrate this year from our work across the organization. We’ve made meaningful strides fighting for better COVID policy, criminal legal reform, immigration reform, free speech, disability rights, and voting rights. So today we are regrouping with the ACLU’s National Legal Director, David Cole, to talk through where we can find hope this year and also where we can continue to press forward.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that challenges a nearly 49-year-old precedent protecting a pregnant person's right to an abortion established in the landmark case Roe v. Wade. The law in question is a Mississippi law that prohibits nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, violating the 1992 precedent set in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, where the ruling said that a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability. This law, in this case, is the latest in a long line of repeated attacks on reproductive freedom we've seen this fall. Jennifer Delvin, director of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, joins us to discuss what we heard in the oral arguments and what we can do moving forward.

This week, we are stepping back in time and re-visiting our conversation with author and activist, Glennon Doyle. In this conversation, Glennon talks about how to bring our loved ones into understanding of equity and justice through the use of storytelling, imagination, and conversation. On this podcast, we learn a lot about history, about civil rights issues, and about how we can use the law to move the needle. Today, we are going to spend time talking about how we can best share that knowledge with others. It’s an episode fit for such a time as this and we hope you enjoy.

I’m Paige Fernandez, the ACLU’s Policing Policy Advocate and I’m so excited to be taking the At Liberty reins for the next month. I have a confession to make: I have had a true crime obsession most of my life. My job at the ACLU and my organizing work and personal beliefs may make this surprising. I spend my time working to help communities divest from their local police forces and I talk openly about how abolition, to me, feels like the best solution to ending our carceral punishment system and police violence. These two interests feel at odds with each other, but I can’t quite figure out what it is about true crime media that has me so hooked. It’s made me wonder what its popularity has on the American psyche, particularly as it relates to our views on the criminal legal system and policing. That’s why I’m so thrilled to have Kelli Boling joining us today. Kelli is an Assistant Professor of Advertising and Public Relations in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After 12 years as a marketing and advertising executive in North and South Carolina, Boling received her Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina in Mass Communication. Her research focuses on the audience reception of media, specifically media depiction and reception by traditionally marginalized audiences based on race and gender.

Today we are running a conversation between Amber Hikes, the ACLU’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and disability rights icon Judy Heumann on CVS v. Doe, a case that the Supreme Court was set to hear on Dec 8. The case threatened to attack the very foundation of disability rights laws, specifically by threatening Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. If CVS had pursued the case and won, people with disabilities would no longer have the ability to sue for discrimination that is based on ignorance as opposed to animus, or actual intent to harm. In this conversation, Judy discusses the disability rights laws we’ve fought for and won and explains why disability discrimination is consistently questioned by both the general public and the courts. Yesterday CVS reached a settlement likely thanks to the pressure of disability advocates over the past few weeks. Though this case will no longer be heard by the Court, we’re running this conversation, recorded late last week, because the argument that CVS presented has been seen in copycat arguments in different cases across the country. This issue is likely to get to the Supreme Court in some form soon. For more information on these kinds of cases, follow the ACLU across social and subscribe to our email list. We’ll keep you updated.

This week, we are bringing you a story about an upcoming Supreme Court case: FBI v. Fazaga, set to be argued on November 8th. This case will have big implications on the ability for private citizens who have been wrongfully surveilled by the U.S. government to seek redress for the infringement on their personal privacy and the damages associated. There’s a lot to dig into here, both about the case itself and also about the backdrop of the case, the 20th anniversary of the Patriot Act, an act that made it easier for Muslim Americans to be surveilled after 9/11. Joining us on this episode are Sheikh Yassir Fazaga, our client in the case, and Patrick Toomey, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU’s National Security Project.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases challenging Texas’ ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy known as SB 8 -- one case brought by the ACLU and our partner organizations on behalf of abortion providers, Whole Women’s Health v. Jackson, and a separate case brought by the Department of Justice, United States v. Texas. The rulings will determine whether or not abortion providers and the Department of Justice are entitled to challenge SB 8 as the law was written purposefully to skirt federal judicial review. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court declined to rule on an emergency request to block SB 8, allowing the ban to take effect on September 1st. Since then, the majority of Texans seeking abortions have been unable to access them in the state. What does this all mean for the future of SB 8 and abortion access in the U.S. at large? That remains to be seen. There are so many unanswered questions. Brigitte Amiri, Deputy Director of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project joins us to help break it all down. Plus, we hear from demonstrators Kenya Martin and MJ Flores rallying right outside of the Supreme Court building. If you’d like to support our right against forced pregnancy, you can donate at www.aclu.org/access. We really appreciate the support.

Last month, horrifying images hit the news: border patrol agents on horses were seen whipping Haitian migrants. This was the latest in a long line of anti-immigrant practices that have emboldened border patrol over the last few years. Some of these practices include the invocation and overuse of Title 42, a policy that closed the borders due to public health concerns and the transmission of COVID, Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy that forces asylum seekers to wait for their hearings in Mexico, and the vast expansion of privately owned ICE detention facilities. Biden campaigned on fixing the immigration system and his administration has consistently touted their disapproval of Trump-era immigration policies. Even Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has been honest about the state of immigration affairs, calling it a “completely broken system.” But when we look critically at the administration's positive immigration reform, we see that words and actions aren’t lining up. What’s it going to take to move the needle on immigration reform during the Biden era? Have we made any headway since Trump left office? Here to answer these questions and more is Cecillia Wang, Deputy Legal Director here at ACLU and the Director of the ACLU’s Center for Democracy.

More than 100 anti-trans bills have been levied in states across the country this year. These bills range from blocking trans youth from seeking healthcare to banning trans students from participating in school sports. In Texas, lawmakers are getting ready to move forward House Bill 25, the law that will change the landscape of sports for trans people in the state. For Schuyler Bailar, former division one NCAA swimmer, these threats and discrimination are familiar. As the first openly transgender man to compete at his level in college athletics, he’s had to break boundaries both within institutions and within public opinion to be allowed to compete and be seen as a competitor. Those trying to ban trans students from school sports often center the debate on trans women with claims rooted in transphobia — and refuted by scientific experts — that trans women have an unfair advantage. One of the additional consequences of the focus on this argument is that we hear less from athletes who are trans men. This gap in perspective is one of many reasons we are excited to have Schuyler with us.

Imagine you’ve forgotten once again the difference between a gorilla and a chimpanzee, so you do a quick Google image search of “gorilla.” But instead of finding images of adorable banana-obsessed animals, photos of a Black couple show up. Is this just a glitch in the algorithm? Or, is Google an ad company, not an information company, that’s replicating the discrimination of the world it operates in? How can this discrimination be addressed and who is accountable for it? Our guest today, UCLA professor, MacArthur Fellow, and best-selling author of “Algorithms of Oppression,” Dr. Safiya Noble answers some of these questions. This week's episode comes from the At Liberty archive.

2021 is shaping up to be one of the most devastating years for abortion access in decades. State legislatures have enacted a blitz of new anti-abortion legislation. As of September 1st, when Texas’s six-week abortion ban went into effect, abortion has become functionally illegal in the state. The law, which deputizes citizens to sue anyone involved in abortion care, has emboldened other states to introduce copy cat bills, threatening to make it near-impossible to access an abortion in parts of the country. The Supreme Court is gearing up to hear challenges to some of these state laws including a case from Mississippi that directly challenges the 1973 precedent set in Roe v. Wade. Given the court’s conservative super majority, many legal experts are warning that access to abortion may hang on Congressional action. The Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that could legally enshrine the right to abortion care, passed the House on September 24th but faces a battle in the Senate. To discuss the state of abortion rights and to preview what’s to come this fall, we’re joined by 3 experts leading the legal dialogue: Melissa Murray, constitutional and family law professor at NYU Law and co-host of Strict Scrutiny, Imani Gandy, senior editor at the Rewire News Group and co-host of the podcast Boom! Lawyered, and our very own Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

Over the last couple of months, climate disasters have erupted around the world. In the US alone, we’ve seen wildfires in the west, tornadoes in the midwest, and hurricanes pummeling the Gulf and East Coasts. The environments we live in have become hostile to our health, our livelihood, and our community. Many have been forced to leave their homes and some will never be able to return. Globally, nearly 24 million people have been displaced due to climate effects since 2008. But this issue, both in the U.S. and around the world, isn’t impacting everyone equally. Black, Brown, and Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted by climate change. This is a racial justice issue, an immigration issue, and an indigenous rights issue. Shamyra Lavigne and Devi Lockwood talk to us to better understand how climate change intersects with other forms of injustice.

As the political divide deepens through disinformation campaigns about the election results, vaccines, 9/11, and more, it can feel like unity and consensus are shrinking on the horizon. And yet, the only way to address the pandemic or the fault lines in our democracy is if we can bridge the divide and find an enclave of common ground. Our guest today has decades of experience finding common ground and, in some cases, persuading people to change their minds about deeply held beliefs. Daryl Davis is a Blues musician by profession, but has devoted a lifetime to reaching out to KKK members and starting a dialogue. Since he began the work, he has persuaded over 200 KKK members to leave the organization. He joins us to discuss how he manages to persuade people to abandon long-held beliefs and how these tactics might help the national crisis of polarization.

As millions of children head back to school, some states have banned mask mandates on school grounds. As of this recording, school districts in eight states cannot require students to wear a mask in school; if they do, many risk losing crucial state funding. This ban ignores national recommendations by the CDC to wear a mask indoors for those who are unvaccinated or in an area of high COVID transmission. For children with disabilities or families with high-risk medical conditions, the ban makes in-person learning perilous. Many children are forced back into remote learning even though studies have shown students -- particularly students of color and those with disabilities -- fall behind when they can’t attend school in person. Excluding these children from in-person learning violates federal law which is why the ACLU’s Disability Rights Project is suing on behalf of groups of parents with vulnerable children in both South Carolina and Iowa. Joining us to talk about the case is Samantha Boevers, one of the parents in the case, and Susan Mizner, the director of the ACLU's Disability Rights Project.

As we pass the 20-year mark since September 11th, we are following up with the clients and the attorney of one seminal ACLU lawsuit on the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program, a program that ended in 2010 but that continues to haunt its survivors and to stain the U.S.’s international human rights record. The lawsuit Salim v Mitchell was filed in 2015 against James Elmer Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, two psychologists contracted by the CIA to design, implement, and oversee the agency’s post-9/11 torture program. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three of the program’s victims. All three were kidnapped by the CIA, and then tortured and experimented on according to Mitchell and Jessen’s protocols. One of the men died as a result of his treatment. The other two men continue to endure the effects of their detention. In 2017, the psychologists agreed to a settlement — a first for a case involving CIA torture. We’ll speak with ACLU Staff Attorney Steven Watt about what the litigation achieved and what still needs to happen to help prevent any future use of torture. We’ll also have a chance to listen in on Steven’s own recent conversations with our three clients as they rebuild their lives and navigate the continued effects of the torture program.

Over the coming weeks, kids will be heading back to school – over a million of them to preschool. And while many of these preschoolers will learn about colors, shapes, and the ABC’s, thousands will learn what it’s like to be suspended for the first time. On average 250 preschoolers are suspended each day of the school year. Compared with K through 12 students, preschoolers are suspended at nearly 3 times the frequency of older students. Our guest today has spent decades raising awareness about this trend and its effect on a child’s long-term outcomes. Dr. Rosemarie Allen is an associate professor at the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she teaches students about power, privilege, and the education system. She joins us today to discuss the preschool to prison pipeline, the punitive culture in educational spaces, the mental health care of students, and alternative approaches that teach rather than punish.

In this episode, we are diving into the At Liberty archive and returning to a conversation with historian Jill Lepore. We are on the brink of a once-in-a-generation change: Congress is considering a plan to create a pathway to citizenship for up to 8 million people. This September, the ACLU is urging Congress to pass a reconciliation package which includes a path to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status holders, farmworkers, and other essential workers. But what does it mean to be an American citizen? And how did we get here, to a place and a time when we deny so many the ability to become an American? These are the questions that Jill Lepore explores in her book, “These Truths” which tells the story of how our nation has evolved from its origins. Jill is a professor of American history at Harvard, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and a prolific thinker and writer on history and contemporary politics. In this conversation, Jill speaks to former At Liberty host Lee Rowland. We hope you enjoy this conversation.

One in 12 American children, more than 5.7 million kids, have experienced parental incarceration at some point during their lives. Black Americans are 50 percent more likely than white Americans to have a family member who is formerly or currently incarcerated. At the ACLU, we are working to reform the criminal legal system in order to significantly reduce its footprint in the United States, because we know the ramifications of incarceration are broad, complex and damaging. Incarceration doesn’t *just* impact the person incarcerated, but we don’t often engage in that conversation. The American jail and prison system pulls apart entire families and communities, predominantly those of color. Our guest today understands all of this on a visceral level. Ashley C. Ford is a writer, podcaster and educator who deals with topics including race, sexuality and body image. This June, Ashley released her debut memoir called Somebody’s Daughter, where she details her experience growing up with a single mom and an incarcerated dad as a Black kid in Indiana. When released, Somebody’s Daughter became an instant New York Times bestseller. Ashley joins us on the podcast today to talk about her book, mass incarceration, and what “justice” means to her from where she stands today.

Every two years the Olympic Games promise to be historic. Athletes defy odds, break records, and achieve feats unimaginable to most of us. But the 2020 games have consistently made headlines for the wrong reasons, particularly for the US Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee’s poor treatment and discrimination of athletes, especially Black women athletes. From Sha’Carri Richardson’s pre-Olympic suspension for smoking legal marijuana to the International Federation’s ban on swim caps designed for natural Black hair, or from the testosterone testing of two Namibian runners to the decades long abuse, lack of accountability, and disregard towards the mental health of athletes. The stories are almost too many to keep track of, but thankfully Ria Tabacco Mar, the Director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project helps us parse through what we’ve watched unfold.

Lawmakers, parents, think tanks, and conservative pundits have waged a war over how to teach students about systemic racism. As of this recording, 27 state legislatures and 165 national and local organizations have made efforts to restrict education on racism. As a result, school board members have been ousted, and some educators have resigned over the death threats, social media bullying, and harassment they’ve received from those who are adamant that teaching a more inclusive history harms students. These activists and lawmakers have centered much of their anger on a framework called Critical Race Theory. Though they’ve used it as a catchall for wokeness, political correctness, and leftist indoctrination, the term actually refers to a body of legal scholarship from the 70s and 80s that says racism is not just a result of individual prejudice, but something embedded in the legal system and in government policy. Our guest today Kimberlé Crenshaw was among the scholars who developed the theory. She also coined the term “intersectionality,” a framework that takes into account how a person’s identities combine to create unique forms of discrimination or privilege. She is a Distinguished Professor of law at Columbia University and at UCLA, co-founder of the African American Policy Forum at Columbia, and host of the podcast “Intersectionality Matters.” She joins us to help us understand the true meaning of Critical Race Theory and how it became a political flashpoint in schools and beyond.

On July 12th, Texas House Democrats boarded two planes headed for Washington DC in a last-ditch effort to deny Republicans the quorum they would need to pass restrictive voting measures during a special legislative session. The Democratic exodus not only stalled the GOP-led election bills, it also delayed Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s longer agenda for this special session, including legislation to ban trans youth in sports, further limit access to reproductive healthcare, and dictate how U.S. race history can be taught in school. The Texas Democrats who fled said they aren’t returning until the special session expires on August 6, but Governor Greg Abbott said he will continue calling special sessions into next year. Joining us to talk about this legislative stand off is Sarah Labowitz, policy and advocacy director at the ACLU of Texas.

In this episode, we continue our celebration of Disability Pride Month with a conversation about representation. Across the top 100 movies of 2019 only 2.3% of all speaking characters had a disability. What’s more, the rare times we do see a character with a disability, they aren’t played by someone with a disability. In fact, one study found that in the top 10 TV shows for 2018 only 12% of disabled characters were played by disabled actors. In contrast, around 133 million Americans live with visible or invisible disabilities — that’s 40% of the public. To put it plainly, there’s A LOT of room for improvement. Enter Ali Stroker, a singer and actress phenom who became both the first person using a wheelchair to perform on Broadway and the first person using a wheelchair to win a Tony award. Ali, in many ways, has put disability on the media map, landing roles in film, television, theater and even writing a children’s book. She joins us on At Liberty to discuss the importance of the representation and celebration of disability in the entertainment industry and beyond.

In 2021, the U.S. experienced over 200 mass shootings. Americans are more likely to be killed at the hands of firearms than in vehicles. This years-long gun violence epidemic continues to spark debate about the 2nd Amendment and who has the right to bear arms. But often absent from the debate around gun violence is the anti-Blackness at its core. In her latest book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, our guest, historian Carol Anderson, counters the elegiac worship of the Second Amendment by tracing how anti-Blackness determined the very decision to include the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights and has informed its unequal and racist enforcement over the last several hundred years. Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Her previous books include White Rage and the 2018 One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy.

In honor of Disability Pride Month, we’re devoting a few episodes to disability rights, starting with a look at conservatorships. Conservatorships are a court-sanctioned way to strip people with disabilities of their civil liberties. The system of conservatorships has gained media attention through the case of Britney Spears. What many have learned through Britney’s story is that under conservatorships, you often can’t spend your own money; you can’t choose your own doctors; you can’t control your medical care. You can’t even choose where you live or whom you spend your time with. And while Britney’s case has catapulted conservatorship into public consciousness, Britney’s case is not the exception. Over one million other Americans with disabilities live under some form of conservatorship or guardianship. Zoe Brennan-Krohn, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Disability Rights Project, joins us to discuss the implications of conservatorship, for Britney and for many others.

The end of the Supreme Court’s term is always a momentous time of year for our guest and At Liberty regular David Cole. David is the ACLU’s legal director and our resident Supreme Court expert. In this episode, he’ll help us answer how the court’s new conservative supermajority has impacted its decisions on the term’s civil rights and civil liberties cases. We’ll also take a peek at the upcoming term, which is set to be a nail-biter. The court could decide on the fates of reproductive rights, affirmative action, and gun rights.

Just two months ago, Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis, was the backdrop of yet another incident of police brutality when 20-year-old Daunte Wright was fatally shot by an officer during a traffic stop. The incident happened just ten miles from the courthouse where Derek Chauvin was on trial for the death of George Floyd. Outraged community members gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department for consecutive days demanding change. And this time, their calls were answered. One month after Daunte Wright was killed, the city council passed a resolution that created an alternative to police response for both mental health calls and some traffic stops. The resolution is called The Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution, named after the two people killed by local police in the last two years. One of the driving forces behind the resolution was Brooklyn Center Mayor, Mike Elliott. Mayor Elliott came to the US at the age of 11, fleeing from civil war in Liberia. Before running for mayor, he had started a mentoring program, working with Brooklyn Center schools to serve low-income students. He joins us along with Taylor Pendergrass, the Deputy Director of Campaigns for the ACLU’s Smart Justice program, to talk about what other communities can learn from the example of Brooklyn Center.

It’s that time of year again: Supreme Court decision season. Today, we are bringing you a breakdown of the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case that touches on whether the city can enforce a nondiscrimination policy with its contractors. Here, Catholic Social Services, a contractor with the city, refused to sign an agreement that would have forced them to stop excluding same-sex couples and unmarried people from being foster parents. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that Philadelphia's refusal to contract with the foster care agency violated the Constitution's First Amendment Free Exercise Clause. James Esseks, the Director for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, joins to break down the decision.

Over the years, the ACLU’s commitment to the First Amendment has come under attack – both for the cases we take on and for those we don’t. At the ACLU, we are committed to protecting free speech for all – not just those with whom we agree. And that commitment can come into tension with the other work we do defending civil rights and civil liberties. In this episode, we are pulling the curtain back on our history of defending free speech, on the choices we make, and on the conversations that went into those choices. For this episode, we are handing the mic to At Liberty’s former host and current ACLU free speech attorney Emerson Sykes. He speaks with former ACLU Executive Director Aryeh Neier, who led the organization during the controversial time in the 1970s when the ACLU defended the rights of Neo Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois. They address how a multi-issue organization can balance defending the rights of free speech even as it defends the other rights and liberties guaranteed in the constitution.

In the U.S., it’s easy to think we’re in the final chapter of this global pandemic. Baseball stadiums have replaced cardboard cutouts with screaming fans, and the aroma of fresh popcorn is wafting once again from movie theaters’ open doors. As of this recording, more than 60% of US adults have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, and unused doses are available to anyone over the age of 12. But the U.S. is, in many ways, an outlier. The entire continent of Africa accounts for 1% of the world’s vaccine administrations, and countries in Asia and South America still lack meaningful access to vaccines. Added to this, variants have made COVID-19 more contagious and, in some cases, more deadly. This is the global vaccine gap. The global vaccine gap is both a human rights and a racial justice issue. Many of the communities left vulnerable are communities of color. The scale of the problem has united activists and organizations from around the world, including at the ACLU, to identify solutions and fast. For many of the human rights activists and experts, the urgency is part of their lived experience on the ground. This episode, we’ll hear some of their stories and learn from one of the ACLU’s human rights experts what needs to be done. Special thanks to the International Network for Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO) for helping make this podcast happen, especially Colin Gonsalves, Nersan Govender, Vivian Newman, and Lucila Santos. To support our INCLO partners featured in this episode, please see below. Human Rights Law Network in India: https://www.hrln.org/. Legal Resources Centre in South Africa: https://lrc.org.za/ Dejusticia in Colombia: https://www.dejusticia.org/ INCLO: https://www.inclo.net/

There were only 18 days last year that did not see a police officer kill a civilian in this country. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Walter Wallace Jr, Daniel Prude, and Rayshard Brooks, were among the 1,127 people killed by police last year. And we know that Black people are more than three times as likely to be killed during a police encounter as their white peers. A year after the murder of George Floyd, systemic, transformative change is still desperately needed at every level of government, but too often police unions and their lobbying efforts obstruct that change. Joining us today to talk about all this is Dr. William P. Jones, a history professor at the University of Minnesota and the president of the Labor and Working-Class History Association, whose work focuses on the relationship between race and class, as well as on the history of unions and organizing in the U.S.

In the early 1920s, Black Americans were under the siege of direct and indirect racial violence with widespread lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and race riots across the country. And yet, the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma was thriving. Its streets were lined with successful Black-owned businesses and Black professionals. The businesses were so successful the area was dubbed “Black Wall Street.” But one hundred years ago today, on May 31st, 1921, a white mob of several thousand murdered up to 300 Black residents, and destroyed almost every Black business, church, and home in the 35-square-block neighborhood. What followed the massacre was a national forgetting: no reckoning, no justice, and no accountability. Black property owners were never compensated, and neither the city nor the state committed money toward rebuilding Greenwood in the aftermath. In fact, up until recently, the massacre was hardly taught or discussed at all. Tulsa historian and prolific author and lawyer, Hannibal B. Johnson, joins us on At Liberty to mark the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre and break down its legacy.

Here at the ACLU, we’ve been working remotely from home since the pandemic closed our offices in March 2020, which means this podcast is produced, recorded, and edited, using high-speed internet; even our guests’ participation depends on it! Covid-19 has underscored just how crucial an internet connection is to participate in society. But many people like you and me may take for granted having efficient and affordable broadband access, a privilege that tens of millions of Americans are without. This is the digital divide, and it disproportionately impacts people of color and people living in rural communities. Joining us on this episode are Baltimore high school students and organizers of SOMOS, Kimberly Vasquez and Yashira Valenzuela-Morillo, and data science and equity expert, Dr. Brandeis Marshall.

Three million Americans currently suffer from Opioid Use Disorder, or an addiction to opioids. Today, adults between the ages of 25 and 44 are more than twice as likely to die from opioid overdose than from COVID-19, yet this epidemic isn’t making the same headlines. When we zoom in on the prison population, the numbers are even more jarring. 85% of people in prison or jail have some kind of substance use disorder, compared with 9% of the general population, yet these Americans are less likely to get access to the care they need to treat their addiction. Most prisons and jails don’t let people take prescription medications like methadone to treat their disorder while serving time. This kind of treatment has been shown to reduce deaths from opioid overdose up to 50% by preventing withdrawal symptoms during recovery. In this episode, we’ll take a look at the devastating impact of denying these treatments in our prisons and jails. We're joined by Christine Finnegan, Louis Lamoureux, and Beth Schwartzapfel.

1 in 4 Americans are unbanked or underbanked. That’s because banks across the country are closing branches or they’re penalizing those who don’t have large savings. This means that 64 million Americans -- disproportionately Black and Brown -- can’t easily access basic financial services and are forced to pay thousands a year in fees for alternatives. But one solution to this disparity is within our reach, it’s actually just down the street from you: the post office. The Postal Service has the infrastructure to provide basic financial services at all of its branches. With an office in every ZIP code nationwide and trust within the community, banking at the most accessible institution in America could create a public option needed to put millions of families in greater control of their finances. Joining us today to break down the specifics of Postal Banking is Rakim Brooks. Rakim is a Senior Campaign Strategist at the ACLU and is managing our new Systemic Equality campaign.

On April 28th, the Supreme Court will hear arguments for a case that has big implications for student free speech. The case involves then 14-year-old Brandi Levy, a cheerleader at Mahanoy Area High School in Pennsylvania, and her post on the social media platform, Snapchat. One of her cheerleading coaches saw the post, which used an expletive, and suspended her from the team for a year – even though Brandi had posted on a weekend and off school property. Brandi and her family sued the school for violating her First Amendment rights. Brandi has prevailed in two lower federal court rulings but now, the Supreme Court will have the opportunity to uphold the win or rule for the school. Brandi and her father, Larry, join us on this episode, as well as Vera Eidelman, Staff Attorney at the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology project, who is working on Brandi's case.

Last year, the world watched Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kill George Floyd in plain sight after arresting him for an alleged counterfeit bill at a convenience store. The footage released from the encounter sparked an international movement as protesters took to the streets for months calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality. On Tuesday, after weeks of arguments, the jury released a verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial: guilty on all three counts. In this episode, we hear from Minneapolis demonstrators Sierra, Osman, and Broderick who react to the verdict as it's happening and then we call the ACLU's Policing Policy Advisor, Paige Fernandez, to hear her reaction.

On Sunday, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot and killed by a police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota after being pulled over for traffic violations. The violations? He had expired tags on his license and air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror of his car. This story is heartbreakingly familiar. Just a year ago the country erupted in protest over the death of George Floyd after police arrested him for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. Police interactions with citizens shouldn’t end in death, and yet hundreds are dying at the hands of police every year. In order to protect and serve Black Americans, we need immediate solutions. Joining this episode are protesters Aja, Melina, and Emilaysia in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, as well as the ACLU’s Policing Policy Advisor, Paige Fernandez, and Senior Staff Attorney of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, Somil Trivedi.

This week, we are revisiting one of our favorite episodes featuring a conversation with the filmmakers of the documentary, “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.” Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham use archival footage and interviews to tell the story of a summer camp that seeded a disability rights movement, a movement whose history few know well even though almost 50 percent of Americans live with at least one disability. The film was just nominated for an Oscar in the category of best documentary feature. Enjoy this gem from the At Liberty archive.

The Arkansas legislature just passed HB 1570, a bill that would ban gender-confirming health care for trans youth in the state. This comes just one day after Arkansas’ Governor Asa Hutchinson, vetoed the bill amidst pleas from doctors, social workers, and parents of transgender youth. Arkansas is the first state in the country to pass such a bill. We spoke with Chase Strangio, ACLU’s Deputy Director for Transgender Justice, to get his take on what happened.

From a Capitol insurrection to multiple mass shootings, recent violence is prompting an old debate: Does the U.S. need a domestic terrorism law? And if not, how do we quell this violence? Our guest today, Hina Shamsi, the Director of the National Security Project at the ACLU, says we don’t need to look far to see how existing laws that claim to target domestic terrorism, in reality, grant the government unprecedented power to surveil and criminalize communities of color. These laws have been weaponized to harm some of the same communities that are suffering disproportionately from violence in America. She joins us today to break down the debate.

This week, we’re rounding out our Women’s History Month series with writer and artist, Chanel Miller. Chanel jumped into the spotlight back in 2015, first through a pseudonym, Emily Doe, known in the context of the crime committed against her, a sexual assault that took place on Stanford University’s campus perpetrated by then student, Brock Turner. The victim statement she wrote and delivered at the trial went viral, receiving over 11 million views on Buzzfeed. Chanel’s words helped set off the #MeToo Movement, but her name was nowhere to be found. In 2019, Chanel stepped out from under anonymity and into authoring her own story. She published the New York Times Bestselling memoir, Know My Name. She is now known as a leading voice for survivors of sexual violence and as an emerging artist, currently debuting work in San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. Behind every social issue are survivors, often of discrimination, of atrocity, and of violence. Everyone has had an experience that has made them feel nameless and faceless. But Chanel knows that in owning our own power, we can be powerful for both ourselves and those around us. She joins us today to share more about her own journey.

Last summer, protesters and organizers called for a racial reckoning and a change to how our country's policies. In the wake of those protests, a sheriff’s race in Charleston County, South Carolina took shape with a reform-minded candidate Kristin Graziano taking on an establishment incumbent. During her more than 20 years in law enforcement, Graziano observed how the sheriff’s office contributed to racial profiling and harmful collaborations with immigration enforcement. In response, she promised to make the sheriff’s office more accountable and responsive to the demands of its community. The citizens of Charleston rewarded her vision with a decisive victory over the incumbent of 32 years. Sheriff Graziano joins us to talk about why the department needed a change and what it means to serve a diverse community during a time of racial reckoning.

The 2020 election was a historic year for lawmakers who identify as transgender; voters across the country elected six trans lawmakers to state office. Sarah McBride, was one of those lawmakers. Elected as a State Senator for Delaware’s first district, Sarah is now the highest-ranking trans lawmaker in America. Her candidacy and her voice in trans advocacy have shown how trans people can become powerful leaders in public life. Sarah joins us to discuss her journey into politics and trans advocacy and to let us know what we can all do to build a more inclusive public life.

Welcome to March! This month, in honor of women’s history month, we are featuring conversations with women and non-binary leaders who are working to address issues in their communities. This week, we’re speaking with Amanda Nguyen. Amanda is the CEO and founder of RISE, a millennial-driven social change incubator for citizen lawmaking. Because of her work passing legislation for sexual assault survivors, she was nominated for a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. More recently, Amanda has been working to mobilize a nationwide response to the surging attacks on Asian Americans. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Asian Americans across the country have reported being targeted in 3,000 hate incidents. According to NYPD data, anti-Asian American hate crimes are up 1900% in the last year. And just weeks ago,, an 84-year-old Thai American man was murdered in San Francisco, a 91-year-old man was shoved to the ground in Oakland’s Chinatown, a 64-year-old Vietnamese woman was assaulted in San Jose and a Filipino American man was slashed in the face on a subway in New York City. These assaults are happening during a pandemic where Asian Americans have disproportionately lost their jobs or had their businesses boycotted. In response to the recent attacks and to the relative silence of mainstream media, Amanda posted a now-viral video on Instagram naming the attacks and calling for media attention and public action. Amanda joins us to talk about this wave of violence and what she’s doing about it.

This country watched as the people of Georgia helped deliver both the presidency and the Senate to the Democrats this past election cycle, defying the perception that the state was a Republican stronghold. After Stacey Abrams’ contentious loss in the 2018 race for governor, the effort to thwart voter suppression in the state and mobilize Black voters ramped up. As a result, Black Georgians showed up to the polls in droves and turned the state Blue. One of the activists responsible for this turn is LaTosha Brown, a political strategist who has been working at the intersection of social justice and political empowerment for decades. LaTosha is the co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund and BVM Capacity Building Institute, a movement to expand voter access and build political power for Black Americans, particularly in the South. She joins us to discuss the impact of expanding the right to vote and building a more diverse and inclusive future for the South.

Imagine you’ve forgotten once again the difference between a gorilla and a chimpanzee, so you do a quick Google image search of “gorilla.” But instead of finding images of adorable banana-obsessed animals, photos of a Black couple pop up. Is this just a glitch in the algorithm? Or, is Google an ad company, not an information company, that’s replicating the discrimination of the world it operates in? How can this discrimination be addressed and who is accountable for it? Our guest today, UCLA professor and best-selling author of “Algorithms of Oppression,” Dr. Safiya Noble answers these questions.