At Liberty

The riot on the Capitol building in the last days of Trump’s presidency was a powerful inflection point in an era of racial reckoning. In its wake, many pundits and politicians declared that “This is not America.” Our guest, ACLU deputy legal director, Jeff Robinson would disagree. The image of a Confederate flag paraded through the halls of the Capitol or cries to disavow an election with high Black voter turnout is America; it’s just not the one we like to talk about. In this episode, we speak with Jeff about how building a more equal nation must be rooted in dealing with the racist policies, practices and attitudes that were calculated to keep people of color at a disadvantage. We’ll also talk about the ACLU’s multi-year plan to tackle some of those racist policies.

This month, in honor of Black History Month, we’ll be featuring a slew of incredible Black leaders who are tackling issues that impact their communities. This week, we’re speaking with Garrett Bradley, a filmmaker passionate about criminal justice reform. The documentary film called Time, streaming on Amazon Prime right now, is at its core a story of enduring love – both romantic and familial. It’s also a film about mass incarceration. The film follows Sibil “Fox” Richardson as she raises her six children, works as the owner of a car dealership, and relentlessly fights for her husband’s release from a Louisiana prison. The film’s original footage is interspersed with home videos that Fox made for her husband during his 21 years in prison. We’re joined by the director of Time, Garrett Bradley. The film, her first nonfiction feature, won Garrett the 2020 Sundance Film Festival’s best director award for U.S. documentary.

Weeks ago, President Trump was banned from nearly every social media platform because of his role in the events at the Capitol Building on January 6th. Just before Congress was set to certify Joe Biden as the next president of the United States, Trump instructed his supporters to, quote, “fight much harder” against “bad people” and “show strength” at the Capitol. The social media bans on Trump and his supporters ignited a debate about whether these social media companies have too much power over the speech of their users. Should they have banned Trump sooner? Are these bans legal? What kind of precedent does banning Trump and others set for the speech of marginalized communities? And should the government rein in the private sector power of these companies? Joining us to address some of these questions is Kate Ruane. She's senior legislative counsel for the First Amendment of the ACLU.

Yesterday, Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of the United States. And today, as part of his day one agenda, he has rescinded one of the Trump administration’s most incendiary orders: the Muslim Ban. The Muslim ban, enacted within Trump’s first days in office, virtually blocked immigration from countries with substantial Muslim populations such as Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. With no warning, the order sent people across the world scrambling to avoid permanent separation from their families, their jobs, and their education. Amidst a national outcry and protests in airports and on the streets across the country, the ACLU was able to secure an early victory in the courts. But, over the years, fighting the Muslim ban became like a game of whac-a-mole. The administration would come up with superficial tweaks of language to dodge judicial scrutiny, and the ACLU and others would fight anew. In the end, we were left with a ban, rubber-stamped by the Supreme Court, that blocked entry to people from 13 countries around the world, mostly in Africa and the Middle East. In this episode, we share stories that highlight the impact the ban has had and discuss what ending it will and won’t do for the future of Muslims in America. A listener note: the conversations that follow were recorded prior to the Biden administration’s move to end the ban.

This past weekend the national board of the ACLU convened an emergency meeting to respond to the events at the Capitol building on January 6th. After hours of deliberation, the board voted unanimously to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump, just days before his term is set to end. The resolution published by the National Board states “President Trump has...violated his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and poses a ‘grave and imminent threat to civil liberties.” On Monday, Congress followed suit, filing an article of impeachment. Joining us to discuss this historic moment and how the ACLU came to its call for impeachment, is Susan Herman, ACLU President and Ruth Bader Ginsberg Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School.

On Wednesday, pro-Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the electoral college decision to elect Vice President Biden to be the next President of the United States. At the ACLU, we watched aghast like many of you at home. What we saw was a dangerous attack on American democracy. We know that we will be dealing with the consequences of the events that took place for quite some time, but we wanted to come together to respond to the moment: particularly focusing on moving forward with electoral integrity and a deeper commitment to racial justice. On this special episode of At Liberty, you’ll hear experts from the ACLU in conversation: Monica Hopkins, the Executive Director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia, who will also act as moderator, Jeffrey Robinson, ACLU’s Deputy Legal Director and Director of the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, and Dale Ho, Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.

We generate droves of personal data every time we use the apps on our phones, make a call, make an online purchase. We all hope that data is kept private, hidden away from people or entities that might want to surveil us, but sometimes it isn’t. In November, news reports revealed that the federal government had purchased location data mined from apps used by Muslims. One of those apps is a prayer app called Muslim Pro, which has been downloaded by millions. We don’t yet know exactly how the data is being used, but many users of the app have already reported deleting it to avoid being surveilled. Aliya Karim, a journalist at NowThis, and Tarek Ismail, a senior staff attorney at the CUNY School of Law’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility Project, join us to discuss.

This week, we’re revisiting one of our year-end favorites, a conversation about ACLU staffers’ favorite holiday movies. So grab some popcorn and enjoy the show. We’ll see you again in 2021.

How to sum up 2020? Stressful? Uncertain? Hard? If you’re like some ACLU staffers, one note of help came quite literally from listening to music. For a special year-end holiday episode, we asked a few staffers to tell us which song provided the service of escape or inspiration or just comfort. It’s been a long year so we hope you enjoy a momentary departure from our usual talk of the latest civil rights and civil liberties battles in service of the songs that got us through this year.

The 2020 election was notable for a lot of reasons, but one winner really stood out: drug legalization. Five states legalized either medicinal or adult use of marijuana. Oregon and D.C. went even further and decriminalized or legalized hard drugs. And the momentum garnered from these cross-country wins helped push the MORE Act through the House in recent weeks. If enacted, this legislation would end the federal prohibition of marijuana. After decades of fighting to undo the damage done by the War on Drugs, could this be a tipping point? Joining to discuss how America’s war on drugs failed is Cynthia Roseberry, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s National Policy Advocacy Department.

The holidays can be a challenging time for many. One of the reasons for the extra anxiety we may feel is due to the kinds of conversations and sometimes, conflict, that can come up when we are sharing a meal with loved ones. Your aunt, grandpa, parent, or cousin says something about politics, about race, about any marginalized community, and boom, your blood is boiling. You love your family, but seriously, how can these people be related to you. Okay, you want to be respectful but also hold your ground. You don’t know how to respond. Well, our guest today, Glennon Doyle, knows a thing or two about difficult truth-telling, about creating understanding, and about moving people along in their own evolution of love and justice for all. 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. On this episode, we are going to spend time talking about how we can best share that knowledge with others, the folks who may not be as tuned into these conversations. Glennon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed, Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior. She is also the founder and president of Together Rising, a non-profit organization that has raised over $25 million for women, families, and children in crisis. She joins us today to break down how we can better love and lead people to care about the rights and liberties of those most marginalized.

Please note that this episode contains conversation around sexual violence. Calls to “defund the police” or even “abolish the police” are often met with the retort: “But what do we do about the rapists and the murderers?” It’s a question that today’s guest, Camonghne Felix, addressed head-on with an article in New York Magazine’s The Cut titled “Aching for Abolition as a Survivor of Sexual Violence.” She explains that as a sexual assault survivor, the incarceration of her attacker brought her no solace. She invites the reader to listen, to be led, and “to invest in agency” when thinking about accountability and healing. Felix is both an award-winning poet and the Vice President of Strategic Communications for Blue State, a purpose-driven creative strategy agency. Before Blue State, she was the director of surrogates & strategic communications at Elizabeth Warren for President. She's also a prolific poet and was longlisted for the national book award in 2019.

Thanksgiving is a holiday framed by our history books as a joyful celebration between those who arrived on the Mayflower to Plymouth, Massachusetts and the indigenous Americans already living on the land. In reality, the day had marked the end of a brutal battle where white colonizers attacked Indigenous Americans in order to take over and move in on their land. On At Liberty, we are particularly interested in re-learning and re-framing history to reflect the truth of what happened and the legacy of many American systems and institutions that are in reality marked by brutality and white supremacy. This Thanksgiving, we are pulling out an episode from the At Liberty archive that we believe has a special resonance on a day like today. Former At Liberty Host Emerson Sykes speaks with New York Times Magazine’s Nikole Hannah-Jones about her Pulitzer-prize winning1619 Project, a storytelling effort that centers slavery in the story of our country’s founding. We hope it also provokes you to question and reckon with the real meaning of Thanksgiving Day.

As of now, we know the status of two of the three branches of the federal government. We have President-elect Joe Biden in the executive and an even more conservative majority in the Supreme Court with the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The future of Congress is still unknown as we await the results of two runoffs in Georgia that could hand control of the senate to either party. But what we know, even before the results of those senate races are in, is that the fate of civil rights and civil liberties hangs in the balance. Civil rights protections previously defended by a narrow majority in the Supreme Court could be in jeopardy. Alternatively, the Biden administration will have the opportunity to roll back Trump-era assaults like the Muslim ban; it might also get a chance at its own appointments. The future is unknown, but here to help us to understand and forecast the impact of a Biden presidency and the most conservative Supreme Court in more than half a century is the ACLU’s National Legal Director David Cole.

In early October, the United States Labor Department reported that women were leaving the workforce at four times the rate of men. A few months earlier, a report from McKinsey Global revealed that while women made up just 43% of the workforce, they had borne 56% of COVID-related job losses. This data — and much more — led one news source to call this moment “America’s First Female Recession.” What exactly is going on? Why are women losing and leaving jobs more than men during this global pandemic? And what can we do about it? Here to answer these questions is Colleen Ammerman. Ammerman is the director of Harvard Business School’s Gender Initiative. She is also the co-author of an upcoming book Glass Half Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work.

The Trump campaign is pursuing legal challenges in battleground states as the pathways to President Trump’s reelection narrow. These challenges involve attempts to stop or challenge the vote count. And because of the record number of mail-in ballots cast during the pandemic, the votes affected are disproportionately those of mail-in ballots. 91.6 million Americans requested a mail-in ballot. And what’s noteworthy about the high volume of mail-in ballots is that any attempt to discount them would not only cast a blow to our democracy, it would disenfranchise communities of color. Joining us to discuss are Lucia Tian, ACLU's Chief Analytics Officer, and Andrea Young, ACLU of Georgia's Executive Director.

Tomorrow's the big day: Election Day! The last day to vote. Here at the ACLU, we have just one closing argument: Everyone should be able to vote, and everyone’s vote should be counted. So, we want to prepare you to know your rights when you head to the ballot box. We've prepared a short and sweet audio guide for you. We'll see you at the polls!

It’s almost half a year since George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer and the country erupted in protest demanding change. It felt like a turning point in many ways, but was it? Since that day, some cities and states have taken steps towards police accountability. The city of Minneapolis voted to defund their police department, Iowa restricted chokeholds, New York repealed a law that kept officers’ disciplinary records secret, and Virginia passed a law making it easier to decertify cops with a history of infractions. That’s just to name a few. But, in many cities and states, the progress has met with resistance like in California where police unions blocked a law that would have allowed officer misconduct to end their service. Given all that still needs to happen to address the systemic injustices of policing in this country, we are re-running a conversation we had shortly after protests erupted with our Policing Policy Advisor, Paige Fernandez.

Over 5 million Americans are kept from the polls by laws that prohibit people with felony convictions from voting. While the intricacies of these laws vary from state to state, people who have been convicted of a felony are blocked from voting in one way or another in 48 states. But why do felony disenfranchisement laws exist in the first place and where do they come from? On this episode, we spoke with Jennifer Taylor from the Equal Justice Initiative, an organizer with Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Demetrius Jifunza, and the ACLU's National Campaign Strategist for criminal justice reform, Lewis Conway, to find out.

The city of Philadelphia learned in March 2018 that two of the agencies it had hired to provide foster care services would not, based on religious objection, accept same-sex couples as foster parents. The city then told the agencies their contracts with the city were in jeopardy unless they complied with basic nondiscrimination requirements. While one of the agencies agreed to comply, the other — Catholic Social Services or CSS— refused. Instead, CSS sued the city, claiming the Constitution gives it the right to opt-out of the nondiscrimination requirement. After a lower court and a federal circuit court ruled in the city’s favor, CSS appealed to the Supreme Court. The case Fulton v. City of Philadelphia has implications, not only for the future of foster care, but for the protection of all people from discrimination in the name of religion. Arguments in the case are set for November 4th. Louise Melling, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU, joins us to discuss what's at stake.

For the last few months, we've been gathering your voting questions. Hundreds of you have sent in voice messages, videos and emails with your most pressing concerns. These submissions have informed our At the Polls episodes, but we couldn't answer each question with its own episode. This week, we have recruited the best experts to answer your varied questions about the upcoming election, your ballot, and voting rights. Thank you to all who submitted questions. We hope you enjoy!

This week on Monday, October 12th, a growing number of states and cities across the country celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It comes as an important corrective after decades of celebrating the, quote, “discovery” of the Americas by Christopher Columbus each year. We know, of course, that no such discovery happened — what did happen was colonization and centuries of subjugation, murder, disenfranchisement, and displacement of Native Americans. As we reflect on our history and on the stories that have been too often excluded, we consider the importance of not just what stories get told, but of who gets to tell them. On this episode, we are joined by Josué Rivas, who’ll help us think through these questions. Josué is a visual storyteller, educator, creative director, and self-described “Indigenous futurist.” He descended from the Mexica Otomi peoples. He aims “ to challenge the mainstream narrative about Indigenous peoples” and to “be a visual messenger for those in the shadows of our society.”

One in four American adults lives with a disability. And that doesn’t even include the fact that about 45% of Americans live with a chronic illness. During a global pandemic, that means that a huge portion of the electorate has health conditions that impact their ability to vote safely. A new act introduced in Congress has the potential to really help. It's called the Accessible Voting Act. In this episode of At the Polls, we're joined by Susan Mizner, Director of the ACLU's Disability Rights Project, and Curtis Chong, a longtime technologist and advocate for digital accessibility for all.

Over the last months, we’ve explored different conversations on the subject of policing: abolition, violence and accountability, protest and activism. Today, we’re exploring a topic that has gained more attention in the wake of Daniel Prude’s death in March at the hands of the Rochester Police Department: the startling connection between mental health 911 calls and police brutality. Studies show that nearly 50% of police victims are living with a disability, predominantly a mental health disability. In many ways, 911 has become the only option for people looking for mental health crisis intervention. And police often arrive at the scene armed with deadly weapons and a lack of mental health training. The results are devastating. But there is hope. There are new alternatives to policing that can provide real care if we invest in them. Joining us on this episode to break down the issue is Gregg Bloche, a professor of law at Georgetown University and a mental health care policy expert, and Ellie Virrueta, an organizer with Youth Justice Coalition.

American voting rates have hovered in the mid-50s for most of recent history. As these things go, that is not great. But it’s even worse with younger voters. In the 2014 midterms, less than 20 percent of voters under 30 cast a ballot. We saw a shift in the 2018 midterms and now the question is how do we sustain the influx of young voters? As of this year, millennials and Gen Z make up approximately 37% of the national electorate. The full participation of America’s younger voters could radically shift the political landscape. Michael McDonald, professor of Political Science at the University of Florida, and David Hogg, March For Our Lives Co-Founder and Board Member, join to discuss.

This past June, many breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Supreme Court rose above partisanship in controversial cases involving abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, the rights of DREAMERS, and the president’s tax returns. In those cases, conservative justices relied on legal reasoning, rather than party loyalty, to guide their decisions. But lurking in the shadows is a concerning new trend in the Supreme Court to grant an unprecedented number of emergency orders with little transparency and no opportunity for recourse. These cases fall under the Court’s aptly named “shadow docket.” And under the Trump administration, this shadow docket has grown exponentially with the Supreme Court disproportionately ruling on the side of the administration. Here to tell us about this trend and why it’s so concerning is the ACLU’s legal director David Cole. We spoke with David before Justice Ginsberg's death and before President announced Amy Coney Barrett as his pick to replace Justice Ginsberg. It is safe to say that the trends we discussed with David are unlikely to shift course – and could even worsen in the wake of these events.

Ahead of this year’s election, we have seen an unprecedented amount of election litigation between both political parties. The Republican National Committee, at the direction of President Trump, has amassed a $20 million war chest for voting rights cases across the country. In every case, they are working to suppress votes. The litigation ahead of the election is setting the stage for how votes are cast and counted on Election Day. But this isn't the only concern. Once Election Day comes to pass, many are worried that litigation will follow and that the results and final decision will go all the way to the Supreme Court. Joining us to discuss are Dale Ho, Director of ACLU's Voting Rights Project, and Leah Litman, a law professor and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast. They break down what's going on in the Courts and what we can all do to help.

September is in full swing, and millions of students across the US are returning to school, though for many, this year looks like none other. As school districts across the country grapple with how to resume classes during a pandemic, many districts and their trans students are facing additional hurdles. The Department of Education is now threatening to withhold funding from Connecticut schools that allow trans girls to compete on girls sports teams. Elsewhere, in spite of recent high profile victories affirming trans students’ right to use restrooms that match their gender, attacks on this right continue. And in state legislatures across the U.S., we’ve seen an alarming spate of bills attacking the rights of trans youth. Chase Strangio, Deputy Director for Transgender Justice for the ACLU’s LGBT Project, last joined us on At Liberty back in June, after a historic Supreme Court victory affirmed that employers cannot fire or discriminate against someone simply because they are LGBTQ. A few months later, that victory and his amazing career fighting for trans rights have landed him on TIME magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2020. Now, with students heading back to school — whatever that looks like — Chase joins us to talk about the battle for trans rights in and out of schools.

It’s no secret that the postal service has been under attack. Earlier this year, President Trump appointed one of his supporters to serve as Postmaster General. Then, just a few months from the election, that appointee, Louis DeJoy, ordered changes to how the postal service operates. Here’s the problem: it appears those changes could be politically motivated and could impact our ability to access the polls through vote-by-mail this fall. Joining us this week to discuss are Bobby Hoffman, ACLU's Voting Rights Advocacy and Policy Counsel, and Joyce Harris, a postal worker.

As many Americans stare down the end of their sixth month of social distancing, we are re-running a conversation we recorded back in April, that still has relevance to our lives today. For some people, the advent of social isolation came long before the coronavirus. At the ACLU, we work with many communities that deal with the long term impacts of social isolation. People living with disabilities who often experience accessibility issues, people held in detention, and people imprisoned in solitary confinement, just to name a few. We'll hear from folks impacted by chronic isolation as well as professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, Dr. Julie Holt-Lunstad.

For the launch of our podcast series, At the Polls, we are answering your questions about voting in the lead up to the election. Our first question is: What will election night look like in a global pandemic? Election night is a quintessential American tradition. The votes come in and television networks begin to report the results. Ultimately, well into the night, the election is called, one candidate concedes to the other, and we all get to watch it all happen live. But, what happens when millions of people decide to mail in their votes due to COVID-19 and precincts just can’t process these votes as quickly? What does a delay in results mean? If you have a question you’d like us to answer about voting, call us and leave a message at 212-549-2558. Or, email us [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

Immigrant communities are often asked to “get right with the law,” but is the law right in the first place? That’s what our guest Alina Das asks in her new book No Justice in the Shadows. She taps her experience as the daughter of immigrants and as an immigration attorney to ask whether immigrants who violate the law should be detained or deported. Too often, she argues, our immigration system is used as a tool of discrimination and oppression, rather than as a tool of justice, and the consequences are dire. Our current immigration system is breaking up families, forcing people to face persecution – even death – in their home countries, and it’s all based on a false premise of ensuring public safety and national security. Das is a professor of clinical law and supervising attorney at NYU School of Law. She is also the Co-Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic. We’ve got some exciting news here at At Liberty. Starting on September 15th, we’re launching a special 2020 voting series called At the Polls. This will be in addition to our normal At Liberty episodes. Each week, we’re answering a new question about voting rights in the lead up to the presidential election. If you have a question you’d like us to answer, call us and leave a message at 212-549-2558. Or, email [email protected]. We so look forward to hearing from you. And until next time, stay strong.

As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on, people across the country face the economic devastation left in its wake. Along with staggering unemployment numbers, millions of renters now face eviction — a situation made even more dire by the global health crisis. Congress responded by instating an eviction moratorium for more than 12 million rental units across the country. But that moratorium expired on July 24th. This week, the Center for Disease Control introduced another moratorium, protecting certain renters in certain circumstances until the new year. But that still leaves many unprotected, and those who are protected remain burdened with a hefty bill due in 2021. ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Sandra Park has monitored this situation since the start of the pandemic and has litigated discriminatory eviction policies in the U.S. for almost two decades. She joined us this week to explain the current crisis. A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Starting on September 15, we’re launching a special 2020 voting series called At the Polls. This will be in addition to our normal At Liberty episodes. Each week, we’re answering a new question about voting rights in the lead up to the presidential election. If you have a question you’d like us to answer, call us and leave a message at 212-549-2558. Or, email us [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you. ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Sandra Park has been monitoring this situation since the start of the pandemic. She has litigated discriminatory eviction policies in the U.S. for almost two decades, and she joined us to explain the latest. A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Starting on September 15th, we’re launching a special 2020 voting series called At the Polls. This will be in addition to our normal At Liberty episodes. Each week, we’re answering a new question about voting rights in the lead up to the presidential election. If you have a question you’d like us to answer, call us and leave a message at 212-549-2558. Or, email us [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

The golden arches. The happy meal. These are phrases that immediately mean something to most Americans. In fact, with more than 36,000 restaurants in 100 countries, McDonald's may well be one of the most recognizable brands in the world. But today, we're focusing on a much lesser-known side of the fast-food giant, looking at McDonald's role in Black America. Joining us to talk about how the struggle for civil rights and the expansion of the fast-food industry have shaped each other is Dr. Marcia Chatelain, a professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University and the author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America and Fran Marion, McDonald's franchise worker and organizer with Fight for 15. A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Starting on September 15th, we’re launching a special 2020 voting series called At the Polls. This will be in addition to our normal At Liberty episodes. Each week, we’re answering a new question about voting rights in the lead up to the presidential election. If you have a question you’d like us to answer, call us and leave a message at 212-549-2558. Or, email us [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sports have long been an arena where civil rights and civil liberties questions have taken center stage: Track and field star Tommie Smith raised his fist for racial justice on the 1968 Olympic podium. Tennis great Billie Jean King fought for equal pay for women. And, Olympic runner Caster Semana challenged intersex bigotry to be able to compete. But one group of athletes has often kept quiet during social movements: college athletes -- largely because the institutions they play for silence them. At a time when racial justice conversations have ignited across the country, we’re taking a look at how universities silence their athletes and the barriers to holding those universities accountable. Joining us to talk about college athletes and free speech is Frank LoMonte, First Amendment lawyer and director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida and Toren Young, former football player at the University of Iowa.

We’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment which was ratified on August 18th, 1920 and then certified eight days later. The 19th Amendment inked women’s suffrage into American history, a culminating moment in an effort to win political power. But the ordained heroes of women’s suffrage – like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and later Alice Paul – often tossed out the leadership and movement-building of Black women. The absence of those voices from the popular historical record has obscured the centuries-long role that Black women have played in expanding voting rights. And, of course, we’re releasing this episode just days after presidential candidate Joe Biden announced Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, which marks the first time a woman of color is on a major party ticket. Joining us to discuss how the history of voting rights has led us to this moment is Martha S. Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, and professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. She is also the author of a new book called Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All.

In the last month, we’ve seen the Trump administration deploy federal law enforcement officers to Portland, Oregon. Those agents have been documented using sharpshooters to maim protesters, sweeping people away in unmarked cars, and attacking journalists, legal observers, and medics with tear gas. The federal government just agreed to withdraw most of the federal presence there, but simultaneously announced they plan to send agents to other cities including Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee to quote “fight violent crime.” Critics, including the ACLU, are concerned about how this presence encroaches on fundamental civil rights and are calling for an end to federal abuses. Hina Shamsi, the Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, joins to discuss.

July 26th marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA. The ADA is a federal law that requires businesses, employers, public facilities, schools, and transportation agencies to make accommodations for disabled people, and helps weed out basic discrimination. When President George HW Bush signed the ADA into law in 1990, it was one of the most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation in American history. But the disability rights movement didn’t begin or end with the ADA. In spite of the law’s existence, Americans with disabilities still face discrimination and other barriers to equal rights and opportunities. Today, even though nearly 50 percent of Americans live with at least one disability, few know the history of the fight for disability rights. With Crip Camp, a new documentary on Netflix, filmmakers Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham fill in some of that history through the personal and political stories that started the rise of a movement.

Since the protests decrying the murder of George Floyd began in May, the institution of American policing has taken center stage. Activists are calling for change, and the phrase "defund the police" can be heard in cities across the country. As the concept of slashing police budgets and reinvesting those resources into Black and Brown communities goes increasingly mainstream, a more radical call is also gaining attention: Abolish the Police. Joining us to talk abolition, divestment, and what a world without police might look like are attorney, author, researcher, and organizer Andrea Ritchie, and senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice, Carl Takei.

Recently, we've seen a reckoning in the culinary world around the whitewashing and co-opting of ethnic food. The industry has long been controlled by a certain few who have authored and then profited from the foods we eat and the stories we share. But the tide is turning. And our guest for this episode, Padma Lakshmi, is part of that and is part of that movement. You've likely seen her tasting and critiquing some of the best chefs in the U.S. on Top Chef, sharing her favorite recipes across social media and advocating for immigrants rights and women's rights. Padma has a long list of accomplishments. She sits on the Jane Spirit Leadership Committee, is an Emmy nominated host and executive producer, a New York Times best selling author, founded the Endometriosis Foundation and is an ACLU artist ambassador for women's rights, immigrants rights. If that wasn't enough, she's joining us today to talk about her new Hulu show, Taste the Nation, where she breaks down important questions about the influence of immigration on American food and culture.

The Supreme Court term just came to a dramatic close. We saw wins for LGBTQ plus rights, DACA recipients, abortion rights, Native American tribal authority and a vindication that executive privilege is not absolute. But it wasn't all good news. The court issued a blistering rebuke on the rights of asylum seekers to have their day in court. We are here with ACLU legal director and experienced Supreme Court litigator David Cole. He will help us make sense of the term’s wins and losses and preview what's to come in the fall.

The calls of activists have forced a national reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy in our country. That reckoning has led us to an examination of systems that exert control over Black lives, from policing to reproductive health care. There is a long history of the ways that reproductive freedom has been denied to Black women. And there is an important story of the ways that people of color, led by Black women, have built movements to liberate themselves and reclaim freedom. Joining us to discuss is Renee Bracey Sherman, the founder and executive director of We Testify, an organization dedicated to telling the stories of people who have had abortions.

In the last month, protests have erupted across the country calling for justice for Black lives, a wholesale restructuring of policing, and a greater racial reckoning across all facets of American society. It feels like change is in the air. But we’ve been here before: Eric Garner was killed by police in New York City in July 2014, followed weeks later by Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, igniting outrage and protest. Activists then hoped for change too. We’ve seen countless social justice movements surge in popularity, cause a stir, and then peter out weeks or months later. This time, however, feels different, but how do we actually ensure that it is different? Activist, educator, and writer, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, who has been on the frontlines of these conversations most prominently since the Ferguson protests, join us to discuss how we sustain movements and compel real change.

The Supreme Court decided in a 7-2 decision to deny certain asylum seekers their right to have their day in court. This decision follows the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against asylum seekers, including closing the border and other ports of entry during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s Deputy Director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project argued the case of Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissingam, defending the rights of Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, an asylum seeker from Sri Lanka who fled ethnic persecution. Lee joins us today to break down the decision and its broader impacts on the immigration system.

President Trump’s financial records and tax returns have been a recurring focal point since his election. Both the Manhattan District Attorney and various House Committees are asking to see these records in order to conduct their investigations into potentially unlawful behavior. But the president and his attorneys claim both that Congress is overstepping its power in requesting that information, and that the President of the United States should be immune to such subpoena requests. We now await decisions in two Supreme Court cases that could force President Trump’s hand and require his accounting firm and banks to turn over business records and financial disclosures. Joining us today on the podcast to help break down the importance of these two cases is Steve Shapiro, an ACLU legend and former legal director who came out of retirement to co-author an amicus brief for one of these cases.

Public opinion and the law of the land aligned this week to affirm trans equality in America: Thousands of people took to the streets of New York City over the weekend to remind their community and the nation: Black trans lives matter. Then on Monday, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision establishing that under federal law, it's unlawful to fire someone just because they’re part of the LGBTQ community. Still, there's so much more to be done to protect and uplift trans people nationwide. LaLa Zannell, the ACLU's Trans Justice Campaign Manager, joins the podcast this week to talk about the state of the movement for Black trans lives, and why decriminalizing sex work is a meaningful and concrete next step as we continue to fight for true equality.

It’s been over 50 years since Black and Brown trans women led the revolutionary Stonewall Riots, fighting back against police brutality and discrimination and launching a movement for equality. Today, we celebrate another incredible landmark in the fight for LGBTQ rights. In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed that it is illegal for employers to fire or otherwise discriminate against someone simply because they are LGBTQ. This will go a long way towards affirming legal protections in education, housing, credit, and health care — areas where too many LGBTQ people, particularly Black and Brown LGBTQ people, still face discrimination. Chase Strangio, the Deputy Director for Trans Justice for the ACLU’s LBGT and HIV Project, joins the podcast to help breakdown this historic decision. If you want to donate to our continued fight for LGBTQ rights, please visit aclu.org/liberty!

Journalists covering protests against police brutality across the country are facing an influx of violence, suppression efforts, and arrests by police. According to The U.S. Press Freedom tracker, there have been over 300 claims of violations to press freedoms since the protests began. These violations include being assaulted with pepper spray and rubber bullets, dealing with damaged equipment, and even facing arrest. Joining us today on the podcast is Jared Goyette, a freelance reporter who was covering a local Minneapolis protest when he was hit in the eye with a police projectile. He is now the named plaintiff in a lawsuit the ACLU of Minnesota filed last week against the City of Minneapolis, seeking justice for the violence he and other journalists experienced covering the protests. Content Warning: This podcast episode contains sounds of violence including rubber bullet gunshots, tear gas, and protesters calling for help.

Police are supposed to “protect and serve” the community, but that’s a far cry from what modern-day policing often looks like in our country. The recent murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and others highlight the need for drastic systemic change, yet again. ACLU Policing Policy Advisor Paige Fernandez walks us through the history of our problematic policing systems and explains both why it's so hard to hold police accountable and how the ACLU is addressing this moving forward.

Anthony Romero has been the Executive Director of the ACLU for nearly 20 years. He’s seen the organization through periods of massive growth and numerous national crises. Romero started the job just seven days before September 11, 2001. The subsequent so-called War on Terror presented new and widespread restrictions to our civil rights and civil liberties. Now, he faces a new challenge, leading the ACLU during the COVID-19 pandemic. He joined us to discuss how the ACLU is navigating the current moment and responding to the crisis.