At Liberty

Over the last two years, we've talked with civil rights leaders, organizers, journalists, artists, ACLU lawyers and people whose lives have been affected by the civil rights and liberties issues of our day. We've covered family separation at the border, talked to founders of the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements. And we even spoke via video link with Edward Snowden. To mark our 100th episode, current Host, Emerson Sykes, and former Host, Lee Rowland, look back at some of our most memorable At Liberty moments. They discuss how much has changed in the world since 2018 and how many of these conversations still resonate with the questions we’re wrestling with today. What's your favorite episode of At Liberty? Who do you want to see as a guest during our next 100 episodes? Tweet us tagging @ACLU and using the #AtLiberty! We'd love to hear from you.

Over the last few weeks, various protests have erupted across the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are related to the virus: protestors in Ohio and Michigan took to the state capitols to call for an end to their governors' stay-at-home orders. Others are calling out an ongoing injustice: the killing, often at the hands of the state, of Black Americans. The rights of participants in protests across the spectrum could be at stake unless the Supreme Court weighs in on an important decision. In this episode, we speak with DeRay McKesson, an activist at the center of an important ACLU case that threatens our right to protest. In 2014, DeRay protested the killing of Mike Brown by police in Ferguson, and he’s been fighting on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter movement ever since. In 2016, he was arrested after another protester (we don’t know who) threw something (we don’t know what), injuring a police officer (whose name we don’t know). If this case is allowed to move forward, it could mean the end of taking to the streets to stand up for our rights. We’ve asked the Supreme Court to stop this dangerous lawsuit in its tracks.

Our guest today is Reginald Dwayne Betts, a poet, memoirist, and legal scholar. Loyal listeners will remember our conversation from March of 2019. The episode was called “A Poet Gives a 360 Degree View of The Criminal Legal System,” and we talked about Dwayne’s journey from a teenage defendant sentenced to 9 years in prison to a Yale Law School graduate and published poet. A lot has happened since we last spoke. Dwayne published a new book of poetry called Felon and had an exhibit at P.S. 1 MoMA with painter Titus Kaphar called Redaction. If that wasn't enough, Dwayne also completed a clerkship with a federal judge and is pursuing a PhD in law at Yale. And of course, this episode is being recorded months into a global pandemic, that poses particular risks for people in detention. Today we’ll discuss the impact COVID-19 is having on incarcerated people, what we should do to support the thousands of people who are getting out of detention as a result of the efforts by the ACLU and others, and how art can help us get through these uncertain times. Listen to our first episode with Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-poet-gives-a-360-degree-view-of-the-criminal-justice-system/id1396174920?i=1000432665627.

Over the next month, states will start to loosen their COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions. Some of us will return to work, gather in small groups, and maybe even dine at a neighborhood restaurant. But what will it take to keep us safe and prevent new spikes in infections? Many experts say we will not be out of the woods until there's a vaccine, but how would a national vaccination plan even work? At the same time, technological solutions are being proposed, especially related to contact tracing, the process by which public health officials can map and anticipate the spread of a virus, but technological solutions raise a whole host of questions on their own regarding privacy and civil liberties. Today we're joined by professor Michele Goodwin, the founding director of the center for biotechnology and global health policy at the University of California Irvine school of law, and ACLU staff attorney Jennifer Granick who leads our work on surveillance and cybersecurity. For more on this topic, check out Michele Goodwin's interview on Slate's Amicus podcast: https://slate.com/podcasts/amicus/2020/03/law-of-pandemics-coronavirus. And, read Jennifer's article on Apple and Google's Coronavirus tracking proposal: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/apple-and-google-announced-a-coronavirus-tracking-system-how-worried-should-we-be/.

Public opinion on marijuana legalization has shifted in recent years—roughly two-thirds of all Americans are now in favor of national legalization, according to a recent Pew Research Study. However, a new ACLU report called "A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform,” shows that despite legalization and decriminalization efforts, many of them successful, marijuana arrests continue. Black people are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person. According to the FBI, in 2018, police made more marijuana arrests than for all violent crimes combined. Today's episode features two people who’ve been focused on marijuana legalization and racial equity: Dominique Coronel, a young activist from Illinois whose life has been deeply impacted by marijuana arrests, and Zeke Edwards, the Director of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, and a lead author of the report. They are both working to ensure that when legalization or decriminalization measures pass, the Black and brown communities that are hardest hit by prohibition are not left out of the legal cannabis industry. View the new report here: aclu.org/marijuana.

The Coronavirus has spread quickly through communities around the world, prompting physical distancing measures to keep people safe and “flatten the curve.” But people in custody are especially at risk because they are often held in close quarters and lack decent medical care. Currently, nearly 36,000 people are being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, and they are all in grave danger. Almost immediately after the virus broke out, the ACLU and other advocates began arguing for the release of especially high-risk detainees, including people who are elderly or have serious medical conditions. To date, the ACLU and our affiliates have filed more than a dozen lawsuits across the country and more than 50 detainees have been released due to our efforts. ICE has now committed to releasing an additional 600 medically vulnerable detainees. In this episode, we hear from two people who were recently released from detention after our litigation, Alfredo Esparza and Mario Rodas Sr, and some of their family. Then we speak with Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, who has been leading this litigation effort.

As many Americans stare down the end of their first month of social distancing, it’s clear that the toll of “stay at home” orders during the COVID-19 pandemic is much more than economic. The anxiety and fear that wash over us each day that we spend alone, away from friends, coworkers, and family, inflict their own kind of emotional damage. The cost of social isolation is a worthy cost in this case — staying home can quite literally save lives. But 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. Joining us today is Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University who understands the impacts of isolation and how we can mitigate them for both ourselves and others. We also spoke with a few people -- Anna Landre, TreShaun Pate, Jason Hernandez and Claire Goldberg -- who know a thing or two about social distancing. Their circumstances have made them familiar with isolation long before COVID-19. Further episode reading: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/24/i-survived-solitary-confinement-you-can-survive-self-isolating/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/coronavirus-isolation-social-recession-physical-mental-health

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, the nation’s jails and prisons have become ripe breeding grounds for COVID-19. Millions of people who interact with our criminal justice system are at risk. Last weekend marked the first COVID-related death of an inmate and new reports show that the rate of infection in prisons is far higher than their surrounding areas, evidence of the urgent need for states and cities to jump into action. Some are responding to the crisis by beginning to release people in jails and prisons who the Center for Disease Control (the CDC) deem "high risk" for contracting the virus. Others, however, are refusing to budge, leaving advocates, former judges, and district attorneys to call for change. A new poll shows 63% of registered voters would like to see people released during the unfolding pandemic. In this episode, you’ll hear from Lewis Conway, a National Campaign Strategist for the ACLU who has experienced incarceration, and also Udi Ofer, the ACLU’s Deputy National Political Director, on what prisons should be doing to prevent the spread of the virus. To sign our petition to call for the release of prisoners during the COVID-19 crisis visit: https://action.aclu.org/petition/stop-spread-covid-19-free-elderly-and-sick-prisons-and-jails

With the recent spread of COVID-19 in the United States, we now face a public health emergency unlike any we’ve seen in our work at the ACLU. Across the country, schools are closed, employees are adapting to new work from home policies, and some state and local officials have even implemented “shelter in place” orders. At the ACLU, we work with a variety of vulnerable populations. COVID-19 brings new concerns to our daily fight to protect civil rights and liberties. For this episode, we spoke with three of our colleagues Dale Ho, Michael Tan, and Maria Morris who work on voting rights, immigration, and prison reform, respectively, to learn about how COVID-19 is affecting their work. For more information on the ACLU's COVID-19 response visit: https://www.aclu.org/news/topic/covid-19-pandemic-response and follow us on Twitter: @aclu.

Megan Rapinoe is a superstar soccer player who has become a global icon for her breathtaking play, her purple/pink hair, and her bold activism. She’s a World Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist, and co-captain of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. She has also kneeled during the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and others to protest police brutality and she’s spoken out in favor of many progressive causes. Now she and her national teammates are demanding equal pay with their male counterparts and they’ve taken the issue to court. She joined us remotely to discuss the latest with this important pay equity lawsuit, the roots of her activism, and what it’s like to score a game-winning goal in the World Cup final.

In 2018, Stacey Abrams ran for Governor of Georgia and lost by just 54,723 votes to Republican Brian Kemp, who was then serving as Georgia’s Secretary of State. Before Kemp entered the governor’s race, he purged 1.4 million voters and instituted many other policies to dissuade people from voting. It’s a story of the real-world impact of voter suppression. What happened in that race was egregious, but it was not unique. In the aftermath of the election, amidst calls for her to run for senate and even president, Stacey Abrams has devoted herself to voter protection. Now, with the presidential election underway, Abrams joins us on the podcast to share how her organization Fair Fight is educating, empowering, and motivating people to vote.

Abortion access is yet again under attack. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in June Medical Services LLC v. Russo, a case that threatens to chip away at the constitutional right to a safe and legal abortion. The Court will decide whether or not a Louisiana law that requires abortion providers to have the ability to admit patients to a nearby hospital is constitutional. If allowed to go forward, that requirement would decimate access to abortion and open up the floodgates for similar laws in other states. On this week's episode, two lawyers from the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, Brigitte Amiri and Andy Beck, join us from DC to share what they heard during yesterday’s oral arguments.

Since President Trump took office, his administration has waged a series of attacks on asylum in the United States. They are restricting the number of asylum cases heard in a given day, sending asylum seekers to other countries to await review, and even working to bar specific groups of people from the process entirely. Now, a case before the Supreme Court threatens the right of asylum seekers to have their day in court. The decision will impact not just the civil liberties of asylum seekers, but all of us. On this episode we speak with Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights project who will be arguing to protect this right before the Supreme Court.

This year, Hair Love, a story about a black girl and her dad navigating natural hairstyles, won the Oscar for animated short and three beauty pageant winners wore natural hairstyles under their crowns. But as more and more people step out into the world celebrating their natural hair, they are also being met with school and workplace dress codes that punish them under the auspice of "professionalism." Hair discrimination is a form of racial discrimination, but judges have been hesitant to say so because unlike skin color, people can change their hairstyles. But should they have to? On this episode of At Liberty, we speak with Mya and Deanna Cook, two students who faced and fought hair discrimination in their school and Ria Tabacco Mar, director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project. For more, follow us on Twitter @ACLU and @EmersonSJSykes.

This Valentine's Day, we're re-running one of our favorite episodes. Melissa Murray, NYU Law professor and expert on the legal regulation of sex and sexuality joins us to discuss the legal institution of marriage as it has been used by and against marginalized people, and to consider the victories and setbacks in the fight for marriage – and non-marriage – equality.

The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in a case that will decide whether nearly half of Oklahoma is legally an Indian Reservation. The Court’s decision could have massive implications for tribal sovereignty and subsequently, many other Native issues that are impacted by jurisdictional power. Our guest this week is Rebecca Nagle, an activist, writer, artist, and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, whose Crooked Media narrative podcast, “This Land” explains the process by which native people in Oklahoma lost their land and the court case that could help restore it. This live discussion took place at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Night of Philosophy and Ideas. For more follow: Rebecca Nagle: @RebeccaNagle Emerson Sykes: @EmersonSJSykes ACLU: @ACLU

The U.S. has a long history of detaining and incarcerating communities of color under the auspice of protecting its national security. Today, on Korematsu Day, we honor and celebrate the legacy of those who stood up against the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. On this episode, we speak with Linda Morris, an ACLU fellow and a descendant of Japanese American prisoners incarcerated in U.S. camps during WWII, who is engaging her own family history to stand in solidarity with immigrants currently detained by ICE. Looking for more? Follow us: @ACLU and @EmersonSJSykes on Twitter.

In 2017, Arkansas announced a plan to execute eight people in 10 days because the state’s lethal injection drugs were about to expire. The first person executed was Ledell Lee. He was convicted of the 1993 murder of Debra Reese and sentenced to death. But his trials and appeals were plagued by problems from the start. DNA and fingerprints found at the scene of the crime were never tested before his execution, and new analysis from the nation’s top forensic experts provides strong reason to believe he may have been innocent. Cassandra Stubbs, Director of ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, joins the podcast to discuss a new lawsuit the ACLU is filing to finally uncover DNA evidence that could potentially exonerate Lee.

This weekend, we celebrate the ACLU’s 100th birthday. To commemorate the centennial, novelist and essayist Ayelet Waldman and her husband Michael Chabon edited an anthology of essays from today’s most prominent writers reflecting on landmark ACLU cases. The book is called Fight of The Century, and it features authors like Jesmyn Ward, Dave Eggers and Salman Rushdie, among many others. Waldman joins us to discuss the power of storytelling in both literature and litigation, and what compelled her to take on this project.

This week, we are bringing back a very special episode from 2019 featuring our former director of the Women’s Rights Project, Lenora Lapidus. Lenora passed away just a few months after the interview, having fought a long battle with cancer. She started as an intern in 1988, later served as legal director of the ACLU of New Jersey, and for nearly two decades led the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, which was founded by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. During this memorable conversation, Lenora reflects on her own journey as a women’s rights advocate, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lasting impact on the ACLU.

Surveillance technology is slowly encroaching on every part of our lives. With regulation at the federal level slow to materialize, local governments are taking action. Since this episode first ran in July, more American cities in California, Massachusetts, and Maine passed local laws to ban the use of facial recognition technology by police and other government agencies. Is local advocacy our best bet for keeping the surveillance state at bay? Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, discusses a growing local movement to protect privacy.

For a special year-end holiday episode, we decided to ask some ACLU staff to have a conversation with their kids about the work they do. On this episode, you’ll hear kids learn about gerrymandering, how we inform legislation, the Keystone XL Pipeline and what kinds of snacks we keep nearby. Thanks for all of your support in 2019! We have some great conversations to share in the new year.

At the ACLU, we receive lots of holiday mail, and not all of it brings tidings of comfort and joy. In this episode, we share a few letters that accuse the ACLU of being "anti-Christian" or "anti-religion.” To respond and dispel the falsehood, At Liberty spoke with Dan Mach, the director of the ACLU’s Program on Religious Freedom and Belief. Mach tells us about the uphill battle of protecting religious liberty, and how the separation of church and state serves people of all faith backgrounds.

This week, the ACLU's Women's Rights Project filed a pair of federal lawsuits against Frontier Airlines for discriminating against pregnant and breastfeeding employees. We talked to flight attendant Melissa Hodgkins and pilot Shannon Kiedrowski about their experiences working for Frontier, and senior staff attorney Galen Sherwin, about the lawsuit.

Mass incarceration in the U.S. is an indisputable fact, but most reforms focus on nonviolent offenses. As uncomfortable as it may be, we can't dismantle mass incarceration without changing the way we think about, talk about, and respond to violence. At Liberty spoke with Danielle Sered, who is doing just that with her organization Common Justice, and her book, Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair.

Sergio de la Pava is a critically acclaimed novelist (A Naked Singularity, Personae, Lost Empress) and a full-time public defender who has represented thousands of criminal defendants over the last two decades. Earlier this year, he joined At Liberty live at the Brooklyn Public Library to discuss his literary and legal work and his approach to life.

This year, the ACLU of Arkansas celebrates 50 years of protecting civil liberties. From challenging voter ID laws, to protecting the right to boycott, to defending the First Amendment rights of Tofurky, the ACLU of Arkansas has a fascinating docket and history of defending the rights of Arkansans. Holly Dickson, the organization’s legal director and a lifelong Arkansan, joins At Liberty to discuss her work.

The FBI is supposed to keep us safe, protect our rights, and defend the rule of law. Yet for more than a century, the FBI has aggressively targeted dissidents, gone after minorities, and overstepped its authority in ways that have defined American policing. Mike German, a former FBI agent, discusses his new book and how a post-9/11 FBI has exacerbated divisions in American society even as it has ignored the rise of white supremacist violence.

Facebook has come under a lot of scrutiny lately, for everything from its policy on political ads to its logo. But one development that's gotten less attention is its new portal for advertisers. Now, advertisers for housing, employment, and credit no longer have the option to target their ads at certain demographic groups in a discriminatory way. That's because of a landmark settlement that recently went into effect. Earlier this year, we talked with ACLU attorneys Galen Sherwin and Esha Bhandari, who were involved in securing major changes to Facebook's ad targeting practices.

The Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia, the landmark ACLU case decided in 1967. But the government‘s regulation of marriage and sex didn’t start with anti-miscegenation laws or end with Loving. Melissa Murray — an expert in family law, constitutional law, and reproductive rights and justice at the New York University School of Law — discusses why the institution looms so large in America's past and present. This episode was recorded live at the Brooklyn Public Library, as part of “‘Til Victory is Won,” an evening commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to America’s shores.

As a result of a Trump administration policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while the U.S. considers their cases, tens of thousands of people are stranded in squalid and dangerous conditions on the other side of the southern border. Scores of people who are fleeing persecution have been kidnapped, extorted, and sexually abused at the hands of cartels and criminal gangs. Shelters are overwhelmed, and many asylum seekers are homeless. Ashoka Mukpo, a journalist working at the ACLU, recounts what he saw on a recent visit to the border. And Astrid Dominguez, director of the ACLU's Border Rights Center, discusses the broader fight for immigrants rights.

While abortion restrictions have left six states with only a single clinic standing, other states are finding ways to expand access. We speak with Heather Gatnarek, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Kentucky, who is helping fend off sustained attacks on what remains of reproductive care in that state. And we hear from Zach Heiden, legal director of the ACLU of Maine, where abortion was just made more affordable and accessible.

Puerto Rico's U.S. citizens don't enjoy the full protections of the Constitution, thanks to a set of century-old Supreme Court decisions called the "Insular Cases." In a case dealing with the island's financial oversight board, the ACLU has asked the court to overrule those decisions, which relied on openly racist assumptions to legalize the island's second-class status. Adriel Cepeda Derieux, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, explains why it's time for the court to renounce the Insular Cases.

On October 8, the Supreme Court will hear a set of cases deciding whether LGBTQ employees are protected under federal sex discrimination laws. In one of those cases, the ACLU is representing Aimee Stephens, a trans woman who was fired after she came out to her employer. Chase Strangio, one of Aimee's lawyers and deputy director of the ACLU's LGBT and HIV Project, discusses the stakes of the case.

In his new memoir, "Permanent Record," Edward Snowden tells the story of his evolution: A child of civil servants, he fell hard and fast for the internet of the 90s, ascended the intelligence community, and became one of the most famous whistleblowers in U.S. history. He joins ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero for a live taping of At Liberty at the Brooklyn Public Library.

Another Supreme Court session is upon us, with the court set to reconvene in October following its summer recess. On the docket for the new session are cases that have important implications for LGBTQ rights, criminal justice, immigration, and more. David Cole, the legal director of the ACLU and an experienced Supreme Court litigator, joins At Liberty to preview the coming term.

In 2014, Gavin Grimm was a high school sophomore in Gloucester County, Virginia. He had recently come out as transgender to school administrators who were initially supportive. However, following protests from members of the community, the school board reversed course and banned him from using the boy's restroom. That kicked off a high-profile legal battle over the rights of transgender students that continues to this day. Now 20 years old, Gavin is a college student, an ACLU client, and a leader in the fight for trans youth.

Eighteen years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, a trial date was recently set for the men accused of plotting those attacks. But what has taken so long? And is a fair trial even possible? On this anniversary of 9/11, we're replaying an interview from last year with Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. Hina talked to At Liberty about how America's response to 9/11 has corrupted our institutions and the role that torture has played in the process.

Starting with the Muslim ban, the Trump presidency has consistently unleashed a barrage of new policies designed to keep immigrants out of the country. But while these restrictions might seem unprecedented, anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies have deep roots in our country. Today’s guest is Daniel Okrent, the award-winning writer of The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians and Other European Immigrants Out of America. He discusses the political dynamics behind the anti-immigrant zeal of the early 20th century and the junk science that was used to justify it.

This week, we’re replaying an interview from earlier this year with Paul Butler, a scholar, former prosecutor and the author of "Chokehold: Policing Black Men." When we first spoke with Paul, his book had been banned in Arizona prisons. Arizona has since lifted its ban, and incarcerated people in Arizona can now read "Chokehold" and benefit from its insightful analysis of our mass incarceration crisis.

Four hundred years ago this month, more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in what was then the British colony of Virginia. To mark the anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America, The New York Times launched a major initiative called The 1619 Project. Through a special issue of the New York Times Magazine, along with a slew of other resources, the project centers slavery in our national narrative, tracking how the legacy of that brutal institution continues to manifest in every aspect of American life. Nikole Hannah-Jones — an award winning investigative journalist, a New York Times Magazine staff writer, and the driving force behind the 1619 Project — joins At Liberty to discuss the initiative.

This week's guest is W. Kamau Bell: standup comedian, prolific podcaster, and host of his own show on CNN, "United Shades of America." He's known for his incisive socio-political commentary and activism, including on behalf of the ACLU, where he serves as an artist ambassador for racial justice. He joins At Liberty to discuss race, his show, Anthony Bourdain, parenting, and more.

Anuradha Bhagwati has long been at the forefront of the fight for gender equality within the military. She is a former Marine Corps captain, a three-time ACLU client, and founder of the Service Women's Action Network, a lead plaintiff in a groundbreaking lawsuit challenging the military's ban on women serving in combat. Her recent book, “Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience," details her experience as an Indian-American, bisexual woman in the Marines confronting a culture permeated by racism, misogyny and sexual violence.

Last month, protests erupted when the Justice Department announced it would not bring civil rights charges against the NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014. Mr. Garner's death was one among countless examples of deadly police violence toward Black and brown people. Yet despite a growing outcry, most officers implicated in civilian deaths have escaped punishment. Carl Takei, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU who litigates police practices, joins At Liberty to discuss the way forward in the fight for police accountability.

Heidi Schreck is the playwright and star of Broadway’s “What the Constitution Means to Me.” The play, which was nominated for two Tonys and was a Pulitzer finalist, was inspired by Schreck’s experience as a teenager competing in debates about the Constitution at American Legion halls across the country. As an adult, she revisits her personal connection to the document to see how it holds up in new light.

It’s been a dizzying few days in U.S. immigration policy. Earlier this week, the Trump administration issued rules to ban most refugees arriving through the southern border. Despite legal setbacks, the administration continues to try to build a border wall. At the same time, the president has launched sustained attacks on four American congresswomen of color. Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director at the ACLU, talks to At Liberty about all of these developments and the ACLU's legal efforts to push back.

Surveillance technology is slowly encroaching on every part of our lives. With regulation at the federal level slow to materialize, local governments are taking action. Two American cities — San Francisco, Calif. and Somerville, Mass. — recently passed local laws to ban the use of facial recognition technology by police and other government agencies. Is local advocacy our best bet for keeping the surveillance state at bay? Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, discusses a growing local movement to protect privacy.

Hundreds of thousands of Washington, D.C. residents currently lack full political representation. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents them in the House of Representatives, is currently leading an initiative to make the District of Columbia the 51st state.

It was another dramatic year for the Supreme Court. A new justice was sworn in against the backdrop of scandal. A beloved justice got sick and recovered. And, of course, major precedent-setting decisions were handed down. David Cole, the ACLU’s legal director and a seasoned Supreme Court litigator, makes sense of the highs and lows of the past term and talks through what’s to come when the court reconvenes this fall.

In one of the most highly anticipated decisions of its term, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration cannot add a citizenship question to the U.S. census – at least not for now. Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, who argued the case, explains the decision.