News & Commentary

contributed by Jana Kooren, Public Education & Communications Director

The other evening I was sitting down with my partner after a long day and we turned on CNN. On the screen in front of me was an image so moving, so honest, so bold that it brought tears to my eyes; thousands of people choosing to use silence in one of the busiest cities of the world as way of peaceful protest. Citizens laid down in the streets of New York with representations of coffins beside them with names of citizens who have lost their lives to the police; primarily young men of color. Three mothers of victims led this movement as it wound through the streets. I was in awe. The next day I was bursting to talk about the social movements that were taking place all over the nation; hardly anyone knew to what I was referring. The nation is alive with conversations, protests, and com

Contributed by Charles Samuelson, Executive Director, ACLU-MN

Most important, as our 2008 report emphasized, pandemics must be treated foremost as public health problems, not as law enforcement or national security matters. Victims of disease must be treated as hu

On October 10, Minnesota's new Legislative Commission on Data Practices and Personal Data Privacy held a hearing on law enforcement's use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) and body cameras. The ACLU-MN testified on both issues/ 

Here are a few highlights from the 2014 Legislative session:

Good news out of the Minnesota Court of Appeals today! The Court upheld the dismissal of an unfounded lawsuit that alleged wrongdoing in the covering of abortions for individuals on Medical Assistance or General Assistance.

The ACLU-MN sent a letter to the Minneapolis City Council encouraging them to revise their proposed policy establishing a "Clean Zone" in Downtown Minneapolis in the weeks surrounding the All Star Baseball Game. The ACLU-MN believes the way the policy is currently written violates Minnesotans constitutional rights. Unfortunately Minneapolis City Council passed the proposed policy on February 21 without any revisions that safeguard our freedom of speech. Now our free speech rights rest in the hands of a private corporation.

Sanford Middle School in Minneapolis was chosen as the second place winner in a nation-wide art contest that was a part of the ACLU's Constitution Day education program. They received a $7,500 cash award. The Constitution Day program's mission is to teach middle-schoolers about the importance and relevance of the Constitution in their everyday lives.