At Liberty

The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has turned into a full-blown national drama, amid credible sexual misconduct allegations against him. Late last week, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were both in high school. Kavanaugh denied her claims in a combative and emotional response. The ACLU does not ordinarily oppose or support judicial nominations. However, the day after the Senate hearing, the ACLU’s national board voted to suspend that policy in order to formally oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination. ACLU President and Brooklyn Law School professor Susan Herman joins At Liberty to discuss the decision.

More than 2,000 firefighters battling the blaze in California this summer came from inside the state’s prison system. They were part of a national workforce of incarcerated people, paid pennies per hour and sometimes nothing at all, for hourly labor benefiting the U.S. economy. Driven in part by demands for better working conditions and wages, incarcerated workers last month began a nationwide prison strike. David Fathi, a longtime prison rights advocate and director of the ACLU National Prison Project, discusses the strike and the organizers’ demands.

America’s response to the 9/11 attacks have dominated our foreign policy, military priorities, and human rights record for 17 years now. Perhaps no place on earth is a better symbol of that response than the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Today, 40 prisoners remain, as does the legacy of torture — in the bodies and minds of many of these men, and in the lingering stain on our legal system. Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, discusses how the “War on Terror” has changed America.

More than a month ago, a federal court ordered the Trump administration to reunite immigrant children and parents it had separated at the U.S. border. Yet hundreds of children remain on their own in government custody, and many of their parents have already been deported. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and attorney for the separated families, just returned from a trip to Guatemala to find some of the parents whose children are still being held in the U.S.

The Supreme Court is meant to protect the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. Historically, however, it has repeatedly failed to live up to that promise. Can one justice change the course of the Supreme Court? Erwin Chemerinsky, a Supreme Court litigator and dean of Berkeley Law School, discusses the court’s history and the threats a Justice Brett Kavanaugh could pose to our constitutional rights.

Many of the children who are presently gearing up for a new school year are also preparing to face police on a daily basis. The numbers of cops in schools is growing, which often means that instead of a detention or a time out, routine misbehavior can result in arrest and criminal charges — with children of color disproportionately impacted. The U.S. Department of Education recently released data collected from America’s 96,000 public schools. That data shows that students of color make up the majority of public school students for the first time. It also details police presence in schools, the lack of social services in many schools, and the growing racial disparities in public school systems serving 50 million students. The ACLU is partnering with the UCLA Civil Rights Project on a series of reports and data tools to enhance the public’s understanding of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). Amir Whitaker, an attorney at the ACLU of Southern California and co-author of those reports, joins At Liberty to discuss the school-to-prison pipeline, how the Trump administration might address it, and what it all means for our children.

President Trump often demonizes entire immigrant groups, referring to Mexican people as “rapists” and undocumented immigrants as “animals.” Yet statistics show that immigrants, both undocumented and otherwise, are actually less likely to commit crimes than the average U.S. citizen. How did our American political conversation start to conflate immigrants with criminality? And how has immigration policy changed along with this rhetoric? Cecilia Wang, the deputy legal director of the ACLU, discusses the legal and political history of immigration criminalization. At Liberty is also joined by Ravi Ragbir, an immigrant and activist leader waging a legal battle against his own deportation.

The United States sends more people to prison or jail than any other nation in the world. Donald Trump pledged to be tough on crime, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has pushed to reinvigorate the war on drugs. They're contributing to the mass incarceration crisis, but they didn't create it. It's the result of decades of criminal policies enacted in every state in this country. Local prosecutors are big drivers of mass incarceration. Can they be part of the solution? Udi Ofer, the deputy national political director of the ACLU and the director of the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice, discusses ways people can fight against mass incarceration in their communities.

On August 12, 2017, a group of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia. The day was a disaster, with violence in the streets and Heather Heyer murdered by a man who drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters. The ACLU of Virginia had represented Jason Kessler, the march organizer, in a First Amendment lawsuit when city officials attempted to move the location of the event. The ACLU’s representation of Kessler has renewed debate, both inside and outside the organization, about its role as a prominent defender of both free speech and racial justice. With white supremacy rearing its head, can the same organization effectively advance both principles? Dennis Parker, director of the ACLU Racial Justice Program, and Ben Wizner, director of the organization’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, reflect on the ongoing debate.

It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere these days — in our homes, in our cars, in our offices, and of course online. Government decisions, too, are being outsourced to computer code. In one Pennsylvania county, for example, welfare services use digital tools to assess the likelihood that a child is at risk of abuse. Los Angeles contracts with the data giant Palantir to engage in predictive policing, in which algorithms identify residents who might commit future crimes. Local police departments are buying Amazon's facial recognition tool, which can automatically identify people as they go about their lives in public. What does all this mean for our civil liberties? And how can the public exercise oversight of a secret algorithm? AI Now Co-founder Meredith Whittaker discusses this brave new world — and the ways we can keep it in check.

In recent months, Black Americans have had the cops called on them for things like waiting in Starbucks, entering their own dorm rooms, moving into their own apartments, and barbecuing in a public park. Why are these stories making waves now, and what do they say about being Black in America? Jeff Robinson, director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality, discusses America’s history of criminalizing race, and how we can meaningfully confront it.

The 14th Amendment, ratified exactly 150 years ago, promises equal protection to everyone. But it’s also used to strip the right to vote from millions of Americans who have been convicted of felonies. How did this happen, and who’s affected? Desmond Meade talks to At Liberty about his campaign that could restore voting rights to a huge number of Floridians. We also hear from the ACLU’s Dale Ho, about why the Florida initiative could tip the scales — in a good way — for the rest of the country.

On the eve of the five-year anniversary of the creation of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors discusses the life that led her to co-found one of the most consequential racial justice movements of our time. She talks about the evolution of the organization since its inception, what it’s like to live under surveillance, the books that inspired her, and more.

An eventful Supreme Court session just came to a close. This year, the court handed down major decisions on partisan gerrymandering, warrantless searches and seizures, union dues, the religious rights of business owners, and the Trump administration's notorious travel ban — to name a few. But the most consequential news from the court came once the session ended, with Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement. ACLU David Cole looks back on the most important cases of the session, and considers the court’s very uncertain future.

Lee Gelernt has been fighting Trump’s family separation policy since early this year, months before it became the subject of national outrage. Thousands of children remain separated from their parents, despite the president’s executive order purporting to end the practice. Just hours before taping this interview, a federal judge issued a decision calling for the government to take immediate action to unify these families. Lee discusses the future of this policy and the consequences of the Supreme Court’s Muslim ban ruling on immigration policy broadly.