At Liberty

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.