At Liberty

May 17 marks the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court case that declared state laws enforcing racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Yet more than six decades later, segregation in some public school systems is worse than ever. Dr. Ansley Erickson, associate professor of history and education at Columbia University's Teacher College, joins At Liberty to discuss Brown’s legacy and why desegregation has been so hard to achieve.

Wyatt Cenac is an actor, writer, producer and comedian ("The Daily Show," “Medicine for Melancholy”). He joins At Liberty to discuss balancing comedy and social commentary and his new show “Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas,” now in its second season on HBO.

Mitra Ebadolahi, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Border Litigation Project, joins At Liberty to debunk misconceptions about the border and discuss the fight to hold CBP accountable. For more information visit: www.holdcbpaccountable.org.

A few weeks ago, the ACLU and other civil rights organizations announced a landmark settlement with Facebook to prevent advertisers from using ad-targeting filters based on race, gender, and age on job, housing, and credit ads. But Facebook ads are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the use of algorithms to reinforce and automatize bias. ACLU attorneys Galen Sherwin and Esha Bhandari join At Liberty to discuss the impact of these technologies on people’s lives and fighting discrimination in the digital age.

On Tuesday, April 23, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear the case Department of Commerce v. New York, which asks whether a question about citizenship can be added to the 2020 Census questionnaire. The case will be argued by Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. He joins At Liberty to discuss the case and how he's preparing for oral argument in our country’s highest court.

At Liberty sits down with Meg Singer, the Indigenous Justice program manager at the ACLU of Montana, and Lillian Alvernaz, the ACLU’s first Indigenous Justice Legal Fellow, to discuss Indigenous justice and organizing for social change in Indigenous communities. To learn more about Meg and Lillian and the ACLU of Montana’s Indigenous justice work visit www.aclumontana.org.

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. He joined At Liberty live at the Brooklyn Public Library to discuss his literary and legal work and his approach to life.

Nicole Ozer, the Technology and Civil Liberties director for the ACLU of California, has been at the forefront of debates around privacy and technology for more than 15 years. She joins At Liberty to break down the current state of facial recognition technology and why it raises civil rights and civil liberties concerns.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a published poet, memoirist, and legal scholar who's currently pursuing a Ph.D. in law at Yale. His legal work, like his poetry, is informed by the years he spent in prison as a teen. This week he sits down with At Liberty to discuss his journey to the legal profession, his perspective on the criminal justice system, and his art.

This week, At Liberty comes to you from Austin, TX, where we recorded in front of a live audience with Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, and The Nightwatchman. We sat down to discuss “Atlas Underground,” Morello’s new album of “social justice ghost stories,” as well as his decades of activism on issues like criminal justice reform, income inequality, unions, free speech, and mental health. Morello also announced his new role as an ambassador for the ACLU’s Campaign for Smart Justice, a nationwide effort to reduce the U.S. jail and prison population by 50 percent and to combat racism in the criminal system. Learn more about the Campaign for Smart Justice at www.aclu.org/smartjustice.

Rocky Myers is one of 175 people on death row in Alabama. The devastating flaws in his case from the moment of arrest to his sentencing displays the injustice of a brutal criminal system. His attorney Kacey Keeton and investigator Sara Romano join At Liberty to discuss the death penalty, Rocky’s case, and his appeal for clemency. Learn more and sign the petition for clemency at www.aclu.org/rocky.

As Black History Month comes to an end, Professor Carol Anderson (Emory University) joins At Liberty to discuss ongoing voter suppression efforts in the United States, and as a bonus, she tells the story of how the NAACP helped lead the global struggle against colonialism in the 1940s and 1950s.

Alan Rusbridger is the former editor of The Guardian and author of "Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now." He joins At Liberty to discuss the state of journalism in the social media age: what has been lost in this information revolution and what has been gained?

This Valentine's Day, we're joined by Melissa Murray, NYU Law professor and expert on the legal regulation of sex and sexuality. Professor Murray and host Emerson Sykes discuss the legal institution of marriage as it has been used by and against marginalized people, and consider the victories and setbacks in the fight for marriage — and nonmarriage — equality.

As part of the "Night of Philosophy and Ideas," renowned philosopher and NYT Ethicist columnist Kwame Anthony Appiah joined host Emerson Sykes — and a live audience! — to discuss identity, ethics, and the law. The event was hosted by the Brooklyn Public Library and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.