ACLU

Who Is Legally Eligible to Defend the Voting Rights Act?

Anthony Michael Kreis

It is important that groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, can go to court and litigate voting rights questions. Part of the reason is that the Department of Justice is a government office with limited resources and a finite capacity to assess all of the different jurisdictions where voting takes place.

Speaking With an Accent Can Make You Feel Truly Foreign

Eric Green

This incident makes me well understand the reluctance and fear of non-natives in this country to even try to speak English. Some time ago, I was teaching an English as a Second Language class, and some of my students shied away from speaking at all. They most likely believed their heavy foreign accents would unjustly subject them to ridicule and make them seem unintelligent. They might have feared their classmates would have the audacity to laugh at them even as some of those students also kept silent when it was their turn to speak.

The Enduring Legacy of Clarence Darrow

Adam Gravano

When some Dayton, Tennessee hucksters saw the marketing value for their town, they leapt on the offer, inviting the local science teacher John T. Scopes to immortality. While Darrow initially saw the case as a potential circus and thought to avoid it, as did the ACLU, which originally planned to hire former Supreme Court Justice and presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes, he jumped in after the entry of Bryan and the stage was set for what would be a titanic showdown. 

‘Show Me Your Papers’ Enforcement Looms Over Immigrants in Arizona

Valeria Fernandez

On September 18, over the pleas of civil rights groups, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton lifted an injunction on the “papers please” provision, siding with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. This means, police in Arizona now are required to inquire about a person’s immigration status if they have reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally. Police could face lawsuits if they fail to enforce the law to the fullest extent.

An NYPD Officer Analyzes the Controversial ‘Stop and Frisk’ Debate

Eugene Durante

The summer of 2012 has not been kind to U.S. law enforcement officials. As Occupy Wall Street protests subsided, the momentum shifted away from America’s financial sector and toward the long simmering issue of police-community relations. Spurred on by the Trayvon Martin shooting, many citizens around the nation redirected their protests and rallied against ‘illegal and unwarranted’ stops by the police. The Federal Court in New York City added more public pressure by granting approval of a class-action suit brought against the NYPD for “suspicionless stops and frisks.”

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