Research & Publications

Races for President, Senate and Governorships at Risk with an Eviscerated Voting Rights Act

This report, released by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, summarizes the results of a DC Freedom of Information Act request and focuses on the exclusion of women and girls from the programming launched under this new, $20 million initiative of the District of Columbia Public Schools. Despite statistics showing that girls of color in Washington DC are suffering from many of the same serious educational disparities facing boys of color, the programs launched under this initiative appear to be open almost exclusively to boys, with no plans for any similar programming for girls. While the report commends the Mayor and the District of Columbia Public Schools for directing critically-needed attention and resources toward some of the District’s most educationally disadvantaged students, it also points to significant legal vulnerabilities in the exclusion of girls of color from these programs under the relevant provisions of the Constitution, Title IX, and the D.C. Human Rights Act, and recommends that the programming be opened to girls going forward.

The ACLU and the African American Policy Forum are also seeking to connect with parents and family members of African-American and Latino children in Washington DC public schools to hear their feelings, views and attitudes on educational opportunities for girls in Washington DC. Please fill out this form if you are interested in sharing your views with us.

This report was originally published on May 9, 2016, and has since been updated to reflect further information subsequently received pursuant to a supplemental Freedom of Information Act request.

This report shares firsthand accounts from patients who have been denied appropriate care at Catholic hospitals, from health care providers forbidden from providing critical care because of the Directives, and from physicians at secular hospitals who have treated very sick women after they were turned away from a Catholic facility.

This joint ACLU-Yale Law School report reveals that more than a quarter of a million people are on terrorist watchlists used by police in the United States, and those lists are full of mistakes.

After observing and investigating proceedings at 27 “summary courts” in South Carolina, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the ACLU, and the ACLU of South Carolina together produced Summary Injustice: A Look at Constitutional Deficiencies in South Carolina’s Summary Courts. These courts try and convict people accused of low-level offenses, routinely failing to adequately advise defendants that they have a constitutional right to a lawyer, whether they can afford to pay for one or not.

The report reveals other standard operating procedures that have no place in the American justice system. The police who arrest defendants act as their prosecutors, the judges aren’t required to have a law degree, and defense lawyers are a rarity. With no lawyers in the courtrooms, errors that result in increased punishments for the defendants go unnoticed. The report details the cases of several defendants and their sentences.

Municipal courts – which are one kind of summary court—are flourishing in South Carolina because they make money for their towns’ coffers by collecting fees and fines.

The court-watching for Summary Injustice was conducted between December 2014 and July 2015. The report is the first step in the ACLU and the National Criminal Defense Lawyers Association’s joint investigation of South Carolina’s summary courts. Together we are gathering data from magistrate and municipal courts in several counties across the state, and our next report will offer recommendations for reforms that will ensure South Carolinians’ access to their constitutional right to an attorney.