News & Commentary

March first marks the beginning of Women’s History Month; a month to celebrate and reflect on the bold, brave and innovative women who came before us, and the leaders of today who walk in their footsteps.

DETROIT – In response to voters overwhelmingly passing three progressive ballot initiatives last November (voting rights expansion, marijuana legalization, and anti-gerrymandering), the Republican-led legislature passed a law during its lame duck session that will make it extremely difficult to gather the petition signatures needed to get any future proposal on the statewide ballot. The most controversial provision in the new law, which Governor Rick Snyder signed, requires that no more than 15 percent of the signatures gathered for a ballot proposal can come from any one of the state's 14 congressional districts.

For centuries, black people have endured the brutal violence of racism and shouldered the burden of leading the fight against it. This fight includes fixing our criminal legal system, which is racist at its core, and anything but fair. The nation falls far short of a real “criminal justice” system.

The children impacted by the Flint water crisis have a safe place to turn for a free neurodevelopmental evaluation to understand the impact of the water crisis upon them. Lead can only be detected through a blood test in the first 20 to 30 days of exposure. This means a neurodevelopmental evaluation is necessary to determine where a child may be struggling, as well as to determine their strengths. 

On the day that America pauses to honor the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the ACLU of Michigan asks the federal government to investigate and eradicate racial discrimination and harassment in a Western Michigan school district. In a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the ACLU accuses Paw Paw Public Schools of maintaining an educational environment that discriminates against students and others on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity and national origin.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center applaud Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young’s decision to refuse to hold detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless it presents an arrest warrant issued by a federal judge or magistrate. Today’s decision follows the arrest of Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, who is a U.S. citizen and decorated veteran, but was turned over to ICE by the Kent County Sheriff’s Department at ICE’s request. In a letter to the Kent County Sheriff and Kent County Commission, the ACLU and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) called for an immediate investigation into the detention of Mr. Ramos-Gomez. That investigation has resulted in the new policy to require a judicially-issued warrant for all ICE detainees.

Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) sent a letter to the Kent County Sheriff and Kent County Board of Commissioners, demanding an investigation into how an American citizen and decorated veteran was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for deportation.

Michigan has one of the longest averages for time served in prison in the U.S.1 The average minimum sentence has increased 26 percent, reaching 9.5 years in 2015. The number one reason people are spending more time behind bars is the subjective input of the state parole board, which decides who to release and when.  But this will change with a new law signed by Governor Snyder on Sept. 12 called “Objective Parole,” will result in more people – who have been rehabilitated and are safe to return to their communities – being released from prisons, as well as save the state tens of millions of dollars annually, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), which supports this legislation.

The ACLU of Michigan applauds the decision of U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney that holds the City of Grand Rapids responsible for permitting police officers to arrest innocent people for trespassing at local businesses during operating hours—even when business owners didn't ask them to leave.