News & Commentary

Civil liberties fans and supporters are spread out all over Michigan. Many parts even have a volunteer-led branch that acts as a watchdog for civil liberties issues affecting local communities and spread the word through events, know your rights presentations and more in communities across the state.

With a history of civil liberties stretching back almost a century, the ACLU has got plenty of amazing cases for #TBT. Every Thursday, we'll be sharing updates on cases pulled from our archives of work in Michigan and beyond.

The video of the firing squad killing of Milton Hall has now gone viral. The video is unusually graphic, but there is nothing qualitatively new about what happened to Mr. Hall.Consider only some of the long line of African/African-descended victims of this type of police violence:

Today, we joined with a coalition of labor unions to ask a court to rule that state officials blatantly violated the Open Meetings Act when they locked the public out of the Capitol in 2012 as lawmakers deliberated over the controversial right-to-work law. The case, filed on behalf of a journalist, citizens, legislators, and unions, charges that government officials, in an unprecedented assault on democracy, deprived the public of their right to participate in the legislative process.  Let's take a look at a 2012 open letter to the Governor from our Executive Director Kary Moss, written right after the Capitol Lockout.

My son Milton was born on April 25, 1963, in Saginaw, Michigan. 

With a history of civil liberties stretching back almost a century, the ACLU has got plenty of amazing cases for #TBT. Every Thursday, we'll be sharing updates on cases pulled from our archives of work in Michigan and beyond.

During the three days she spent in Detroit investigating the water shut-off crisis, there were a number of times when Catarina de Albuquerque’s jaw literally dropped.

Being poor isn't a crime. Yet in some Michigan courtrooms, that simple fact has been ignored. That’s why we’re pleased that the continuing problem of debtors’ prisons in our state was addressed last week in Lansing. Debtors’ prisons and “pay-or-stay” sentences throw people in jail because they can't pay court fines or fees. These sentences are patently unconstitutional. When an inability to pay becomes the reason someone is serving time, it isn’t the defendant's crime but rather their poverty that is being punished. Often, the crimes themselves wouldn’t even be sufficient cause to incarcerate someone on their own.

With a history of civil liberties stretching back almost a century, the ACLU has got plenty of amazing cases for #TBT. Every Thursday, we'll be sharing updates on cases pulled from our archives of work in Michigan and beyond.