News & Commentary

Driving through a snowstorm toward Detroit, I wondered every time I lost control of my car "What have I gotten myself into now?" I've volunteered and served on the ACLU of Michigan Lawyers Committee for almost a decade. Even with all this experience, starting work as staff attorney for the newly-opened West Michigan Regional Office has been a revelation. For weeks, I'd worked alone at the new ACLU of Michigan office in Grand Rapids and I was looking forward to spending a day in the Detroit office for orientation. I arrived in Detroit after the snowy drive, relieved just to have survived. With barely a moment to catch my breath, I walked right into a press conference about our lawsuit on behalf of a woman whose city has banned the medical marijuana she uses to treat her multiple sclerosis. As the reporters and cameras left, our communications director had to rush off: the Michigan Supreme Court had decide to allow a case to proceed regarding the right of poor defendants to a competent lawyer and she had to prepare a response. She shot me a welcoming smile and promised to have a proper introduction over coffee. Our Legal Director Mike Steinberg told me that the Supreme Court had also just accepted another ACLU case defending a disabled woman who had been unable to pay child support for an amount double her monthly income. That day we also met with a man who has lived in the U.S. since he was a child, yet is at risk for deportation to a country whose language he can’t even read. While awaiting his fate in jail, he suffered horrendous treatment that just shouldn’t exist in a free society. These stories reminded me how essential the ACLU of Michigan's work is to protecting the rights of all our citizens. By lunch, my brain was whirling with dozens of cases, ideas and faces. Kary Moss, our executive director, later told me that this was a pretty typical day at the ACLU of Michigan. But for me, it was an amazing introduction to the breadth of work in which I’ll be engaged. Although I’m still not completely sure what I’ve gotten myself into, I know it is going to be quite a journey through the Bill of Rights. With the support of our members and my amazing colleagues, I know that I’ll be able to meet any civil liberties challenges that arise. That's more than I can say about another trip across the state in winter weather.

Tory Vincent, LGBT Project Leadership Committee MemberI became a member of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Project Leadership Committee because of my deep desire for a fair and just society.What I didn't know was that the ACLU LGBT Project, alongside other fantastic Detroit organizations, bring attention to a diverse range of equality issues. Nor did I know how fun volunteering for the project could be!{C}During the summer festival season, LGBT Leadership Committee members staff booths at events all over Michigan. Right after I joined, I staffed a booth at Detroit's Dally in the Alley festival. Petitions and letter writing campaigns are essential, but what could compare to raising awareness next to live music out in the sun with other amazing volunteers?As a volunteer for the project, I’ve seen first-hand the strength of the local community at larger events. In March 2010, the Project presented an incredible lecture by Dustin Lance Black. Over 300 people packed into Detroit's Museum of Contemporary Art to hear from the author of the screenplay Milk and show their support for LGBT equality.One of the most difficult roles the LGBT Project Leadership Committee has is simply keeping up with Jay Kaplan, LGBT Project staff attorney. In 2010 alone, Jay crisscrossed the state to over 50 speaking engagements on a whole range of LGBT issues.I was so impressed by one of Jay’s speeches, I even blogged about it. Before hearing the speech, I’d never even considered the issues he brought up. Participating in running the Leadership Committee has gotten me up-close and personal with a broad range of perspectives, issues and organizations.Even with all the work we’ve already done, I’m excited for all that the we’re planning! This year marks the 10th Anniversary of the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBT Project. What better time to get involved by joining the Leadership Committee? 

For the last week, I’ve been posting my New Year’s wishes on my Facebook page. I only got to #4 when I was overrun by comments of unrelenting skepticism and shock, albeit affectionate, from my friends. What was my apparently outrageous hope? I wished that Michigan's State Supreme Court becomes a national model whose every decision embodies intellectual integrity and wisdom. While I often get many ‘likes’ on my posts, for this I received 14 comments in just a few short hours. One friend wrote: “Sorry Kary, there's about as much chance as that happening as Jesse Jackson being invited to Rush Limbaugh's next wedding.”  Another wrote: “If Supreme Court justices could fly….” And one even asked what I was smoking. Okay, I concede that this particular New Year’s wish is likely not terribly realistic in the short term and I do appreciate the humor. Several justices on Michigan’s Supreme Court have fought publicly and some of their opinions have garnered national attention for their surprising bitterness.  Much of the problem, in my view, results from our system of electing judges rather than allowing judicial appointments. This exacerbates partisanship, results in the over-simplification of complex issues during campaigns, and leads to the ever-present need to raise money. This is only one of the significant challenges ahead. We must keep pressing towards the way things should be and not resign ourselves to the status quo. We should articulate goals and aspirations for which there can be consensus as the necessary first step to making it happen. Whether one hoped for the dismantling of South African apartheid, the election of this country’s first black president, the creation of a safety net in the form of social security for the elderly, or a computer in every house – it all starts with ambition and then the generating of the political will and resources to make it happen. I believe in the ingenuity of Michiganders to dream big. What big dream do you have this year?

Like so many others, I've been smiling from ear to ear. Congress has finally passed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a blatantly discriminatory policy against gays and lesbians who serve in our nation’s military. That's worth a celebration and more.

“Can you imagine if I had not been there? That would have been devastating!” Such is my mother’s recollection of a harvest feast which had been hosted at my elementary school in fifth grade.The day of the event she informed that she probably would not be able to attend due to a scheduling conflict at work. Once she arrived at the office, however, her colleagues took one look at her distracted face and immediately rescheduled the meeting so that she could rush off to my feast.

My heart was racing all morning. Would I be able to keep my cool? I did my best to stay calm by focusing on what had to be done before the afternoon. I was counting down the hours until 1:30 p.m., the time scheduled for our client Jeanette Keillor’s hearing at before an administrative law judge.

“So just how many people are impacted by the State’s practice of unlawfully imprisoning indigent individuals who are unable to pay court ordered fees, fines and costs?” I have heard this question a lot over the past couple of weeks, from reporters, from colleagues and from friends who have read the ACLU report about the rise of new debtors’ prisons. Unfortunately, the state’s failure to maintain and make public records regarding the cost of collection practices (including incarceration) vs. the actual amounts collected from such practices prohibits me from giving them a complete answer. There are, of course, certain things I can tell them. I can tell them that this unconstitutional and unfair practice, which can quickly lead to a vicious cycle of debt and imprisonment, can be triggered by the most miniscule offenses. Just look at Kawana Young who has been jailed 5 times due to her inability to pay the costs and fees associated with traffic tickets. I can tell them that this unconstitutional and unfair practice prevents individuals who have already fully repaid their debt to society from escaping the criminal justice system. Just look at David Sutton, whose one year probation was extended to over five years notwithstanding his completion of all the necessary requirements simply because he was unable to pay the necessary fees and fines. And I can tell them that this unconstitutional and unfair practice leads to completely nonsensical outcomes that cannot possibly benefit the state. Just look at Selesa Likine, who the state continues to prosecute for failure to pay $1,100/month in child support even though the state’s own re-calculations indicate that the correct support order should have been only $25/month. Perhaps most important, I can tell them how these stories, and the state’s lack of transparency, makes me feel. I hear the stories of Ms. Young, Mr. Sutton, Ms. Likine, and others and I am saddened, angered and motivated to act. Given the state’s policies, I know that this could happen to anyone. I want to do something. And yet, without the necessary information from the state, the public (myself included) are prohibited from evaluating the problem on a system-wide basis and from creating the most effective, efficient and lawful solutions. Time and again this hurdle frustrated the efforts of ACLU staff members working on the Michigan section of the report. Other states profiled in the report did collect and provide data regarding the costs of collection and the amount collected (indeed, these numbers revealed that incarcerating indigent defendants when they are unable to pay their legal debts actually costs states and counties much more than they can ever hope to recover). It is time for Michigan to do the same. The public deserves the right to obtain the information that is required to hold our public officials and justice system accountable and to protect the most vulnerable members of our society. It is time to show us the numbers.