Public Policy & Legislation

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado believes that the best way to protect the Bill of Rights and the freedoms it guarantees is to ensure that unconstitutional bills never become law. During each legislative session, we track numerous bills that address important issues that affect our freedoms, and when appropriate, we provide testimony around these bills in the Colorado House and Senate.

 

While the ACLU covers many issues, most of our legislative work is concentrated on privacy (including reproductive rights), religious freedom, free speech, protected class (including LGBT, affirmative action, immigrant rights), law enforcement, government secrecy, and others. Issues always arise that do not fit neatly into these categories, and the ACLU of Colorado is ever vigilant to catch them, too.

 

 

Legislative Database

Each legislative session, the ACLU of Colorado tracks the bills that impact civil liberties, and where necessary, we take a position of support or opposition. Our Legislative Database catalogs all the bills we've monitored in recent years. Search or browse it to gain historical perspective on all of our legislative victories and defeats.

 
When viewing our legislative database, please note the definitions of the following key terms:
Actively Support: We actively lobbied or testified in support of the bill.
Support: We supported the bill but did not testify on it. 
Actively Oppose: We actively lobbied or testified to defeat the bill.
Oppose: We opposed the bill but did not testify on it. 
Monitor: We kept an eye on the bill as it has a potential impact on civil liberties.

 

 

Legislative Scorecards

For four straight years, the ACLU of Colorado has published its Scorecard for Civil Liberties.The Scorecard highlights many of the bills that we feel had the biggest impact on civil liberties. The voting record of each legislator has been included in it as well, to provide the general public with an easy way to see the exact stance of their elected representatives on many key issues.

 

 

 

Take Action

For current legislative initiatives, visit our Action Center. There, you'll find ways to take action around important civil liberties issues, including how to contact your elected officials.

 

 

Stay Informed

To protect and defend civil liberties, we need your help and your voice. To stay informed about our public policy work, please sign up for our email action alerts. We'll let you know when we need you to stand up and fight for our freedoms.