By: ACLU Blog of Rights By James Esseks, Director, LGBT & HIV Project   September 7, 2017 Can businesses put up a sign that says, “We Don’t Sell To Gays?” President Trump says yes. Today Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the Supreme Court in an amicus brief that businesses have a constitutional right to discriminate against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. That means that business owners could put a sign in the window saying, “We Don’t Serve Gays,” even if a state or Congress.... | Read More

By: ACLU of Colorado By Rebecca Wallace, Sara Neel, & Arash Jahanian   AUGUST 31, 2017 | 3:15 PM It was an evening in late July when an ICE guard told France Anwar Elias and several other Iraqi men in immigration custody in Arizona that they were going to be released. France described the feeling as, “going from death back again to life.” The men broke out in tears and embraced one another. Many of them had been in immigration custody for months, unsure of the future and frightened for what could.... | Read More

By: Becca Curry MUNICIPAL DEFENDANTS OFTEN LANGUISH IN JAIL ON BONDS THAT THEY CANNOT AFFORD Statewide, the difference is striking—municipal defendants languish for weeks in jail on minor charges, while state and county defendants charged with serious offenses are brought promptly before a judge. Municipal defendants sometimes wait a week or more in jail to see a judge, even though most municipal inmates are incarcerated for low-level offenses, like littering, panhandling or dog-off-leash. In comparison,.... | Read More

By: Nathan Woodliff-Stanley It is evident that the Trump administration is about to embark on a nationwide voter suppression campaign to disenfranchise thousands or even millions of voters. This campaign will be based on lies and myths about voter fraud, and it will be carried out under the name of “election integrity.” It is beginning with a mind-boggling demand for Secretaries of State to turn over detailed profiles of all registered voters in every state. It is essential that Colorado, a state that prides itself on voter.... | Read More

By: ACLU Blog of Rights By James Esseks, Director, LGBT & HIV Project The United States Supreme Court just agreed to decide a case about whether a business can refuse to sell commercial goods to a gay couple because of the business owner’s religious beliefs.  A win for the business could gut the nation’s civil rights laws, licensing discrimination not just against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, but against anyone protected by our non-discrimination rules. In July 2012, Debbie Munn accompanied.... | Read More

By: ACLU Blog of Rights By Heather L. Weaver, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief Abandoning a longstanding constitutional protection for the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that a church must be allowed to participate in a state program that provides direct taxpayer grants to improve school playground surfaces. The decision was very troubling. As we argued in our friend-of-the-court brief in the case, Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, the government.... | Read More