Category Archives: News

September 1, 2021 DENVER – The following statement can be attributed to Deborah Richardson, Executive Director of ACLU of Colorado. “Two years after Elijah Jovan McClain, a 23-year-old African American, a beloved brother and son, a massage therapist and gifted violinist, died at the hands of Aurora police and first responders, two of the three police officers directly involved in his death still work at the department. Six months after the Aurora independent investigation report confirmed.... | Read More

August 30, 2021 Seguido en Español. DENVER – The City of Colorado Springs has agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Colorado alleging that three Colorado Springs police officers engaged in racially biased policing when they targeted Corey Barnes, a Black resident of the Springs, and detained him without cause, handcuffed him without justification and searched him illegally. Along with monetary compensation, the Colorado Springs Police Department has agreed to.... | Read More

By Deborah Richardson, Executive Director of ACLU of Colorado As a child, the March on Washington was my first realization of “the movement” — something that every adult I knew was talking about and engaged in. It was a seminal moment for the American Civil Rights Movement when more than 250,000 people convened on the Mall in Washington D.C. to show nationwide support for Black Americans to receive the same rights and freedoms as white Americans. It was also a seminal.... | Read More

August 6, 2021 When I was a sophomore in high school, my world history teacher started off the class period one morning with a question. He presented the class with a sweatshirt that all the teachers received as a gift from the school for the holidays. Along the sleeve of the black sweatshirt, in white thread, read the school’s name: DSST: Stapleton. He asked my class, “Should I take this black permanent marker and erase the name Stapleton?” He then gave a short presentation about.... | Read More

July 29, 2021 DENVER – ACLU of Colorado sent a letter today to government officials in Boulder, demanding an end to their unconstitutional and inhumane treatment of unhoused Boulder residents. The letter followed an ACLU investigation that found that unhoused residents are denied shelter due to arbitrary residency requirements and unjustly prosecuted for sleeping outdoors even when they have no adequate alternatives. According to the letter, Boulder, “with one hand makes shelter available.... | Read More

July 15, 2021 DENVER — A federal court yesterday denied Frontier Airlines’ request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by four flight attendants who allege the company discriminates against pregnant and breastfeeding employees. The court’s action allows the class action lawsuit, which is a companion to a related case filed by four Frontier pilots, to move forward.  The employees have alleged that Frontier denies accommodations to pregnant or breastfeeding flight attendants that would be given.... | Read More

June 25, 2021 The U.S. Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest in our lawsuit against the Douglas County School District, Douglas County Sheriff, and School Resource Officers for aggressively handcuffing and arresting an 11-year-old child with autism. The Statement reaffirms the DOJ's long-held position that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to SROs arresting children with disabilities and clarifies that public entities may be liable for the actions of their employees,.... | Read More

By Jana Seal A long, uncertain, and pivotal summer predated my time at the ACLU of Colorado. Or rather, four years of collective upheaval did. In 2016, studying as a student journalist and covering the presidential election, I was shocked by the shift of entertainment media to news and politics. For the first time in modern history, American culture revolved around public servants as moguls and policy as gossip column fodder. On top of this, an abundance of uninformed opinions in conjunction.... | Read More

June 22, 2021 Seguido en Español. DENVER – Today, ACLU of Colorado announced the launch of Expanding the Table for Justice (ETFJ), a statewide initiative and 60-day community listening tour. The ETFJ mission is to connect with Colorado advocacy groups, anointed and appointed leaders, and everyday individuals to learn about their work, how they view the work of the ACLU, and how ACLU of Colorado may better support and engage community on the civil liberties issues that matter most. ACLU of Colorado.... | Read More

The record demonstrates the ACLU’s unwavering commitment to First Amendment rights for all. David Cole, ACLU Legal Director June 6, 2021 Has the ACLU lost its way? This appears to be a perennial question. In 1994, then-ACLU President Nadine Strossen wrote a 17-page article with 54 footnotes, responding to the charge that the organization “is abandoning its traditional commitment to free speech and other classic civil liberties and is becoming a ‘trendy’ liberal organization primarily.... | Read More