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  • Cedric Watkins is a father, uncle, entrepreneur-in-training, and a vital community pillar for many others. While behind bars, he has tirelessly devoted himself to serving his peers and his community. He developed gang disaffiliation programs for other incarcerated individuals and is currently involved with Defy Ventures. He sends letters and calls his daughter as much as he can.

    Cedric is currently in prison at Sterling Correctional Facility. He was convicted of aggravated robbery, burglary, kidnapping, theft and sentenced to 80 years; no one was seriously injured or killed. For comparison, a person convicted of second-degree murder in Colorado faces a maximum sentence of 48 years. Cedric has already served 20 years and has fully rehabilitated during that time.

    It’s time to bring Cedric home: acluco.org/redemption. Redemption is real. Clemency is compassion.

  • On November 21, 2016, 13 Aurora police officers responded to a simple noise complaint at Alberto Torres’s home. As happens all too often, Aurora police officers escalated this minor issue into a brutal affair. They beat Mr. Torres solely because he delayed exiting his garage to ask his wife to interpret for him. With that beating, the lives of Mr. Torres and every member of his family were changed and he has yet to recover. ACLU of Colorado fought to obtain justice for Mr. Torres, and Aurora has now paid him $285,000. But money is not justice, and the brutality of the Aurora Police Department against people of color has continued unabated.

    It doesn’t have to be this way.

    Imagine, if instead of 13 officers being dispatched to Mr. Torres’s home for a noise complaint, the City of Aurora sent a civilian-led response team to check on his welfare and ask that he and his friends lower their sound, resulting in a non-violent solution to a minor issue?

    ACLU Settles Case With Aurora After Police Brutalize and Unlawfully Arrest Alberto Torres

  • Hope is a discipline. It’s a commitment that together, we can create a more perfect union. We won’t rest until we fulfill the promise of equal rights for ALL people in the United States.

    Join us in our fight to fulfill this promise and move forward with hope by donating to the ACLU of Colorado. Your donation supports the ACLU’s strengths that make our work effective and collaborative.

    Donate now at https://action.aclu.org/give/support-aclu-colorado

  • Anthony Martinez is 84-years-old and suffering from renal failure, as well as other serious medical conditions including dementia. He is currently incarcerated in the Sterling Correctional Facility, site of one of Colorado’s largest COVID-19 outbreaks with almost 600 active COVID-19 cases. He and his family are understandably terrified that he will catch the virus and die.

    In the midst of this public health crisis, incarcerated people as vulnerable as Anthony, could and should be immediately released to safely live out their remaining years with family.

    Read more about Anthony Martinez and other at-risk incarcerated people. 

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7.15.21

Federal Court Allows Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuit Against Frontier Airlines to Continue

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

6.25.21

The U.S. Department of Justice Statement of Interest in our lawsuit against the Douglas County School District

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

6.24.21

Diving in, my Unexpected Year-Long Internship at the ACLU

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

6.22.21

ACLU of Colorado Announces Launch of Statewide Justice Initiative

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

6.7.21

Defending Speech We Hate

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

5.27.21

ACLU Sues Aurora, Prior Convictions Shouldn’t Prohibit People From Running for Office

May 27, 2021 DENVER – Today, ACLU of Colorado sued the City of Aurora for blocking a candidate with a prior felony conviction from running for public office. Candice Bailey, an Aurora resident and community leader for racial justice, intends to run for an at-large position on the Aurora City Council in the November 2021 municipal election. But the Aurora City Charter and City Code forbid her from being a candidate or holding public office solely based on her past conviction. “A city has.... | Read More