News
Douglas County School Board Votes to End Unconstitutional Voucher Program
DENVER - The Douglas County School Board voted Monday night to end the district’s controversial “Choice Scholarship” Program, which the Colorado Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in June 2015. The ACLU of Colorado with other partners, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Taxpayers for Public Education, a Douglas County education advocacy group, challenged the voucher program in 2011, highlighting the Colorado Constitution’s “specific prohibition” on government.... | Read More
Episode 10: “Why I love the ACLU.”
https://soundcloud.com/thepurplestatereport/why-i-love-the-aclu Subscribe to our podcast. On today’s episode, we hear from three individuals on why the ACLU is important to them. We begin with John’s interview with Gwen Young, a former board member of the ACLU of Colorado and a long-time supporter. Alejandra sits down with Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, Executive Director of the ACLU of Colorado, and we hear from Emma, one of our youngest volunteers. Call to Action: Colorado Gives Day is December.... | Read More
Colorado Removes Unlawful Restrictions on Hepatitis C Treatment for Thousands of Medicaid Patients
DENVER -The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF), which administers the state’s Medicaid program, announced today that it will remove the restriction on providing Hepatitis C medications that has been at the center of an ACLU of Colorado class action lawsuit against the agency. This change means that thousands of Colorado Medicaid recipients infected with the HCV virus will soon be eligible to receive the newer direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medications that have a greater.... | Read More
Episode 9: “We were in the wilderness and y’all heard our voice.”
https://soundcloud.com/thepurplestatereport/we-were-in-the-wilderness Subscribe to our podcast. On today's episode, Judge Powell of the Alamosa Municipal Court violated civil rights and punished defendants for their poverty. He used jail, and the threat of jail, to collect money from defendants who could not pay, in violation of state law. We shined a light on his unjust practices in the investigative report, Justice Derailed. John sits down with an author of this report, Becca Curry, Research.... | Read More
ACLU and Longmont Reach $210K Settlement over Warrantless Searches
DENVER - The ACLU of Colorado and the City of Longmont jointly announced a settlement this morning on behalf of four individuals, Alice Boatner, Billy Sparling, Michael Kealy, and Christine Herrera, who were subjected to an illegal search of their residences at the Suites, a public housing complex in Longmont. The searches were conducted in May by Longmont police officers and a K-9, in conjunction with the Longmont Housing Authority. They were conducted without a warrant or any arguable exception.... | Read More
ACLU Lawsuit: Aurora Police Used Excessive Force during Unlawful Arrest of Disabled 60 Year-Old Black Man
DENVER - The ACLU of Colorado filed a federal lawsuit this morning on behalf of Dwight Crews, a disabled black man who was removed from his home without a warrant in the middle of the night, restrained, forced to the ground, and unlawfully arrested by Aurora police. “The Constitution forbids police from intruding into the privacy of a person’s home unless they have a warrant issued by a judge,” said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein. “In this case, police had no warrant,.... | Read More