From the Left
/Politics
Biden Must Use Final Months in Office to Commute Federal Death Sentences
President-elect Donald Trump has chilling plans to use his second term to expand the federal death penalty. This expansion continues the killing spree he initiated in the final six months of his first presidency when Trump oversaw more executions than any president in the past 120 years. His plans for a second term include sentencing more ...Read more
We've Seen 105 Years and 19 Presidents. Trump's Gotta Get Past All of Us.
The results of the election are in: Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States.
Trump's win comes after a campaign in which he consistently targeted immigrants, transgender youth and other vulnerable communities with hateful rhetoric. He also threatened retribution against dissidents and political opponents.
I know that ...Read more
We're Fighting for Our Freedoms -- No Matter Who Is President
As we near Election Day, the ACLU is in conversation with state and local activists about how to prepare for, and respond to, the election outcome. Many people we spoke with are grappling with how they can best protect their communities and fight back against unprecedented attempts to restrict our rights. Right now, there's real concern about ...Read more
W. Kamau Bell and Michigan's Top Rap Stars Get Down for Voting Rights
Greeted by the newly constructed "Detroit" sign, my colleagues and I arrived in the Motor City for the final stop on the ACLU's Know Your Rights bus tour. We didn't actually ride our Know Your Rights bus to Detroit. Instead, we arrived to find the bus in all its glory parked outside the Garden Theater, just off the bustling Woodward Avenue. ...Read more
Why the Fight for Trans Rights Never Gets Easier -- or Less Vital
In the spring of 1999, young people across the country began to prepare for that singular teenage right of passage: prom. For Diamond Stylz, this time included not just finding the right dress and corsage but fighting for her right to attend prom at all. School administrators had told the then-17-year-old Stylz just two days before prom that ...Read more
Ways the Media Introduces Bias to the Immigration Debate
For more than two years, the immigration debate has revolved around one issue: "the border."
Despite the fact that issues related to the border are vast and complex, the entire U.S. immigration system -- flaws and all -- has been boiled down to grainy images of barbed wire atop a border wall and videos of families and others seeking safety ...Read more
The Supreme Court Case on Trans Health Care, Explained
Since 2021, 24 states have banned hormone therapy for transgender youth with gender dysphoria. Leading medical experts and organizations -- such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics -- oppose these restrictions, which have already forced thousands of families across ...Read more
How Border Policing Harms Undocumented People Seeking Abortion Care
For many of Texas' 3 million border residents, going through federal interior checkpoints -- where Border Patrol agents are permitted to screen vehicles for suspected noncitizens and can ask passengers about their citizenship and travel plans -- can be an intimidating but predictable part of daily life. But for undocumented or mixed-status ...Read more
Why Kamala Harris Must Break the Cycle of Unlawful and Abusive Government Surveillance
Since this nation's founding, the executive branch has been granted -- or has claimed -- immense power to enforce the law, including the power to surveil, investigate and impose criminal or other sanctions that deprive individuals of their freedoms.
We're calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to break this cycle if she's elected in November...Read more
What Kamala Harris Must Do To End Abuse in the Criminal Legal System
If elected president, Vice President Kamala Harris would bring extensive experience to the role from her work in the criminal legal system as district attorney, attorney general, senator and vice president. In these roles, her commitment to reforming the criminal legal system has been mixed. In some areas she has taken positions that have ...Read more
How a Harris Administration Could Chart a New Course for Immigration Reform
Despite immigrants' contributions to our communities and economy, our current immigration system still fails to provide a way for millions of immigrants to apply for legal status and citizenship.
If elected to the presidency, current Vice President Kamala Harris has an opportunity to chart a new course. At the ACLU, we urge the Harris-Walz ...Read more
How Kamala Harris Can Be a Pro-Voting Rights President
In a moment when hostile state legislators have used unlawful redistricting efforts and discriminatory voting laws to attack our electoral systems, Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has committed to protecting our democracy.
On the campaign trail, Harris has promised to push for passage of essential federal voting rights ...Read more
Why a Harris Presidency Promises Hope for LGBTQ Rights
For the past four years, the Biden-Harris administration has made LGBTQ rights a cornerstone of its policy agenda. Among other efforts, the Biden-Harris administration has consistently sued states to block anti-trans laws and policies, including asking the Supreme Court to lift bans on medically necessary health care for trans adolescents.
...Read more
How Kamala Harris Can Secure Federal Abortion Protection Once and For All
The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade set off a wave of new attacks on abortion, causing a catastrophic public health crisis and rapidly eroding our civil liberties and reproductive freedom. So far, 14 states have banned abortion completely, and others have severely limited access to abortion by criminalizing it after the ...Read more
Trump's Attacks on DEI Reveal Administration's Agenda for Second Term
This piece was written before Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. No significant facts have been changed.
When Donald Trump's administration ended in 2020, two-thirds of Americans believed that Trump had increased racial tensions in the U.S. The Trump administration's sustained assault on political, civic and ...Read more
How Donald Trump's Election Lies and Other Anti-Voter Policies Will Continue To Impact Our Democracy
Donald Trump's claim that the 2020 election was "stolen" from him is not only a lie (no widespread voter fraud was detected in that election); it's a lie that breeds public mistrust in our electoral system. Today, he is already casting doubt on the 2024 election, saying he will accept the results "if everything is honest." The implication is ...Read more