From the Left
/Politics
Trump's Remarks on Birthright Citizenship, Explained
President-elect Donald Trump has said that he intends to issue an executive order to end birthright citizenship for millions of children. Trump's campaign website states that, to qualify as a citizen, any baby born after his executive order would need to have at least one parent who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. Scholars across ...Read more
I'm a Doctor. I've Seen How Vital It Is To Speak With Young People About Gender
From a young age, I enjoyed playing around with gender roles, but it wasn't until later in my adolescence that I started to have more complex thoughts about my gender identity. What I discovered, both in my childhood and later in my development, was that a lot of trans folks have similarly nonlinear approaches, or nonlinear journeys, to their ...Read more
Incarceration Should Not Be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use Opioids
The opioid epidemic has gripped communities for more than 20 years. From 1999 to 2022, nearly 727,000 people died from an overdose involving prescription or illicit opioids.
Litigation has dramatically changed the substance-use disorder policy landscape, and today, more than $50 billion in opioid settlements from pharmaceutical companies, ...Read more
How Biden Can Act Now To Limit Trump's Mass Deportation Agenda
President-elect Donald Trump has made mass detention of immigrant communities a central part of his political platform. Trump's cabinet nominees are reportedly laying the groundwork to expand detention capacity in cities around the country. The Trump administration's proposed plans include making detention mandatory, which would trap ...Read more
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