En el punto más crítico de la pandemia de COVID-19, cuando Puerto Rico aprobó una ley que pretendía prohibir las “noticias falsas”, dos periodistas temieron que la prohibición los expusiera a procesos penales por sus reportajes los cuales eran críticos sobre el gobierno, sus funcionarios y sus medidas de respuesta a la emergencia. Según la ley, cualquier persona acusada podía enfrentar hasta tres años de cárcel y miles de dólares en multas. La ley se dirigía a cualquier persona acusada de dar "una falsa alarma" o difundir información falsa que resultara en un riesgo para la vida, la salud o la propiedad durante una emergencia pública declarada en la isla. ACLU y ACLU de Puerto Rico presentaron una demanda para impugnar la ley en mayo de 2020, representando a Sandra Rodríguez Cotto y Rafelli González Cotto, ambos periodistas de larga trayectoria que han cubierto emergencias públicas. El Tribunal de Apelaciones de EE. UU. para el Primer Circuito, que decidirá sobre la consti...

On March 2, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in United States v. Hemani , a case that asks: Is it constitutional for the government to charge someone as a felon because they used marijuana and had a gun locked in a safe? For the ACLU, which is co-counsel in this case, the answer is a clear no. The government charged Ali Hemani under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which makes it a felony for “unlawful users” of controlled substances or those “addicted to” a controlled substance to possess a firearm. The government argues that Hemani is an “unlawful user” of marijuana, a drug nearly half of all Americans say they have tried at some point in their lives and that is now legal in some form – either for recreational or medical use – in nearly every state in the country. The problems with this prosecution are many. Is it constitutional for the government to charge someone as a felon because they used marijuana and had a gun locked in a safe? First, the law is impermissibly vague. What ...

Whether you encounter it in your daily life or never think about it at all, artificial intelligence (AI) affects us all. From applying for a loan to sitting at the doctor’s office, AI systems are often used behind the scenes to make real-world decisions — and impact us in ways that aren’t disclosed upfront. Play the video Yet despite the growing reach of AI and the diversity of tools and systems it encompasses, regulations governing how it is developed and deployed and how impacted people are informed remain worryingly sparse. Left unregulated, these systems can infringe on your ability to control your data or reinforce discrimination in hiring and employment practices. As the civil rights implications become more serious, strengthening protections is no longer optional . While policymakers and advocates must do more, existing local, state, and federal laws already offer some protection against discrimination, including digital discrimination. As part of our “Your Questions Answe...

In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Puerto Rico passed a law attempting to ban “fake news,” two journalists feared the ban would open them to prosecutions against their reporting that was critical of the government, its officials, or their emergency response measures. Under the law, anyone accused could face up to three years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. The law targeted anyone accused of raising “a false alarm” or spreading false information that resulted in a risk to life, health, or property during a declared public emergency on the island. The ACLU and the ACLU of Puerto Rico filed suit to challenge the law in May 2020, representing Sandra Rodríguez Cotto and Rafelli González Cotto, both longtime journalists who have reported on public emergencies. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which will decide the law’s constitutionality, heard oral arguments in the case in October. "I believed it was essential to pursue this litigation because...

If a president can murder civilians at sea and keep the legal justifications secret, we should all be concerned. The harm is even worse when basic factual evidence, such as full videos and orders, are also hidden from the American people. Since September, the Trump administration has ordered 26 lethal strikes on civilian boats in international waters, killing 99 people and upending countless lives. The administration continues to push unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims about who these people were, despite investigations showing that some of those killed were fishermen just trying to make a living for their families. The administration also refuses to release the secret memo that purports to provide a legal justification for these killings, or the full, unedited videos of the strikes themselves. The danger is not just the body count, horrific as it is. It’s the precedent: a president asserting the power to redefine civilians as “combatants,” and pretend he has the authority to ...

Pass the yams and the politically-fraught chatter, everyone — it’s that time of year again. We know many of us will find ourselves gathering around tables this holiday season with a wide range of folks in our lives — loved ones, friends, chosen family, and the family you'd only choose to spend one day a year with. We also know not everyone in our lives will agree on the issues that we so firmly believe in. Trust us, we get how challenging those conversations can be. That’s why our experts put together a guide to help you navigate some of the issues that are most likely to get brought up at the holiday dinner table: free speech, abuse of power, immigrants’ rights, federal law enforcement and military deployments, and trans justice. We hope this guide helps you have productive conversations this holiday season. If you're looking for more ways to celebrate with your loved ones, consider giving the gift of an ACLU membership . And if the conversation wasn't as productive...

At the largest immigration detention site in the country, officers beat up Samuel, a detained teenager who uses a pseudonym, so badly, he had to go to the hospital. His right front tooth broke, and he said one officer “grabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them,” while another “forced his fingers deep into my ears.” He added that weeks after the beating, damage to his left ear was so severe that he now has trouble hearing. Samuel’s is just one of dozens of accounts of abuse from the immigration detention site at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. These accounts reveal an unfolding humanitarian crisis at the military base — one which may spread across the country as the Trump administration expands detention dangerously, recklessly and with unprecedented speed. Human rights organizations, including the ACLU, sent a letter Monday to U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) detailing accounts of violent assaults and sexual abuse by officers. It also reveals detai...

Searching for an apartment online, applying for a loan, going through airport security, or looking up a question on a search engine – you might not think anything of these exchanges other than that they are mundane things you do, but, in many of these instances, you’re actually interacting with artificial intelligence (AI). Avoiding AI in our quotidian activities feels impossible nowadays, especially when it is now used by public and private organizations to make decisions about us in hiring , housing , welfare , budgeting , and other high-stakes areas. While proponents of AI usage boast about how efficient the technology is, the decisions it makes about us are oftentimes uncontestable , discriminatory , and infringe on our civil rights. However, inequity and injustice from artificial intelligence need not be our status quo. Senator Ed Markey and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke have just re-introduced the AI Civil Rights Act of 2025 , which will help ensure AI developers and deployers ...

Subscribe to the Free Future Newsletter Free Future home When ICE agents swarmed a man in the parking lot of Downey Memorial Christian Church in Los Angeles, the church pastor told the officers that they didn’t have permission to be on church property. When they wouldn’t leave or show her any identifying information, she pulled out her phone to record the arrest. In response, an agent pointed a gun at her . Days later, while a man was videorecording a raid outside a Home Depot, DHS agents tackled him to the ground, arrested him and held him in detention for more than twenty-four hours. These aren’t isolated incidents . Across the country, masked, armed federal agents in combat gear are snatching people from homes, workplaces, parks, and places of worship — and attacking those who attempt to film or document their activity. The First Amendment protects the right to record and disseminate footage of law enforcement officers carrying out their official duties in public — that includ...

Gary Tyler, 67, spent more than four decades on death row in one of the most notorious prisons in the country for a crime he didn’t commit. In 1974, Tyler was one of a group of Black students bused into a formerly all-white Louisiana high school under court-ordered desegregation. When a white mob attacked their bus on October 16, a white boy was killed. Tyler became a suspect, was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder by an all-white jury. Tyler received a death sentence and was sent to Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the country, at only 17. Tyler’s case represents how racial discrimination and systemic injustice continue to infect our legal system. As a new ACLU report explains, the modern death penalty grew directly out of the racist legacy of lynching, and that history continues to shape who is charged, convicted, and sentenced to die today. Since 1973, shortly before Tyler’s arrest, at least 200 people have been exonerated from death row. More...

Troops do not belong on our streets. That’s what more than 40 of my brothers and sisters in arms will tell Congress today. The ACLU, Common Defense, and the Chamberlain Network join these veterans on Capitol Hill, where they’re urging all our elected representatives to stop the Trump administration’s misuse of the military. We know that putting troops in our communities for political purposes breaks public trust and is disrespectful to their service. Guided By Service This mobilization on Capitol Hill is a seminal moment for those pushing back on the Trump administration’s abuses of power -- and it’s one I relate to. My family has served this country for multiple generations. I’m a veteran myself, a former U.S. Army captain, and someone who feels strongly that we need to go to congresspeople, not wait for them to come to us. When I was commissioned in 2000, it was uncommon for women to be assigned to combat arms branches, and I was one of only a handful of women assigned to the...

Subscribe to the Free Future Newsletter Free Future home Who controls what you can do on your mobile phone? What happens when your device can only run what the government decides is OK? We are dangerously close to this kind of totalitarian control, thanks to a combination of government overreach and technocratic infrastructure choices. Most Americans have a smartphone, and the average American spends over 5 hours a day on their phone . While these devices are critical to most people’s daily lives, what they can actually do is shaped by what apps are readily available. A slim majority of American smartphone users use an iPhone, which means they can only install apps available from Apple’s AppStore. Nearly all the rest of US smartphone users use some variant of Android, and by default they get their apps from Google’s Play Store. Collectively, these two app stores shape the universe of what is available to most people as they use the Internet and make their way through their daily ...

Across the country, voters took to the ballot box to make their voices heard on Tuesday. The results overwhelmingly demonstrate that voters want leaders who will push against the Trump administration’s cruel policies and abuses of power and work to make life better for the American people. Voters are fed up with fearmongering in place of policy proposals and came out in record numbers to create sweeping victories for civil liberties. Tuesday’s results made clear that the people want real solutions for the economy, support for access to abortion, and protection for other freedoms for every person in the country. Democracy depends on every level of government protecting our rights, and as we build on the energy of the 2025 elections, the ACLU will work to keep defending key civil liberties issues in the elections ahead. Here’s what we learned in the 2025 election. Voters Showed Up for Abortion Rights and Reproductive Freedom In response to consistent attacks on reproductive right...