Over 5 million Americans are kept from the polls by laws that prohibit people with felony convictions from voting. While the intricacies of these laws vary from state to state, people who have been convicted of a felony are blocked from voting in one way or another in 48 states. But why do felony disenfranchisement laws exist in the first place and where do they come from? On this episode, we spoke with Jennifer Taylor from the Equal Justice Initiative, an organizer with Florida Rights Restorati...
Oct 27, 2020•18 min
The city of Philadelphia learned in March 2018 that two of the agencies it had hired to provide foster care services would not, based on religious objection, accept same-sex couples as foster parents. The city then told the agencies their contracts with the city were in jeopardy unless they complied with basic nondiscrimination requirements. While one of the agencies agreed to comply, the other — Catholic Social Services or CSS— refused. Instead, CSS sued the city, claiming the Constitution give...
Oct 22, 2020•25 min
For the last few months, we've been gathering your voting questions. Hundreds of you have sent in voice messages, videos and emails with your most pressing concerns. These submissions have informed our At the Polls episodes, but we couldn't answer each question with its own episode. This week, we have recruited the best experts to answer your varied questions about the upcoming election, your ballot, and voting rights. Thank you to all who submitted questions. We hope you enjoy!
Oct 20, 2020•21 min
This week on Monday, October 12th, a growing number of states and cities across the country celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It comes as an important corrective after decades of celebrating the, quote, “discovery” of the Americas by Christopher Columbus each year. We know, of course, that no such discovery happened — what did happen was colonization and centuries of subjugation, murder, disenfranchisement, and displacement of Native Americans. As we reflect on our history and on the stories t...
Oct 15, 2020•38 min
One in four American adults lives with a disability. And that doesn’t even include the fact that about 45% of Americans live with a chronic illness. During a global pandemic, that means that a huge portion of the electorate has health conditions that impact their ability to vote safely. A new act introduced in Congress has the potential to really help. It's called the Accessible Voting Act. In this episode of At the Polls, we're joined by Susan Mizner, Director of the ACLU's Disability Rights Pr...
Oct 13, 2020•18 min
Over the last months, we’ve explored different conversations on the subject of policing: abolition, violence and accountability, protest and activism. Today, we’re exploring a topic that has gained more attention in the wake of Daniel Prude’s death in March at the hands of the Rochester Police Department: the startling connection between mental health 911 calls and police brutality. Studies show that nearly 50% of police victims are living with a disability, predominantly a mental health disabil...
Oct 08, 2020•30 min
American voting rates have hovered in the mid-50s for most of recent history. As these things go, that is not great. But it’s even worse with younger voters. In the 2014 midterms, less than 20 percent of voters under 30 cast a ballot. We saw a shift in the 2018 midterms and now the question is how do we sustain the influx of young voters? As of this year, millennials and Gen Z make up approximately 37% of the national electorate. The full participation of America’s younger voters could radically...
Oct 06, 2020•15 min
This past June, many breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Supreme Court rose above partisanship in controversial cases involving abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, the rights of DREAMERS, and the president’s tax returns. In those cases, conservative justices relied on legal reasoning, rather than party loyalty, to guide their decisions. But lurking in the shadows is a concerning new trend in the Supreme Court to grant an unprecedented number of emergency orders with little transparency and no opportuni...
Oct 01, 2020•28 min
Ahead of this year’s election, we have seen an unprecedented amount of election litigation between both political parties. The Republican National Committee, at the direction of President Trump, has amassed a $20 million war chest for voting rights cases across the country. In every case, they are working to suppress votes. The litigation ahead of the election is setting the stage for how votes are cast and counted on Election Day. But this isn't the only concern. Once Election Day comes to pass...
Sep 29, 2020•21 min
September is in full swing, and millions of students across the US are returning to school, though for many, this year looks like none other. As school districts across the country grapple with how to resume classes during a pandemic, many districts and their trans students are facing additional hurdles. The Department of Education is now threatening to withhold funding from Connecticut schools that allow trans girls to compete on girls sports teams. Elsewhere, in spite of recent high profile vi...
Sep 24, 2020•32 min
It’s no secret that the postal service has been under attack. Earlier this year, President Trump appointed one of his supporters to serve as Postmaster General. Then, just a few months from the election, that appointee, Louis DeJoy, ordered changes to how the postal service operates. Here’s the problem: it appears those changes could be politically motivated and could impact our ability to access the polls through vote-by-mail this fall. Joining us this week to discuss are Bobby Hoffman, ACLU's ...
Sep 22, 2020•20 min
As many Americans stare down the end of their sixth month of social distancing, we are re-running a conversation we recorded back in April, that still has relevance to our lives today. For some people, the advent of social isolation came long before the coronavirus. At the ACLU, we work with many communities that deal with the long term impacts of social isolation. People living with disabilities who often experience accessibility issues, people held in detention, and people imprisoned in solita...
Sep 17, 2020•30 min
For the launch of our podcast series, At the Polls, we are answering your questions about voting in the lead up to the election. Our first question is: What will election night look like in a global pandemic? Election night is a quintessential American tradition. The votes come in and television networks begin to report the results. Ultimately, well into the night, the election is called, one candidate concedes to the other, and we all get to watch it all happen live. But, what happens when mill...
Sep 15, 2020•17 min
Immigrant communities are often asked to “get right with the law,” but is the law right in the first place? That’s what our guest Alina Das asks in her new book No Justice in the Shadows. She taps her experience as the daughter of immigrants and as an immigration attorney to ask whether immigrants who violate the law should be detained or deported. Too often, she argues, our immigration system is used as a tool of discrimination and oppression, rather than as a tool of justice, and the consequen...
Sep 10, 2020•31 min
As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on, people across the country face the economic devastation left in its wake. Along with staggering unemployment numbers, millions of renters now face eviction — a situation made even more dire by the global health crisis. Congress responded by instating an eviction moratorium for more than 12 million rental units across the country. But that moratorium expired on July 24th. This week, the Center for Disease Control introduced another moratorium, protecting cer...
Sep 03, 2020•28 min
The golden arches. The happy meal. These are phrases that immediately mean something to most Americans. In fact, with more than 36,000 restaurants in 100 countries, McDonald's may well be one of the most recognizable brands in the world. But today, we're focusing on a much lesser-known side of the fast-food giant, looking at McDonald's role in Black America. Joining us to talk about how the struggle for civil rights and the expansion of the fast-food industry have shaped each other is Dr. Marcia...
Aug 27, 2020•29 min
Sports have long been an arena where civil rights and civil liberties questions have taken center stage: Track and field star Tommie Smith raised his fist for racial justice on the 1968 Olympic podium. Tennis great Billie Jean King fought for equal pay for women. And, Olympic runner Caster Semana challenged intersex bigotry to be able to compete. But one group of athletes has often kept quiet during social movements: college athletes -- largely because the institutions they play for silence them...
Aug 20, 2020•34 min
We’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment which was ratified on August 18th, 1920 and then certified eight days later. The 19th Amendment inked women’s suffrage into American history, a culminating moment in an effort to win political power. But the ordained heroes of women’s suffrage – like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and later Alice Paul – often tossed out the leadership and movement-building of Black women. The absence of those voices from the popular histor...
Aug 13, 2020•30 min
In the last month, we’ve seen the Trump administration deploy federal law enforcement officers to Portland, Oregon. Those agents have been documented using sharpshooters to maim protesters, sweeping people away in unmarked cars, and attacking journalists, legal observers, and medics with tear gas. The federal government just agreed to withdraw most of the federal presence there, but simultaneously announced they plan to send agents to other cities including Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee to q...
Aug 06, 2020•28 min
July 26th marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA. The ADA is a federal law that requires businesses, employers, public facilities, schools, and transportation agencies to make accommodations for disabled people, and helps weed out basic discrimination. When President George HW Bush signed the ADA into law in 1990, it was one of the most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation in American history. But the disability rights movement didn’t begin or ...
Jul 30, 2020•35 min
Since the protests decrying the murder of George Floyd began in May, the institution of American policing has taken center stage. Activists are calling for change, and the phrase "defund the police" can be heard in cities across the country. As the concept of slashing police budgets and reinvesting those resources into Black and Brown communities goes increasingly mainstream, a more radical call is also gaining attention: Abolish the Police. Joining us to talk abolition, divestment, and what a w...
Jul 23, 2020•36 min
Recently, we've seen a reckoning in the culinary world around the whitewashing and co-opting of ethnic food. The industry has long been controlled by a certain few who have authored and then profited from the foods we eat and the stories we share. But the tide is turning. And our guest for this episode, Padma Lakshmi, is part of that and is part of that movement. You've likely seen her tasting and critiquing some of the best chefs in the U.S. on Top Chef, sharing her favorite recipes across soci...
Jul 16, 2020•29 min
The Supreme Court term just came to a dramatic close. We saw wins for LGBTQ plus rights, DACA recipients, abortion rights, Native American tribal authority and a vindication that executive privilege is not absolute. But it wasn't all good news. The court issued a blistering rebuke on the rights of asylum seekers to have their day in court. We are here with ACLU legal director and experienced Supreme Court litigator David Cole. He will help us make sense of the term’s wins and losses and preview ...
Jul 10, 2020•19 min
The calls of activists have forced a national reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy in our country. That reckoning has led us to an examination of systems that exert control over Black lives, from policing to reproductive health care. There is a long history of the ways that reproductive freedom has been denied to Black women. And there is an important story of the ways that people of color, led by Black women, have built movements to liberate themselves and reclaim freedom. Joining us to...
Jul 09, 2020•34 min
In the last month, protests have erupted across the country calling for justice for Black lives, a wholesale restructuring of policing, and a greater racial reckoning across all facets of American society. It feels like change is in the air. But we’ve been here before: Eric Garner was killed by police in New York City in July 2014, followed weeks later by Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, igniting outrage and protest. Activists then hoped for change too. We’ve seen countless social justice mo...
Jul 02, 2020•41 min
The Supreme Court decided in a 7-2 decision to deny certain asylum seekers their right to have their day in court. This decision follows the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against asylum seekers, including closing the border and other ports of entry during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s Deputy Director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project argued the case of Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissingam, defending the rights of Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, an as...
Jun 26, 2020•20 min
President Trump’s financial records and tax returns have been a recurring focal point since his election. Both the Manhattan District Attorney and various House Committees are asking to see these records in order to conduct their investigations into potentially unlawful behavior. But the president and his attorneys claim both that Congress is overstepping its power in requesting that information, and that the President of the United States should be immune to such subpoena requests. We now await...
Jun 25, 2020•29 min
Public opinion and the law of the land aligned this week to affirm trans equality in America: Thousands of people took to the streets of New York City over the weekend to remind their community and the nation: Black trans lives matter. Then on Monday, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision establishing that under federal law, it's unlawful to fire someone just because they’re part of the LGBTQ community. Still, there's so much more to be done to protect and uplift trans people nationw...
Jun 18, 2020•21 min
It’s been over 50 years since Black and Brown trans women led the revolutionary Stonewall Riots, fighting back against police brutality and discrimination and launching a movement for equality. Today, we celebrate another incredible landmark in the fight for LGBTQ rights. In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed that it is illegal for employers to fire or otherwise discriminate against someone simply because they are LGBTQ. This will go a long way towards affirming legal protections in e...
Jun 16, 2020•28 min
Journalists covering protests against police brutality across the country are facing an influx of violence, suppression efforts, and arrests by police. According to The U.S. Press Freedom tracker, there have been over 300 claims of violations to press freedoms since the protests began. These violations include being assaulted with pepper spray and rubber bullets, dealing with damaged equipment, and even facing arrest. Joining us today on the podcast is Jared Goyette, a freelance reporter who was...
Jun 11, 2020•19 min
