Year in Review

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Year in Review

In 2023, we worked together to:

Expand Access to Abortion and Gender Affirming Care

Together with a broad coalition of reproductive health advocates, privacy advocates, providers, impacted people and the Tech Equity Coalition, the ACLU-WA successfully advocated for the passage of four of our five priority bills, including:

  • protecting the Washington licenses of those providing reproductive or gender affirming care;
  • protecting people seeking, providing, or helping others obtain reproductive or gender-affirming care that is lawful in Washington state, including by preventing nonfugitive extradition, and limiting Washington courts’ and law enforcement agencies’ cooperation with out-of-state investigations or legal proceedings;
  • protecting people’s private health data that is sensitive health care information but not protected by the Health Information Protection & Portability Act (HIPPA); and
  • protecting people from cost sharing requirements for abortion care.

For years, mergers and acquisitions between health care entities in Washington have decreased access to reproductive, end-of-life, and gender-affirming care. In 2022, the ACLU-WA, in coalition with allies, introduced the Keep Our Care Act which will ensure health system consolidations improve rather than harm access to affordable, quality care. The bill did not advance so our fight continues in the next session.
 

End Unlawful Immigration Practices

In August 2023, ACLU-WA filed an amicus brief in Ugochukwu Goodluck Nwauzor, et al. v. The Geo Group, Inc., presently before the Washington Supreme Court. The Geo Group (GEO) is a for-profit, private corporation that runs detention centers across the country, including the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) in Tacoma. As part of running this detention center, GEO implemented a work program in which civil detainees being held at NWIPC essentially run the facility but are only paid $1.00 a day for their labor. The State of Washington and the other plaintiffs argue that paying civil detainees just $1.00 a day is in violation of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (MWA). Our amicus brief focuses on the history of worker-related laws that show Washington has a “long and proud history of being a pioneer in the protection of employee rights” and argues this history supports finding that workers at NWIPC are employees as defined by the MWA and are entitled to be paid minimum wage as outlined by the MWA. (Nwauzor, et al. v. The Geo Group, Inc.)
 

Achieve Health Equity for Immigrants

An estimated 105,000 undocumented immigrants in Washington state are ineligible for Medicaid or Qualified Health Plans as a direct result of their immigration status. Last year, as a core member of the Health Equity for Immigrants Campaign, the ACLU-WA successfully helped obtain over $100 million in the state biennium budget to build health coverage programs for all Washingtonians, regardless of their immigration status. The programs, which will make Washington the first state in the nation to open its health insurance to everyone, are set to launch in 2024.
 

Demand Police Accountability

A group of seven sheriffs and county commissioners challenged the constitutionality of a law restricting their authority to use tear gas in all situations without oversight. The ACLU-WA and the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability filed an amicus brief defending the restrictions. We highlighted the history of the law (the result of advocacy following protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder), the harmful effects of tear gas in general, and the chilling effects of the use of tear gas on citizens’ free expression of their First and Fourth Amendment rights. The Court ruled that the limitation on law enforcement’s independence regarding use of tear gas was lawful — except for where it infringed on elected sheriffs in noncharter counties. The opinion upholds the limitation on the Seattle Police Department’s and King County Sheriff’s use of tear gas — the two law enforcement agencies that have a significant history of excessive and unwarranted use of tear gas against protesters. (Snaza v. State of Washington)
In 2010, the ACLU-WA, along with 35 community organizations, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Seattle Police Department (SPD) regarding egregious incidents of excessive force against community members of color. As a result of that investigation, a lawsuit began, which resulted in a Consent Decree that was put in place to ensure that SPD engaged in constitutional policing. In April 2023, the United States and the City of Seattle asked the Court to terminate the Consent Decree, which would end the Court’s oversight of discriminatory policing, and adopt a Transition Agreement, which would focus on two remaining issues  — the use of force within the context of crowd control and officer accountability.

Since the ACLU-WA was one of the organizations that originally requested the investigation, we filed an amicus brief refuting the claim that SPD is a “transformed organization,” citing clear racial disparities that still plague the Department. Our brief explicitly highlighted that many of the significant issues that led to the Consent Decree are still present and as such, if the Consent Decree is terminated, it should not be celebrated as a success, but instead serve as a call to action for the City and SPD to continue the perpetual work of constitutional policing and for the civilian oversight bodies and community groups to continue oversight to ensure the Department is being held accountable. Ultimately, the Court dissolved many portions of the Consent Decree except for the portions that govern use of force, racially biased policing, and crowd control. Although the Court declared SPD a changed institution, within days of its declaration, SPD killed an international student and mocked her death, and it became public that SPD had a mock tombstone for Damarius Butts — a young Black man killed by SPD — on display on their property. We will continue to advocate for accountability and for a vision of public safety that protects everyone. (United States of America v. City of Seattle)

With Ruiz & Smart, LLP, the ACLU-WA filed an amicus brief in support of the State Attorney General’s office suing the City of Sunnyside because of their so-called “crime free rental housing program.” The program repeatedly served as a pretext for police and landlords to force tenants out of their homes. In some cases, police took action within a day or two of an unproven allegation and without any of the usual safeguards for eviction. The program disproportionally harmed Latine families and families headed by women. Our brief discusses the history of racially biased policing and the history of housing discrimination in connection with this program. The case has been argued and we are waiting for an opinion. (State v. Sunnyside)
The ACLU-WA supported the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability’s (WCPA) advocacy to push back on a horrific rollback of restrictions on the dangerous and deadly tactic of police pursuits. Although the Washington Legislature ultimately passed a police pursuits rollback bill, the bill was significantly narrowed because of WCPA’s strong advocacy and your engagement. We remain committed to monitoring the impacts of this new law and we will urge the Legislature to resist any further weakening of police pursuit standards in the future.
The risk, harm and trauma of police violence continues to threaten community safety. This session, the ACLU-WA, in collaboration with WCPA, continued to push for law enforcement accountability across the state. We advocated for two important bills. The first would create a private right of action for violations of the state’s constitution and laws, without the shield of qualified immunity. The second bill would have clarified and strengthened the Attorney General’s authority to investigate and sue departments where there is evidence of systemic misconduct.
The ACLU-WA, along with a broad coalition of advocates in transportation, racial justice, and public safety, advocated for the Traffic Safety for All bill. It would have created a system to help low-income community members comply with low-risk traffic laws, like expired tabs or broken taillights, while also allowing police agencies to focus resources on violations that help prevent accidents and keep our roads safe.
 

End the Racist War on Drugs

The ACLU-WA supported legislation that would transform our state’s response to behavioral health issues and end the racist war on drugs. We continue to advocate for a better approach for drug possession that addresses the root causes of substance use. Read about our efforts in our feature story about the Blake decision and the Legislature’s responses to it.
 

Stop Violations of the Rights of Unhoused and Low-Income People

In 2019, the ACLU-WA filed a lawsuit on behalf of unhoused people in Seattle alleging the encampment sweeps conducted by the city of Seattle are unconstitutional because they illegally seize and destroy the property of people who are living outside, plus lack adequate and effective notice, an opportunity to be heard, or a meaningful way to reclaim any property that was not destroyed. We defeated the City of Seattle’s motion for summary judgment and the Court partially granted the ACLU-WA’s motion for summary judgment, holding that the City’s “obstruction sweeps” are facially unconstitutional violating unhoused individual’s privacy rights protected by Const. art. I § 3. The Court also found that the “obstruction sweeps” violate art. I § 14 of the Washington Constitution and subject the unhoused to cruel punishment where they are swept without notice and offer of shelter. This matter is currently before Division I of the Court of Appeals. (Kitcheon v. Seattle)

Jack Potter lives in a trailer and had been allowed by the City of Lacey to park his truck and trailer in a city parking lot until the city council passed an ordinance that prohibits “recreational” vehicles to park for more than 4 hours a day in any place in the city, subject to impoundment if parked over 4 hours. Potter was evicted from the city lot and sued the City of Lacey, claiming his rights to travel and reside where he chose and against cruel and unusual punishment were violated because the ordinance did not allow sufficient time for him to sleep in his vehicular home. The Washington Supreme Court will now determine whether there is a state constitutional right to intrastate travel and, if so, whether Potter’s right was violated. The ACLU-WA filed an amicus brief to raise issues including whether the Lacey ordinance allowing impoundment for parking more than 4 hours violates the state constitution’s excessive fines clause, and whether aspects of the ordinance violate state constitutional rights against discrimination based on poverty. (Potter v. City of Lacey)

With the King County Department of Public Defense and Washington Defender Association, the ACLU-WA supported a challenge to the practice of policing public transit. State law authorized policed officers undertaking fare enforcement to conduct suspicionless, warrantless seizures of any person using public transportation. We argued this violates our state constitution and disproportionately impacts communities of color, specifically Black riders in King County, and low-income individuals, many of whom have no alternative but to use public transportation. The court agreed and our amicus brief was cited in the Court’s ruling. (State v. Meredith)
 

Advance Systemic Equality

Based on an idea originated by economist Darrick Hamilton, Connecticut was the first state to pass legislation adopting a policy to invest a modest sum of state funds on behalf of each child born into poverty, to be made available for higher education, home ownership, or starting a small business (“baby bonds”). Baby bonds are one way to significantly reduce the racial wealth gap, which is the product of historic, systemic, and legal racial discrimination. The ACLU-WA and the ACLU supported legislation requested by the Washington State Treasurer to create a Washington Future Fund, and funds to study how baby bonds can shrink Washington’s wealth gap. We’ll continue advocating for adoption of the policy in the 2024 session.
 

Promote Indigenous Justice

National ACLU and the ACLUs of Washington, NorCal, Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the court to uphold the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The importance of this case cannot be overstated — not only could it have overturned over 40 years of crucial protections for Native children and families, but it could have opened the doors to a vast array of further challenges to tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and the existence of tribes. The Supreme Court issued a landmark victory for tribal sovereignty by rejecting all the constitutional challenges to ICWA. As Justice Gorsuch’s concurrence explains, this is a critical law designed to halt horrific government practices that have torn Native families apart and intentionally undermined tribal sovereignty. (Brackeen v. Haaland)
 
We again sponsored daylong Indigenous Peoples’ Day programming on KEXP 90.3FM and kexp.org
 

Affirm LGBTQIA2S+ Rights

The ACLU-WA represented a transwoman incarcerated in Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities. Our lawsuit resulted in her being moved from a men’s facility to a woman’s facility. It also resulted in her receiving necessary gender affirming care. This fall, Ms. Lotusflower received her second gender reassignment surgery. (Lotusflower v. Sinclaire)

The ACLU-WA has also received a number of complaints from incarcerated individuals in the custody of Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) regarding gender identity discrimination, targeting, and harassment of transgender women by DOC staff, including DOC leadership at the facility. These complaints include allegations that transgender women are expressly targeted by DOC staff and subject to disparate treatment on the basis of their gender identity. The ACLU-WA sent advocacy letters addressing these allegations and reminding the DOC of their legal obligations to provide equitable treatment of transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people under the United States and Washington State Constitutions and the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The letters also reminded them of their obligations to provide religious accommodations pursuant to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and to investigate their practices.

For the first time ever, the ACLU-WA brought together a contingent for the Spokane Pride Parade. We had our largest ever contingent in the Seattle Pride Parade, and we returned to Trans Pride in person to provide Know Your Rights information and ACLU-WA materials.
 

Protect the Right to a Fair Trial

Theodore Rhone disputed the use of peremptory challenges to strike the only or last remaining member of a recognizable racial group in jury trials resulting in the race-based discrimination that remains pervasive in the criminal legal system. The Washington Supreme Court denied Mr. Rhone’s request, but ultimately adopted the rule he proposed, which has been expanded upon in subsequent cases. He has returned to the Court, arguing for the relief that he is entitled to. The ACLU-WA filed an amicus brief in his original appeal in 2009 and we reaffirmed our advocacy with an updated amicus. After argument, the Washington Supreme Court ruled in favor of Rhone, noting that its understanding of race discrimination in jury selection has evolved over the years and that it would be a manifest injustice to refuse to provide Rhone — who first made the argument — with the relief that the Court ultimately found constitutionally required in a later case. His convictions were vacated and the Court remanded for further proceedings. (PRP of Rhone)

With two amicus briefs addressing the right to counsel at bail hearings, the ACLU-WA continued to champion the protection of people’s civil rights within the criminal legal system. In both cases, the defendants were denied the right to counsel at their respective initial appearance and bail hearings. Our briefs argue that both the United States and Washington State Constitutions require the appointment of counsel at appearances where bail is set and a denial to do so results in a constitutional and civil rights violation. Both briefs also highlight how the failure to provide counsel for preliminary appearance hearings not only harms individuals but, more generally, communities, in a manner that ultimately undermines faith in the criminal legal system. (State v. Heng and State v. Charlton)
 

Reform the Criminal Legal System

Washington is one of only a handful of states where youth as young as 8 years old can be incarcerated. For three sessions, ACLU-WA and allies have worked to educate legislators on both sides of the aisle to pass a bill that would change the age at which a child can enter the juvenile legal system from 8 to 13 and authorize a study of the expansion of the top range of juvenile court jurisdiction. While our efforts were unsuccessful in 2023, our team was successful in securing a $600,000 appropriation to study the need for and impacts of modifying juvenile court jurisdiction as proposed.

The use of solitary confinement, recognized as a form of torture by the United Nations, has increased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and worsening prison conditions. The ACLU-WA partnered with Disability Rights Washington and Civil Survival over the past three years to introduce legislation that bans the long-term use of solitary confinement. While we appreciate the Department of Corrections’ commitments to reduce its use of solitary confinement, the data shows us that those commitments are not being put into practice with urgency or transparency. Our fight continues in 2024.

We supported several legislative proposals to reduce sentences and provide an avenue for release and resentencing for many serving excessively long sentences. Together, these bills advance racial equity by eliminating this source of racial disproportionality from adult sentencing calculations. Only one of our priority bills passed this session. The Juvenile Points Bill eliminates the practice of automatically sentencing people to longer prison terms because of offenses they committed as youth. The bill was passed with an amendment that stripped the retroactive application of these new sentencing rules, leaving behind hundreds of currently incarcerated people. We will return in 2024 to restore retroactivity.

The ACLU-WA filed an amicus brief in a criminal case resulting from a police search that went far beyond what a judge authorized in a search warrant. The charge was based on material the police found in searching a person’s home computer, which was out of the scope authorized by a judge. The brief discusses the importance of the privacy rights people have in their home computers. The federal district court initially granted the motion to suppress the evidence, recognizing that the constitutional requirements had been violated, but then on the government’s motion to reconsider found that the “good faith” exception applied and precluded suppression. (United States v. J Holcomb)

The ACLU-WA challenged the use of juvenile felony strikes in calculation of life sentences under the Persistent Offender Accountability Act. The Washington Supreme Court rejected our argument and held that juvenile points can be part of the three strikes calculation. The Court also seemed to call for a constitutional challenge to the lawfulness of Washington’s three strike law. The ACLU-WA partnered with Korematsu Center, King County Department of Public Defense, Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Washington Defender Association to file an amicus in support of the challenge. (State v. Reynolds)

The ACLU-WA sued the Washington Department of Corrections on behalf of a group of people who are currently and formerly incarcerated to protect their private data. A preliminary injunction has been granted and a bill impacting the litigation was passed. A subsequent settlement protects the privacy of incarcerated people and compels Corrections to create training and procedures to protect privacy rights in the future. Cooperating counsel are Danny Waxwing and Ethan Frenchman of Disability Rights Washington; Katherine Forster of Munger Tolles & Olson; and Joe Schaeffer of MacDonald Hoague & Bayless. (Does v. Washington Department of Corrections)
 

Demand Humane Jail Conditions

The ACLU-WA has received a number of complaints from lockdown facilities regarding ongoing religious discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act ("RLUIPA"). The alleged violations include refusal to provide kosher meals (Okanogan and Snohomish Counties), refusal to provide halal meals and cooperate with the Muslim observance of Ramadan by providing meals after sundown (Green Hill School and Pierce County), interfering with a Muslim individual’s religious attire and failure to provide access to Islamic television channels (Coyote Ridge Corrections Center). An additional complaint from an individual at the Washington State Penitentiary (WSP) in Walla Walla included an allegation that Muslim incarcerated people were denied access to Ramadan activities, including congregational prayer services, and were forced to pray in cells with toilets, in violation of Islamic principles, and a refusal by WSP staff to allow Muslim incarcerated people to observe their prayer services outside of yard time, resulting in Muslim inmates being forced to pray outside, even in severe weather. We wrote advocacy letters to these institutions to raise concerns, remind them of their obligations to provide religious accommodations pursuant to the RLUIPA and engaged in further investigation of their practices.

We filed a lawsuit to enforce the Hammer v. King County settlement agreement relating to issues around conditions being experienced by inmates at the King County Correctional Facility (KCCF). The settlement agreement requires the jail to maintain certain conditions, subject to court enforcement. Recent severe staffing shortages have resulted in people not being transported to medically necessary appointments, not receiving the appropriate time out of cell, and not being transported to court. KCCF has had the highest number of deaths in recent memory. The ACLU-WA filed a lawsuit in Pierce County to protect people incarcerated in the facility by enforcing the settlement agreement. (ACLU-WA v. King County)
 

Protect the Rights of Young People

The ACLU-WA, along with community partners at The Korematsu Center and Disability Rights Washington, filed an amicus brief before the Washington Supreme Court arguing that Article IX, Section 1 of the Washington Constitution ensures that all children receive a quality education in Washington. A Latine high schooler (M.G.) was suspended from his neighborhood school for alleged “gang activity” with no plan to return him to school. The original suspension was for 10 days, but morphed into a de facto expulsion, keeping M.G. out of school for his entire high school education. During this time, the Yakima School District placed him in an online program he could not access for a variety of reasons. Despite knowing that that M.G. could not access the program, the District did nothing to ensure he received an education while extending his suspension indefinitely, so M.G. completed only a handful of classes and not enough credits to graduate over the course of his 4-year suspension. We argued that this de facto expulsion was a clear violation of M.G.’s due process rights and his constitutional right to access an education. We also included research about how exclusionary discipline practices impact children of color at disproportionate rates and do not make schools safer; rather, vague, exclusionary discipline practices that fail to adhere to the law breed distrust in school communities and make them less productive and safe. (MG v. Yakima School District)

The ACLU-WA joined an amicus brief with the Korematsu Center, Choose 180, Creative Justice, King County Department of Public Defense, and TeamChild. The brief discusses harm caused by the “adultification bias” of Black youth versus white youth (through which Black children are deprived of the benefit of being seen and treated as children), as well as harm done by prolonged incarceration in juvenile prison. In February, the Court ruled unanimously that it was not lawful to impose a “manifest injustice” disposition, which results in a prolonged period of incarceration, on JWM based on his “need for services,” without proof that he was a danger to society without services or treatment; “Courts do not incarcerate children because it is good for them.” The Court said that charged but unproven allegations cannot be used to increase the length of sentence. The Court also referred to points from the amicus brief about adultification bias and the harm incarceration causes to young people as “important considerations” in juvenile sentencing, but declined to adopt these as new legal standards because they were only raised by amici and not the parties. (State v J.W.M.)
 

Spread Know Your Rights Information

We teamed up with Federal Public Defender Vanessa Pai-Thompson to bring critical Know Your Rights information to Kent School District seniors through our Civics Day program. Kent is among the most racially diverse school districts in the state.
 

Safeguard the Public from Invasive, Discriminatory Technology

The ACLU-WA and the Tech Equity Coalition worked to advance critical and comprehensive data privacy protections and algorithmic accountability. While neither of these bills advanced out of the Washington Legislature, for the first time in four years, we did not see a push for the passage of a weak, industry-backed Washington Privacy Act. Instead, industry unsuccessfully focused on killing our consumer health data privacy bill, which provides key protections to ensure abortion and gender-affirming access in Washington state. 
 

Free the Vote

The ACLU-WA successfully supported the defense of the Washington Voting Rights Act (WVRA), which was enacted to protect the voting rights of historically marginalized communities. We filed an amicus brief in the Washington Supreme Court detailing the history of discrimination in voting and political participation in Washington, and the limitations of Section 2 Federal Voting Rights Act (FVRA) claims. The brief includes examples of our prior litigation in Pasco and Yakima. It further examines the historic and ongoing exclusion of racial and language minority voters, outlines the limits of the FVRA to provide relief, and details the impetus to draft and advocate for the passage of WVRA. Finally, it provides success stories under the WVRA, including providing the only pathway to voluntary abandonment of at-large voting in favor of district-based voting. In a June 2023 opinion, the Washington Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the WVRA. (Portugal v. Franklin County)
 

Protect People Who Speak Truth to Power

The ACLU-WA filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit in a Black Lives Matter protest case. The brief supports the trial court’s finding that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) violated the constitutional rights of the Plaintiff Protesters when they arrested and jailed them for chalking messages critical of SPD on the side of the temporary wall erected during the Black Lives Matter uprising. The Western District of Washington granted an injunction in the Plaintiff Protesters’ favor staying a municipal ordinance prohibiting graffiti, on the basis that the ordinance may be facially unconstitutional and SPD’s use of it against the Plaintiff Protesters likely infringed on their First Amendment rights to free speech. Discovery requests in the case resulted in the bodycam footage, recently released, showing the officers as they emerged from the break room callously displaying the mock tombstone of Damarius Butts, and a Trump Flag, among other items. Our brief focused on SPD’s long history of biased policing and resistance to accountability and retaliation against those who speak out against the police. Our brief then sets forth how SPD exploits the ordinance to target protesters based on viewpoint discrimination: Choosing to enforce the graffiti ordinance against protesters critical of SPD – while on the other hand allowing the same kind of graffiti (chalk and charcoal) when its content is favorable to SPD. (Tucson v. City of Seattle)

Advocate

The ACLU-WA trained activists and brought them together to lobby legislators about critical civil liberties bills for a hybrid in-person and virtual Lobby Week in 2023. Supporters from 11 legislative districts held more than 25 meetings with state representatives and senators. We hope you will join us on January 24, 2024, when we return to the Capitol Campus for our first-ever Advocacy Day co-hosted with community partners.
 

Celebrate

We continued our presenting sponsorship of Sundiata: Black Arts Festival at Seattle Center – the largest Black Arts Festival in the Pacific Northwest.
 
On October 21, we held our first large-scale in-person event in five years. Dwell in Possibility: The ACLU-WA Annual Celebration featured an inspirational conversation between Michele Storms and Edgar Villanueva, author of Decolonizing Wealth. Hollis Wong-Wear emceed for the second year – this time, in person. The evening featured performances by Indigenous drumming group Owašté, spoken word artist Blu, and Washington State Poet Laureate Arianne True. Black Belt Eagle Scout closed out the evening with an acoustic set. We honored our 2023 Bill of Rights award recipients, who have shown up with great care for our communities: Rosalinda Guillen, winner of the William O. Douglas Bill of Rights Award; Nancy Talner, winner of the Kathleen Taylor Civil Libertarian Award; and Ruby Alvarez-Clark, winner of the Youth Activist Award. Watch the entire event here.

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