Activist academic Phil Bereano (pictured at right), attorneys Amanda Lee and Jeff Robinson, and youth activist Colin Moyer have received the ACLU of Washington's 2009 awards for extraordinary efforts to defend and advance civil liberties.
A person’s DNA is the blueprint of one’s identity. The ACLU-WA opposes proposals to collect DNA from people who are merely arrested, regardless of whether they are convicted.
The ACLU-WA is working with legislators to add privacy protections to bills that authorize tolling and set up a photo enforcement system on the Highway 520 bridge
The ACLU filed a suit in 2004, challenging the constitutionality of the indigent public defense system in Grant County. The suit argued that public defenders were underfunded, overworked and lacked independence, depriving indigent defendants of effective assistance of counsel.
Research has shown that government cameras in public places don’t reduce crime. The ACLU-WA has been a vocal opponent of efforts to place police surveillance cameras in Seattle parks.
The ACLU has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the appeal of Cal Coburn Brown, who was sentenced to death in Washington state in 1993. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the death sentence in 2005, ruling that a potential juror had been incorrectly kept from the jury that found Brown guilty and imposed the death penalty.
Judge Ronald Leighton of U.S. District Court in Tacoma has approved a settlement agreement between the American Civil Liberties Union and Jefferson County officials to improve conditions for inmates at the Jefferson County Jail in Port Hadlock on the Olympic Peninsula.
In October 2003 the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the City of Seattle can bar political candidates from mentioning their opponents in the City's voter pamphlet. The decision reversed a trial court ruling that found the ban was an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
