Stories from the ACLU of Washington

Two young men serving long sentences in jail for a robbing Halloween trick-or-treaters of candy and an iPhone when they were teens will get new sentences, thanks to a Washington State Supreme Court decision that affirmed that “children are different” and criminal sentences must take their age into account.

Two clients represented by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, the ACLU of Washington and collaborating attorneys from MacDonald Hoague and Bayless and Pacifica Law Group have been released from the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at SeaTac airport. One of the clients is an engineer originally from Sudan but now residing in the United Arab Emirates and was attending an engineering conference in the U.S. The other individual who was detained by CBP is a Yemeni citizen who was born in Saudi Arabia and was coming to visit family here in the U.S. Both clients expressed their gratitude for the support of so many Americans. While in the custody of CBP, they were able to watch coverage of the protests at the airport and they both expressed gratitude for those expressions of solidarity. We are grateful to the many political leaders who urged their release.

In America, everyone has the right to their personal property. Whether we live next door or outdoors makes no difference; The Constitution protects each of us, all of the time.

People who lack adequate housing still create for themselves homes. They have privacy rights

ON Nov. 8, something rather extraordinary happened in America’s heartland. Oklahoma voters, 65 percent of whom supported the Trump-Pence ticket, also passed a pair of criminal-justice-reform ballot initiatives by 14- and 12-point margins.