Stories from the ACLU of Washington

Recently, a troubling trend in correctional facilities around the country has shown up in two Washington State jails.  Inmates, already a population isolated from their respective communities, are now being restricted in their communications with their own friends and families.  Spokane County Jail and Yakima County Jail are only allowing their inmates to send out and to receive postcards.  These policies prohibit inmates from sending or receiving letters, pictures, limiting contact with loved ones if it takes more than a few sentences to express themselves.  The same is true for families writing the inmate, restricting their right to freedom of speech. Read more

For some students, playing on a sports team can make the difference between success and failure in school. It can be the one thing that keeps them coming to school each day, motivates them to keep their grades up, or connects them to a caring adult in the building. So, when a school cuts sports opportunities for any of its students, it’s unfortunate. When a school cuts opportunities for students who are already underrepresented in sports and activities, or otherwise disadvantaged, the consequences can be significant and it can raise potential civil rights issues. Read more

Last Monday, just before 9 o'clock at night, a half dozen Seattle police officers in black tactical gear, with guns drawn, broke down the front door of an apartment with a battering ram and put the man they found inside in his bathrobe face down on his kitchen floor at gunpoint. The officers' search revealed two marijuana plants, each roughly 12 inches tall, and a document establishing that the man on the kitchen floor had been authorized by his physician to engage in the medical use of marijuana as provided under Washington state law. Read more

A broken criminal justice system doesn’t just affect felons, it impacts us. In an insightful article in The Pacific Northwest Inlander correspondent Leah Sottile discusses the many challenges individuals with criminal convictions face long after they’ve paid their debts to society. These “collateral consequences” hurt not only ex-felons, but also their children, as when their families cannot get stable and safe housing. A single mother with a non-violent drug conviction over 20 years old notes that she’s “going to have to move into a place that’s dangerous for my children…My children now have to grow up around the same things that influenced me to become a felon.”

Tomorrow is Election Day. Washington’s Secretary of State predicts a robust 66% voter turnout, the highest for a mid-term election in many years. Thanks to a law passed last year with the support of the ACLU, many of these voters will be re-engaging with their fellow citizens for the first time in years. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is considering a law that will extend voting rights to many more citizens nationwide and you have an opportunity to tell them what you think. Read more

What’s the next best thing to being an ACLU staff attorney? Being an ACLU legal fellow. As election season rolls around, the end of my year-long fellowship at the ACLU of Washington does as well. A 2009 graduate of Hastings College of Law in California, I’ve been hired by Perkins Coie but deferred my starting date with the firm. So for the past year, instead of working on commercial litigation, I have had the amazing opportunity to work full-time in the ACLU-WA legal department. I have gotten a taste of advocacy and educational work, creating a toolkit for farmworkers’ rights. I have dipped my feet in legislative and policy work in immigration issues. Most excitingly, I immediately plunged into litigation as a member of the ACLU-WA legal team on the landmark “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” case Witt v. Air Force. Read more

Schools must protect students from harassment, and if they don’t, the federal government will have something to say about it.  That was the message sent by the White House and the Department of Education on October 26th when they issued new guidance designed to make clear that schools have a legal duty to protect students from harassment under existing federal civil rights statutes. Read more

Next Tuesday, Californians will vote on the historic Proposition 19, which would decriminalize adult possession and growing of marijuana for personal use. It would also allow cities and counties to adopt regulations permitting the commercial production and distribution of cannabis to consumers. More importantly, Proposition 19 would represent a huge step forward in ending the civil liberties and civil rights abuses fostered by the War on Drugs, like racist enforcement of drug prohibition. Read more

When teens get pregnant, most drop out of school. When they drop out of school, they likely face a life of economic insecurity. And the role that discrimination plays in their decisions to drop out raises serious civil rights concerns. Read more

Fall is a heavy season for truancy courts. Truancy court is a place where the school and the court systems converge. In truancy proceedings, it’s important to safeguard both the due process rights of youth and their best educational interests. Read more