At Liberty

Sergio de la Pava is a critically acclaimed novelist (A Naked Singularity, Personae, Lost Empress) and a full-time public defender who has represented thousands of criminal defendants over the last two decades. Earlier this year, he joined At Liberty live at the Brooklyn Public Library to discuss his literary and legal work and his approach to life.

This year, the ACLU of Arkansas celebrates 50 years of protecting civil liberties. From challenging voter ID laws, to protecting the right to boycott, to defending the First Amendment rights of Tofurky, the ACLU of Arkansas has a fascinating docket and history of defending the rights of Arkansans. Holly Dickson, the organization’s legal director and a lifelong Arkansan, joins At Liberty to discuss...

The FBI is supposed to keep us safe, protect our rights, and defend the rule of law. Yet for more than a century, the FBI has aggressively targeted dissidents, gone after minorities, and overstepped its authority in ways that have defined American policing. Mike German, a former FBI agent, discusses his new book and how a post-9/11 FBI has exacerbated divisions in American society even as it has i...

Facebook has come under a lot of scrutiny lately, for everything from its policy on political ads to its logo. But one development that's gotten less attention is its new portal for advertisers. Now, advertisers for housing, employment, and credit no longer have the option to target their ads at certain demographic groups in a discriminatory way. That's because of a landmark settlement that recent...

The Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia, the landmark ACLU case decided in 1967. But the government‘s regulation of marriage and sex didn’t start with anti-miscegenation laws or end with Loving. Melissa Murray — an expert in family law, constitutional law, and reproductive rights and justice at the New York University School of Law — discusses why the insti...

As a result of a Trump administration policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while the U.S. considers their cases, tens of thousands of people are stranded in squalid and dangerous conditions on the other side of the southern border. Scores of people who are fleeing persecution have been kidnapped, extorted, and sexually abused at the hands of cartels and criminal gangs. Shelters are over...

While abortion restrictions have left six states with only a single clinic standing, other states are finding ways to expand access. We speak with Heather Gatnarek, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Kentucky, who is helping fend off sustained attacks on what remains of reproductive care in that state. And we hear from Zach Heiden, legal director of the ACLU of Maine, where abortion was just made mor...

Puerto Rico's U.S. citizens don't enjoy the full protections of the Constitution, thanks to a set of century-old Supreme Court decisions called the "Insular Cases." In a case dealing with the island's financial oversight board, the ACLU has asked the court to overrule those decisions, which relied on openly racist assumptions to legalize the island's second-class status. Adriel Cepeda Derieux, a s...

On October 8, the Supreme Court will hear a set of cases deciding whether LGBTQ employees are protected under federal sex discrimination laws. In one of those cases, the ACLU is representing Aimee Stephens, a trans woman who was fired after she came out to her employer. Chase Strangio, one of Aimee's lawyers and deputy director of the ACLU's LGBT and HIV Project, discusses the stakes of the case.

In his new memoir, "Permanent Record," Edward Snowden tells the story of his evolution: A child of civil servants, he fell hard and fast for the internet of the 90s, ascended the intelligence community, and became one of the most famous whistleblowers in U.S. history. He joins ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero for a live taping of At Liberty at the Brooklyn Public Library.

Another Supreme Court session is upon us, with the court set to reconvene in October following its summer recess. On the docket for the new session are cases that have important implications for LGBTQ rights, criminal justice, immigration, and more. David Cole, the legal director of the ACLU and an experienced Supreme Court litigator, joins At Liberty to preview the coming term.

In 2014, Gavin Grimm was a high school sophomore in Gloucester County, Virginia. He had recently come out as transgender to school administrators who were initially supportive. However, following protests from members of the community, the school board reversed course and banned him from using the boy's restroom. That kicked off a high-profile legal battle over the rights of transgender students t...

Eighteen years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, a trial date was recently set for the men accused of plotting those attacks. But what has taken so long? And is a fair trial even possible? On this anniversary of 9/11, we're replaying an interview from last year with Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. Hina talked to At Liberty about how America's response to 9/11...

Starting with the Muslim ban, the Trump presidency has consistently unleashed a barrage of new policies designed to keep immigrants out of the country. But while these restrictions might seem unprecedented, anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies have deep roots in our country. Today’s guest is Daniel Okrent, the award-winning writer of The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Ge...

This week, we’re replaying an interview from earlier this year with Paul Butler, a scholar, former prosecutor and the author of "Chokehold: Policing Black Men." When we first spoke with Paul, his book had been banned in Arizona prisons. Arizona has since lifted its ban, and incarcerated people in Arizona can now read "Chokehold" and benefit from its insightful analysis of our mass incarceration cr...

Four hundred years ago this month, more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in what was then the British colony of Virginia. To mark the anniversary of the beginning of slavery in America, The New York Times launched a major initiative called The 1619 Project. Through a special issue of the New York Times Magazine, along with a slew of other resources, the project centers slavery in our national nar...

This week's guest is W. Kamau Bell: standup comedian, prolific podcaster, and host of his own show on CNN, "United Shades of America." He's known for his incisive socio-political commentary and activism, including on behalf of the ACLU, where he serves as an artist ambassador for racial justice. He joins At Liberty to discuss race, his show, Anthony Bourdain, parenting, and more.

Anuradha Bhagwati has long been at the forefront of the fight for gender equality within the military. She is a former Marine Corps captain, a three-time ACLU client, and founder of the Service Women's Action Network, a lead plaintiff in a groundbreaking lawsuit challenging the military's ban on women serving in combat. Her recent book, “Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience," details her experienc...

Last month, protests erupted when the Justice Department announced it would not bring civil rights charges against the NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014. Mr. Garner's death was one among countless examples of deadly police violence toward Black and brown people. Yet despite a growing outcry, most officers implicated in civilian deaths have escaped punishment. Carl Takei...

Heidi Schreck is the playwright and star of Broadway’s “What the Constitution Means to Me.” The play, which was nominated for two Tonys and was a Pulitzer finalist, was inspired by Schreck’s experience as a teenager competing in debates about the Constitution at American Legion halls across the country. As an adult, she revisits her personal connection to the document to see how it holds up in new...

It’s been a dizzying few days in U.S. immigration policy. Earlier this week, the Trump administration issued rules to ban most refugees arriving through the southern border. Despite legal setbacks, the administration continues to try to build a border wall. At the same time, the president has launched sustained attacks on four American congresswomen of color. Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director a...

Surveillance technology is slowly encroaching on every part of our lives. With regulation at the federal level slow to materialize, local governments are taking action. Two American cities — San Francisco, Calif. and Somerville, Mass. — recently passed local laws to ban the use of facial recognition technology by police and other government agencies. Is local advocacy our best bet for keeping the...

Hundreds of thousands of Washington, D.C. residents currently lack full political representation. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents them in the House of Representatives, is currently leading an initiative to make the District of Columbia the 51st state.

It was another dramatic year for the Supreme Court. A new justice was sworn in against the backdrop of scandal. A beloved justice got sick and recovered. And, of course, major precedent-setting decisions were handed down. David Cole, the ACLU’s legal director and a seasoned Supreme Court litigator, makes sense of the highs and lows of the past term and talks through what’s to come when the court r...

In one of the most highly anticipated decisions of its term, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration cannot add a citizenship question to the U.S. census – at least not for now. Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, who argued the case, explains the decision.