Disability Rights

08/09/2011

A Day in Court for Civil Rights Claims: The Supreme Court Tackles the Ministerial Exception

By Daniel Mach at 3:44pm

Do religious institutions get a categorical free pass to discriminate against certain employees, regardless of the reason? That issue lies at the heart of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed today by the ACLU, the ACLU of Michigan, and a coalition of religious liberty organizations, we argue that the answer must be a resounding "no."

06/21/2011

Disability Rights

Obama Administration Fails to Halt Runaway "Secure Communities" Train, Ignoring Complaints of Governors, Congress, and Law Enforcement Leaders

By Joanne Lin, Washington Legislative Office at 6:05pm

Last Friday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced their proposed changes to the much-criticized Secure Communities (S-Comm) program, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's immigration enforcement program. The administration's proposals, including statistical monitoring of the program, development of training modules for local law enforcement jurisdictions, and formation of an advisory committee, amount to nothing more than window dressing and fail to answer the growing tide of criticism by the governors of Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, law enforcement officials, civil rights advocates, and immigrant communities across the country.

07/30/2010

Disability Rights

Reforming a System of Assault on Students' Rights

By Sarah Preston, ACLU of North Carolina at 3:24pm

For the first time in 25 years, the North Carolina. legislature has passed much-needed reform regulating how local school districts use corporal punishment. Back in 1985, the legislature passed a law allowing schools to decide whether or not to use corporal punishment – as opposed to being required to do so. That led to big improvements, and by the start of the 2009-10 school year, 69 districts out of 115 had banned the practice. Yet according to a public records request conducted by Action for Children and the ACLU-NC, kids in North Carolina are still subjected to corporal punishment thousands of times a year - more than 1,400 times during the 2008-2009 school year alone. Unfortunately, legislators have simply protected the system, refusing even to require annual reporting on the use of corporal punishment from school districts.

07/24/2009

Disability Rights

Obama Administration to Sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

By Nahal Zamani, Human Rights Program at 5:56pm

Great news! Today, on the 19th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, President Obama announced that his administration will be signing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in a ceremony to be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week. The CRPD is the first comprehensive human rights treaty adopted in the 21st century with extraordinary input by people with disabilities and progressively promotes their human rights.

American Civil Liberties Union