By Meghan Groob, Media Relations Associate, ACLU at 12:14pm
Exactly one year ago today, a 17-year-old boy named Trayvon Martin was gunned down in his quiet Florida suburb in a tragedy that left our country shocked and ashamed. The incident set off a national conversation about racial profiling and the role race played in his death and subsequent police action.
Racial profiling violates the Constitution by denying equal protection under the law, as well as freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. Furthermore, the Constitution requires treaties to be treated as the "supreme law of the land," and racial profiling runs afoul of America's human rights treaty obligations.
By Dennis Parker, Director, ACLU Racial Justice Program at 1:25pm
Today's forum on racial profiling and hate crimes will address how we as a nation want to ensure that young men like Trayvon are not the victims of vigilante justice and racial profiling.
By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 12:05pm
The ACLU's Laura W. Murphy shares a personal story about how she has often feared her 22-year-old African-American son will be targeted like Trayvon Martin.
By Chandra Bhatnagar, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program at 5:43pm
In the 1993 film Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character finds himself repeating the same miserable day over and over again. For Indian film star Shahrukh Khan, last week was Groundhog Day for racial and religious profiling. In 2009, Khan — a huge global celebrity whose likeness is immortalized in wax at Madame Tussaud's — was traveling to the United States to celebrate Indian independence day and to promote a movie about a Muslim man who is the victim of profiling called My Name is Khan. In a case of life imitating art, Khan who is also Muslim, was detained and questioned at Newark airport.
