ACLU Featured at Human Rights Conference in D.C.

WASHINGTON – Following race projection announcements in key campaigns and in races that will determine the control of Congress, the American Civil Liberties Union released the following statement from Chief Political and Advocacy Officer Deirdre Schifeling on the results so far of the 2026 midterm elections: “Tonight, voters sent a clear message to politicians: You work for us. Since the day President Trump took office, his administration and allies have been working overtime to take away voters’ power. But American voters have shown through historic turnout that they’ve had enough of a rigged system designed to work for the people in power instead of for them. “From key state supreme court races in Michigan and North Carolina to state legislative races in Georgia and North Carolina, voters uniformly rejected candidates who threaten abortion rights and our right to vote. Voters also stood up for reproductive freedom in Missouri and Virginia, and permanently secured voting rights and marriage equality in Virginia. “However, our work is only half done, and now a new chapter begins. With a new Congress in Washington and state legislative sessions starting in January, now is our moment to create the representative, accountable democracy we have always deserved and remedy the failures of our system that led us to this point. We must unrig the system and ensure that government is used to make ordinary people’s lives better, not to enrich and entrench those in power.” As part of the ACLU’s “Firewall for Freedom” strategy, the organization and its PAC, ACLU Voter Education Fund, made their largest-ever commitment in down ballot races, spending $25.5 million across underfunded but critical state-level campaigns with an outsized impact on our rights and freedoms, from key ballot initiatives to state Supreme Court races, secretaries of state races, and state legislative races.

Section 131 of the newly enacted Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act gives Coloradans a cause of action to seek damages or equitable relief when state or local police officers violate the Colorado Constitution. In 2022, Christopher Mosley sued Officer Brendan Daves for conducting a warrantless search of his car, which Daves argued was lawful under the federal protective sweep doctrine. After Mosley prevailed at trial and the court of appeals affirmed, Daves appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. The ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative and the ACLU of Colorado filed an amicus brief agreeing with Mosley’s argument that Daves has misapprehended the federal doctrine whilst focusing on a separate point: the Court’s interpretation of Section 131 is not bound by federal law.

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union celebrates the legacy of Dolores Huerta, who passed away today at the age of 96. Huerta was one of the most influential workers’ rights leaders of the 20th century. Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director, had the following reaction to today’s news: “Dolores Huerta spent her life challenging injustice in every form – fighting for workers’ rights, women’s rights, immigrants’ rights, and so much more. Her bravery, perseverance, and compassion changed this country for the better. “As co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union, she successfully organized farmworker walkouts and consumer boycotts to demand better working conditions for Latino farmworkers. Today, millions of workers enjoy the protections that Ms. Huerta, and thousands of others who marched and mobilized alongside her, fought so hard to win. “The ACLU was proud to honor Ms. Huerta with the ACLU’s Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty in 1993, recognizing her lifetime contributions to civil rights and civil liberties. More than three decades later, her continued legacy of standing up to injustice has stood the test of time. History will remember Dolores Huerta as a modern-day trailblazer for our rights and freedoms, and the ACLU will continue the fight to protect the justice and freedoms she spent her life working to achieve.”

In 2013, Michigan passed the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission Act (MIDCA) to ensure that indigent criminal defendants—that is, those who cannot afford to pay for counsel themselves—received constitutionally adequate counsel, paid for by the state. This case concerns whether and under what circumstances trial courts can, consistent with MIDCA, order indigent criminal defendants to pay the state back for their attorneys. The ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative, the ACLU of Michigan, and the Michigan State Planning Body filed an amicus brief in the Michigan Supreme Court arguing that MIDCA, properly construed, partially abrogated a different statute authorizing trial courts to assess attorney fees against indigent defendants and explaining that allowing such orders would undermine Michiganders’ right to counsel.