My True Crime Obsession

WASHINGTON – A federal court ruled last week that the federal agencies responsible for parole and supervised release in Washington, D.C. violated federal disability law by systematically failing to meaningfully consider and accommodate people with disabilities. The class action lawsuit was brought by two D.C. residents with disabilities, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of D.C., Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and Latham & Watkins LLP. Plaintiffs challenged the federal government’s post-conviction supervision system in Washington, D.C. for ignoring the needs of people with disabilities, thereby putting them at constant risk of sanctions, including incarceration. The court’s decision granted plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on liability. “This decision makes clear that failing to provide people with all types of disabilities the accommodations they need to comply with supervision is discrimination, plain and simple,” said Allison Frankel, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “People with disabilities should have a fair chance to comply with the myriad supervision rules and remain in their communities, instead of being set up to fail from the start. We are celebrating this victory for our clients, and we are committed to continue fighting to ensure that people with disabilities on supervision across the country receive the accommodations they are legally entitled to.” For D.C. residents, a criminal sentence can extend for years beyond their time behind bars through parole or supervised release, which requires people to comply with myriad and onerous conditions. Failing to follow conditions, like missing a single appointment, can land a person back in jail or prison, even when no new criminal conduct is alleged. In 2021 and 2022, 10 percent of all individuals under supervision in D.C. faced violation proceedings solely for technical violations of release conditions. Among people with disabilities, the percentage was nearly twice as high (18 percent). People with disabilities are over-represented among the supervision population and face heightened barriers to meeting supervision requirements. “Discrimination against people with disabilities is incompatible with justice,” said Laura Follansbee, staff attorney at the ACLU of D.C. “This ruling is an important victory for equal access, and it affirms that people with disabilities must have a genuine opportunity to succeed on parole and supervised release in D.C.” The ACLU has documented similar barriers that people with disabilities under supervision face across the country. In 2024, the organization released a report providing guidance for people with disabilities seeking accommodations, as well as tools for advocates working to challenge systemic barriers. “For years, the government has failed to accommodate individuals with disabilities on parole and supervised release in D.C., as required by law,” said Christine Smith, associate at Latham & Watkins, who argued the motion. “This ruling is a significant step toward securing lasting institutional reform and ensuring that all people have an equal opportunity to succeed on supervision.” The decision is here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/mathis-v-united-states-parole-commission?document=Memorandum-Opinion-Granting-Summary-Judgment-on-Liability

BOISE – The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Idaho, Stoel Rives, and Cooley LLP filed an opposition brief today on behalf of their clients, urging a federal court to allow a lawsuit challenging the violent mass detention of hundreds of Latino people for an immigration dragnet at a family horse-racing event in Wilder, Idaho to proceed. The lawsuit, Rodriguez et al. v. Porter et al., was filed earlier this year on behalf of three Latino families and a proposed class of people who were at La Catedral Arena on October 19, 2025, when more than 200 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers descended on an otherwise peaceful family event. Law enforcement arrived in armored trucks and a helicopter with flashbang grenades and guns drawn and detained approximately 400 spectators – including U.S. citizens and children – for four hours of detention in inhumane conditions before subjecting everyone to suspicionless immigration interrogations. In their motions to dismiss, defendants continue to characterize the operation as a routine execution of warrants for five people accused of non-violent unlicensed gambling. The ACLU’s brief filed today makes clear that hundreds of heavily-armed officers detaining hundreds of people with no connection to the gambling allegations – and prolonging their detention to investigate everyone's immigration status – was anything but routine. “Our clients are still living with the physical and emotional scars from that day, and yet the defendants continue to try to rewrite what happened,” said Allison Frankel, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “Warrants for five people accused of unlicensed gambling do not give police a blank check to round up hundreds of people, hold families at gunpoint, or target people based on their perceived ethnicity. We know what happened at La Catedral, and we’re going to keep fighting to hold those responsible accountable and make clear that law enforcement is not above the law.” Juana Rodriguez, one of the lead plaintiffs, is a U.S. citizen who was at the racetrack with her 3-year-old son. After being violently rounded up with hundreds of other families, Rodriguez was placed in zip ties and detained for several hours without food or water. Law enforcement instructed her toddler to hold onto her pocket, which they had turned inside out, while Rodriguez remained zip tied and unable to comfort her son as he cried out for water. "The cruelty that occurred in Wilder is a tragic example of a government operating with reckless violence and unrestricted power," said Paul Carlos Southwick, legal director for the ACLU of Idaho. "The human cost of this operation is unacceptable. Law enforcement must answer for the large-scale civil rights abuses that took place so we can ensure this never happens again.” The lawsuit alleges that federal, state and local law enforcement used the criminal warrants as a cover to conduct a sweeping immigration dragnet targeting an event where they knew the attendees would be predominantly Latino. The complaint centrally claims that these federal, state and local actors conspired to deprive those detained of their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable detentions, and their right to equal protection regardless of ethnicity. The complaint is brought under laws created after the Civil War to prevent racialized government violence. The conspiracy claims provide a path to hold federal actors accountable for civil rights violations. The brief is available here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/rodriguez-et-al-v-porter-et-al?document=Plaintiffs-Opposition-to-Defendants-Motions-to-Dismiss

Police Companies Could Train Their AI to Hide Use of Their Products or Make Them Look Good

One woman violently forced into assisting a murder seeks clemency in Michigan. Author and journalist Justine van der Leun calls for states to enact laws protecting criminalized survivors.