Blog Posts Archive - Page 14 of 20 - ACLU of Ohio

  • 01.06.15

    Is 15 Cents High Enough?

    A new year and a new minimum wage.

    On January 1, Ohio increased its hourly minimum wage from $7.95 to $8.10—85 cents higher than the federal minimum wage. The tipped wage also increased to $4.05—7 cents higher. This modest increase benefits about 277,000 working Ohioans and is estimated to put more than $36 million back into our economy reports The Columbus Dispatch.

  • 01.02.15

    2016 Is Only a Year Away…

    2015 is here. That means the 2016 presidential election is on the horizon.

    Few people in Ohio want to begin thinking about the 2016 election cycle, especially on the heels of a midterm election. Between the countless advertisements, back-and-forth arguments, and non-stop campaigning, election years can be tiresome.

  • 12.31.14

    Federal Government Says No to Transgender Workplace Discrimination

    An important announcement just happened that you may have missed.

    Transgender workers on the payroll of state and local public employers are now officially protected against workplace discrimination. The U.S. Department of Justice will be able to bring suit on behalf of people who say they have been discriminated against by public employers on the basis of gender identity.

  • 12.30.14

    Civil Liberties in Ohio: Top Priorities for 2015

    It’s an annual tradition to make resolutions and set goals for improvement in the New Year. Losing weight, taking classes, and crossing items off your bucket list are some of the few perennial favorites that come to mind.

    In a way, it’s no different for the ACLU of Ohio, except our goals are to protect and define civil liberties in our state.

  • 12.26.14

    Survival Conversations

    Is policing really broken in America?

    There are plenty of tweets, talking heads and letters to the editor agreeing that it is working just fine. They paint the national dialogue in a metaphorical black and white; obey the police and you won’t get shot.

  • 12.24.14

    Celebrate the Holidays, But Don’t Let the Government Pick Favorites

    It’s that time of year again! It’s the season when sleigh bells ring, halls are decked with holiday decorations, and when talking heads appear on our TV or in newspapers with dire warnings of the “War on Christmas.”

    Breathlessly, they exclaim that organizations like the ACLU are attempting to use the courts to take candy canes out of children’s hands, forbid the singing of carols, and dash a few dreidels while we’re at it.

  • 12.22.14

    Not to be Forgotten: One Cleveland Woman’s Case Changed the Rule of Law

    Life changing moments often come at us out of the blue and so it was for Dollree Mapp.

    Early on May 23, 1957, Dollree was alone in her Cleveland home, enjoying her privacy. When her doorbell rang, she had no idea that what happened next would change state laws on how evidence should be handled and establish her legacy as a woman who spoke up for her rights.

  • 12.19.14

    Sunset at the Statehouse

    As the end of the year approaches, what went on in the final days of the 130th Ohio General Assembly?

    When last I wrote about the Ohio legislature’s “lame duck” session, I provided updates on the so-called Heartbeat Bill and the lethal injection bill.

  • 12.18.14

    Black Lives Matter: Marching on Washington

    Protesters
    Photograph courtesy of Rachel Woods

    It was pure activism in motion. The call went out and thousands came to have their voices heard by those in power.

    This past weekend, several ACLU of Ohio staffers traveled to Washington D.C., to participate in the National March Against Police Violence, sponsored by the National Action Network.

  • 12.15.14

    The Cost of Unconstitutional and Ineffective Policing

    The cost of poor policing is difficult to quantify. Some costs can be measured in dollars, but other costs—loss of trust, life, or missed opportunities—are too great to measure.

    Loss of Public Dollars

    A recent investigative report found that Cleveland taxpayers have paid a minimum of $10.5 million between 2004 and 2014 related to police misconduct settlements.

  • 12.13.14

    Mass Incarceration Means Mass Health Problems

    Our country’s public health is at risk. No, it’s not from Ebola or this year’s virulent strain of the flu.

    It’s from mass incarceration.

    A new report, “On Life Support: Public Health in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” issued by the Vera Institute of Justice, focuses on the alarming impacts of imprisonment on individual and community health.

  • 12.10.14

    To Defeat Heroin We Need to (NOT) Stay the Course

    To combat abuse of heroin and prescription opiate pain killers there are several principles we need to keep in mind and actions we need to take.

    We must shut down all the pill mill pain clinics, imprison the doctors who run them, and make every other doctor too scared to prescribe opiate pain killers at all.

  • 12.09.14

    Vindication: DOJ Report on Cleveland Policing

    Prison fence

    It happened in a blink of an eye.

    On November 22, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot immediately after Cleveland Police officers pulled up to him at Cudell Recreation Center. Tamir’s is the most recent in a series of deaths caused by Cleveland police.

  • 12.06.14

    Fallout From Ferguson: Takeaways From Two Ohio Protests

    and

    “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!”

    That age-old protesters’ rallying cry has been echoing across the country since November 24 when a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, failed to indict the police officer responsible for killing Michael Brown. The following day, people in several Ohio towns and throughout the nation gathered in protest.

  • 12.03.14

    What Are Ohio Legislators Cooking Up Now?

    If you are a member of the ACLU of Ohio, you are no doubt used to hearing from us about our work. Perhaps it is no surprise an organization known for protecting the First Amendment often exercises its own right to free speech.

  • 12.01.14

    Close the Loophole: Protect Charter Schoolchildren From Restraint and Seclusion

    Update – 12/17/2014: Ohio Senate Bill 266 was amended to House Bill 178 and passed unanimously, extending the seclusion and restraint provisions of rule 3301-35-15 to public charter schools.

    Last month the Ohio Department of Education released its first analysis of the use of restraint and seclusion in Ohio schools.

  • 11.28.14

    Check Yourself: Five Tips for Becoming a Better Advocate

    We all have biases.  It’s part of being human.

    After all, we expect the world to work in certain ways and situations outside our assumptions can be jarring. Although the process may be uncomfortable, it is by recognizing and challenging our prejudices and preconceptions that we are better able to help others.

  • 11.26.14

    The So-Called “Heartbeat Bill” Gets Revived

    Another day, another attempt to promote government intrusion into the lives of thousands of women and their doctors.

    Last week, the Ohio House Health and Aging Committee snuck onto its agenda House Bill 248 (HB 248), often called the “Heartbeat Bill,” which restricts reproductive freedom and promotes poor health care practices and overreaching governance.

  • 11.25.14

    The Ferguson Near You

    Like many of our nation’s cities, we find Cleveland a teeming cauldron of hostility. The citizens of the Negro community reflect the alienation of the total community, which has constantly ignored their cries for justice and opportunity and responded to their joblessness, poor housing and economic exploitation with crude methods of police repression rather than compassion and creative programming.

  • 11.21.14

    Marriage Equality: Being Right Versus Being Popular

    The ACLU is not one to follow popular opinion.

    It was socially acceptable for schools to segregate African American students until 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the practice in Brown v. Board of Education. The public supported the confinement of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II.

  • 11.20.14

    Drug Law Reforms: Ohio Pay Attention!

    Prison fence

    Imagine what would happen if people of different walks of life decided that they were done with the insanity of mass incarceration and the War on Drugs. Imagine if people proclaimed that they were tired of:

    » Criminalizing people unnecessarily.

    » Tough on crime laws that do nothing to improve safety.

  • 11.17.14

    Community Safety: A Call for a Moratorium on 1033

    What makes us feel safe in our communities?

    When you know your neighbors, when youth have connections to positive people, and when residents feel pride in the appearance of their street, this keeps a community safe. When men armed with assault rifles and flash grenades spill out of an armored personnel carrier in the middle of the night to break down a door searching for drugs, this has the opposite effect.

  • 11.14.14

    Respecting the “T” in LGBT

    “Repent! He needs to repent!”

    These words echoed around the halls of Cleveland City Council as a man began yelling dramatically at a woman who got up to go to the bathroom.

    Why was he yelling at this woman? Because she was a transgender woman.

  • 11.12.14

    Pope Francis: Solitary Confinement Is Torture

    Ever since smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel heralding Pope Francis as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, he has made headlines for addressing controversial social issues. So, it was no surprise when he recently discussed mass incarceration, he did it with the gusto politicians have never been unable to muster.

  • 11.10.14

    Mayor’s Courts’ Caseload Declines But Big Problems Still Exist

    Scales and Gavel

    The Ohio Supreme Court recently issued a new report documenting the use of mayor’s courts in 2013 and highlighting a decade-long decline in caseloads. But don’t let that fact fool you.

    Sure, mayor’s courts in Ohio are hearing 14 percent fewer cases than 10 years ago, but other kinds of courts are hearing fewer cases, too.

  • 11.07.14

    A Setback for Marriage Equality: It’s Not Over

    What a disappointment!

    After 92 days of waiting we finally got a decision from the U. S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld gay marriage bans in the four states it oversees—Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky. This is the first ruling in the country from a circuit court, which is one step down from the Supreme Court, which has gone against marriage equality.

  • 11.05.14

    Is It Legal for Your Boss to Call You a “Gaytard?”

    It shouldn’t be. But unfortunately in some states, the answer is yes.

    In case you missed it, in late September, the national ACLU filed a federal discrimination charge in defense of 16-year-old Tyler Brandt, a summer employee at a Taco John’s franchise in South Dakota.

  • 11.04.14

    Shake Off Those Election Day Blues: The Top Five Reasons to Vote

    Ballot Box

    So, what’s the use if I don’t know the good it’s gonna do
    And I’m standing on the doorstep of a country with the election day blues

    Patrick Dunn, From “Election Day Blues”

    Elections Day is tomorrow, November 4.

    Are you underwhelmed by the midterm elections—I mean, more so than usual?

  • 10.31.14

    A New Prisoners Report: How Does Ohio Compare?

    Prison fence

    The United States is the world’s largest jailer. With only 5 percent of the population, it has 25 percent of the world’s prison population.

    In 1926, following a mandate from Congress, the National Prisoners Statistics Program began collecting demographic data voluntarily provided by states about people detained in jails, state, federal, and private prisons in the United States.

  • 10.29.14

    Carrying the Torch: Conversations on Race and Policing

    When tensions flared in Ferguson, Missouri, this past summer, the billowing smoke and swelling crowds caught the nation’s attention as images of heavily armed police marched across the news and social media feeds. A conversation about race, policing, and militarization followed.