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10.27.14
Shackling: Ohio Juvenile Courts Should Have Rules on Restraints
Shakyra Diaz
This is the third in a series of posts on the topic of juvenile shackling.
This is Nate P. and I’m writing you this letter to let you know that cuffs and shackles make me feel like a criminal, not a “juvenile delinquent.”
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10.24.14
Ebola Does Not Require Government to Choose between Safety and Freedom
Susan J. Becker
Susan J. Becker is a member of the ACLU of Ohio board of directors and a volunteer attorney in the Cleveland office.
When faced with a major health threat in this country, elected and appointed officials charged with protecting public health tend to employ a false dichotomy.
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10.23.14
Look What Else Ohio Politicians Are Doing to Block Your Vote
Tim Cable
When Ohio’s legislature and secretary of state slashed early voting opportunities this year, the ACLU of Ohio fought it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
While that fight has received national media attention, there’s another ongoing battle for voting rights in Ohio that you might not have heard about.
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10.22.14
Death by Secrecy
Mike Brickner
Ohio’s death penalty has had a long and sordid history. Just look at the past decade:
» Four botched executions.
» Ten people granted clemency by the governor.
» Fifty-six recommendations from an Ohio Supreme Court taskforce of experts to revamp our broken system.
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10.20.14
Inspiring a New Generation of Activists
Jocelyn Rosnick
Belle Likover and Susan Galloway It’s not where you’re from; it’s not where you are—it’s what you do.
Long time ACLU supporters, Ed and Belle Likover are shining examples of activists who truly lived and breathed this sentiment. Ed Likover stood for what he believed in even if he stood alone, and his courage never wavered.
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10.17.14
Domestic Violence: A Matter of Civil Liberties
Ellen Kubit
“…Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, which, among many other things, should prompt us to reflect upon whether or not we take these “unalienable rights” memorialized in the Declaration of Independence seriously.
Acts of domestic violence are ultimately crimes of power that involve perpetrators who seek total control over their victims.
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10.16.14
Sounds of the Season: LWVO Takes Time to Listen
Steve David
During autumn in Ohio, yards change to the color of campaign signs. And shifting as rapidly as the weather, the courts are handing down rulings about when you can cast your ballot.
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10.10.14
Whose History: In Recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Steve David
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
And when he landed in the Caribbean, he enslaved and killed the native Taíno people in his search for gold. Fifty years after his arrival, the densely populated villages and cultural legacies were all but destroyed.
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10.06.14
What the Supreme Court’s “No Decision” About Marriage Equality Means for Ohio
Lisa Wurm
The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken: it will not hear any of the current seven marriage equality cases across the country.
There has been a lot of speculation that the Supreme Court would hear at least one case. So by denying all of the cases, the judges are sending a message that they agree with lower courts striking down marriage bans.
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10.03.14
ACLU of Ohio Receives Award For Combating Debtors’ Prison
Jocelyn Rosnick
With so many nonprofit organizations working on important issues across the state, what made the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations (OANO) present the ACLU of Ohio with a 2014 Nonprofit Excellence Award?
For the past two years, the ACLU of Ohio has worked to end debtors’ prison across the state, and we’ve had some amazing achievements so far!
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10.02.14
Worse Than Adults: The Shackling of Youth in Juvenile Court
Shakyra Diaz
This is the second in a series of posts on the topic of juvenile shackling.
“I have worn physical restraints while in the court room and meeting with my attorney. It doesn’t make you feel like anybody really cares about you and you are being treated like an animal.
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10.01.14
Treating Our Addiction to Mass Criminalization
Shakyra Diaz
“The United States will never be able to prosecute or incarcerate its way to being a safer nation,” said last week U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, at a conference held by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.
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09.30.14
Voting Rights for Ohioans with Disabilities
Adrienne Gavula
Imagine visiting your polling place on Election Day and discovering there is no parking, the sidewalk is blocked, and the door is locked. Yet, despite all this, you manage to get into the building only to find out the poll workers do not speak your language and the voting machine is out of reach.
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09.26.14
Fight for Voting Rights in Ohio Goes to the U.S. Supreme Court
Tim Cable
After a federal district court judge ruled in the ACLU of Ohio’s case NAACP v. Husted that cuts to early voting opportunities in Ohio must be restored in time for the November 2014 election, Secretary of State Jon Husted could have taken the opportunity to accept the court’s order and begin educating voters about early voting.
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09.25.14
Books and Ballots: Voting Rights For Students
Steve David
As the summer draws to a close, thousands of students have packed their bags to return to college campuses across the state. Among questions about professors to take, how late you can wait to drop a class, and if you can really afford that textbook, is one they may not have not considered: How are you going to cast your ballot in November?
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09.24.14
You Are Never Too Young To Ask For an Attorney
Shakyra Diaz
“We are only 14 years old. We aren’t thinking about lawyers,” a teen declared in the middle of a presentation I was giving at his high school.
The topic of the presentation is based on the ACLU of Ohio’s publication What To Do If You’re Stopped By the Police.
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09.20.14
Banned Books Week: A Celebration of Intellectual Freedom
Tim Cable
Every year during the last week of September, Banned Books Week reminds us not to take for granted our precious freedom to read, write, and think whatever we want.
Across the country, books are still regularly challenged and targeted for censorship.
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09.19.14
Court Affirms: You – Not Government – Decide What’s True
Drew Dennis
“In short, the answer to false statements in politics is not to force silence, but to encourage truthful speech in response, and to let the voters, not the Government, decide what the political truth is.”
With these words, Federal District Judge Timothy S.
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09.17.14
The “Felon Factory” and the Voting Block
Shakyra Diaz
I often refer to Ohio as a “felon factory.” I came up with the term a few years ago to convey how mass incarceration and criminalization has replaced manufacturing as an industry in the Buckeye State.
Ohio, once a major industrial powerhouse, is now among the top 10 prison states in the country.
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09.16.14
Senate Bill 349: An Attack on Civil Rights Protections
Ellen Kubit
Have you shown up to rent an apartment, but were turned away because of the color of your skin? Or because you have a disability? The law might not be on your side anymore.
Discrimination in access to housing is unlawful.
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09.16.14
Voting early? Choose your date and time!
Mike Brickner
Update 09.29.14: Due to an order by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio’s early voting period has changed from the schedule originally listed below. Read our press release: ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Action on Ohio Early Voting. Go to our Vote Center for up to date information.
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09.11.14
Why is Secretary Husted Defying a Court Order?
Freda Levenson
Update 09.29.14: Due to an order by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio’s early voting period has changed. Read our press release: ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Action on Ohio Early Voting. Go to our Vote Center for up to date information.
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09.11.14
Double Feature: The ACLU and Outlook Media Challenge Intolerance at the Puffin Collaborative Film Festival
Steve David
A biker, a hippie, and an ACLU lawyer walk into a restaurant…
This is no joke, but in fact a pivotal scene in the classic 1969 film Easy Rider. In a Louisiana diner, the characters played by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson are confronted by the harsh realities of a changing American cultural landscape.
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09.11.14
Will the next execution be as botched as the last?
Kimberly Millhoan
At this point, we do not know. But we do know that it’s a gamble the State of Ohio is willing to take, as officials recently released the revised execution schedule for the next two years.
In April, we urged Governor John Kasich to pause executions through the end of 2015 so that courts and experts could take the time needed to ensure that lethal injections do not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
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09.10.14
Failing Grades: An Aramark Report Card
Steve David
With school starting back up, there is one set of report cards already coming out. The state of Ohio should think twice before signing off on the grades that Aramark Correctional Services is bringing home.
A recent report found that Aramark failed to meet contract compliance scores at seven of the twenty-six state prison facilities where it is currently providing food service.
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09.10.14
Prayer at Public Meetings? Religious Liberty post-Greece v. Galloway Explained
Doug Torok
The ACLU believes that the right of every American to practice his or her own religion, or no religion at all, is one of the most fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. The Constitution’s framers understood that religious liberty can flourish only if the government plays no direct role in religion.
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09.09.14
The Real Problem in Ferguson
Mike Uth
Michael Uth is a member of the ACLU of Ohio Board of Directors.
So far, all the news and commentary surrounding the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri have overlooked the biggest reason why incidents like this continue to occur time after time in city after city.
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09.09.14
Victory for Ohio Voters!
Freda Levenson
Early this year, Ohio’s legislature and Secretary of State slashed early voting opportunities that had been relied upon by thousands of voters in Ohio. A week-long same-day registration period, all evening early voting hours, and all but one Sunday of early voting were cut from Ohio’s early voting period.
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09.09.14
ACLU to Legislators: Stop Playing Games, Start Playing by Rules
Mike Brickner
When I was a kid, one of my best friends had a knack for changing the rules to the game every time he was losing. If we were playing hide and seek and I found him, he’d come up with some new rule forcing me to count to 100 again.
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09.08.14
Federal Judge Sees Through Ohio’s Bogus Arguments For Cutting Early Voting
Sean Young
This article is featured on the national ACLU Blog of Rights.
While it may be technically possible for there to be a sufficiently good reason to cut early voting – one that isn’t just a sorry excuse for voter suppression – we haven’t seen it yet.