Press Releases

03.16.18

ACLU of Ohio Urges Cuyahoga County Judges and Officials to Implement Bail Task Force Recommendations

CLEVELAND — Today the Cuyahoga County Task Force on Bail, led by Common Pleas Administrative and Presiding Judge John J. Russo, released its recommendations on how to improve the county’s bail system and reduce wealth-based detention due to overreliance on money bail. The ACLU of Ohio urges Cuyahoga County judges and county officials to adopt Read more…

Criminal Justice

03.15.18

Groups Challenge Trump Administration’s Arbitrary Detention of Asylum Seekers

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Human Rights First, and Covington & Burling LLP filed a federal lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s arbitrary detention of asylum seekers fleeing persecution, torture, or death in their countries of origin. All the plaintiffs have passed credible fear screenings — meaning Read more…

Prisoners' Rights

03.14.18

Ohio Court Blocks Abortion Restriction

Law Would Interfere in a Woman’s Personal Health Decisions

CINCINNATI — An Ohio court today blocked a law that would criminalize abortions when one of the woman’s reasons for the abortion is a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome. The law, which was signed by Governor Kasich in December 2017, had been scheduled to take effect on March 23, 2018. Today’s ruling blocks the law’s Read more…

Reproductive Freedom

03.13.18

New Version of Bail Legislation Still Missing Needed Reforms

COLUMBUS — The ACLU of Ohio believes Substitute House Bill 439, introduced today in the House Criminal Justice Committee by Reps. Dever and Ginter, does not do enough to reduce wealth-based detention of innocent individuals and get people out of Ohio’s overcrowded jails. The legislation, which replaces the previous version of HB 439, reforms certain Read more…

Criminal Justice

03.12.18

Schools Should Use Planned National Student Walkout as Opportunity for Civil Discourse, Says ACLU

COLUMBUS — The ACLU of Ohio released an open letter to school superintendents, principals and teachers across the state today, encouraging officials not to punish students who choose to participate in the scheduled nationwide school walkouts on March 14, 2018. While schools may decide to designate students who walk out from class as unexcused or Read more…

Free Speech, Student Rights