News & Commentary

2020 is an unprecedented year, and it’s only natural that this year’s election will also enter uncharted territory. This is the first major national election in our lifetimes to occur during a global pandemic, and one in which an unprecedented number of ballots will be cast in Wisconsin and nationwide. 

The ACLU of Wisconsin's Youth Social Justice Forum is virtual this year. High School Students are invited to apply!

MILWAUKEE - The ACLU of Wisconsin today announced that former Wisconsin public school teacher turned attorney Elisabeth Lambert has joined its staff as an Equal Justice Work Fellow. The fellowship lasts for the next two years.

By: Somil Trivedi, Senior Staff Attorney of ACLU

MILWAUKEE - The ACLU of Wisconsin today announced the hiring of Tomás Clasen as its community engagement manager.

Day after day, night after night, protesters have been taking to the streets since the police killing of George Floyd. Led by local Black activists and grassroots groups, they’re chanting, singing, shouting, kneeling, marching, and even laying on the ground to demand justice for the many Black lives that have been taken by police. Everyone — from parents, grandparents, kids, and more — are showing up.But Donald Trump from day one has expressed extreme hostility towards the Black Lives Matter movement. He has called on NFL owners to retaliate against players who dared to kneel in protest, said it was “terrible” to ask why Black Americans are still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country, compared police killing and injuring Black people to golfers who “choke,” and has called for law enforcement to “dominate” protesters demanding that our legal system value Black lives. He has even encouraged police to abuse people in their custody.As the movement and calls for change gain broader support from more Americans and people around the world, protesters are being met by even more brutality — in many cases by the same police departments whose racism and brutality they are protesting. Police and federal agents are spreading fear and panic in communities, threatening lives, and relentlessly attacking people simply exercising their First Amendment right to protest police racism and brutality. Law enforcement at all levels haven’t even spared U.S. military veterans, journalists, legal observers, and medics. This assault on the First Amendment has only escalated tensions, and emboldened white supremacists to spread terror and hate.The ACLU is taking to the streets, legislatures and courts nationwide to demand an end to police violence and accountability for rights violations. Here is just a partial running list of federal and local law enforcement abuses against individuals exercising their First Amendment rights in Portland, Oregon:

President Trump's rhetorical attacks on voting by mail and the USPS are an attempt to delegitimize democracy. Voting by mail will be the safest way for many people to vote in November, and has been a longstanding method of voting since the Civil War.

As the Democratic National Convention concludes, the nation’s focus came to not only the City of Milwaukee, but also Wisconsin, a place where racial segregation, economic inequality and police brutality against people of color has long since been a problem.

As the Democratic National Convention thrusts Milwaukee onto the national stage, America’s reckoning with police violence and racial injustice will be brought to bear on a city marked by profound racial inequality and oppression. During a time in which Americans are being forced to confront how centuries of white supremacy has shaped virtually every aspect of our lives, there may be no better case study for the present-day impact of systemic racism than the City of Milwaukee.