News & Commentary

Article by: SCOTT BAUER , Associated Press

Karina Willes and Kami Young were married in Minnesota in late 2013. The spring of the next year, Young gave birth to their daughter, Olivia. And Willes attempted to get her name included on the girl’s birth certificate, receiving advice from the ACLU on how to do that.  

Important things to know about Voter ID (from the Government Accountability Board)

Written by The Wisconsin Gazette Tuesday, 21 April 2015 04:50

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, the ACLU LGBT Project, along with attorneys from Mayer Brown filed a motion today in the case of Wolf v. Walker asking the U.S. District Court to clarify that both parents in a same-sex married couple must be listed on the birth certificates of children born while they are married.  The ACLU is filing the motion on behalf of Kami Young and Karina Willes, who had married in Minnesota before their daughter was born last year.

On July 24, 2014, Milwaukee's Fire and Police Commission (FPC) approved Standard Operating Procedure 755: Recording Police Activity.  The policy provides guidance to the Milwaukee Police Department for situations in which they are being recorded by members of the public or media, which is a constitutionally-protected activity.  This right has been upheld by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals as recently as 2012 in ACLU vs. Alvarez, a case in which individuals and organizations that wanted to monitor police activity in order to detect police misconduct were prosecuted under the law.

A copy of the Wisconsin Election Protection Report on the November 2014 Elections can be found here. The League of Women Voters Election observer report can be found here.

By Tiffany Crouse

On April 1, 2015 Wisconsin dramatically expanded its grounds allowing law enforcement agencies to take Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) samples from people.  Those arrested for violent felonies once probable cause is established, or convicted of a misdemeanor crime committed after April 1, will have to submit a DNA sample.   Previously, Wisconsin took approximately 12,000 DNA samples from persons convicted of certain felonies.  Under the new scheme it is estimated there will be 25,000 additional DNA samples taken for violent felonies and 40,000 additional samples taken after misdemeanor convictions.   The ACLU acknowledges that there are legitimate purposes for forensic DNA.  Numerous pri