News & Commentary

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today upheld the right of transgender people to receive medical care while they are incarcerated.

The ACLU of Wisconsin urges the Wisconsin legislature to slow down the rush to redraw state legislative districts so that affected communities have time to fully review and respond to the proposals. Federal law prohibits the drawing of districts that have the effect of diluting minority voting strength.  Determining whether a plan dilutes minority voting strength requires careful consideration of a number of factors and alternative plans.  That analysis cannot be completed on the timeline contemplated by the legislature. The important task of redrawing of district lines demands deliberation and public input. Rushing the plan through without thorough analysis creates the risk that an illegal plan will be adopted.

Today Christopher Ahmuty, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin issued the following statement in response to Governor Scott Walker signing a bill that repeals a new law designed to help police managers identify biased policing. The law set up a system to collect and analyze data on the race and ethnicity of motorists when police officers initiate certain types of traffic stops or conduct searches of vehicles. Ahmuty’s statement may be quoted as follows:

Judge Daniel Moeser resoundingly rejected today an attack on Wisconsin’s Domestic Partner Registry brought by Board members of Wisconsin Family Action, an organization whose members pushed for Wisconsin’s anti-Marriage constitutional amendment in 2006. Despite securing passage of the amendment by assuring voters that domestic partnerships would still be allowed, the Wisconsin Family Action plaintiffs asserted that the anti-Marriage amendment prohibited the Domestic Partner law passed by the legislature in 2008 to provide crucial but very limited protections to same-sex couples.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, and Disability Rights Wisconsin filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division charging discriminatory practices in Milwaukee’s private voucher schools have led to an egregious segregation of students with disabilities. The complaint was filed against the State of Wisconsin, its Department of Public Instruction and two voucher schools. The groups say that Wisconsin has failed to hold taxpayer-funded private voucher schools accountable for serving children with disabilities, and has created a program that segregates and isolates children with disabilities.

The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Public Health, Human Resources and Revenue held a hearing on Senate Bill 92, a bill that would ban private insurance companies that provide abortion coverage from participating in future heath care exchanges promised by the Affordable Care Act (recent federal health care reform). The ACLU of Wisconsin was there to testify against the bill because we feel it interferes in women's private medical decisions by taking away insurance coverage for consumers who need comprehensive reproductive care.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the legal challenge to overturn Wisconsin’s law granting limited domestic partnership protections to same-sex couples. The ACLU’s brief was filed on behalf of five couples who stand to lose crucial protections such as hospital visitation, the ability to make certain decisions about medical care and to access family medical leave if the law is overturned. The law is being challenged by an anti-LGBT organization that contends that the law grants same-sex couples a substantially similar status to marriage, which is barred by the Wisconsin Constitution. The same organization originally campaigned to secure the marriage amendment’s passage, claiming at the time that domestic partnerships would not be affected.

The ACLU of Wisconsin believes that Wisconsin is poised to wrongly and unconstitutionally disfranchise many eligible voters. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, ACLU of WI Director Chris Ahmuty mentioned two examples of amendments that the Senate majority tabled. One amendment would have clarified how to proceed when the voter’s name on his/her photo ID and poll list are not exactly identical. Another amendment would have created a “fail safe” provision allowing indigent persons who are completely unable to obtain a photo ID to vote. Ahmuty‟s letter chided Fitzgerald for ignoring ways to improve the bill. He wrote, “a better version of the bill will mitigate the harm this legislation will cause.” 

On Wednesday May 7, Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley recognized the right of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to demonstrate outside of a Menomonee Valley slaughterhouse, despite the objections of city Alderman Bob Donovan. A permit has been issued to the group for this Thursday’s demonstration.  “Alderman Donovan has a right to express his disagreement with PETA and their methods, and he certainly doesn’t have to watch their protest if he finds in unpleasant, but he doesn’t have a right to trample on the Constitution,” said ACLU of WI Executive Director Chris Ahmuty.