News & Commentary

Just because youth might not yet have the right to vote or have other privileges of legally recognized adulthood, all young people still have basic, constitutionally protected rights and freedoms. The ACLU dedicates resources to defending youth and educating students about their rights. Youth activists are also involved with the ACLU on issues related to free speech, LGBTQ, drug policy, sex education and health, as well as religious freedom.

Most recently, the ACLU of Wisconsin supported state budget policy provisions that included contraceptive equity (requiring all insurance plans to provide contraception in their prescription drug coverage), prescription protection (requiring all pharmacies to have someone on staff to dispense FDA-approved contraception in a timely manner for any customer with a valid prescription), and including men among those eligible for federal family planning. The ACLU of Wisconsin supported these provisions which advance equal access to important reproductive health care for men and women in Wisconsin.

The most basic right to privacy and liberty is the right to control the health and well being of one’s own body. For that reason, reproductive freedom is one of the most important rights the ACLU works to protect for women and men across the country and here in Wisconsin. Non-discrimination in insurance coverage, access to birth control and abortion, complete and medically accurate information and education about reproduction, and ending the practice of shackling women who carry their pregnancy to term in prison are just a few examples of the ACLU’s reproductive freedom work.

Abuse by police continues to be a major civil liberties problem in the U.S., particularly for the poor and for people of color.  Everyone needs and deserves effective and humane law enforcement in schools, communities and courtrooms. The ACLU works to address systemic problems in police practices and to educate Americans about their rights when interacting with law enforcement.

The ACLU has established the Technology and Liberty program which monitors the interplay between cutting-edge technology and civil liberties, actively promoting responsible uses of technology that enhance privacy and freedom, while opposing those that undermine our freedoms and move us closer to a surveillance society. While the issues of privacy rights and rapidly expanding technological innovations are very broad, the ACLU addresses the need for privacy protections in internet use, medical records and for workers, consumers and students. We also work to address ethics in biological technologies and scientific freedom. And the ACLU is historically best known for confronting government surveillance and wiretapping.

A federal judge denied a request by Wisconsin state officials to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and the law firm of Jenner & Block charging that grossly deficient health care and mental health treatment jeopardizes the lives of women prisoners at a state prison.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin joined Representative Mark Pocan, Senator Jon Erpenbach, patients and advocates in a press conference for the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act (AB 554 and SB 368), a popular and common sense measure to reform laws on the medical use of marijuana.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union celebrated a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to dismiss a challenge to the state’s recently-enacted domestic partnership registry.

On October 30, 2009 the ACLU of Wisconsin’s executive director Christopher Ahmuty released the following statement in response to media stories and a media release from State Representative Brett Davis (R-Oregon) encouraging state health officials to put the health of prisoners, correctional officers and their communities in jeopardy by denying H1N1 vaccine to prisoners including pregnant women inmates: