News Releases

Anti-war activists are pursuing a lawsuit challenging police actions that violated their rights at demonstrations at the Port of Tacoma: unlawful arrests, unconstitutional restrictions, unreasonable force, and unauthorized surveillance, all designed to discourage and prevent peaceful protest.

In response to an ACLU of Washington lawsuit, the Puyallup City Council amended its solicitation ordinance to protect the rights of a religious organization to spread its message. The ACLU had filed suit on behalf of United States Mission challenging city restrictions that prevented the organization from carrying out its mission of preaching the "Social Gospel."

Jurors’ derogatory comments about the Japanese ethnicity of an attorney indicated racial bias that undermined a man’s right to a fair trial. The ACLU-WA is urging the Washington Court of Appeals to uphold a lower court ruling that ordered a new trial.

After months of advocacy, the ACLU scored another win for privacy, this time with a new regional transit card. As with the Enhanced Driver’s License, we worked to limit the potential for tracking and monitoring of individuals without their knowledge.

The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that the government must provide a race-neutral explanation whenever the last minority member is struck from a jury panel. The ACLU-WA had urged the court to adopt such a bright line rule.

ACLU of WA objecting to Border Patrol’s practice of stopping all cars within 100 miles of international border and questioning passengers about their nationality.

I am well aware that the intent in drafting this policy, the goal, is to help students by identifying drug users and then assisting them into treatment and by deterring drug and alcohol use. These are good goals. But the reading I have been doing suggests the policy may in fact result in the opposite outcome -increased problem drug or alcohol use.

The ACLU-WA advocates for alternatives to rigid "zero tolerance" policies that result in overly harsh school discipline – policies that contribute to the "school-to-prison pipeline" whereby students are expelled and end up in the criminal justice system.

An American Civil Liberties Union of Washington report calling for the creation of an independent office for police accountability in Seattle.