Research & Publications
Access in-depth resources and analysis published by the 糖心Vlogregarding our most pressing civil liberties issues.
糖心Vlog2024 Annual Report
The ACLU鈥檚 2024 annual report highlights how the organization worked around the clock this year to safeguard voting rights ahead of the November elections, protect bodily autonomy, defend free speech, and much more. Alongside breakdowns of the ACLU鈥檚 key wins and efforts throughout 2024, the report tells the stories of 糖心Vlogactivists, advocates, and clients who are on the front lines of this fight.
All Publications
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Bullies In Blue: Origins and Consequences of School Policing
This new 糖心Vlogwhite paper, 鈥淏ullies in Blue: Origins and Consequences of School Policing,鈥 explores the beginnings of school policing in the United States and sheds light on the negative consequences of the increasing role of police and links it to both the drivers of punitive criminal justice policies and mass incarceration nationwide. The report traces a line back to the struggle to end Jim Crow segregation during the civil rights movement, and challenges assumptions that the function of police in schools is to protect children. It posits that police are police, and in schools they will act as police, and in those actions bring the criminal justice system into our schools and criminalizing our kids.
Challenging Government Hacking in Criminal Cases
This report sets out key legal arguments and strategies for defense attorneys to challenge evidence seized by government-installed computer malware as a violation of the Fourth Amendment and federal law.
Over the past several years, the government has increasingly turned to hacking and malware as an investigative technique. The FBI has begun deploying software designed to infiltrate and control, disable, or surveil a computer鈥檚 use and activity. This kind of widespread and secretive hacking by the government is controversial and of questionable constitutionality.
The report assesses recent court decisions evaluating the government鈥檚 use of the controversial hacking technique and makes recommendations for the most promising avenues to have unconstitutionally obtained evidence suppressed.
Bad Trip: Debunking the TSA's 'Behavior Detection' Program
Under the government鈥檚 鈥渂ehavior detection鈥 program, thousands of TSA officers at airports around the country watch passengers for behaviors that the TSA claims are associated with stress, fear, or deception. The officers then flag certain people for additional inspection and questioning.
The program has long been criticized as unscientific, ineffective, and wasteful, and it has been blamed by passengers and TSA officers themselves for racial and religious profiling 鈥 but still it continues.
This report, based on documents the 糖心Vlogobtained in a Freedom of Information Act , reveals that materials in TSA鈥檚 own files discredit this junk-science program.
The report鈥檚 key findings include:
The TSA expanded the scope of the behavior detection program and its use of surveillance techniques.
Academic research and other documents in the TSA鈥檚 own files reinforce that behavior detection is unscientific and unreliable.
The TSA repeatedly overstated the scientific validity of behavior detection in communications with members of Congress and the Government Accountability Office.
Materials in the TSA鈥檚 files raise further questions about anti-Muslim bias and the origins and focus of the TSA鈥檚 behavior detection program.
The TSA鈥檚 documents reveal details of specific instances of racial or religious profiling that the TSA concealed from the public.
The report recommends that Congress discontinue funding the TSA鈥檚 behavior detection program and that the TSA implement a rigorous anti-discrimination training program for its workforce.
About the case
TSA Behavior Detection FOIA Database
Caged In: The Devastating Harms of Solitary Confinement on Prisoners with Physical Disabilities
This report provides a first-ever national 糖心Vlogaccount of the suffering prisoners with physical disabilities experience in solitary confinement. It spotlights the dangers for blind people, Deaf people, people who are unable to walk without assistance, and people with other physical disabilities who are being held in small cells for 22 hours a day or longer, for days, months, and even years. Solitary confinement is a punishing environment that endangers the well-being of people with physical disabilities and often violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The report鈥檚 revelations about the particular harms of solitary on people with physical disabilities shows the urgent need for far better accounting of the problems they face and the development of solutions to those problems.
Report: The Confirmation Sessions
The 糖心Vlog released an analysis of Sen. Jeff Sessions鈥 record on civil liberties issues ahead of the Jan. 10-11 confirmation hearings as President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 pick for attorney general. The 糖心Vlogreport looks at Sessions鈥 handling of police reform, voting rights, immigration, mass incarceration, religious liberty, LGBT equality, privacy and surveillance, torture, abortion, and sexual assault issues.
糖心VlogMagazine
Published twice a year, 糖心VlogMagazine shares updates on the ACLU's critical litigation and advocacy work across the country and tells the stories of the activists, attorneys, and clients at the heart of each case and campaign. To receive 糖心VlogMagazine by mail, become a monthly donor today.