News & Commentary

Prone restraint, seclusion, isolation, suspensions, and segregation.  These are antiquated and barbaric practices in our schools that are harmful to children and disproportionately effect children with disabilities and children of color. 

JEFFERSON CITY- The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBT advocacy organization, condemn the vote of Missouri’s House General Laws committee to roll back marriage equality. HB 2173, sponsored by Representative Adam Schnelting’s [R-104], passed the House General Laws committee today. The Courts are clear- marriage equality is the law of the land. This legislature’s attempt to “get the government out of marriage” is a thinly veiled ploy to undermine marriage equality. 

Missouri – The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Missouri, Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe have filed a class action lawsuit to end Missouri’s unconstitutional use of public defender “waiting lists”—a practice that systematically deprives thousands of people accused of crimes across the state every day of the court-appointed counsel required by the Constitution.

Katherine a mother to a trans daughter testified in opposition of the egregious anti-trans HJR 82 on Tuesday, Feb 18th to the Missouri House General Laws Committee. This bill would ban trans youth from playing on gendered sports teams.

The Missouri Nondiscrimination Act is a bill that has been introduced into the Missouri legislature for 21 years straight but unfortunately has never passed. It is far beyond time for our legislature to pass the bill and protect Missouri residents from discrimination.

The ACLU of Missouri tracks hundreds of pieces of legislation every session. This tracker includes both bills that advance civil liberties and those that pose significant threats. We hope you will follow along with us (subscribe to this list above!) and take action to protect our freedoms.

Conversion therapy is a danger to LGBTQ+ Missourians, but widespread efforts to bring attention to its horrors and put a stop to it, have already begun to save many.

St. Louis County’s latest legal maneuvers in the case of Keith Wildhaber, a police sergeant who was discriminated against based on his sex and sexual orientation, is a hypocritical effort to dodge responsibility for a discriminatory workplace that County officials allowed to fester.

At the ACLU of Missouri, we dream, we believe in, and we demand a future where our 25,000 transgender Missouri neighbors can rely on their constitutional rights.