News & Commentary

“Just as the police have the right to use surveillance technologies to monitor people in public, the people have a right to monitor the purchasing and use of surveillance technologies by the police,” said Mustafa Abdullah, lead organizer of ACLU of Missouri.After the press conference, community members joined Privacy Watch STL in speaking with members of the Board of Aldermen about the importance of protecting citizens’ right to privacy and improving government transparency at a lobby day, followed by a rally outside of City Hall. In addition to the Privacy Watch coalition, others endorsing the Surveillance Accountability bill include: American Friends Service Committee, St. Louis; Anti-Racist Collective (ARC); Center for American-Islamic Relations-Missouri; Drone Free St. Louis; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates (MIRA); PLEA for Justice; GrassRoots Accountability Movement (GRAM) and Saint Louis Democratic Socialist of America (STL DSA) and State Rep. Bruce Franks, D – St. Louis. The following organizations are part of Privacy Watch STL: Amnesty International-St. Louis; Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression; Fight for the Future; Metro St. Louis Coalition for Inclusion and Equity; Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE); MoKaBe’s Coffeehouse; National Lawyers Guild, St. Louis; Organization for Black Struggle; Empower Missouri - St. Louis Chapter and ACLU of Missouri. About Privacy Watch STL: Privacy Watch is a St. Louis, Missouri coalition with the mission of ending over-surveillance by government and government/corporate partnerships. We expose the methods, tools, and processes by which the people of St. Louis are being tracked without public discussion or approval. We work to end unwarranted targeting of our communities with surveillance tactics and technologies that threaten our civil rights and liberties. In all our work, we center communities

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – ACLU of Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the city of Kansas City and the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners for failing to provide legal recourse if a vehicle was unnecessarily towed or impounded.

Dear Senators Brown, Hegeman, Cunningham, Curls, Nasheed, and Representatives Fitzpatrick, Alferman, Rowland, Kendrick, and McGee,

JOPLIN, Mo. – The ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit today against the city of Joplin for violating the First Amendment rights of a man panhandling to survive.

Statement attributable to ACLU of Missouri Legal Director Tony Rothert

Mexico, Mo. -- A circuit court decision on Tuesday will finally allow a grieving mother to end her decade-long quest to gain a full picture of her adult daughter’s life immediately before her suspicious death in 2008.

Before he sued the Blue Springs School District for violating his rights, R.M.A. did things many teenage boys do: He ran track. He played football.

Secretary of State, Department of Revenue in Knowing Violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

The ACLU of Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the city of Wentzville for violating a person’s freedom of speech when she was removed from a public board of aldermen meeting by order of the mayor after she raised concerns about a recently installed “In God We Trust" sign.