News & Commentary

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Jefferson City, Mo.  – In less than a week, voting begins for an election with little to no public education or other preparation since a new photo identification law went into effect on June 1.Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, ACLU National, and Advancement Project sued Missouri over its new voter ID law, charging it fails to provide mandated funding for voter education, free voter

Gov. Greitens’ call for an abortion-focused special session is a call for an attack on women in Missouri.We should respect that a woman needs to make her own important life decisions – and the U.S. Supreme Court agrees.Politicians in Missouri continue to disregard the constitution and the

The United States Supreme Court announced today it would not hear a Missouri case where a state college violated the rights of its students by requiring them to take a drug test as a condition of their enrollment. This means that the December decision of the full Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in favor of students will stand.This case establishes – once and for all – that under the Fourth Amendment, every person has the right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure—including college students.

JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri --  For the seventeenth year in a row, the Missouri Attorney General's office has released a report that shows that people of color are disproportionally stopped and searched by law enforcement. Empower Missouri and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri believe this year's Vehicle Stops Report (VSR) shows - yet again - the need for improved data-gathering, training, and reform for law enforcement organizations in Missouri.  This year the data shows that, even when accounting for their different proportions of Missouri's driving population, African-Americans were stopped at a rate 75% higher than Whites. Situations in which officers exercise discretion, such as consent searches, are the best indicators of when bias may play a role. "The VSR does not compute these disproportions but our analysis of the data does," said Don Love, co-chair of the Empower Missouri Human Rights Task Force. "Minority drivers are affected by consent searches at a rate at least two and a half times the rate for White drivers in nine jurisdictions that make at least ten consent searches. In one jurisdiction, African-Americans were affected at a rate more than eight times the White rate.""We have a constitutional and ethical obligation to strive for an equitable society where people are not stopped simply because of their race," said Sara Baker, Legislative and Policy Director for the ACLU

Costs of public record arrest reports found illegal, after ACLU of Missouri files suit

The ACLU of Missouri filed a federal lawsuit today against the Rolla Public Library on behalf of a man and an organization denied use of a public room at the Rolla Public Library because of a political viewpoint. 

The ACLU of Missouri filed a federal lawsuit today against the Rolla Public Library on behalf of a man and an organization denied use of a public room at the Rolla Public Library because of a political viewpoint.