Stories from the ACLU of Washington

The ACLU-WA is honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to civil liberties: the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project for its long history of defending civil liberties; Consejo Latino and Tri-Cities Community Solutions, which have mobilized community response to the police killing of a Mexican man in Pasco; and student activist Acacia Salisbury, who has used poetry to speak out against injustice. (Above: Comedian Larry Wilmore at the ACLU Bill of Rights Dinner, where the awards were presented.)

This week ACLU was part of a five-person Washington state delegation from pro-choice organizations that lobbied to get rid of bans that deny abortion coverage.

The ACLU is representing three men who were tortured by the CIA and who are now suing the architects of the agency’s torture program. 

After struggling with addiction and mental illness, Jayne Fuentes served her time, found a job and got her life back on track. She’s been sober and crime-free for three years, but one thing still dogs her: fear of being jailed or forced to do physical labor because she can’t afford to pay the government.

The War on Drugs has left thousands of people locked up under sentencing laws now widely viewed as discriminatory and not based in fact. An ACLU-WA brief is taking aim at the effects of an egregious Drug War policy: the lengthy sentences being served because of the government’s wrongheaded distinction between crack and powder cocaine, resulting in a 100:1 crack-powder disparity in sentences.