News & Commentary

Longer criminal sentences are not always the path to justice, safety, or solving challenging social problems.

ACLU of Oregon Statement of Solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux

Considering donating to the ACLU? Thank you! Stock donations are a great way to show your support.

No one should be turned away from a business just because of who they are. When Sweet Cakes co-owner Aaron Klein refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, he broke Oregon anti-discrimination laws. Discrimination is degrading, and harms not only the individual or targeted group, but society as a whole. Our state has a long-standing tradition of protecting people from businesses that discriminate because Oregonians value fairness and equality.

In recent years, poverty and homelessness have deepened throughout the country, and Oregon has not been immune. According to HUD, between 2014 and 2015, the number of homeless Oregonians increased nine percent, the third highest increase nationwide. In that same time, Oregon experienced the largest growth of any state in its chronically homeless population: sixty percent. Due to a severe shortage of affordable housing and the high number of residents with no place to call home, Oregon cities including Eugene and Portland have declared a housing and homelessness “state of emergency”.

Three anti-immigrant ballot initiatives failed to qualify for the November ballot, but anti-immigrant extremists have vowed to bring them back again in the future.

An explainer on the booming industry to covertly monitor, track, and analyze social media data.

After about five months of waiting, the Oregon Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released its internal human resources investigation conducted by the special assistant attorney general looking into the surveillance of people on Twitter using #BlackLivesMatter. The report is damning. It paints an abysmal picture of rampant misinformation beginning with agents and analysists and running all the way up to the deputy attorney general, and shows how one mistake in judgment can lead to dangerous consequences for the public.

The Criminal Justice Division is in charge of identifying and assessing threats to the public and law enforcement, but their lack of diversity and cultural competency has them utterly disconnected to reality. The report shows that DOJ analysts and supervisors have no clue how to recognize run-of-the-mill political cartoons and commentary from things that should actually concern them.