How to Win an Election From Jail

By rolling back “disparate impact” rules, the administration threatens decades of progress against systemic discrimination in housing, jobs, and education.

ACLU Justice Division leader Ellen Flenniken saw people across the country come together to stand up for free speech, protest peacefully, and show that our power grows when we act as one.

WASHINGTON — Over seven million people across the country peacefully and lawfully gathered today to express their First Amendment rights at more than 2,700 events across all 50 states and send a clear message to the Trump administration: The American people will not accept attempts to undermine our democracy and take away our freedoms. In reaction to the historic protests, Deirdre Schifeling, Chief Political and Advocacy Officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, issued the following statement: “Today, millions of people showed that we, the people, will not be silenced. We came together in community to do the most patriotic and American thing we can: exercising our First Amendment rights by peacefully and lawfully protesting President Trump’s abuses of power. We’ll continue to channel the courage of these protests to keep showing up for our communities — and the ACLU will do everything in our power to defend our freedom of speech, press, and assembly. Despite the Trump administration’s threats, no president can take this cornerstone of our democracy away from us.”

This case asks whether the trial record, without more, demonstrates that a defendant’s constitutional right to adequate legal representation has been violated, where the record reveals that the defendant’s attorney never sought to suppress the only incriminating evidence that the State had against them. The ACLU’s SSCI and the ACLU of Utah filed an amicus brief arguing that the defendant's trial counsel in this case was indeed ineffective and that holding otherwise would undermine the right to effective assistance of counsel.