News & Commentary

ACLU-WV, along with Mountain State Justice, Inc., today sent a letter to Governor Justice’s administration demanding that the Governor publicly release and implement immediately a plan to ensure that those who are incarcerated have the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. If the Governor’s office does not provide a response in writing providing a timeline by which it will provide access to vaccines for those incarcerated by March 31, MSJ and ACLU-WV are prepared to move forward with litigation on behalf of incarcerated individuals who are in desperate need of access to these vaccines. The letter follows a months-long effort by a coalition of organizations urging the Governor and the state to take action and make vaccines available to incarcerated people.    

Today on the House floor, Majority Leader Amy Summers stated that the House Technology and Infrastructure Committee would reconvene this afternoon to reconsider bills that were discussed and voted on during the committee’s March 24, 2021, meeting. An audio malfunction during that meeting cut off public access to committee deliberations, and by choosing to move forward with the meeting in spite of the technology failure, the House violated the state open meetings act.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) today provided notice to West Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw and House Clerk Steve Harrison that it intends to pursue litigation against the House for violations of the Open Governmental Proceedings Act.

Late Tuesday night, eight people were killed in a shooting rampage at three spas in the Atlanta area. Six of the victims were Asian women. This tragedy comes in the midst of a rapid rise in anti-Asian violent attacks since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of which have targeted women.

A Pocahontas County High School teacher is under fire from some members of the community for introducing the books "The Hate U Give" and "This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons to Wake up, Take Action, and Do the Work" in an honors English class. The Pocahontas County Board of Education addressed the matter last night. Jennifer Williams of Families Leading Change and Our Future West Virginia presented a letter signed by more than 20 organizations including ACLU-WV in support of the teacher and her decision to introduce students to these books.

ACLU-WV delivered the following letter to members of the West Virginia House of Delegates today regarding House Bill 2013, which would funnel public funding to private schools that discriminate:Delegate, 

In the wake of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling the HIV outbreak in the Kanawha Valley “the most concerning in the nation,” the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) has joined with other organizations to demand Charleston city leaders start listening to science and stop leading with fear.

One hundred years ago a socialite and organizer by the name of Roger Baldwin made the journey from New York City to Logan, West Virginia. He came, in the aftermath of the Battle of Blair Mountain, to deliver a speech expressing his support for the miners’ First Amendment freedom of association – their right to organize a union.

West Virginia has some of the nation’s deadliest jails, with alarmingly high rates of suicide, homicide, and drug overdose deaths, according to a new report compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) using data from both the Reuters news agency and the state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.