News & Commentary

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU WV) has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a state Supreme Court case involving the rights of workers and labor organizations.

At the ACLU, our mission is not only to protect civil liberties, but to advance them. We have serious problems in West Virginia. The time for half measures is over. We need big, bold ideas if we want to live up to the ideals embodied in our state’s motto---montani semper liberi. The ACLU-WV recently unveiled three campaigns to guide our work for the next decade, focusing on Juvenile Justice Reform, Criminal Justice Reform, and Defending Democracy. These campaigns are an effort to fulfill a long-term vision in which mountaineers truly are always free.

Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of WV is unveiling three campaigns to guide our work for the next decade. With these campaigns, we aim to fundamentally change West Virginia.

The Charleston City Council is currently considering a proposed ordinance that would, among other things, make it a crime for an individual on a public sidewalk to engage within 8 feet of other members of the public in certain ways if they are within 100 feet of a healthcare facility.  This proposed ordinance is aimed at ensuring that people have access to abortion care free from obstruction.  The ACLU-WV has reviewed the proposed ordinance and has issued the following statement:There are two clear competing constitutional rights at issue here—the right to free speech and the right to access reproductive services. Neither right supersedes the other and any policies must strike a delicate balance between the right to engage in peaceful protest on public streets and the right to seek an abortion without being subject to harassment, intimidation, obstruction, or violence.  We appreciate the City’s efforts to strike that delicate balance in drafting an ordinance that largely mirrors the statute considered, and deemed constitutional, by the Supreme Court in Hill v. Colorado.However, on the whole, we believe the proposed ordinance does raise constitutional concerns. The ordinance is drafted in broad language to apply to all healthcare facilities, and is not narrowly tailored to address a specific record of past harassment, intimidation, obstruction or violence at a particular healthcare provider. As a result the current ordinance could, for example, prohibit striking hospital workers from peacefully handbilling outside their workplace.  Similarly, the proposed ordinance could prohibit a political candidate from attempting to engage voters on a busy street corner near a doctor’s office.

When people in Hurricane, WV heard that a home for people with developmental disabilities was going to open up in their neighborhood people got upset. In fact, the Putnam County Commission tried to have an injunction filed, to stop the residence from operating. The ACLU spoke up.

The ACLU of West Virginia today released a report that outlines how West Virginia can cut incarceration in half by pursuing reforms to accessibility of mental health and substance abuse services, reducing and normalizing sentences, and eliminating cash bail.

Missed any of the action from the May 2019 Special Session? Get caught up with this update.

2019 West Virginia Pride season is upon us and we couldn't be more excited!

The Defend the Guard Act is a simple piece of legislation that has the potential to upend the established order in American foreign policy and return us to constitutional norms. It would prohibit members of the West Virginia National Guard from being deployed to foreign conflict w