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ACLU Calls Again for Withdrawal of Regulations Jeopardizing Women’s Health (09/26/2008)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union and all its state affiliates, including Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services asking the administration to rescind regulations that could seriously undermine access to reproductive health services, including birth control and abortion.

ACLU Hails Senate Markup of Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (07/31/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union hailed today’s Senate Judiciary Committee markup of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA) as an important step in ending the persistent exploitation and enslavement of domestic workers by foreign diplomats. The provisions in the TVPRA will help put in place important mechanisms that can prevent exploitation by providing domestic workers with critical information, creating a monitoring system, training consular officers who issue visas and requiring an employment contract between the worker and employer.

ACLU Seeks Sanctions Against New Jersey DOC For Witness Tampering And Retaliation (03/26/2008)
TRENTON – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of New Jersey filed court papers today requesting that the New Jersey Superior Court impose sanctions against the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC) for witness tampering, official misconduct and violations of court rules. The ACLU’s motion for sanctions charges that the DOC obtained false and misleading statements from women prisoners about conditions in the prison in an attempt to defend the prison against claims of inhumane treatment. A female prisoner who exposed the DOC’s misconduct reports being beaten as a result.

Court Rules Connecticut Social Club Can’t Ban Women (02/27/2008)
MYSTIC, CT – In a victory for gender equality, a Connecticut Superior Court ruled that a local social club can no longer ban women from membership. The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Connecticut on behalf of Sam Corcoran, who was denied membership in the German Social Society Frohsinn, Inc. because she is a woman. The court upheld an appellate court’s ruling that the social club was a public accommodation - not a private club - and subject to Connecticut’s civil rights laws banning discrimination.

Senate Committee Hears Testimony on Need for Fair Pay Legislation (01/24/2008)
Washington, DC – The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee held a hearing today on S. 1843, the “Fair Pay Restoration Act,” which would ensure that victims of workplace discrimination receive effective remedies. The bill’s companion measure, H.R. 2831, passed the House of Representatives in July, 2007. The ACLU urges the committee to support S. 1843 in order to fix a recent Supreme Court decision that undermines protections against discrimination in compensation that have been bedrock principles of civil rights laws for decades.

ACLU Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Women Prisoners Confined in Men’s Prison (12/12/2007)
NEWARK - In dual actions challenging the incarceration of 40 women in a men’s maximum security prison, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of New Jersey filed a civil rights lawsuit and joined more than a dozen other advocacy organizations in support of the women at a demonstration in front of the prison.

Muslim Woman Sues San Bernardino County Over Religious Freedom in Jail (12/06/2007)
LOS ANGELES— A 29-year-old Muslim woman who was forced by deputies to remove her religious head covering while she was in custody in San Bernardino County’s West Valley Detention Center, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Wednesday asserting that her religious freedom rights were violated under the First Amendment by San Bernardino county sheriff’s deputies.

Hearing Brings Modern-Day Slavery to Light, ACLU Urges State Department to Play Its Role in Stopping It (10/18/2007)
Washington, DC – Modern-day slavery exists in the shadows, but it is alive and well, said witnesses today at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The American Civil Liberties Union is urging Congress to add new safeguards that prevent the abuse, exploitation and trafficking of domestic employees by foreign diplomats and to remove the shield of diplomatic immunity that prevents these victims from holding the diplomats accountable.

Senate Judiciary Committee Must Obtain Iron-Clad Commitments from Judge Mukasey before Moving Forward (10/17/2007)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union calls on the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider the confirmation process of former U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General as an opportunity to address the longstanding and unresolved issues surrounding the Department of Justice. This is also the time for the committee to thoroughly examine Judge Mukasey’s record from his time on the bench.

ACLU Cheers House Passage of Pay Equity Legislation (07/31/2007)
Washington, DC - The ACLU today cheered the House of Representatives for passing H.R. 2831, the "Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007," aimed at fixing the May 29, 2007 Supreme Court decision undermining protections against wage discrimination in compensation that have been bedrock principles of civil rights law for decades.

ACLU Praises Senate Introduction of Pay Equity Legislation (07/20/2007)
Washington, DC - The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the Senate introduction of the Fair Pay Restoration Act, companion to H.R. 2831, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007. This bipartisan legislation would restore protections against pay discrimination that were undermined by the May 29, 2007 Supreme Court decision Ledbetter v. Goodyear.

ACLU Welcomes Pay Equity Legislation in the House of Representatives (06/22/2007)
Washington, DC - The American Civil Liberties Union applauded today’s introduction in the House of Representatives of the “Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007,” legislation aimed at clarifying the law regarding wage discrimination. On May 29, the Supreme Court ruled in Ledbetter v. Goodyear that workers cannot sue for wage discrimination that occurred years earlier. According to the 5-4 decision, the majority held that the plaintiff had no claim because she had not filed a complaint within 180 days of the initial discrimination.

Federal Judge Tells Local Alabama Property Manager to Stop Sexual Harassment (02/23/2007)
MONTGOMERY, AL – The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama today hailed a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins against Jamarlo GumBayTay, an agent of Elite Real Estate Consulting Group, ordering him to cease the sexual harassment of a renter and stop any and all actions to evict her.

ACLU and Public Health Groups Urge Appeals Court to Reject Bush Global AIDS Gag (12/21/2006)
WASHINGTON - The federal government is illegally restricting the ability of U.S. health organizations to end the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, charged the American Civil Liberties Union and more than 25 public health and human rights organizations in a legal brief filed today.

Bush Global AIDS Gag is Harmful to Public Health, Groups Tell Appeals Court (11/14/2006)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union and 26 public health experts, human rights and HIV/AIDS organizations are urging a federal appeals court to reject a government policy that restricts the ability of U.S. groups to end the spread of HIV/AIDS in other countries.

ACLU Freedom Files Tackles Women’s Rights Issues On Court TV (05/04/2006)
NEW YORK – The ACLU Freedom Files shows the human side of fighting to protect civil liberties by helping viewers get to know the everyday people whose rights are threatened. The upcoming episode examines an array of women’s rights issues, joining prior shows on voting rights, religious freedom, and gay and lesbian rights.

Global AIDS Gag Holds Critical Funding Captive to Politics (11/09/2005)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today expressed deep concern about a U.S. government policy that ties the hands of public health service providers and those who work with them in the global fight against AIDS.

United Nations Body Looks at Housing Conditions for Women in America (10/17/2005)
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union is among dozens of groups and individuals providing testimony to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as part of a three-day consultation on women and housing in North America, which ends today. The ACLU and its clients, who are victims of housing discrimination, have testified on the poor housing conditions faced by victims of domestic violence and immigrant domestic workers in the United States.

Following ACLU Action, Public Housing Agency Agrees to Treat St. Louis Women Fairly (10/06/2005)
ST. LOUIS -- The American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri announced today that a St. Louis mother who is a victim of ongoing domestic abuse has reached an agreement with the St. Louis Public Housing Authority that prevents the agency from evicting her on the basis of her ex-boyfriend's harassment and abuse. Instead, the woman will be permitted to move to a new unit in order to conceal her location from her abuser, and agents and employees of the Housing Authority will participate in training about domestic violence.

ACLU Disappointed with Supreme Court Ruling on Domestic Violence Orders of Protection (06/27/2005)
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today expressed disappointment over a Supreme Court decision finding that the U.S. Constitution does not recognize an entitlement by domestic violence victims to enforcement of their protective orders. As Justice Stevens wrote in the dissent, ""the Court gives short shrift to the unique case of [statutes requiring police enforcement] in the domestic violence context.""