News & Commentary

Guest Blog by Theo Kahn

Please re-watch our Nov. 17, 2016, Facebook Live conversation on the topic of Know Your Rights at Protests and Demonstrations.

Please re-watch our Nov. 2, 2016, Facebook Live conversation on the topic of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP).

The right to vote is a vital to our democracy. No person should be permitted to engage without sanction in conduct that threatens that right.

By Gail Deady, The Secular Society Women’s Rights Legal Fellow

Please re-watch our Oct. 12 Facebook Live conversation on the topic of voting in Virginia as we run up to this year's election on Nov. 8, 2016. More information is available here, and please remember to take your photo ID to the polls and contact the ACLU of Virginia at 804-644-8080 or aclu@acluva.org if you experience problems on Election Day.

The following remarks were delivered by ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastañaga at the first of four 'listening tour' events on the topic of police-community relations sponsored by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The forum was held on Aug. 16, 2016, at the Richmond Police Academy.

By Gail Deady The Secular Society Women’s Rights Legal Fellow Note: This article was originally posted on the blog of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Voting rights advocates are rightfully celebrating a string of recent voting rights victories in federal courts in North Carolina, Kansas, Wisconsin and Texas.The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (of which Virginia is a part) ruled unanimously in late July that North Carolina’s current voting laws intentionally and unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of race.Right after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013 in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, which freed North Carolina, Virginia and other southern states from the Act’s pre-clearance requirements, the North Carolina legislature acted to make it more difficult for North Carolinians to vote. Before then,  North Carolina had same-day registration for all voters, pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, broadly accessible early voting, out-of-precinct provisional voting and flexible voter ID requirements.The Appeals Court found that the legislature actively consulted data that made clear that African Americans disproportionately took advantage of these pro-voting laws, and that it acted deliberately and intentionally to reduce voting by African Americans. The Court’s decision was an appropriate repudiation of this injustice and intentional discrimination..The sad reality of this decision, however, is that it illuminates how much further ahead of Virginia North Carolina was before it passed the post-Shelby legislation declared unconstitutional last week.Here’s how pre-Shelby North Carolina compared to current Virginia voting rules: