News & Commentary

Book banning in 2019 looks more like challenges and book removals in public libraries, school curriculums, and prisons. This is censorship which affects some of the most vulnerable members of our society: children and people who are incarcerated.

We trust our elected officials to represent us, listen to our feedback, and provide us with information on issues of public importance. In our modern era, public officials use social media to conduct official business, share important information about key issues, and engage with their constituents.

Harvard public policy profess spoke about the head and the heart, how they depend on each other, without one, the other collapses. Then he gave us all a philosophy that is the basis of this article, and will be the basis of all my future activism: “It takes the head and the heart to move the hands.”

Personal stories destroy stereotypes and ignite compassion, for others, for our selves and for the world we live in. My passion is already providing a safe and sacred space for stories to be written and providing a platform where those stories can be heard.

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU national Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project

The ACLU doesn’t flatly oppose technology or its use in law enforcement. We do oppose its use without public “consent” to use it generally, without good policies in place to protect privacy and First Amendment rights and prohibit discriminatory targeting against people of color.

Today, the ACLU-VA received a letter from Prince William County Associate Superintendent for Communications & Technology Services Phil Kavits regarding its criticism of the County's Feb. 21 letter to students and parents. In the spirit of transparency, we're sharing this letter here:

Whatever you think about Kaepernick and the pledge, and however you choose to demonstrate your beliefs, we the people, united as a country, must fight the ongoing injustice - not only racist individuals, but subtly racist fundamental laws make minorities so disadvantaged.

We share the concern of those from Prince William County who reached out to us about the preemptive and somewhat threatening tone of the Superintendent’s letter regarding student participation in protests about "school gun violence" either on or off campus during school hours.