At Liberty

By ACLU

What's At Liberty about?

At Liberty is a weekly podcast from the ACLU that explores the biggest civil rights and civil liberties issues of the day. A production of ACLU, Inc.

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At Liberty episodes:

04.24.2024
Special Edition: Emergency Abortion Care at SCOTUS
Today, on April 24, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine the future of emergency abortion care. At issue in the case of Idaho v. United States is whether or not doctors in states...
04.18.2024
SCOTUS Will Decide If Homelessness Can be Punished
On April 22, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass, the most significant court case about the rights of people experiencing homelessness in decades. At its core, Grants Pass will decide whether cities are allowed...
04.11.2024
Live from Brooklyn Public Library: The Power of Poetry and Magical Thinking
From the ACLU, this is At Liberty. I'm Kendall Ciesemier, your host. A month ago, we visited one of our favorite spots, the library. You know, at the ACLU, we love a good library. So much so that we even spent...
04.04.2024
The Most Extreme Anti-Immigration Bill We've Seen
Last December, Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 4, one of the most extreme pieces of anti-immigrant legislation to emerge from any state legislature. Under S.B. 4, local and state law enforcement can arrest people they suspect to have entered Texas...
03.28.2024
Special Edition: Abortion Is Back at the Supreme Court
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that will determine if nationwide restrictions are imposed on access to mifepristone, a safe medication used in more than half of all U.S. abortions, and for miscarriage treatment. What...
03.21.2024
In 'Problemista,' Julio Torres Crafts an Imaginative Immigration Story
The United States is home to the largest immigrant population in the world, with hundreds of thousands more seeking asylum and citizenship. America would not be what it is today if not for immigration and the contributions of millions of...
03.14.2024
This Economic Policy Could Break the Poverty Cycle
The “American dream” has long been regarded as the pinnacle of success, rewarded to all who display hard work and pick themselves up by their bootstraps when life knocks them down. This might be our culture’s prevailing narrative, but it...
03.07.2024
Biden's Border Politics Won't Fix Our Immigration System
At the end of 2023, migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border hit a record high of 250,000, with a surge of individuals and families entering cities like Chicago, Denver, New York, Houston, and Los Angeles. Despite this, politicians and lawmakers...
02.29.2024
In Alabama, Embryos Are People and It Won't Stop There
On February 16, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children under state law, meaning the embryo has rights consistent with a person living in the United States. While this marks the first time a frozen embryo has...
02.22.2024
This Case Could Upend the Death Penalty In North Carolina
On August 10th, 2009, the North Carolina legislature passed the Racial Justice Act, or RJA. A first of its kind law that allows people on death row to challenge their sentences if they could show race played a factor at...
02.15.2024
3 States, 3 Plaintiffs, and the Fight for Fair District Maps
Since 1965, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) has been integral to protecting people of color at the polls. But in recent decades, the strength of the VRA has been diminished by decisions like Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, and...
02.08.2024
How to Dismantle the Anti-DEI Machine
Free speech on campus, book bans, education gag orders, the overturn of affirmative action, the resignation of former Harvard president Claudine Gay. All of these issues center on one hot-button topic: DEI. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has become a staple...
02.01.2024
Rap Is Art Not Evidence
As the gang conspiracy trial of rapper Young Thug and his famed rap collective, YSL, extends past 20 days in Atlanta, we’re bringing you a conversation about the use of rap lyrics in court. Despite a groundswell of activism and legal...
01.25.2024
Live From Sundance: Telling Better Queer and Trans Stories
This week, At Liberty is coming to you live from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, hosting a discussion with queer and transgender storytellers. The conversation delves into the challenges they face while navigating an onslaught of...
01.18.2024
Busy Philipps Is Fed up With Abortion Bans
This year marks the 51st anniversary since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade, protecting the constitutional right to abortion in 1973. Unfortunately, this anniversary is marred by the overturn of Roe by the Supreme Court...
01.11.2024
The Way Forward for Trans Justice
Last year, states passed a record number of bills restricting health care, athletics, public accommodations, expression, and educational materials for trans people — trans kids, more specifically. With the turn of a new year, the situation continues to grow dire. Laws...
01.04.2024
It's Time to End Solitary Confinement: Ian Manuel's Story
“Imagine that you, at age fifteen, have been sentenced to social death, life without parole, in a space nine feet by seven—the size of a freight elevator—where for twenty-two to twenty-four hours a day you are trapped; where in a...
12.21.2023
ACLU Kids Tell Us How We Can Do Better
For a special year-end holiday episode, we’re bringing you our third edition of “ACLU kids take over At Liberty.” Kids of ACLU staff spoke to their parents about what they do at work and how they fight for civil rights...
12.14.2023
2023 in Review: The Latest on the Stories That Made Our Year
2023 is coming to a close, and we have weathered so much this year. At the ACLU, we continue to fight for civil rights and civil liberties across the country. We’re prying open every opportunity for abortion access and reproductive...
12.07.2023
The Unconstitutional Silencing of Pro-Palestinian Student Groups
Free speech is one of the hallmarks of a functioning democracy and one of our fundamental constitutional rights. At the ACLU, we know that it's precisely in times of crisis and fear when free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent...
11.30.2023
How Activist Raquel Willis Found Her Voice and Power
On January 21, 2017, a day after the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, activist and journalist Raquel Willis approached the podium at the inaugural Women’s March in Washington, D.C. to share her story at what became one of the...
11.21.2023
Glennon Doyle on Leading Loved Ones in the Fight for Justice
The holiday season is upon us. This week, we are revisiting our conversation with author and activist Glennon Doyle. In this conversation, Doyle and host Kendall Ciesemier discuss how to bring loved ones into our understanding of equity and justice...
11.16.2023
The Resurgence of Labor Strikes and Union Power
If you’re staying up to date with the news, you may have noticed that unions are having a moment. This summer alone, strikes by members of the WGA, UAW, SAG-AFTRA, UPS, Starbucks, Amazon, and Kaiser Permanente unions, among others, have...
11.09.2023
We’re Winning Big at the Polls
On Tuesday, people across the country took to the polls and made one thing crystal clear: abortion rights matter to voters. In Ohio, voters passed an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, making it the seventh state to...
11.02.2023
We All Pathologized Britney Spears
On October 24, Britney Spears released her tell-all memoir, “The Woman in Me.” In the book, she traces her journey from childhood stardom to living 13 years under the control of a conservatorship, a court-sanctioned arrangement that strips people with...
10.26.2023
Religious Communities in Ohio Are Fighting To Preserve Reproductive Rights
On November 7th, Ohio voters will decide whether to pass Issue 1, which would protect their decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and abortion. The fact that this amendment is even on the ballot is a huge feat. Ohioans had...
10.19.2023
How ACT UP Changed the Face of AIDS and Activism
October marks LGBTQ History Month, and this week on At Liberty we are honoring the legacy of LGBTQ activism throughout the AIDS epidemic. Throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, AIDS claimed the lives of thousands of New Yorkers per...
10.12.2023
We're Suing Florida for Anti-Asian Housing Discrimination
This May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 264, a law that restricts Chinese nationals from acquiring property in the state of Florida under the guise of protecting national security. But the issue is actually pretty clear — Chinese people are...
10.05.2023
Should the Government Control What Kids See Online?
Today’s young people have a lot to deal with. Pandemic interruptions, social isolation, climate change, political polarization, ever-changing technology — all on top of the typical turbulence of adolescence. Studies on youth mental health outcomes show increasing loneliness and hopelessness,...
09.28.2023
Kids Sued Montana Over Climate Change—Here’s How They Won
Last month, a district court judge in Montana ruled in favor of 16 youth plaintiffs in a landmark climate lawsuit. In Held v. Montana, young Montanans ranging from ages 5 to 22 sued the state, arguing that lawmakers have consciously...
09.21.2023
American Poverty Is Our Problem To Fix
“The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why?” That’s the question that underscores Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist Matthew Desmond’s new book, “Poverty, by America.” America is a country that purports equality as...
09.14.2023
This Student Fought a School Fine for Four Years
We’re continuing to feature major stories impacting students as the back-to-school season is underway. Today, we confront one troubling question: Why are students being fined by police in schools? Across the nation, students are being disciplined through tickets with shocking...
09.07.2023
Why Is Texas Eliminating School Libraries?
Back-to-school season is upon us and here at the ACLU we’ve been following the nationwide campaign to censor education, be that the censorship of important historical and social context in curriculums, or the recent rise in book bans. All of...
07.27.2023
No One Should Die In Custody
Across America, 68 percent of incarcerated people with a medical condition go without care in local jails. Put simply, incarcerated people are often denied life sustaining and life-saving health care treatment. To make matters worse, carceral facilities are increasingly used...
07.20.2023
The Decade-Long Fight for Pregnant Workers
On Tuesday, June 27, more than a decade after its first introduction in a congressional committee, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act went into effect, changing the landscape of work for all pregnant people. Before this law, many pregnant workers had...
07.13.2023
10 Years of #BlackLivesMatter: Progress and Backlash
Ten years ago this July, Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza, and Patrisse Cullors tweeted #BlackLivesMatter in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death. The hashtag helped galvanize a movement calling out the racism that has deeply affected the lives and deaths of...
07.06.2023
Supreme Court Term in Review: Reconciling Our Losses and Wins
Another Supreme Court term has come to a close. This year, the court delivered major decisions on voting rights, free speech, Indigenous sovereignty, and racial justice, among other issues. The ACLU was involved in cases throughout the term and in...
06.30.2023
Special Edition: The Supreme Court Overturns Affirmative Action
On Thursday, June 29, in the cases of Students for Fair Admissions. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, the Supreme Court — in a 6 to 3 decision —...
06.22.2023
A Year Without Roe: Your Stories
Nearly one year ago, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case concerning abortion access in the state of Mississippi. Instead of following decades of precedent set by decisions...
06.15.2023
These Queer Lawmakers Will Not Be Silenced
This year has brought a new level of anti-democratic behavior, particularly in state houses and legislatures. In March, Rep. Mauree Turner from Oklahoma was censured for offering a protester the use of an office in the aftermath of an arrest....
06.08.2023
Let Trans Kids Speak for Themselves
As legislatures across the country enact anti-LGBTQ bills, one group has taken center stage in our national conversation: trans youth. Of the 491 anti-LGBTQ bills that we are tracking in this legislative session, 118 are bills seeking to restrict or...
06.01.2023
The Fight for Indigenous Education
On this podcast, we have covered book banning and education censorship a few times before, but the way we see it, bans and revisionist histories thrive in our silence. Despite the recent attention surrounding the onslaught of CRT bans, the suppression...
05.25.2023
Sasha Colby Is Winning in More Ways Than One
Today, we are celebrating the ending of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a conversation with legendary drag performer Sasha Colby. For the last 20 years, Colby has been one of the most celebrated names in drag and...
05.18.2023
The Consequences of Chicago’s Segregated Housing History
Today, we're focusing on Chicago — the country's third largest (and one of the most diverse) cities, and a city that has been a blueprint for housing segregation. While the discriminatory practice of racial redlining was officially outlawed in 1968,...
05.11.2023
Banning TikTok is a Really Bad Idea
The social media platform TikTok has had a meteoric rise. The app has become a hub for educators, activists, and creatives to influence all aspects of culture. From launching dance trends, catapulting decades old books onto best sellers lists, to...
05.04.2023
Biden's Asylum Policy is From Trump's Playbook
As soon as a week from today, the Biden administration could implement a policy that would force people to seek asylum and wait for an answer in Mexico, or another country they passed through, with limited exceptions. The proposed change...
04.27.2023
Why and How Trans Hate is Spreading
The ACLU is tracking 452 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S. this legislative session. Of those 452, 118 are anti-trans health care bills, and there’s a slew of trans athlete bans, public accommodations bans, drag bans, and education gag orders about...
04.20.2023
Clemency Is One Answer to the War On Drugs
This 4/20, we want to talk about a tool that can be used to address the horrific consequences of the war on drugs: clemency. Throughout U.S. history, presidents, and governors have had the power to grant clemency, either by pardoning people...
04.13.2023
What Happens In Tennessee Won't Stay in Tennessee
On Friday, April 7th, the Tennessee state legislature voted to expel two out of the three state representatives, Representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who protested on the chamber floor in the wake of a mass shooting that killed six...
04.06.2023
Minnesota Just Restored Voting Rights for 55,000 People
The U.S. is the only developed democracy that strips voting rights from its people on the basis of a criminal conviction. An estimated 4.6 million Americans across the country are barred from casting ballots. Now to give a sense of...

What's At Liberty about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

At Liberty episodes:

Special Edition: Emergency Abortion Care at SCOTUS

SCOTUS Will Decide If Homelessness Can be Punished

Live from Brooklyn Public Library: The Power of Poetry and Magical Thinking

The Most Extreme Anti-Immigration Bill We've Seen

Special Edition: Abortion Is Back at the Supreme Court

In 'Problemista,' Julio Torres Crafts an Imaginative Immigration Story

This Economic Policy Could Break the Poverty Cycle

Biden's Border Politics Won't Fix Our Immigration System

In Alabama, Embryos Are People and It Won't Stop There

This Case Could Upend the Death Penalty In North Carolina

3 States, 3 Plaintiffs, and the Fight for Fair District Maps

How to Dismantle the Anti-DEI Machine

Rap Is Art Not Evidence

Live From Sundance: Telling Better Queer and Trans Stories

Busy Philipps Is Fed up With Abortion Bans

The Way Forward for Trans Justice

It's Time to End Solitary Confinement: Ian Manuel's Story

ACLU Kids Tell Us How We Can Do Better

2023 in Review: The Latest on the Stories That Made Our Year

The Unconstitutional Silencing of Pro-Palestinian Student Groups

How Activist Raquel Willis Found Her Voice and Power

Glennon Doyle on Leading Loved Ones in the Fight for Justice

The Resurgence of Labor Strikes and Union Power

We’re Winning Big at the Polls

We All Pathologized Britney Spears

Religious Communities in Ohio Are Fighting To Preserve Reproductive Rights

How ACT UP Changed the Face of AIDS and Activism

We're Suing Florida for Anti-Asian Housing Discrimination

Should the Government Control What Kids See Online?

Kids Sued Montana Over Climate Change—Here’s How They Won

American Poverty Is Our Problem To Fix

This Student Fought a School Fine for Four Years

Why Is Texas Eliminating School Libraries?

No One Should Die In Custody

The Decade-Long Fight for Pregnant Workers

10 Years of #BlackLivesMatter: Progress and Backlash

Supreme Court Term in Review: Reconciling Our Losses and Wins

Special Edition: The Supreme Court Overturns Affirmative Action

A Year Without Roe: Your Stories

These Queer Lawmakers Will Not Be Silenced

Let Trans Kids Speak for Themselves

The Fight for Indigenous Education

Sasha Colby Is Winning in More Ways Than One

The Consequences of Chicago’s Segregated Housing History

Banning TikTok is a Really Bad Idea

Biden's Asylum Policy is From Trump's Playbook

Why and How Trans Hate is Spreading

Clemency Is One Answer to the War On Drugs

What Happens In Tennessee Won't Stay in Tennessee

Minnesota Just Restored Voting Rights for 55,000 People

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