Supreme Court decision season is upon us, and with that, we wait for the final opinion in the Mississippi abortion ban case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.

The idea of living in a post-Roe world is terrifying, the impacts will be broad and almost everyone will feel them in one way or another. This is the truth that activists and organizers on the ground in states like Mississippi, Florida, and Texas know all too well. They’ve been warding off anti-abortion attacks for decades, all while mounting a resistance focused on community conversation and education. They are, in many ways, the leaders of the reproductive rights movement.

Amidst all the reasons to quit, they continue to fight -- individual action turns into collective action turns into political action. We can learn a lot from activists and organizers like Tyler, Crishelle, and Vienna, which is exactly why we are having them join us today. We’ll discuss how they have weathered the hardest of times on the ground in their own communities and highlight their work as a playbook for us all moving forward.

To donate to support our fight against the attack on reproductive autonomy and all the attacks that follow, please visit: https://www.aclu.org/keepfighting

To get involved in our people power effort to protect abortion access, please visit: https://aclu.org/abortion-pledge

May marks Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month. To mark the importance of this month and how it intersects our work at the ACLU, we are bringing you this conversation with Malaysian American award-winning writer and audio producer, Stephanie Foo. Stephanie is the author of the new book, What My Bones Know, a memoir about intergenerational trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or c-PTSD.

In the book, Stephanie details her path of healing from the physical and emotional abuse she endured from both of her parents and explores the kind of trauma that she says had a widespread impact on her immigrant community growing up.

She joins us to discuss how learning her ancestors’ history and the history of her community helped her reconcile her individual struggles.

Last week, the draft opinion for the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked. Justice Alito wrote the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Everything about what has happened is remarkable: the leak, the decision, and the reasoning.

The repercussions for what it means for people who can get pregnant are dire, and if that wasn’t enough, the repercussions may extend far beyond. Last week, we focused our conversation on what the draft opinion would mean for reproductive access. Today, we’re going to focus on the second tier of impact: what this precedent could mean for other civil rights and civil liberties and what this means for the institution of the court itself.

For this episode, we’re bringing in our resident constitutional expert, David Cole. David is the national legal director of the ACLU and has argued a variety of cases before the Supreme Court himself. 

To donate to support our fight against the attack on reproductive autonomy and all the attacks that follow, please visit: https://www.aclu.org/keepfighting

To get involved in our people power effort to protect abortion access, please visit: https://aclu.org/abortion-pledge

This is “Ask an Expert,” a special mini-series where our constitutional experts answer your civil rights and civil liberties questions. For our first edition, we are diving deep into Free Speech, and talking to expert Ben Wizner, the Director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology project.

We have been sourcing free speech questions from you over email, social media, and our phone line. We’ve sorted through the questions and categorized them into a few episodes. So far, we've found our free speech footing and also logged in to how speech plays out online. For our final episode, Ben is back to educate us on the speech that happens on school grounds, education and book bans, student speech and more.

On Monday night, the news publication Politico leaked a draft of a majority Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Alito. The draft details the highly anticipated decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, known to the public as the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.

Supreme Court decisions typically don’t come out until June, but this leaked draft, confirmed by Justice Alito himself, has sent early shockwaves across the country. In the draft majority opinion, Justice Alito writes that both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decisions that have been on the books for up to 50 years, are overturned, making access to abortion no longer a legally protected right. Should this draft hold, this decision would turn back the clock on progress for people who can get pregnant and call into question much more than access to abortion.

Joining us to help us understand is Brigitte Amiri, the Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

We have a long fight ahead of us—but the ACLU was made for moments like this. To donate to support our fight against this attack on reproductive autonomy and all the attacks that follow, please visit aclu.org/keepfighting. Thank you for stepping up and working together with us.

This is “Ask an Expert,” a special mini-series where our constitutional experts answer your civil rights and civil liberties questions. For this edition, we are diving into free speech and talking to expert Ben Wizner, the Director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology project.

Last week for our first episode, we established our free speech footing, defining exactly what free speech is and isn't. This week, Ben is back to break down free speech as it exists online and on social media in 140 characters or less, just kidding. Social media has undoubtedly presented new free speech challenges to consider, and consider them we will.

We have been sourcing free speech questions from you over email, social media and our phone line. We've sorted through the questions and we're ready to dive right in.

For years now, pain has been the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting more than 50 million Americans annually. This isn’t the kind of pain you endure when you trip onto the pavement, scab, bruise and heal. It’s the persistent gnawing, aching, throbbing that happens over a long period of time. This is chronic pain.

One of the most powerful and effective forms of treatment for pain is the safe use of opioids. Opioids in combination with other therapies have allowed those hindered by pain to live full and vibrant lives, but the stigma around opioid use was exacerbated in 2016 due to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, that both seriously discouraged doctors from prescribing these drugs and also over attributed the prescription of them as the cause of addiction and overdose.

While opioids are not a one-size fits all pain reliever, the rollback on prescriptions has disproportionately impacted people with disabilities, people of color, women, and incarcerated folks. Kate Nicholson, founder of the National Pain Advocacy Center, believes now is the time to course-correct. Pain relief, in her view, is a civil right.

Listener Note: There is still time to submit a question for our “Ask an Expert” podcast series on all things free speech. To submit a question for our final episode on education and book bans, call us and leave us a message at 212-549-2558 or email us at [email protected].

This is "Ask an Expert," a special mini-series where our constitutional experts answer YOUR civil rights and civil liberties questions. For our first edition, we are diving deep into Free Speech, and talking to expert Ben Wizner, the Director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology project.

Free Speech is widely considered the bedrock of democracy, but still, many Americans feel both conflicted and confused by what actually constitutes free speech, what we can say, where we can say it, and who can stop us.

We have been sourcing free speech questions from you over email, social media, and our phone line. We’ve sorted through the questions and categorized them into a few episodes. On today's episode, we’re getting back to the basics with Free Speech 101 addressing hate speech, misinformation, government regulation of corporate speech, cancel culture, and why we defend free speech.

On June 1, 2020, Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in Lafayette Square Park near the White House to protest against police brutality and the police killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. In a violation of civil rights and what the New York Times named “one of the defining moments of the Trump presidency,” then President Trump and his administration called upon law enforcement to use force and violence to remove protesters from the area, without warning. A short while later, President Trump walked across the street to a nearby church St Johns for a photo opp.

Protesters were hurt, media personnel were attacked, and church volunteers and clergy were pushed off the patio of St. Johns and tear gassed. In response, the ACLU of DC filed to sue President Trump, Attorney General Barr, Secretary of Defense Esper, the D.C. Metropolitan Police department and numerous other federal officials on behalf of Black Lives Matter D.C. and other plaintiffs affected.

And while what happened on June 1st shocked many of us, for civil rights activists it was a very familiar story, something to add to a long list of similar incidents. Freedom of speech and assembly are important tools in the fight for civil rights, but these rights, when exercised by Black Americans, are frequently met with violent pushback from authorities.

Today, we are looking back on this event in light of the ACLU of DC’s case against federal officials and in light of the Biden administration’s new policy changes meant to ensure that this never happens again.

Case Update: https://www.acludc.org/en/press-releases/civil-rights-groups-push-appeal-hold-federal-officials-financially-accountable-attack

Listener Note: We’re launching a three-week “Ask an Expert” podcast series about all things free speech: online censorship and deplatforming, campus speech and cancel culture and education and book bans. So here’s where you come in. We want to answer your questions! What does the law say about social media companies deplatforming users? Does our constitution support cancel culture? If you have a question you’d like us to answer, call us and leave us a message at 212-549-2558 or email us at [email protected].

Lawmakers, parents, think tanks, and conservative pundits have waged a war over how to teach students about systemic racism. As a result, school board members have been ousted, and some educators have resigned over the death threats, social media bullying, and harassment they’ve received from those who are adamant that teaching a more inclusive history harms students.

These activists and lawmakers have centered much of their anger on a framework called Critical Race Theory. Though they’ve used it as a catchall for wokeness, political correctness, and leftist indoctrination, the term actually refers to a body of legal scholarship from the 70s and 80s that says racism is not just a result of individual prejudice, but something embedded in the legal system and in government policy.

Kimberlé Crenshaw was among the scholars who developed the theory. She also coined the term “intersectionality,” a framework that takes into account how a person’s identities combine to create unique forms of discrimination or privilege. She is a Distinguished Professor of law at Columbia University and at UCLA, co-founder of the African American Policy Forum at Columbia, and host of the podcast “Intersectionality Matters.”

Listener Note: We’re launching a three-week “Ask an Expert” podcast series about all things free speech: online censorship and deplatforming, campus speech and cancel culture and education and book bans. So here’s where you come in. We want to answer your questions! What does the law say about social media companies deplatforming users? Does our constitution support cancel culture? If you have a question you’d like us to answer, call us and leave us a message at 212-549-2558 or email us at [email protected].