THE EVICTION CRISIS Decades of housing discrimination - American Civil Liberties Union
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FOR PASSIONATE GUARDIANS OF CIVIL LIBERTIES
Decades of housing discrimination
led to mass evictions in a pandemic.
ACLU client-activists are fighting back.
THE EVICTION CRISIS
WINTER 2021 | ACLU.ORG
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IN T HI S I S S UE
02 In Brief
Executive Director Anthony D. Romero
looks ahead for civil liberties.
03 Letters to the Editor
Readers from around the country
respond to articles in the magazine.
FRO N T LI N E
04 Priorities
The ACLU challenges the new
administration to confront racism.
06 Case Study
A federal weapons program and its
enabling of police brutality must end.
COV E R : P H OTO G R A P H BY P R ESTO N G A N N AWAY. P H OTO G R A P H S (C LO C KW I S E F RO M TO P L E F T) BY P R ESTO N G A N N AWAY; J U ST I N J W E E ; L E X E Y SWA L L ; V I CTO R J E F F R E YS I I
07 Know Your Rights
16 Here’s what you need to know about
your rights while protesting.
08 National Report
C ON T R IBU T OR S
10
Drawing the Line
Decriminalizing sex work has gained
popular and political support.
09 Friend of the Court
ACLU Legal Director David Cole
With the 2020 census complete, it’s time to answers your most urgent questions.
redraw state political lines. The ACLU is ready
to thwart racial gerrymandering. VO I C ES
By Michael Hardy
30 Run the Jewels
16
Clio Chang is The hip-hop duo performed virtually to
a freelance writer get out the vote last fall.
based in Brooklyn
covering politics,
culture, and media.
32 In Good Company
Stamped: A Remix helps teens identify
Her work has Housing Insecure and stamp out racist thoughts.
appeared in The New
York Times Magazine, Discriminatory housing practices have
The New Republic, always impacted Black women most— 33 Free Forum
Vice, and more. during the COVID-19 crisis, the effects could Artist Derek Abella illustrates what
healing looks like in 2021.
be staggering.
By Tasbeeh Herwees 34 Activist Spotlight
An ACLU People Power advocate in
24
Fairfax, Virginia, is taking on ICE.
35 My Stand
We Testify founder Renee Bracey
Preston Gannaway The Road to Reform Sherman talks reproductive justice.
is a Pulitzer Prize–
winning documentary
The ACLU is facing the racist War on Drugs 36 ACLU Moment
head-on and pushing for real justice in The promise of Brown v. Board of Ed
photographer and
artist. Published marijuana reform. remains elusive.
in The New Yorker, By Jay A. Fernandez
California Sunday,
Mother Jones, and
others, her work
30
focuses on gender
identity, class, and
our relationship
to the landscape. On the cover: Diane Charity, co-founder of KC Tenants
IN BR IEF
W
ith this issue of ACLU Women Voters, successfully challeng- Nationwide turnout also enabled pos-
Magazine, we’re turn- ing the president’s brazen attempt to itive momentum for criminal justice
ing the page. For four disenfranchise Black voters. reform, including huge wins for pro-
years, we’ve weathered Our response was years in the making. reform prosecutors in Los Angeles, Chi-
an assault on our rights In Georgia, 1 million more votes were cago, Orlando, and the Detroit suburbs,
by an administration that has sowed cast in 2020 over 2018, in part as a signaling real change to address some
division and injustice. Last fall, the peo- result of the ACLU and our partners’ of the worst racial disparities in tough-
ple said, enough. Our country’s electoral efforts to combat voter suppression on-crime strongholds.
system sustained record voter turnout and expand absentee voting, includ- As you’ll read in this issue, achieving
and an avalanche of mail-in ballots—and ing a lawsuit that challenged the lasting racial and economic justice
democracy prevailed. state’s poll tax on mailed ballots. In requires facing an ugly history: one
The struggle to ensure that every vote Michigan, an ACLU-backed ballot ini- where people of color have been sys-
was counted was hard fought: Before tiative in 2018 and our voter mobiliza- tematically disenfranchised and denied
Election Day, the ACLU won more than tion efforts in communities of color set their right to thrive. In “Drawing the
two dozen lawsuits in 20 states to safe- the stage for a surge in voting in 2020. Line” (p. 10), the ACLU’s analytics team
guard the rights of millions of voters. In uses sophisticated software to thwart
the uncertain, anxious days following racial gerrymandering and voter sup-
the election, when the Trump campaign “We must persevere pression when states create new dis-
sued to overturn the will of voters in trict maps this year. “Housing Insecure”
battleground states such as Pennsyl-
until the dream (p. 16) describes an exploding national
vania, the ACLU responded in turn on of America is a lived eviction crisis—laid bare by the pan-
behalf of the NAACP and the League of reality for all.” demic and disproportionately impact-
ing Black women—and a federal ACLU
lawsuit on behalf of tenants in Kansas
City, Missouri. And in “The Road to
Reform” (p. 24), the ACLU confronts
the racist history of the War on Drugs to
clear a new path for marijuana reform
with equity at its center.
Time and again during these difficult
years, the ACLU community inspired
me with its resilience as we fought
racism and xenophobia at every turn.
And now we must persist. We must
confront a raging pandemic, a shifting
political and judicial landscape, and
a long-overdue racial reckoning. We
must uphold the promise of the Con-
stitution for everyone. We must per-
severe until the dream of America is
P H OTO G R A P H BY C H R I STO P H E R G R I F F I T H /S U P E RV I S I O N
a lived reality for all.
Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
L E T T ER S T O T HE EDI T OR
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004
212-549-2500
aclu.org/contact-us
Editorial Director
Marie-Adele Moniot
Managing Director
Genie Cortez
Associate Editor
Tom Vellner
Editorial Adviser
William Eisenman
Creative Direction and Design
Pentagram
Production and Printing
MSP-C, a division of
MSP Communications The Summer Re: “Why Voting by Mail Is me who cannot throw myself on
ACLU Magazine (ISSN 2640-3560) is a publication
2020 issue of Essential” the front lines. But I can donate,
for members and supporters of the American Civil ACLU Magazine
Liberties Union (ACLU). Send changes of address includes Thank you for all the coverage on I can speak truth to power,
and questions about your ACLU membership
to membership@aclu.org; mail them to ACLU, a story on the voting by mail. I live in Virginia, but and I can pay attention to the
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004; or exploitative cash until about six months ago, I lived new generation of leaders.
call 212-549-2500. Send editorial correspondence
specific to the publication to ACLU Magazine, ACLU, bail system.
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004,
in Oregon where we have always Alan King
or email to ACLUmagazine@aclu.org. This is not
a subscription publication, and we do not accept
voted by mail—and it works! Yorktown Heights, NY
unsolicited manuscripts or advertisements. ©2021
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation. All rights
Ron Coleman
reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without
the express written consent of the ACLU. Requests
Culpeper, VA Re: “Transgender Youth
for reprints should be directed to permissions@ Speak Out”
aclu.org. Published by ACLU, 125 Broad Street,
18th Floor, New York, NY 10004. Printed in the USA. Re: “How We Protest” Thanks to Katelyn Burns for the
The ACLU comprises two separate corporate
entities, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Reading the [Summer 2020] Summer 2020 article describing
ACLU Foundation. Although both the American Civil
Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation are part of articles reminded me of how the challenges transgender
the same overall organization, it is necessary that the
ACLU has two separate organizations in order to do proud I am of this country that young people face in conservative
a broad range of work in protecting civil liberties. This
magazine collectively refers to the two organizations it has such great institutions states. I am a pediatrician
under the name “ACLU.”
like the ACLU. The ACLU is in a state that strives to be
Exchanging Mailing Lists: The ACLU defrays the
cost of our new-member recruitment by renting or forged in battle with barely accepting. While it is true that
exchanging our list with other nonprofit organizations
and publications, but never to partisan political groups restrained forces of oppression trans youth are more likely to
or to groups whose programs are incompatible
with ACLU policies. All lists are rented or exchanged
and exploitation. But it is also suffer from depression and
according to strict privacy standards. We never give
our list directly to any organization; instead, we send
a uniquely American institution anxiety, one wonders how much
the list to a letter shop that prepares the mailing for
the organization that is participating in the rental
born from the optimism of the of their mental health stems from
or exchange. That organization never sees our list and founders and their wise emphasis day-to-day stresses. Living in
never knows what names are on it unless an individual
responds to the organization’s mailing. The ACLU on the activism that will be hostile surroundings might not
always honors a member’s request not to make his
or her name available. If you do not wish to receive needed to keep it. only make one feel unwelcome,
materials from other organizations, write to the
ACLU Membership Department, and we will omit your One article that particularly but also damage one’s well-being.
name from list rental and exchange. Thank you for
your understanding. impressed me was by DeRay We can all work toward a more
Mckesson. He has a powerful accepting world.
Connect with us. message of inclusion: We are all Ilana L. Schmitt, MD, MPH
Instagram: @aclu_nationwide
Twitter: @ACLU in this together, even ones like Amherst, MA
Facebook: facebook.com/aclu
We love your feedback! Let us know what you think about this issue: ACLUmagazine@aclu.org
A note from the chair of the ACLU National Board’s 2021 Nominating Committee: Please be advised
that ACLU members may submit nominations to the National Board for consideration by the
Nominating Committee for the 2021 slate. Please send your recommendation to: ACLU Nominating
Committee, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004. ACLU members may also make
nominations to the National Board by submitting a petition with the names and signatures of 50 ACLU
members to the address above.
Winter 2021 3
4 ACLU Magazine
FRONT
LINE
P R I OR I T IE S
Advancing
Racial Justice
The ACLU calls on the new
administration to confront our
country’s racist legacy.
The early days of 2021 and a new administration
mark a watershed moment—a historic opportunity
to address racial injustice in America. At the heart
of transformative change are reparations to descen-
dants of the enslaved Africans upon whose backs our
country’s incredible wealth was built. While no res-
The Biden- titution could ever fully compensate for centuries of
Harris
administration institutional violence and oppression, reconciliation
has a unique can be achieved with an honest assessment of how
opportunity to slavery affected economic opportunity, voting rights,
prioritize racial
justice in its and the criminal legal system. The country craves
first 100 days. this reckoning, and the time to act is now.
P H OTO G R A P H BY C H A N G W. L E E / T H E N E W YO R K T I M ES/ R E D U X Winter 2021 5
P R I OR I T IE S C A S E ST UDY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
This tough but necessary national conversation is
just part of the path toward restorative justice. The Militarizing
ACLU calls for the Biden-Harris administration to
set in motion a comprehensive plan to eradicate the the Police
vestiges of colonization, slavery, and Jim Crow, and
prioritize political and economic equality. As people took to the streets last year to protest police brutality,
To achieve true systemic equality, the ACLU many were met with forces armed with riot gear, tear gas, and rubber
asks that the new administration pursue an ambi- bullets. That the police in our communities often look indistinguish-
tious agenda that prioritizes racial justice: passing able from the military is no accident. Since 1997, the U.S. Department
H.R. 40, which would establish a commission to of Defense’s 1033 program has distributed more than $7.4 billion
study the impact of slavery and develop propos- worth of military weapons to over 8,000 law enforcement agencies.
als for reparations to Black Americans; protecting Local police in the state of Arizona have a staggering cache of
and advancing voting rights; strengthening fair weaponry (pictured) secured through the 1033 program, which has
housing policies; forgiving student loans; and long been used to militarize the southern border. Ostensibly obtained
expanding access to broadband to ensure margin- for security, the equipment is often diverted to aggressive commu-
alized communities have access to employment and nity enforcement, frequently terrorizing people of color. —CLIO CHANG
education opportunities. Join the ACLU in demanding a moratorium on the 1033 program at
The ACLU and its affiliates will bring all legal and aclu.org/1033.
legislative resources to bear on core issues that dis-
proportionately impact racial minorities, from voter
re-enfranchisement efforts in Georgia to the ACLU of
Louisiana’s Justice Lab, a litigation effort to combat
discriminatory police practices. Police divestment
and criminal legal reform at the federal, state, and
municipal levels are essential to any substantive
redress of institutionalized racism. 32 bomb suits
“Equality has been a dream turned mirage pur-
sued by many generations of Black Americans,”
says ACLU of Georgia Executive Director Andrea
Young, whose affiliate has partnered with groups
such as the Urban League of Metro Atlanta, Sister-
Song, and Black Voters Matter. “Given centuries of
relentless exploitation, investments must be made
in Black families and communities to remedy the
racial wealth gap.”
Advancing democracy requires an honest account-
ing of racism’s devastation and a full-bodied effort
to rebalance political and economic power. We must
bring our institutions and policies in line with our
stated national values. We call on the administration
to seize this moment. —JAY A. FERNANDEZ
I L LU ST R AT I O N BY M G M T. D ES I G N
Call Congress
Contact your legislators today and urge them to support
H.R. 40 and reparations for slavery.
To be connected to your reps, visit aclu.org/reparations.
6 ACLU Magazine
17 observational helicopters No Justice,
No Peace
When you’re out on the
More than half of people targeted by local SWAT streets, it’s important
teams are Black and Latinx. With no evidence to know your legal rights
that it lowers violent crime or makes officers as a protester. Here are
safer, militarization encourages police to see as
enemies those they are sworn to serve. some tips:
• You have a right to record,
including recording police
42 forced entry tools at work. Video recording
from a safe distance is not
interfering with legitimate
police operations.
1,034 guns • If you’re stopped, the police
can’t confiscate photos
or videos without a warrant.
Keep strong passwords
for your devices and
disable face or fingerprint
RESIDENTS OF ARIZONA
recognition.
• If you’re under arrest, you
have a right to ask why
you are being arrested.
Don’t agree to anything
without a lawyer present.
120 utility trucks • You never have to consent
to a search of yourself or
your belongings. If you do
consent, it can affect you
later in court.
• You have the right to
64 armored vehicles a local phone call if you’re
arrested. Law enforcement
is not allowed to listen
in if you call a lawyer for
legal advice. —C.C.
704 night-vision goggles Visit aclu.org/protest to learn more
about your basic right to assemble.
Q UA N T I T I ES SO U RC E D F RO M T H E 20 14 AC LU R E PO RT WA R CO M ES H O M E . I L LU ST R AT I O N BY B RO CCO L I __ BOY
N AT ION A L R EP OR T
Empowered have been destabilized by social distancing
mandates. Some workers go online to
Workers avoid the virus, only to potentially face
censorship by digital platforms held liable
Decriminalizing sex work has won for user content by SESTA/FOSTA, a 2018
law purported to crack down on online
popular and political support. During
sex trafficking but interferes with sex
a pandemic, it’s urgent. workers’ ability to screen clients.
Prior to the pandemic, the introduc-
tion of legislative reform had expanded
For more than 40 years, the ACLU has allow sex workers to seek health care at the federal and local levels. In late
advocated for the decriminalization of without fear of arrest. 2019, Congress introduced the Safe
sex work. At stake are the health and While consensual buying and selling Sex Workers Study Act, a bill to require
safety of some of the most vulnerable of sexual activity remains illegal in most a national study on the impact of SESTA/
people—transgender women, people of the U.S., the tide has turned interna- FOSTA on the health of sex workers.
of color, unhoused people, and immi- tionally. New Zealand decriminalized both State and local lawmakers have intro-
grants—who are regularly targeted and the buying and selling of sexual activity in duced decriminalization bills in Mas-
assaulted by the police. 2003, while other countries decriminal- sachusetts, New York, Vermont, and
“Sex workers aren’t always a part of ized the sale of sex but left the purchase Maine. The ACLU successfully advocated
the conversation about police brutal- a criminal offense (the so-called Nordic for a 2020 California law prohibiting the
ity, but they should be,” says LaLa B. model). More than half of the U.S. supports arrest of sex workers when they report
Holston-Zannell, ACLU trans justice the New Zealand model, according to a violence against themselves and clari-
campaign manager. Decriminalization 2020 Data for Progress study co-authored fying that condoms cannot be used as
would end thousands of annual arrests by the ACLU, which empowers workers probable cause for an arrest.
and police violence against sex workers— to turn down undesirable clients and Sex workers already protect themselves
including when transgender women of negotiate safer sex practices. and each other. The movement to decrim-
color are profiled and harassed or sus- COVID-19 has made decriminalization inalize is demanding the government
ceptible to sexual extortion. It would also imperative. Already precarious incomes do the same. —SESSI BLANCHARD
Visit aclu.org/sexwork to read the ACLU report Is Sex Work Decriminalization the Answer?
8 ACLU Magazine I L LU ST R AT I O N BY L I SA L A RSO N -WA L K E RF R IEND OF T HE C OUR T
The Court of
Public Opinion
David Cole, national legal director
of the ACLU, answers your questions
about the judicial landscape in the
wake of a changed Supreme Court—
and why citizen activists are essential.
q:
With a conservative majority
on the Supreme Court, how can
the ACLU continue to protect
civil liberties?
It’s worth keeping in mind that
the Supreme Court has had
a majority of conservative,
Republican-appointed justices
since 1971. Yet during that
50-year period, in cases brought
by the ACLU and its allies,
the court recognized that sex
discrimination violates the
Constitution, upheld the right to
abortion, recognized marriage
equality, upheld affirmative
action, expanded speech rights,
limited the death penalty, and
expanded criminal defendants’
trial rights.
We have shown that we can win to overturn this nearly 50-year- party is in power risks the same
before a conservative-majority old precedent. Historically, the response when the other party
Supreme Court. At the same time, court’s rulings tend to reflect takes power and would further
we will be looking increasingly changes wrought more broadly politicize the court. Other
to other forums, including at in the political and legal culture measures are designed to reduce
the state and local levels, where through the work of civil society the politicization of the court,
much of the work of civil liberties groups like the ACLU. But we including one that justices serve
occurs. The ACLU is well situated must remain vigilant about more 18-year terms, staggered so
to do that work with our affiliates’ subtle ways of undermining the that every president gets two
presence in every state. right to abortion, as those may appointments during their term.
be more likely than an outright As noted previously, the court
What’s to stop the court from reversal of Roe. has rarely diverged substantially
rolling back landmark rulings from public opinion on
such as Roe v. Wade? Does the ACLU support efforts fundamental constitutional
Over time, the court has rarely to reform the Supreme Court, issues, so the ACLU’s job—and
parted dramatically from where including its membership? yours—is to make sure they hear
the people are on the nation’s The ACLU has not yet taken us loud and clear.
fundamental values, so if we can a position on expanding the
sustain broad support for Roe, it court. Simply increasing the Please send your questions to
will be more difficult for the court size of the court when one ACLUmagazine@aclu.org.
P H OTO G R A P H BY JA R E D SOA R ES Winter 2021 910 ACLU Magazine
tHE
LiNE
This year marks the beginning of a once-a-
decade redistricting process. But as technology
has become increasingly sophisticated, it’s
easier than ever for lawmakers to manipulate
their maps for partisan gain or minority voter
suppression. A team of ACLU analysts is
generating its own maps to challenge racial
gerrymandering.
BY MICHAEL HARDY
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JON HAN Winter 2021 11The VRA has received widespread bipartisan support in Congress. But recently the
Supreme Court is another story. In 2013, the court’s 5-4 decision in Shelby County v.
Holder gutted the law’s preclearance requirement. Writing for the majority, Chief
Justice John Roberts argued that changes in the South since 1965 had rendered
such protections unnecessary. The ACLU intervened in the case on behalf of the
Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and several African American residents
of Shelby County whose voting rights were impacted by the lawsuit.
What followed the court’s decision was entirely predictable. No longer forced
to seek federal approval for their voting laws, state legislatures across the South
raced to enact stricter voter ID requirements and redraw electoral district maps to
dilute minority voting power, also known as racial gerrymandering. Within hours
of the Supreme Court decision, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced
that a redistricting map that had been tied up for years in preclearance litigation
ver since would take immediate effect. North Carolina enacted a massive voting bill that,
some com- as a federal appeals court would later find, “target[ed] African Americans with
munities of almost surgical precision.”
t
color secured the constitutional right
to vote in 1870, state legislatures, espe- o adapt to a post-Shelby world that’s given racial gerryman-
cially in the South, have employed a dering room to thrive, the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project is get-
variety of tools to keep them from exer- ting creative. One of its weapons are new statistical methods
cising that right. Poll taxes. Literacy for simulating redistricting plans, developed by researchers
tests. Whites-only primaries. Grand- such as Duke University mathematician Jonathan Mattingly,
father clauses. For almost a century, Harvard University political scientist Kosuke Imai, Tufts
the 15th Amendment was effectively University mathematician Moon Duchin, and Ben Fifield, a data
nullified across the South by a combi- scientist from Princeton University who is now part of the ACLU’s
nation of discriminatory voting laws analytics team.
and widespread racial terrorism. Using fine-grained census data on the political and demographic geography in each
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 state, ACLU analysts run a computer program that generates thousands of potential
(VRA), widely considered the most legislative district maps, each of which conforms to state and federal laws governing
successful civil rights law in American how districts must be drawn. For instance, each district must contain roughly the same
history, banned the most egregious number of people, and each district must
forms of voter suppression, requiring be geographically contiguous.
states with a documented history of The analysts then evaluate each
racial disenfranchisement to obtain potential map according to a num-
federal approval for any changes to ber of variables, including the racial
their election laws and procedures, makeup of the representatives likely
including district maps, in a process to be elected if the map were imple-
known as preclearance. In the wake mented. If most of the maps generated
of the VRA’s passage, African Amer- by the computer program have three
ican voter registration skyrocketed districts that are over 50 percent Afri-
across the South, and Southern states can American, but the map adopted by
sent their first Black representatives the state legislature contains only one
to Congress since Reconstruction. district that is over 50 percent African
In 1964, there were just 300 Black American, that suggests the map drawn
elected officials nationwide; today, impermissibly dilutes the Black vote.
there are more than 10,000. Biparti- “There are more possible maps than “You can look at
san majorities of Congress reautho- there are atoms in the universe, so we any particular
rized the VRA in 1970, 1975, 1982, and, can’t get to the full set,” says ACLU implemented map
most recently, in 2006, when Congress Chief Analytics Officer Lucia Tian.
extended the act for 25 years by a vote “A lot of the new technologies are about
and ask whether
of 390-33 in the House and 98-0 in how to generate a representative sam- it fairly represents
the Senate. ple of the full set. Once you have that all communities.”
12 ACLU Magazinesample, you can look at any particular
implemented map and ask whether
it fairly represents all communities,
especially communities of color.”
To get a head start on the post-census
redistricting process, a team of four
ACLU analysts led by Tian has already
been generating potential maps for the
states most likely to engage in illegal
racial gerrymanders. “We’ve calculated Consider recent events in Sumter County, Georgia, a rural county 140 miles south
early statistics on racial representation of Atlanta. In 2010, the local school board saw a Black majority for the first time in
in those states and then created alter- county history, reflecting the demographic transformation of the community. But
native maps that would correct some of before the new members could take office, the outgoing board voted to redraw the
those racial disparities,” she says. The district map, add two new districts, and move the elections from November to May,
ACLU plans to focus its efforts on state when turnout would likely be lower. As a result of the VRA’s preclearance require-
legislative districts previously covered ment, the changes didn’t take effect until 2014, when, in the wake of Shelby County
by preclearance and is one of the only v. Holder, the Georgia legislature finally implemented the plan.
national, nonpartisan groups focused The map worked just as its creators had intended. In the 2014 school board
on combating racial gerrymandering. election, the member majority was once again non-Black. All of a sudden,
But litigation is just one element of a school district that was 70 percent
the ACLU’s redistricting strategy, which Black, in a county that was 54 per-
will rely heavily on data analytics and cent Black, was governed by a board
computer-generated maps from Tian’s that was 70 percent white. The ACLU
team. “We are focused on ensuring we sued the county on behalf of Reverend
have fair maps, and we’re going to use Mathis Wright Jr., the president of the
every tool we have at our disposal,” says local chapter of the NAACP, arguing
Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the that the new map violated Section 2
ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. ACLU affil- of the VRA. When a district court
iates across the country are already pre- ruled against the county in 2019, the
paring to conduct advocacy work during county appealed to the 11th Circuit
the 2021 legislative session. Court of Appeals, which affirmed the
In Texas, senior policy strategist
“Our job is lower court’s ruling in 2020, stating
Matthew Simpson says his top priority to ensure that the maps “impermissibly diluted
is making sure that communities of color the people are Black voting strength.”
are kept intact rather than being split electing their But in the six years that it took the
up among multiple districts. When the courts to determine that the new maps
2021 Texas legislative session begins in
representatives— violated the VRA, there have been multi-
January, the ACLU and its allies in Austin not the other ple school board elections. “The problem
plan to hold hearings where members way around.” with after-the-fact lawsuits is that they
of these communities can tell their sto- are very time-consuming and can be pro-
ries. “We need to establish that there are cultural, racial, eth- longed by appeals,” says Sean Young,
nic communities that need to be respected,” Simpson argues. legal director of the ACLU of Georgia.
m
“So several discriminatory elections can
inority voter suppression and racial ger- take place, as they did here, while the
rymandering are still illegal—Shelby lawsuit is pending. And not everyone
County v. Holder left intact Section 2 of has tens of thousands of dollars, espe-
the Voting Rights Act, which says that cially in these rural areas, to challenge
states cannot “deny or abridge the right discriminatory districts.”
of any citizen of the United States to vote For every successful challenge to
on account of race or color.” But because a discriminatory voting law, dozens of
states no longer have to obtain preclear- other laws go unchallenged because
ance for changes to their voting laws, of lack of resources, Young says. “Geor-
voters take on an extra burden when challenging discrimina- gia has thousands of municipalities
tory laws in court. Those lawsuits often take years, spanning and over 150 counties. It’s a game of
multiple election cycles, to work their way through the courts. whack-a-mole.”
14 ACLU MagazineDemanding
Fair required to approve a map, after which
the state Supreme Court will provide
Maps a legal review.
Other states have adopted different
methods—in Michigan, for instance,
the 13-member panel of government
Although racial gerrymandering The ACLU filed an amicus brief officials charged with conducting the
remains unconstitutional, in Rucho v. Common Cause, next redistricting was chosen by lot-
redistricting driven by partisan arguing that gerrymandering tery in August, a system established
bias is not illegal under the U.S. subverts the democratic by a 2018 ballot initiative.
Constitution. Following the process. But a 5-4 majority Before states can start redistricting,
last census, in 2010, GOP-led ruled that while partisan of course, they need the 2020 census
legislatures in Pennsylvania, gerrymandering may be numbers. The decennial census is the
North Carolina, Michigan, “incompatible with democratic basis for all redistricting efforts across
Ohio, and Wisconsin adopted principles,” federal courts didn’t the country. Required by the Constitu-
electoral districts that ensured have the authority to overrule tion and carried out every 10 years since
Republicans would win state-drawn maps. 1790, this “actual Enumeration” of the
a disproportionate number of Partisan gerrymandering population determines how many con-
congressional seats. Likewise, lawsuits cannot be heard by gressional seats (and thus many pres-
Democrat-led legislatures federal courts, but voters can idential electors) are awarded to each
in states such as Maryland still influence how their districts state, as well as how congressional dis-
and Illinois created maps are drawn. “The answer to tricts are drawn within those states.
that favored the election of partisan gerrymandering is to Last year’s count faced extraordi-
more Democrats. create districts that reflect and nary challenges thanks to Trump’s
In 2019, the Supreme respond to voters’ choices,” politicization of the census and the
Court heard a series of cases says Theresa Lee, ACLU staff COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed
against both Republican and attorney. “There are clear, the work of census workers. Despite
Democratic gerrymanders. neutral ways to do that.” the Census Bureau’s request for more
time to finish its work, Trump refused
Advocating for fair maps through citizen action is one way to make your voice to extend the deadline for completing
heard and your vote count. Join the ACLU’s grassroots army at peoplepower.org the count.
to demand a transparent redistricting process. “The fact that the census count ended
earlier than anyone is comfortable with
raises concerns,” Lakin says. “What hap-
pens if we can’t trust the count? There
G
are a lot of questions about the data.”
iven America’s long history of gerrymandering, and the cost of The census data will likely be made
defending those gerrymanders in court, it’s no surprise that available to state legislatures this
a growing number of states are handing over responsibility spring, and lawmakers will spend the
for redistricting to independent commissions—the method 2021 legislative sessions drawing new
used by most of the world’s democratic countries. The ACLU electoral maps. Many of these redis-
is broadly supportive of such efforts to remove partisanship tricting schemes will be challenged in
from the process. “The more this can be done by independent court, resulting in years of litigation.
agencies, the better,” Tian says. The maps drawn by these agen- But all the advocacy and legal battles
cies can be evaluated using the same algorithms the ACLU is are worth it to ensure America has
using to examine legislature-drawn districts. Both the process and the results fair elections. “The people in power
must be fair and transparent. always try to rejigger the lines to make
Seventeen states have already stripped their own legislatures of redistricting sure they have the voters they want in
authority. One of the latest is Colorado, where, in 2018, voters approved a pair their districts,” Lakin says. “Our job
of constitutional amendments creating a 12-person commission consisting of is to ensure the people are electing
four Republicans, four Democrats, and four independents selected from a pool their representatives—not the other
of applicants. Eight votes, including at least two of the four independents, will be way around.”
Winter 2021 15HOUSING 16 ACLU Magazine PHOTOGRAPHS BY PRESTON GANNAWAY
Members of
KC Tenants,
including Diane
Charity (second
from right),
distribute
tenants’ rights
materials in
Kansas City.
INSECURE
Decades of discrimination set the stage for a catastrophic
eviction crisis in the wake of the pandemic. ACLU client-
activists in Kansas City, Missouri, are taking matters
into their own hands to secure safe and fair housing for
Black residents.
BY TASBEEH HERWEES Winter 2021 17DIANE CHARITY WAS 12 YEARS OLD when lenge its rollback of critical protections The CDC moratorium was flawed from
her mother and stepfather moved from under the FHA that have helped combat the outset, says Sandra Park, a senior
Omaha, Nebraska, to Kansas City, Mis- housing discrimination. staff attorney with the ACLU’s Women’s
souri, in 1962. The first thing her mother It’s this history that has set the stage Rights Project. It required tenants to
did was buy a house. “For $11,000, it was for a present-day eviction crisis, one that seek out its protections, but did not man-
the biggest, prettiest house on the block,” has dramatically worsened under COVID- date that tenants be given notice of their
says Charity. “Even back then, $11,000 19 and disproportionately impacts Kan- rights. And it didn’t address the long-
seemed like a lot of money.” sas City’s Black residents—and, more term problem. “After the moratorium
The house they owned was in the specifically, its Black female tenants. ends, eviction cases will move forward
Wendell Phillips neighborhood, mak- “Those effects are still very much in unprecedented numbers, as people
ing Charity’s family some of the first present today and are really insepara- face back rent of hundreds or thou-
Black residents in the area. Local zoning ble from the crisis that we’re seeing,” sands of dollars,” says Park, “which most
ordinances that once prevented Black says Linda Morris, staff attorney at the tenants are not going to be able to pay.
people from living south of East 27th National Center for Law and Economic At the ACLU, we view the eviction mor-
Street had been lifted as desegregation Justice and a former fellow with the atorium as a civil rights issue because
efforts began. Charity’s family home sat ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. “Even the pandemic disproportionately affects
less than a block south of the East 27th today, Black women particularly face communities of color.”
Street line. economic disparities and housing dis- In Jackson County, tenants who have
Eager to leave overcrowded and mis- parities due to not just the history of been unable to make rent have been
managed social housing projects, Black segregation and housing inequality in forced to appear in court to contest
residents flocked to new neighborhoods our country, but also huge wealth gaps.” eviction filings—potentially exposing
in the wake of desegregation in the This crisis is now at the center of a fed- them to the virus and contributing to
1950s and 1960s. But Black families also eral lawsuit by the ACLU challenging the its spread—or have been evicted via
became prey to toxic lending practices Kansas City Court in Jackson County, teleconference.
by banks, or were unable to receive mort- Missouri, for violating the Centers for “Tenants are being evicted by con-
gages at all, and encountered discrim- Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) ference call, a gross violation of ten-
inatory housing policies by landlords. nationwide moratorium on evictions due ants’ rights to due process,” says Tara
In the decades since, these practices to COVID-19. The lawsuit was filed on Raghuveer, an evictions researcher and
and policies have indelibly altered the behalf of KC Tenants, a local organiza- co-founder and director of KC Tenants.
social fabric of Kansas City and other cit- tion co-founded by Charity that seeks to Raghuveer and Charity have been organiz-
ies across the country. The Fair Housing advance fair housing access to renters. ing and mobilizing tenants against unfair
Act of 1968 (FHA) eliminated many overt “Our plaintiff is a grassroots group evictions, and raising awareness about
forms of discrimination, but exclusion- that is comprised of poor and working- the harsh and distinct reality that Black
ary practices and implicit bias persist. In class tenants in Kansas City,” says women are most affected by eviction.
October, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit Morris. “The organization and its mem- “The average person who gets evicted
against the U.S. Department of Housing bers have a real stake in the outcome is a 49-year-old Black woman,” says
and Urban Development (HUD) to chal- of this litigation.” Charity. With data from the Evic-
tion Lab, the ACLU’s Women’s Rights
Project found that Black women rent-
ers had evictions filed against them
by landlords at double (or higher) the
rate of white renters in 17 of 36 states.
When Park first joined the ACLU in 2007,
she worked primarily on behalf of
survivors of gender-based violence,
including domestic violence and sex-
ual assault, challenging lease pro-
visions that punished and evicted
“WE VIEW THE EVICTION survivors. Her work also represented
tenants, including low-income and
MORATORIUM AS A CIVIL
Black women, who experienced sexual
harassment from landlords.
RIGHTS ISSUE.”
18 ACLU Magazine“I began to work on eviction as a gender times as likely to have an eviction case Troost Avenue has long served as a dividing
and racial justice issue,” says Park. “It’s filed against them as white men. line between Kansas City’s white and Black
residents, symbolizing decades of housing
often overlooked. I think in part because While racial bias and modern-day discrimination and wealth disparities.
the women who are affected are low- sexism can be blamed for some of this dis-
income women, they are women of color, parity, undoing it requires confronting
and it’s a deeply intersectional issue.” not just the history of individual commu- discriminatory housing practices. In
In 2017, Park, the ACLU of Washing- nities such as King and Jackson Counties, 1976, she moved into Parade Park Homes,
ton, and the Northwest Justice Project but the history of America itself. one of the country’s oldest Black-run
filed the first federal lawsuit challeng- cooperatives, and stayed there until 2006.
ing the common practice of denying UNLIKE HER MOTHER , Diane Charity has “I went yesterday and put in my appli-
housing based on prior eviction filings. never owned a home. She is now 70. Over cation to move back,” she says. “I’m going
The case was filed on behalf of tenant the course of several decades’ living in to try it again and see what I can do.”
Nikita Smith, a resident of King County, Kansas City, she’s experienced multiple Parade Park has been sitting in Kansas
Washington, where Black women are five evictions due to some of the city’s most City’s historic Jazz District for more than
Winter 2021 1960 years. It’s located near the corner of gages. In recent years, as the area caught Sheila Thomas stands outside her
18th and Vine, just a few blocks east the eye of developers, plans for it would mother’s home in Kansas City. Thomas
is facing eviction and is determined to
of Troost Avenue, a street that history has usher in an era of gentrification. There fight for fair housing.
turned into a dividing line between the have been times where even the relation-
city’s white and Black residents. West ship between the Parade Park board and
of Troost is predominantly white. East of its tenants has become hostile, affected dents of the 510-unit complex pursued
Troost is predominantly Black. Which side by the whims of the real estate market, a lawsuit against their co-op board over a
of the line you live on can mean a signifi- according to Charity. It’s part of the rea- proposed $76 million redevelopment
cant difference in wealth and cost of living. son she moved out in 2006. At one point, project that would have potentially dou-
Charity has been around long enough they even tried to evict her. bled the tenants’ “carrying charges,”
to see these stark bifurcations crystallize “They accused me of having a dog. which is what they pay instead of rent.
within her lifetime. When she moved to Then the manager comes to my door Although that conflict was settled in court,
Kansas City as a young girl, desegrega- with a fake eviction notice,” she recalls. redevelopment plans for the surrounding
tion was still a nascent political project, “I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do, sir. area are moving forward, at an estimated
and local activist groups were working I’ll get on this board, and I’ll show you value of more than $100 million, some of
hard to end discriminatory lending prac- a thing or two.’ ” She served on the board which would ostensibly go toward new
tices. Black people, once prohibited from for five years and learned how co-ops— and improved housing. Real estate devel-
living south of East 27th Street because and, more broadly, nonprofits—are run. opers are incentivized with tax credits to
of local ordinances, were eager to move That experience has informed much of make some of that housing affordable,
away from their impacted neighbor- her work with KC Tenants. but this system is a deeply flawed one.
hoods—and banks took advantage by She wasn’t the only one to have griev- “The developer was able to build some
imposing high interests on their mort- ances with the board. In 2016, the resi- cheap housing [and] still charged too
20 ACLU MagazineBLACK WOMEN ARE
PARTICULARLY
much rent,” says Charity. “Then people VULNERABLE TO
leave because they can’t afford [it].”
This is part of the historical process
BEING EVICTED
DURING THE PANDEMIC.
that drives evictions. Developers come
in, raise rent, drive up the cost of living
in any given area, and eventually kick
out old tenants using a number of dif-
ferent tactics. Black women comprise
an overwhelming percentage of people
evicted by those processes. The wage
gap is one reason. But there are other
reasons too: The legacy of the War on
Drugs and over-policing—driven by
a biased criminal legal system—mean
Black families are often separated by
incarceration, leading to economic dev-
astation and increased insecurity for
Black women as primary breadwinners.
Cities also use anti-crime laws to push
out Black residents from their homes.
“Nuisance ordinances disproportion-
ately affect Black women and domestic
violence victims,” says Park.
Black women are particularly vulnera-
ble to being evicted during the pandemic.
They occupy some of the professions most
significantly impacted by the pandemic,
such as service and hospital jobs. And
while some landlords may be willing to
negotiate with tenants about rental pay-
ment plans, their “internalized bias,” says
Raghuveer, may prevent them from nego-
tiating fairly with Black and female ten-
ants. “They’re going to make a deal for
a white family. They might make a deal
for a white man. They’re less likely to
make a deal for a Black mom; a Black, sin-
gle mom,” says Raghuveer, the director of
KC Tenants.
Charity and Raghuveer have been stag-
ing protests and organizing tenants to help
stem the tide of evictions and protect all
tenants from unfair evictions in areas such
as the Jazz District. “We’ve dropped liter-
ature at over 9,500 doors in Kansas City,
all the major apartment complexes where
evictions are happening—the bus lines,
Roger Weaver has lived at Kansas City’s
Parade Park Homes, one of the oldest
Black-run cooperatives in the country,
for 25 years.
Winter 2021 2122 ACLU Magazine
30 MILLION TO
40 MILLION PEOPLE
IN THE U.S. ALONE There has been no real effort to provide
ARE AT RISK rent relief to tenants or landlords, even
though the scale of this crisis has been
OF EVICTION.
known since the early days of the pan-
demic. The CARES Act, passed by Con-
gress in March, included a short-term ban
on evictions for federally financed proper-
ties and did not cover most tenants. Since
then, “people’s financial situations have
gotten much more dire,” says Park. “There
were many states that had moratoria in
place early on. Most of them have expired.”
The ACLU lawsuit on behalf of KC Ten-
ants is an attempt to reduce the impact of
this crisis on one Missouri city. The pur-
pose of the moratorium is to allow peo-
ple to live in their homes, free from the
fear of being physically evicted, and to
prevent the spread of COVID-19. Moving
grocery stores, laundromats,” says Raghu- chance at successfully fighting an eviction forward, the ACLU supports new mora-
veer. Now they have a team of 25 people filing, but many of them are denied a right toria on all eviction cases during the pan-
who meet every Saturday to distribute to counsel in such cases. demic, long-term rent relief for tenants
hundreds of pieces of literature informing “Since we have filed, the state court and their landlords when those morato-
tenants of their rights. They have a hotline judges have used every procedural tac- ria are lifted, and the right to counsel for
for tenants to call for questions about the tic they can to delay a ruling and make tenants in eviction cases.
eviction process and how to fight it. it harder, if not impossible, for tenants To address decades of discriminatory
Despite the CDC’s national mora- to take advantage of the narrow, time- housing policies that have been laid bare
torium, which went into effect at the limited relief the CDC tried to give them,” by the pandemic, a reinstatement of the
beginning of September, eviction filings says Tony Rothert, legal director of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
continue to rise in Missouri, which has ACLU of Missouri. rule, first implemented in 2015, would
some of the weakest protections for ten- Park anticipates mass evictions during require cities and towns to address seg-
ants in the country. As of November 14, and in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. regation and develop plans for afford-
the Jackson County Court, whose presid- There is no way to overemphasize how able, accessible housing. An invalidation
ing judge failed to extend the local mor- catastrophic this will be to American of the Trump administration’s gutting
atorium in May, has allowed more than communities. A study conducted by the of the Disparate Impact Rule, at the cen-
2,378 evictions to be filed since then. Aspen Institute found that 30 million to ter of the ACLU’s federal lawsuit against
“The assumption is that once a tenant 40 million people in the U.S. alone are at HUD, would also restore critical housing
has declared that they are eligible for the risk of eviction. The ripple effect of human protections. This, along with legislation
protection, they should be granted that displacement at that scale is unfath- to prevent landlords from using past
protection until the end of the year,” says omable; it’s a crisis that will perma- eviction filings in their tenant evalu-
Park. “But what the Kansas City Court nently alter the social fabric of our local ations, says Park, will protect tenants
has done is create a new procedure that communities and the nation at large. in the long term and begin to correct
allows landlords to bring their tenants to “There will be a huge increase in street systemic inequities in U.S. housing.
court to challenge their declarations about homelessness, a huge increase in peo- KC Tenants is demanding a future
whether they’re qualified for the morato- ple living with other family members where there is a home guaranteed for
rium.” Studies show that a right to coun- and really doubling, tripling, and qua- every family. “Right now, we treat hous-
sel can significantly increase a tenant’s drupling up,” says Park. “The most com- ing like it’s a bag of pens or a carton of
mon person who is homeless is a child. milk that you go to the store and buy,”
[We have to think] about all the children says Raghuveer. “We’re prioritizing
KC Tenants Director Tara Raghuveer, in whose lives will be completely upended private profits over people’s lives. And in
front of the Jackson County Courthouse,
is demanding a future free of housing and what that does generationally for order to shift that, we have to guarantee
discrimination and inequities. our communities.” housing as a public good.”
Winter 2021 23Despite efforts
to decriminalize marijuana,
arrest rates and
racial disparities
are still rampant.
The ACLU confronts
the racist War on Drugs
to chart a new path
for marijuana reform
and true justice.
BY JAY A. FERNANDEZ
24 ACLU Magazine ILLUSTRATIONS BY CELYN BRAZIERf
or advocates of marijuana Targeted Arrests in the Era of Mari-
legalization, news in recent juana Reform, shows that though there
years has been very good. has been a downward trend nationally
Public support has risen between 2010 and 2018, law enforcement
to 67 percent. Thirty-six still made a staggering 6 million mari-
states have now sanctioned juana arrests during that period—and
the medicinal use of canna- the annual number has actually ticked
bis, and since 2012, 15 states upward again in recent years. In 2018,
and Washington, D.C., have law enforcement made nearly 700,000
legalized its recreational use. marijuana-related arrests—90 percent
Legal markets are springing for possession only—and they still
up around the country, early- account for 43 percent of all drug arrests.
adopting states are bene- According to the FBI, police made more
fiting from the flow of new tax revenue, arrests for marijuana in 2018 than for
and dispensaries in many jurisdictions all violent crimes combined.
have been labeled essential businesses At the same time, the report high- stand why this injustice persists and how
during the COVID-19 lockdown. Mar- lights alarmingly persistent trends in to repair the damage, it’s necessary to
ijuana has gone legit, and momentum racist enforcement of marijuana laws. acknowledge the racist structures that
is accelerating. Nationally, Black people are, on average, were built into drug criminalization
But the history of marijuana prohi- 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for from the very beginning.
bition in America is ugly and complex. possession than white people, despite
b
Legalization alone neither confronts similar usage rates, and these dispari- y intention, the government has
the racist origins of drug criminaliza- ties exist in every single state regardless long used drug prohibition to
tion nor addresses the harm suffered by of legalization. In 31 states, including demonize and demoralize certain
targeted populations. For lasting change, a handful where cannabis is now legal, groups with racism and xenopho-
the marijuana reform movement must disparities were actually larger in 2018 bia. In 1971, President Nixon made
center racial justice to make restitution to than in 2010—Black people were as much marijuana prohibition a centerpiece of
the Black and Brown communities devas- as nine times more likely to be arrested his War on Drugs, though his initial focus
tated by the decades-long War on Drugs in some states, while the disparity in was more on prevention and rehabili-
and its insidious effects: mass incarcer- some counties is triple that. tation than enforcement and punish-
ation, poverty, police harassment, and Ending the drug war is not tangen- ment. Still, decades later former Nixon
long-standing barriers to employment, tial to achieving racial justice; it is one adviser John Ehrlichman infamously
housing, and financial assistance for of the most effective paths to restoring admitted that the administration’s anti-
anyone with a marijuana-related con- civil rights and liberties, which is why drug motivations were indeed about
viction on their record. The steps toward the ACLU has consistently prioritized vilifying and persecuting Black people
racial equity—expungement of criminal marijuana reform. But to fully under- and the anti-war left.
records, dedicated community reinvest-
ment, guaranteed access to legal cannabis
markets, removal of collateral conse-
7oo,ooo
quences, changes in prosecutorial policy,
and police divestment—are clear, achiev-
able, and morally just. But there is much
work to be done, and the ACLU contin-
ues to fight at the federal, state, and local
levels to bring about systemic equality in
marijuana reform.
The truth is that despite the genuine
headway being made, legalization and In 2018, law enforcement made
nearly 700,000 marijuana-related arrests—
decriminalization have done little to
90 percent for possession only.
decrease marijuana arrests or the racial Black people are 3.64 times
disparities of enforcement. A recent ACLU more likely to be arrested
report, A Tale of Two Countries: Racially for possession than white people.
26 ACLU Magazine“the war on drugs has been a story
about the government turning on its own people,
targeting the marginalized.”
The Controlled Substances Act that the ability to be a self-agent, to be Arizona recently passed Proposition
classified marijuana, alongside heroin, self-determined,” says Cynthia Rose- 207, which includes social justice pro-
as a Schedule 1 drug with no accepted berry, deputy director of policy at the visions pushed by the ACLU of Arizona:
medical use launched the modern era of ACLU’s Justice Division. “The trauma earmarked tax revenue for a Justice
aggressive policing ramped up during is deep within that person, and then Reinvestment Fund, an avenue to peti-
the Reagan and Bush administrations. All it’s broad across children, families, tion for expungement of certain con-
along, enforcement has been baldly selec- and communities.” victions, and a Social Equity Ownership
tive, with Black and Brown populations Program that issues a dedicated number
t
suffering more arrests and prosecutions, o achieve true, equitable reform, the of licenses to cannabis business owners
longer sentences, and for immigrants, ACLU and its affiliates are advocat- “from communities disproportionately
higher rates of deportation. ing for several key reparatory ele- impacted by the enforcement of previous
“Drug prohibition as practiced in ments: the expungement of past marijuana laws.”
America has never been about science or marijuana convictions, the commit- Cannabis is already big business: Sales
crime,” says ACLU Criminal Law Reform ment of tax revenue from cannabis sales totaled about $15 billion in 2019, and that
Project Director Ezekiel Edwards. “It’s to community reinvestment, and guaran- figure is expected to hit $30 billion by
been about associating certain drugs teed access to the legal industry for those 2024—Arizona and New Jersey alone are
with certain groups. It’s been about fear from communities most impacted by the projected to generate at least $700 mil-
and greed. And it’s been about scoring War on Drugs. States are implementing lion and $850 million, respectively, in
political points, scapegoating, and con- these ideas. yearly recreational sales by 2024. Tax
trolling certain communities that are per- In 2018, Vermont became the first state revenues will scale accordingly and must
ceived as threats to jobs, to status, and to legalize the possession of recreational be earmarked for investments in schools,
to white supremacy. The War on Drugs marijuana through the legislature—Illinois public health, job training, housing, and
has been a story about the government followed suit the following year—and in services in communities ravaged by the
turning on its own people, targeting the October 2020 the state legalized the sale of War on Drugs. Since entering the industry
marginalized. By design, it has fostered marijuana for recreational purposes under can be expensive and federal prohibition
community destruction.” pressure from a coalition that included prevents banks and other institutions
The drug war has wasted billions of the ACLU of Vermont. At the same time, from granting loans, licenses must be
dollars and law enforcement hours. Over- Governor Phil Scott signed into law a bill affordable so the market doesn’t favor the
policing in Black communities has fed that automates the pardon and expunge- white and the wealthy. Black and Brown
mass incarceration with deep collateral ment of past marijuana convictions from entrepreneurs and those from lower-
consequences. Incarceration separates criminal records. As of 2019, in Califor- income neighborhoods need to have
families and often removes breadwinners nia, individuals can petition to get low- equal access to the economic benefits of
from low-income households. After serv- level offenses expunged and high-level the legal cannabis industry.
ing their sentences, those with criminal offenses downgraded, a reform that may Several states are leading the way with
records face obstacles to employment, affect as many as 220,000 people. Mon- ACLU-supported racial justice–centered
voting, housing, student financial aid, and tana’s 2020 Ballot Issue I-190 included reforms. Since 2014, Colorado has gener-
child custody. Even simply a confiscated a provision that allows for individuals ated nearly $8 billion in cannabis sales,
driver’s license for a low-level marijuana to apply for resentencing or expunge- with a portion of the hundreds of millions
offense can impede access to education ment of certain convictions. In June of dollars in annual taxes going to fund
and the ability to look for a job or get to 2020, the ACLU of Nevada successfully vocational programs, business educa-
the courthouse. persuaded the state government to par- tion, and agricultural training, while also
“Legalization isn’t enough because don more than 15,000 people convicted making available low-interest loans and
of all of the other [effects] that remove of misdemeanor possession. grants for entrepreneurs to repair these
Winter 2021 27You can also read
