The American Civil Liberties Union Podcast

Homophobic repealers win out over claims of "small-government" values. Yes, we are still in Kansas, Dorothy.

A shout-out for televangelist Pat Robertson for admitting that we've lost the War on Drugs.

Listen to this historic ruling in a landmark Racial Justice Act case. A North Carolina judge finds evidence of intentional racial discrimination in the death penalty system and commutes Marcus Robinson's death sentence to life without parole.

Jim Shee is a plaintiff in the ACLU’s case challenging SB 1070, Arizona’s notorious immigration law. Shee is an American citizen of Chinese and Spanish descent and a lifelong Arizona resident. After the law passed, he was stopped twice by police and asked to show his “papers.” He now carries his passport with him at all times in case he is again pulled over and required to prove his right to be in his own country and city.

Transcript

I’ve been affected by SB1070 when it was first enacted on my birthday. It was very vivid April the 6th in 2010, I was leaving a car wash, and I received a text on my way out and so I pulled over and was answering my text. A couple minutes later I saw the flashing lights behind my car, and a Phoenix police officer tapping on my window. So I rolled down my window and he immediately responds, “Let me see your papers.” So I produced my papers. He took them out the window, went to the back of the car, must have called in by his radio and came back a few minutes later, and he said, “Well, you’re all clear. You’re free to go.” I questioned him and I says, “Why did you stop me?” And I says, “Well all I was doing was texting, and which I understand the law says that don’t text while you’re driving so I’m not driving and I’m checking my text. So you stopped me because I look suspicious.” And he says, “Yeah, but you’re free to go now.”

I was born and raised in Arizona, and I am a citizen for 70 plus years and for me to produce my papers, make me feel discriminated, racially profiled because of the color of my skin that I am being subjected to this type of inquiry.

My grandchildren are not blonde hair, blue eyes, and I fear for them that they are going to have to probably produce paperwork that they are here, what is their immigration status, and etc. I feel that’s very degrading and embarrassing.

Brian Nelson was 17 when he was found guilty of armed robbery and murder. He was sentenced to 26 years, and sent to Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum security prison south of Chicago. A year and a half later, he escaped. He spent several years being transferred around, ending up at a minimum security prison in New Mexico. There, he said, “I went in and out of the prison at will.” He made guards’ uniforms, he says, and after pressing them, he would take them out to the guards’ cars for them. “I was 10-15 minutes from the Mexican border,” he said, “and a lot of the guards kept guns in their trunks.”

Then without warning, he was transferred to Tamms Correctional Center, a Supermax prison in Illinois. “We really don’t know [how he got to Tamms],” his lawyer, Alan Mills wrote in an email. “He was never given any formal charge or hearing. He certainly didn’t have any sort of disciplinary problem in New Mexico.” Mills says he suspects once Tamms opened, Illinois simply recalled all prisoners it had sent out of state, and put them in Tamms.

In all, Nelson spent 23 years in solitary confinement. He was released just under two years ago. In this podcast, Nelson talks about the lasting effects of solitary confinement, and the challenges of reintegrating into mainstream society.

In the meantime, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed closing 14 state facilities, including Tamms, as part of an effort to cut the state budget.

Matthew Bentley was 14 years old in 1997 when he broke into a house he thought was unoccupied.While rummaging for valuables, he was confronted by the owner. Matthew shot and killed her with a gun he found in the house. At the time of his crime, Matthew couldn't legally smoke, drive or join the military, but he would receive a mandatory adult sentence — life without the possibility of parole. In a new podcast, you can listen to Matthew tell his own story.

During the 2008 presidential elections, many African-American churches took advantage of early voting to promote ‘take your souls to the polls’—programs that encouraged voting by taking church members directly from Sunday services to the polls.

After record voter turnouts in the 2008 election, 34 states have introduced legislation to limit voting. In Ohio, H.B. 194 seeks to cut the state’s early voting period by more than half, and to prohibit voting on the last Sunday before Election Day.

Opponents of the law worry that if it goes into effect, H.B. 194 will make it difficult for many in Ohio to vote, particularly those African-Americans who got to the polls with the help of their churches.

The law still hasn’t gone into effect, however, and African-American church leaders and others are already getting ready to revive the ‘take your souls to the polls’ campaign.

Here, three prominent pastors talk about the importance of voting, and especially early voting, to their communities.