News & Commentary

The ACLU of North Carolina monitored and advocated for or against more than 160 bills concerning civil rights and civil liberties at the General Assembly this year. Here is a high-level look at what passed and what didn’t, and what the ACLU-NC and our partners were able to accomplish.

The nationally publicized video recordings of police officers killing Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota are timely and tragic reminders of the power that people carrying smart phones have to document police misconduct.

"If we are to right the ship, the Judicial Branch will need sufficient investment from this General Assembly to ensure that we adequately fund the basic operations of the court system. . . . If we cannot pay for these basic services, we cannot conduct timely trials."

Early results of a new law that allows North Carolina to drug test people who apply for a program that provides temporary assistance to needy families confirm what the ACLU-NC and others argued at the time of the bill’s passage: it is a wasteful and unnecessary government invasion of privacy.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it would appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss charges of discriminatory profiling and other civil rights abuses filed against Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson

Yesterday, the North Carolina Court of Appeals heard arguments in Perry v. State of North Carolina, a case that asks whether the government should be allowed to track your location in real time using your cell phone without first obtaining a warrant.