News & Commentary

I just can’t stop shaking my head at the absurdity of it all.

The ACLU of Montana was proud to welcome Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the national American Civil Liberties Union to Montana. While in Montana, Mr. Romero delivered lectured in both Missoula and Bozeman.  

Having just returned from the ACLU Nationwide Staff Conference in Orlando, Florida, I am energized and looking forward to our annual meeting in March, and to National Executive Director Anthony Romero’s visit in April.  One of the things we talked a lot about at the conference was the ACLU’s shift toward becoming more “political.” While that shift has generated excitement, it has also led to some confusion:  What does it mean for the ACLU to be political?  Can we do so without risking becoming partisan?  As National Political Director Karin Johanson put it at the conference, “Being more political means being more powerful.”  It means using the tools of political engagement, in addition to the time-honored ACLU tool of litigation, to defend and promote civil liberties.  It means being active not only in courtrooms but in the legislature, at city councils, and on ballot measures.  It means amplifying our work by communicating effectively with the public.  And, most importantly, when we use of all of these tools in a coordinated fashion to advance carefully chosen strategic priorities, we can be especially powerful.

2016 is an election year, and with the new year comes both opportunities and challenges to the voting rights of Montana citizens.  Indians in Montana have been routinely denied rights since Montana first became a territory.  Although many  tribes have lived in Montana for thousands of years, they were denied United States citizenship until the passage of the federal Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, less than a century ago.   Even then Indians were not welcomed as citizens, but instead were subject to a determined campaign by the State of Montana and its political subdivisions to marginalize Indians as voters.

On March 5, 2016, ACLU of Montana and the Alexander Blewett III School of Law co-hosted an educational forum featuring the current candidates for the Montana Supreme Court.

The movement to limit the use of solitary confinement in our prisons gained new momentum in January when President Obama took executive action to limit the use of solitary throughout the federal prison system.

“The time is always right to do what is right.” Martin Luther King Jr.

January 16th is Freedom of Religion Day and in his annual proclamation today, President Obama said

By Jennifer Kirby, Director – Montana Abolition Coalition