By Jen Samano, Director of Advocacy
This season, the ACLU of Colorado has been working tirelessly to hold the federal government accountable on behalf of all Coloradans. We have been deepening national coalitions and continuing to partner with local partners to send a clear message to our elected officials working in the U.S. Congress: The people of Colorado deserve representatives that will stand up for their civil rights and liberties.
We have been working especially hard to advocate for civil liberties in the 8th Congressional District, and look forward to expanding these efforts into the 3rd Congressional District this summer to ensure that the we build people power where it matters most — where people from communities like Durango, Grand Junction, and Pueblo can hold their leaders accountable. We know that in these districts, representatives are feeling the heat and must work to earn their constituents’ trust. Here, we will highlight some of the important steps we’ve taken so far this year.
Presidents Day Event
New civil liberties abuses have been occurring every day since the Trump administration took office. In addition to our extensive legal work, we are also prioritizing helping our community members identify concrete actions they can take to fight back at the state, local and federal levels — including by organizing events, rallies, and educational panels. This Presidents Day, ACLU of Colorado organized a town hall event alongside ACLU National. The focus of this event was to push back against federal overreach and unsanctioned and unconstitutional actions taken by DOGE. We know that states and cities are on the frontlines of the fight to protect our rights, and to provide a critical check against the federal government.
Over 400 people attended the town hall, and veterans, faith leaders, parents, and former teachers shared with attendees how they have been impacted by the dramatic and unprecedented cuts to federal funding. Less than one month into the second Trump administration, Coloradans had enough of Trump’s radical agenda.
Medicaid Town Hall Event
This spring, Congress released a draft federal budget that included provisions for substantial cuts to Medicaid and other critical public benefits. In April, we and our partners gathered for a panel event to urge Representative Gabe Evans of Colorado's 8th Congressional district, our state's newest district, to do everything in his power to stop all cuts to Medicaid.
As proposed, these cuts to Medicaid would impact 126,000 people in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District alone. It has been estimated that these cuts would leave 8.6 million Americans completely uninsured. People with disabilities, working families, and those who rely on these benefits to survive would be among the most impacted. Let’s be clear: this federal budget would leave many of our community members to die. It is unconscionable.
To emphasize the importance of Medicaid programs to our state, the ACLU of Colorado and its partners — including a coalition of patients, parents, health care providers, state workers, and community advocates — used the town hall event in Thornton to urge Rep. Evans to protect the funding that allows hundreds of thousands of people in Colorado to access life-saving care.
Looking Ahead to the Summer
As we move into the summer season, we will continue to fight back and hold the line for Coloradans’ civil rights and liberties.
Throughout the summer, we will focus our energy on organizing more Know your rights trainings in communities located across the state. Initially developed as part of our PEAK: Public Education, Activism and Know your rights program, these trainings build upon the ACLU’s long legacy of providing non-partisan civic education.
Available for a wide range of audiences, our Know your rights trainings are intended to inform community members about what their rights are, how to exercise them, and what to do in an occasion when rights are violated. During these times of radical overreach and unconstitutional activity, these trainings are more valuable than ever. These trainings focus on a wide range of topics so that participants will be prepared in any scenario, with subjects including encounters with law enforcement, immigrants’ rights, reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, students’ rights, protestors rights, disability rights, and more.
Another focus of the ACLU of Colorado as we move into the summer will be finding ways to leverage our large base to build up a volunteer network of civil liberties watchdogs. Empowering our members is an important way that we can work together to protect civil rights and liberties in parts of the state — especially the most rural regions of Colorado — where we otherwise would not have as large a presence. Whether it’s by hosting trainings on how to organize a phone bank, write a letter to the editor, or canvass, we look forward to giving our supporters the tools they need to become community leaders.
One key focus area for this new volunteer strategy will be on issues impacting youth — book bans, censorship of classroom discussions of race or LGBTQ+ content, or discrimination against trans students. Already, we’re seeing examples across the state of local governing bodies independently roll back rights for LGBTQ+ youth — like the school board in Woodland Park that passed a resolution in January to reject “gender ideology.”. Or the District 49 (near Colorado Springs) school board that, in May, proposed a new policy to ban transgender students from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity. ACLU of Colorado is looking for new ways to engage members across the state to help us identify — and react to — these local policy changes. Our Youth Summer Institute will be a pivotal first step in this work.
We will not give up advocating for civil rights and liberties until all Coloradans are protected, and we’re grateful to have these opportunities to help make our state residents’ voices heard by our representatives in Congress.
