News & Commentary

In a follow-up to the ACLU's letter of July 16, which criticized a "Gypsy scams" alert as encouraging racial profiling, the ACLU sent a follow-up letter congratulating the Arapahoe County Sheriff for his response, which included discontinuing training seminars sponsored by a consulting group that employed ethnic-based characterizations of criminal activity. 

ACLU-CO’s Boulder Chapter scored a victory yesterday when the City of Boulder chose to drop a proposed ordinance requiring permits for demonstrations. Thanks to our Boulder friends for speaking up and saying no!

Change can be slow. The legal process takes time, and it can take months or years to see the results of hard work on behalf of civil liberties. Getting an unconstitutional policy changed in 48 hours is almost unheard of, but that’s exactly what I was able to do last week.

By Rosalie Wilmot

In a letter dated July 16, 2012, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado demanded that Arapahoe County Sheriff J. Grayson Robinson rescind a recent Sheriff’s Office alert titled “Gypsy Scams” that could result in the racial profiling of persons described by the Sheriff’s Office as “Gypsies.”

Declaration of Ashlee Shields

Declaration of Sean Shields

By Elliot Mamet

On today, June 25, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court struck three provisions of Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant law, but permitted enactment of the controversial “show me your papers” provision. The “show me your papers” provision requires local police to determine the immigration status of someone arrested or detained when there is a “reasonable suspicion” a person is in the United States illegally. This provision will undoubtedly will lead to racial profiling and discrimination.