News & Commentary

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On behalf of a satiric internet publication, The Howling Pig, and its publisher Tom Mink, the ACLU of Colorado announced today that after three trips to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, a $425,000 settlement finally ends a marathon legal battle over free speech that began on this date eight years ago, when Greeley and Weld County authorities showed up at Mink’s home with a warrant to search for evidence of “criminal libel.”

To resolve an ACLU of Colorado lawsuit filed earlier this year alleging racial profiling, biased policing, and illegal search of a residence, Denver agreed to a settlement that provides for new police policies, new training for officers, and payment of $20,000 to the ACLU’s clients.

The ACLU of Colorado announces our support of the second annual Colorado Gives Day – an initiative to increase philanthropy in Colorado through online giving to Colorado charities. Once again presented by Community First Foundation and FirstBank, Colorado Gives Day is a 24-hour period on Dec. 6 to “give where you live” by making online donations on Community First Foundation’s online giving resource, GivingFirst.org. As a profiled charity on GivingFirst.org, The ACLU of Colorado will participate in this initiative.

The ACLU of Colorado received complaints that on Sunday morning November 13, at the first court appearance of Occupy Denver protesters who were arrested the night before, Magistrate John Hoffman refused to allow reporters and members of the press to bring paper, notebooks or any type of writing utensils into the courtroom. Westword reporter Kelsey Whipple reported that she was forbidden to take notes during the court proceeding. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/11/occupy_denver_arrests_bond.php. In a November 16 letter to Presiding Judge John John Marcucci, the ACLU of Colorado protested this violation of First Amendment rights. For more information, visit https://www.aclu-co.org/case/judge-marcucci-aclu-re-paper-pens.

Based on news stories, video, and reports from participants and legal observers at Occupy Denver, attorneys at the ACLU are concerned that what had initially been characterized as a policy of admirable restraint in regard to activists at the Occupy Denver site has now evolved into an unwise policy of unnecessarily confrontational and provocative police tactics.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado announces that former White House staff member Denise Maes will join the ACLU as Director of Public Policy, succeeding Jessie Ulibarri, who has resigned his position.

In an announcement today, the ACLU of Colorado praised the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) for adopting a new Administrative Regulation—drafted after months of collaborative negotiation with ACLU attorneys—that puts a stop to a practice the ACLU had criticized as unconstitutional corporal punishment. The newly-revised regulation prohibits CDOC officials from chaining and shackling compliant prisoners for extended periods of time when those prisoners are safely locked alone inside maximum-security prison cells.

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union national office today filed a federal lawsuit against a former high-level White House staffer for enacting a policy that unlawfully excluded individuals perceived to be critical of the administration from public events where President Bush was present. The policy is laid out in an October 2002 "Presidential Advance Manual" obtained by the ACLU.