News & Commentary

ACLU of Alaska will be at Pride 2019 events around the state throughout June. 

This was an amazing week for the rights of Alaskans. For the first time anywhere in our nation a standalone, anti-transgender “bathroom bill” – Prop 1 – was defeated at the ballot box. And it was the voters of Anchorage who did it!

Today, we filed suit against the Palmer Police Department for unlawfully arresting a resident at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Alaska peace officers have no authority under Alaska law to detain or arrest people for being undocumented, even if ICE requests it.

Young people, just like any others, enjoy the rights to freely protest and speak under our constitution. And as the U.S. Supreme Court has long held, neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

In this day and age, it is close to impossible for anyone to get through life without using the internet. That reality is even more true here in Alaska, where larger distances separate us and we have less infrastructure to connect us.

This annual scholarship, established in memory of former ACLU of Alaska board member Joan Hamilton, supports the education of Alaska students who wish to pursue a career in the law, advocate for Alaska Native rights, and defend the constitutional rights and civil liberties of rural Alaskans.

SB 124 forces women to undergo dangerous medical procedures when several safe outpatient alternatives are available. The Alaska Supreme Court has made clear that reproductive rights are fundamental rights.

The ACLU of Alaska today launched the “Alaska Privacy Project” to help Alaskans better track government and corporate intrusions into personal privacy in the last frontier.

As of today, 30 states have introduced or are nearing introducing bills that would restore net neutrality protections in their states. By passing SB 160, Alaska will join that national chorus to announce that the elimination of net neutrality rules is unacceptable.