News & Commentary

As we face the COVID-19 crisis, together, in Mississippi and across the United States, it is essential that all government officials follow public health experts' recommendations to help ensure a response plan that protects the health, safety, and civil liberties of all. 

Transgender Day of Visibility

Please click here to view the ACLU of Mississippi's 2018-19 Annual Report that includes synopses of our victories throughout the year as well as financial breakdowns. 

The Mississippi affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union is hosting Legislative Advocacy Day on January 23 at the Mississippi state capitol.  Volunteers will receive a legislative briefing and undergo legislative lobbyist and media training before going to the state capitol for a press conference and meetings with legislators.

A groundbreaking consent decree will help to prevent the Madison County Sheriff’s Department from engaging in the racially motivated policing practices that have historically been its hallmark. The class-action lawsuit initially filed by us along with our partners at the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP aimed to challenge Madison County’s unconstitutional policing tactics. “The Court’s order affirms the simple but fundamental proposition – that in America police must treat everyone the same regardless of race,” said Joshua Tom, Legal Director and Interim Executive Director of the ACLU of Mississippi. Brown vs. Madison County is groundbreaking, in that it is one of the first consent decrees in the state of Mississippi to address racialized policing. At the time of the suit’s filing, black individuals were almost five times more likely than white people to be arrested in Madison County. 

This year, the ACLU of Mississippi, in a letter nationally coordinated by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, relaunched a campaign demanding that 16 jurisdictions in Mississippi repeal their bans on panhandling. The campaign, #IAskForHelpBecause, was a follow-up to last year’s Housing Not Handcuffs campaign. Since the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Reed vs. Town of Gilbert secured heightened protections for free speech, every case brought against panhandling ordinances – more than 35 to date, including many with language similar to what is found in these 16 Mississippi towns and cities – has been found unconstitutional. The letter by the ACLU of Mississippi was part of a coordinated effort among 15 organizations in 11 states targeting more than 175 similarly outdated ordinances. To date, a total of 20 Mississippi municipalities have been asked to repeal their panhandling ordinances. Among the 20 cities to receive a letter, 8 have repealed their panhandling ordinances. These cities include Meridian, Olive Branch, Ridgeland, Starkville, Vicksburg, Pascagoula, Brandon, and Corinth. There are still cities that refuse to remove these unconstitutional laws from their books, and the ACLU of MS is exploring litigation against particularly egregious ordinances to protect the rights of Mississippi’s citizens. Criminalizing a person for simply asking for help is inefficient and only prolongs homelessness. All Mississippians deserve the right to exercise their freedom of speech, and those in need absolutely deserve the right to ask for help.

Ari Rosmarin, Deputy Director, ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice This

Despite comparable usage rates, blacks are almost four times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana. Unequal enforcement of drug laws combined with over-reliance on policing and incarceration as a cure-all for crime, poverty, mental illness, and addiction have resulted in America’s mass incarceration crisis that disproportionately impacts black and brown people. Mississippi is one the nation’s leading incarcerators with the third highest rate in the nation. The need to change these ineffective and destructive policies is clear. Many states have moved in the right direction by legalizing marijuana either for medical or recreational use and decriminalizing some marijuana possessions. While Mississippi remains entrenched in its tough-on-crime mentality, there is reason for hope. Hattiesburg passed on ordinance decriminalizing first-time possession of marijuana, following a similar ordinance enacted in Jackson. Mississippi voters will decide whether to permit medical marijuana via ballot initiative in 2020.

In the largest workplace raid in American history, ICE rounded up and detained more than 680 members of our communities, putting families in immediate crisis. Hundreds of children returned from their first day of school only to find that their parents had been locked up. We, along with more than two dozen organizations, formed the Mississippi Immigration Coalition to help the families affected by the raids. The Coalition’s help includes legal advice and representation; community, family, and mental health services; and humanitarian aid. As of November 2019, $298,905 has been sent to help 223 families with rent, utilities, medicine, and health care. The devastation that resulted from these raids is a direct result of the Trump administration’s extreme immigration policies, which make no one safer in Mississippi and came at no Mississippian’s urging.