News & Commentary

UPDATE 3/7/2019:

By Nicole Zayas Fortier, Policy Counsel, ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice

"The ACLU of Mississippi will continue to advocate for gender equity in Mississippi. Women's rights are constitutional rights. Women should not have to demand pay equity, nor should women have to demand for access to comprehensive, quality, affordable, and confidential reproductive healthcare. Women in Mississippi should not forced to go to court or to beg for equal treatment under the law. It's time that Mississippi stop playing games with women, and institute reforms that prohibit discrimination and advance progress."

“Rep. Mark Baker is advocating for the reinstatement of administrative asset forfeiture. His efforts to boost civil forfeiture are part of an agenda to bring back the failed and racist War on Drugs, where this and other ineffective, unjust practices were widely used. While civil forfeiture falls on communities of color that may subject to over policing, we are not talking about people who have committed crimes. We are talking about everyday people who have had their homes, cars, money, and other property taken through civil forfeiture, which requires only mere suspicion that the property is connected to a crime. 

The following statement may be attributed to ACLU of Mississippi Executive Director Jennifer Riley Collins:

Governor Bryant’s 2019 State of the State address painted a rosy picture of a state that has moved far beyond its dark past. The dramatic racial and economic disparities in our state reveal the fact that we have not come far enough.

By Udi Ofer, Deputy National Political Director and Director of Campaign for Smart Justice, ACLU

By Madhuri Grewal, Federal Immigration Policy Counsel, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department & Chris Rickerd, Policy Counsel, ACLU National Political Advocacy Department

By Lauren Kuhlik, Equal Justice Works Fellow, ACLU National Prison Project