Ninia Baehr has made quite an impact on civil liberties in Montana and across the nation. She now serves as deputy director of the ACLU of Montana, and 25 years ago as lead plaintiff the Hawaiian same-sex marriage case that set off a movement culminating last year in Hawaii becoming the 16th state to legalize […]
Montana librarians have long promoted intellectual freedom, and they continued the tradition last week at their annual conference in Billings. The Montana Library Association passed a resolution condemning federal spying and calling for change in that program. The group also honored the Billings Public School District for its response to a challenge to Sherman Alexie’s […]
Women and children had their first opportunity ever last week to exercise outside at the Missoula County Detention Facility. Until now, only male prisoners not in solitary confinement were able to exercise outdoors. The outdoor recreation yard was off limits to women, children and men in administrative segregation. When the ACLU found that out in […]
This post originally appeared at FairIsFairMontana.org. Last month, Honey Maid released an ad that featured diverse families with the tagline “This is wholesome.” While some businesses occasionally back down in the face of negative responses, Honey Maid took a measured look and turned both the positive and negative comments into an art piece that confirms their position […]
Portions of this post first appeared on the Colorado Rights Blog, the blog of the ACLU of Colorado. The struggle to find drugs to carry out lethal injection has made headlines all over the country and was recently featured on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. The Colbert Report Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on […]
The Associated Press reported yesterday about a lawsuit the ACLU of Montana and Disability Rights Montana filed against the Montana Department of Corrections and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services over the treatment of prisoners with mental illness at the Montana State Prison and patients declared “Guilty But Mentally Ill” at the […]
A case seeking to establish satellite voting and voting registration on Montana Indian Reservations will proceed. On March 26, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy ruled against Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch’s, and Rosebud, Blaine and Big Horn Counties’ motion to dismiss the case Wandering Medicine v. McCulloch. In his order, Molloy wrote that the […]
This post by ACLU of Montana LGBT Advocacy Coordinator Liz Welch originally appeared at FairIsFairMontana.org Regardless of how you felt about Fred Phelps, the patriarch of the Westboro Baptist Church, this is a good moment to pause and reflect as we mark the moment of his death. While certainly not a celebration, a protest, or to […]
The ACLU of Montana supports peaceful protest, but violent attacks against reproductive health care providers are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. We stand with the staff at All Families Healthcare in Kalispell, Doctor Susan Cahill and the women and families who utilize the clinic for primary and reproductive health care. The clinic was vandalized overnight. […]
Sarah Howell, director of Montana Women Vote, spoke at the Feb. 10 Missoula Council meeting against an anti-panhandling law that violates civil liberties and for commonsense actions that protect safety and actually help Missoula’s poor and homeless. Thank you, Sarah. Here are her comments: We appreciate the opportunity to offer comment on the proposed amendments […]
