News & Commentary

We gather here today to say NO to the fear, the hate, the white nationalism, and the xenophobia so prevalent in America today. We will all stand together and say with one voice that Delaware protects our own and will not give in to fear and hate.

Are you going to a Town Hall meeting? Here are some talking points and questions you may want to address. We also have a pdf version for you to view and print.

America is home to only 5% of the world’s population yet imprisons 25% of the world’s prisoners. Delaware is an unfortunate leader in this trend. Delaware has the tenth most prisoners per capita in the United States. We incarcerate Delawareans at roughly twice the rate of states like New Jersey and Minnesota. The predictable consequence of stuffing our prisons with non-violent offenders is that our prisons have become overcrowded. Correctional officers are underpaid and prisons are understaffed. Resources that experts say make prisons safer, like adequate mental health care for inmates, have been sacrificed.

On February 10, Staff Attorney Ryan Tack-Hooper joined members of the Islamic Society of Delaware and the staff of Jewish Family Services (JFS) at the airport to welcome Delaware’s first Syrian refugee family—a couple and their infant daughter.

Following the 2016 election, Maeve Parker created the Love Pin Project, which will benefit the ACLU and the ACLU of Delaware.

After the ACLU wrote to the DSCYF about 4th amendment search violations with random drug tests, the DSCYF announced that they would narrow the scope of random employee tests to those interacting directly with children.

On Tuesday, January 10th, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for the position of U.S. Attorney General. Committee members should leave no stone unturned when questioning Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III of Alabama, President-elect Trump's nominee for the position of attorney general.

ACLU of Delaware has confirmed that the news you have read is true: Powell v. State set the precedent for Rauf v. State to be applied retroactively, meaning Death Row will be a thing of the past and those who were living there will serve life sentences. You may recall that the fate of those on Death Row was not clear after the Delaware Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty statue unconstitutional in August (Rauf). Now, we know that they will not be executed.

Oral argument is scheduled for next week in State v. Powell, where the issue is whether the Delaware Supreme Court’s recent decision in State v. Rauf, holding Delaware’s death penalty statute unconstitutional, should be applied to the 12 men now on death row.