ACLU of Kentucky

Reprinted from the Herald Leader.

The nation has begun commemorating a series of 50th anniversary milestones from the civil rights movement.
Looking back, it is hard to imagine an America where citizens could be denied a job, a home or service in a restaurant or hotel because of their race, sex, ethnicity, religion or disability. But that was acceptable until anti-discrimination laws were passed in the mid-1960s.

Those laws didn't just happen. People were beaten, jailed and even killed while fighting for them — and it wasn't just the people who suffered discrimination. Things didn't change until enough other people found the courage to speak out.

I offer this history lesson because Kentucky's civil rights law remains incomplete. In most of this state, citizens can still be denied a job, a rental home or service in public accommodations based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Read the full Herald Leader column here .

We came to Bowling Green, Ky., home of our good-humored surrogate, Gail, with a court order from California designating me and Richard — my husband in some states, though not in Kentucky — as the future baby’s legal parents. I’d been hoping to avoid Kentucky. Its laws make it seem unwelcoming to gay people and ambivalent about surrogacy. I figured that culturally it would be red-statey too, full of homophobia, guns and fatty foods. The coasts seemed safer, especially for a black man, a Jew and their black-Jewish daughter.

Read the full NYT peice here .

The Herald-Leader reports on a problematic deportation program in Lexington:

Since Lexington joined a federal program in October aimed at deporting illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes, 75.6 percent of the 41 people deported have been convicted of a minor crime or no crime at all.

Lexington's percentage of such deportations is well above the national average of 60 percent, according to a Herald-Leader analysis of a report on the program released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 4.

...Kate Miller, a program associate with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said "the removals are contrary to ICE's goal of prioritizing dangerous criminals."

Secure Communities, Miller said, "operates with minimal transparency and accountability; it facilitates racial profiling and unconstitutional arrests; it creates a risk of unlawful and prolonged detention and unfairly impacts individuals."  

For the full story, click here.

After arguing a court case for the better part of two days, Joshua Puckett and Mashayla Hays, both 18, were still eager to continue and passionate about the issue — a female student who was suspended after wearing a tuxedo to school in protest.

The Central High School students did such a good job presenting their arguments at the Marshall-Brennan National Moot Court Competition that Joshua won first place and Mashayla was named runner-up.

It was the first time in the tournament's history that two students from the same school finished in the top four, said Joe Gutmann, a law and government teacher at Central.

During the Moot Court Competition, held April 2-3 in Philadelphia, students argued an actual case involving students' rights under the First Amendment before a three-judge panel, much like lawyers do in an appeals court or the Supreme Court.

Students from various Marshall-Brennan programs sponsored by law schools around the country compete. Gutmann's students participate in the ACLU Marshall-Brennan Program through a partnership with the University of Louisville.

Read the full Courier-Journal story here .