News & Commentary

Governor Scott’s policies and positions over the past two years have proven increasingly hostile to Vermonters’ civil liberties.

Vermont’s legislature is back in session, and when it comes to civil rights there’s a lot at stake this year. Working with legislators, allied organizations, and ACLU members and supporters, the ACLU of Vermont is pursuing an ambitious agenda to protect and advance the rights and liberties of all Vermonters.

The ACLU of Vermont has long been committed to supporting and defending the rights of indigenous people and communities. We recognize the vital roles peaceful protest, nonviolent civil disobedience, and activism play in defending our civil and human rights. ACLU-VT stands with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its allied indigenous nations and supporters across the globe as they speak out against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

The Vermont Attorney General and Chittenden County State's Attorney are not bringing charges against the Burlington Police Department officer who shot and killed Ralph "Phil" Grennon two months ago. Mr. Grennon, a long-time Burlingtonian with a well-known history of mental illness, was shot after refusing to interact with police or come out of his apartment after making verbal threats against neighbors. Instead, he holed up in his bathtub for five hours while the police repeatedly tried to communicate with him and made several incursions into his apartment. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the Chittenden County State's Attorney called the shooting "justified," and the Attorney General's office agreed.

The omnibus privacy bill (S. 155) the ACLU-VT has been pushing for three years crossed the finish line in the last 12 hours of the final day of the 2016 Vermont legislative session.

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It's been a long time since Edward Snowden revealed to the world the extent of electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency -- so long, in fact, that a movie, CitizenFour, has just been released detailing how and why Snowden did what he did. Congress is not a promising nominee for an award bestowed for quick redress of violations of Americans' basic rights. It has a chance to get in the running, though, for such an award (if not for "quick redress," then at least for "redress") if it takes up and passes the USA Freedom Act during the lame duck session now underway in Washington.

The ACLU of Vermont has filed suit on behalf of a motorist who was stopped and had his car seized, leaving him stranded on the side of the road eight miles from his home in Rutland, because a state trooper said he smelled marijuana but otherwise had no evidence of a crime. At issue is not just an illegal traffic stop but whether police can continue to use a "sniff test" as evidence of a drug crime when possessing small quantities of the drug (marijuana) is no longer a crime.

Constitution Day is this week. It was on Sept. 17 in 1787 that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia wrapped up their work and put their signatures to the document they had been working on for four months. In 2004 Congress officially designated Sept. 17 as Constitution Day, a day to celebrate the federal form of government established in that document and the individual rights attached to it in the Bill of Rights, added in 1791 as the first 10 amendments. But there's a second constitution we should celebrate, too, and that's the Vermont Constitution. The cause for celebration is not just because it's our own state's constitution but because in some cases, the Vermont Constitution provides better protection of personal rights than the U.S. Constitution.