News & Commentary

Yesterday the Vermont House Committee on Transportation considered H. 237, a bill to implement roadside saliva testing for THC and lowering the permissible BAC limit from .08 to .05 for any person with “any detectable amount” of THC in his or her blood.

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 state trooper involved in the racial profiling / bogus drug case the ACLU brought on behalf of Gregory Zullo of Rutland is no longer with the Vermont State Police, according to the Caledonian Record. "'He is no longer employed by the Vermont State Police,'" VSP spokesman Scott Waterman told the Record. "Waterman also declined to answer any other questions about Hatch 'because of the litigation' and referred all other inquiries about Hatch to the Vermont Attorney General's Office. A message left with at the attorney general's office, seeking further information about Hatch, was not returned by press time," according to the story.

The number of people in American jails is staggering -- 2.2 million, or one in every 100 American adults. Vermont has done better than many other states in bucking the trend. Nonetheless, despite low crime rates, we've been putting more people behind bars, leading to full prisons and the transfer of inmates to private out-of-state jails. The ACLU-VT is part of a coalition, Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, that's working with the national group "Grassroots Leadership" to cut Vermont's ties with private, for-profit prisons and bring Vermont inmates home. You can help -- sign the "Locked Up and Shipped Away" petition to bring Vermont inmates home.

Most of us have probably been thinking a lot about Ferguson, Missouri, this week. On Monday a grand jury there declined to recommend charges against the white Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson, who shot and killed a young black man, Michael Brown, in August. The events may seem distant, but here's a sobering fact that may make them seem a bit more immediate. Police in Burlington, VT, arrest African-Americans at a higher rate than police in Ferguson.

The Supreme Court of the United States has denied review in all of the marriage equality cases pending before it. As a result of the court's action, same-sex couples in Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Utah will now be able to marry the partners they love. Today's orders also mean that same-sex marriage will soon become lawful in at least 30 states.

Significant strides were made this year in the legislature around a number of civil liberties issues. Check out our quick rundown of the high points (as well as some disappointments). Details for each bill can be found on our full legislative report.

'Profiling' Key Topic At Annual Meeting Saturday The work of a young Vermont filmmaker, DeWolfe Morrow of Montpelier, will provide a spring board for discussion of profiling at this year's American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont annual meeting Saturday, Nov. 9 at the National Life building in Montpelier.

A Vermont inn will pay a fine of $10,000 and will place $20,000 in a charitable trust as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a lesbian couple who were told the inn wouldn't host their wedding reception because they were gay.