Freedom, Justice, and Equality. This is what you - our volunteers, community partners, clients, members, and donors – have made possible over the last year.
Your support directly facilitates the victories highlighted below. With your partnership, the ACLU of Michigan will continue to take on the toughest fights - no matter where they arise or who is in office. Thank you.
Knocking Down Barriers to Abortion Access
In 2023, our work resulted in the passage of the Reproductive Health Act that repealed many TRAP laws, which are laws that needlessly put restrictions on abortion clinics and restored private insurance coverage of abortion in Michigan. In 2024, we filed a lawsuit to restore Medicaid coverage of abortion. This unconstitutional law unfairly impacts people trying to make ends meet and disproportionately impacts people of color. Ending these decades-old anti-abortion restrictions is now possible since Michigan voters overwhelmingly adopted the Reproductive Freedom for All constitutional amendment, an ACLU of Michigan-led campaign with partners, in 2022.
Ending Trump-Era Detention without Due Process
In June of 2017, hundreds of Iraqi nationals living in Michigan were rounded up by ICE for immediate deportation back to Iraq without the chance to argue their case in immigration court. Just days before they were to be kicked out of the country, the ACLU of Michigan and partners won a court order to halt these deportations. In the years since, we filed motion after motion to free these men and women from immigration detention and help them secure hearings in immigration court. This past July, we finalized a settlement with the federal government that will help prevent the needless detention of people who have fought to stay with their families and communities rather than being deported to Iraq, where they may face persecution, torture, or even death.
Getting Flint Children the Services and Support They Need in the Wake of the Flint Water Crisis
In September, we announced a groundbreaking agreement in a federal lawsuit brought on behalf of approximately 30,000 Flint children to address the systemic failure to provide adequate special education and related services in the wake of the Flint water crisis. The agreement creates a $9.69 million Special Education Fund, paid largely by the State of Michigan, that will cover special education, and which outlines a robust framework to improve long-term special education and support for children attending schools in the Flint area. This agreement includes a $1.6 million partnership with the University of Michigan-Flint to recruit and retain Flint special education teachers and social workers. The ACLU of Michigan and allies brought this lawsuit in 2016 because the public school system lacked the resources, support, and expertise needed to properly screen children for disabilities in the wake of lead exposure, address their educational needs, and ensure that student with disabilities are not unfairly suspended or expelled.
Limiting Racist Facial Recognition Technology in Detroit
Thanks to the persistence of Farmington Hills resident Robert Williams and the ACLU of Michigan, the Detroit Police Department now has the strongest policy restricting the use of racially biased facial recognition technology in the United States. ACLU-MI filed suit following the Detroit Police Department’s wrongful arrest of Mr. Williams in front of his terrified wife and daughters at their home in 2019. Facial recognition technology is known to often misidentify people of color. Prior to our groundbreaking settlement, DPD had no policy for use of this faulty technology and had more false arrests due to facial recognition than anywhere in the country. Our settlement and Detroit’s new policy is a model for other police departments across the country.
Defending Public Schools & the Democracy They Sustain
In late 2023, a federal Court of Appeals agreed with the ACLU of Michigan that a 50-year-old amendment to Michigan’s Constitution preserving public funding for public schools is constitutional. This victory is in response to a lawsuit that sought to divert hundreds of millions of tax dollars to private and religious schools throughout the state. Inclusive, well-funded public education is a cornerstone of democracy dating back to our nation’s founding. Public education has been under attack in the courts for decades, and, more recently, through a resurgence of book bans targeting literature featuring LGBTQ communities, people of color, and other marginalized groups. The ACLU of Michigan is tracking book bans through a new interactive map on our website and providing resources to empower communities to fight back.
Protecting the First Amendment, Protecting the Right to Vote
Two men who orchestrated robocalls spreading false information to deter Black Detroiters from voting in 2020 argued that the First Amendment protected their actions when the State of Michigan brought charges against them. The ACLU of Michigan filed a brief explaining that the First Amendment does not protect deliberate lies about voting procedures or the consequences of voting when the purpose of such lies is to disenfranchise voters. The Michigan Supreme Court adopted a rule nearly identical to the ACLU's argument and sent the case back to a lower court to apply this rule. This decision prevents future misuse of free speech protections to justify intentionally misleading political tactics that undermine voting rights and political discourse.
Upholding the Will of the People
In 2018, Michigan citizens collected enough signatures to place initiatives on the ballot that would raise the minimum wage and guarantee paid sick time. But instead of allowing citizens to vote on these important measures at the 2018 election, the Michigan Legislature adopted them into law in order to keep them off the ballot—and then proceeded to gut them as soon as the election was over. This cynical “adopt and amend” move, which is unprecedented in Michigan history, was challenged by groups that sponsored the ballot initiatives. Through several rounds of litigation, the ACLU of MIchigan has led a coalition in filing amicus briefs arguing that this tactic is unconstitutional, and the legislation as originally enacted should stand. After five years of litigation, in July the Michigan Supreme Court agreed with us, ruling that “adopt and amend” is unconstitutional. The legislative initiatives as originally passed will take effect next year.