News & Commentary

When Baltimore City’s chief lawyer Andre Davis reaffirmed several weeks ago that the City would not always agree to pay punitive damages judgments awarded against Baltimore Police Officers who intentionally and flagrantly abuse their authority, many people in Baltimore, including us at the ACLU of Maryland, cheered.  The hope was that holding officers personally accountable for paying those (very rare) punitive damages would help deter that kind of egregious misconduct.  So when the City announced after the verdict in the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) trial that it would not pay any damages awarded against the officers who plead or were found guilty, it is not surprising that some people also saw that as a step forward for individual police accountability.  But it isn’t.  Instead, it is a transparent attempt to again shift the cost of the BPD’s own repeated and systemic failures onto the people who have been victimized.

After the 2016 election, the ACLU of Maryland realized that we were in for the fight of our lives to protect the civil liberties we hold dear. However, we also received an enormous wave of support. Thousands of Marylanders understood that our rights and liberties were at risk and felt the need to be educated, get involved, and take action.

UPDATE: As this blog post was being sent to press, the court denied the Justice Department's request to delay Thursday's hearing. The court said, "The Government's motion is untimely. To postpone the public hearing at the eleventh hour would be to unduly burden and inconvenience the Court, the other

With the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States, many people are looking for ways to speak out in support of civil rights and liberties.

Ensure Full and Adequate Funding of Public Education – The ACLU of Maryland’s (ACLU-MD) Education Reform Project will fight to protect education funding and strengthen the education funding formula.

Bloomberg Businessweek reported late Tuesday that the Baltimore police have been subjecting that city to a vast and powerful aerial surveillance system since January, without telling, let alone asking, the public that they serve. This is a big deal.

By Michael Abrams

By Barbara Samuels, Attorney Managing ACLU of Maryland's Fair Housing Advocacy"We will build it together"' is the Port Covington claim. Indeed, with

The ACLU of Maryland and Public Justice Center have joined forces to submit comments and recommendations on the proposed Port Covington Master Plan to the Baltimore City Department of Planning. Read our comments.‘We will build it together...' is the Port Covington claim. What we should be building is a 21st Century model for the nation of how an old, rust belt, racially and economically segregated city can create a brand new racially and economically diverse community and an economic engine that generates inclusive growth and shared prosperity. We should show that Baltimore has learned a hard lesson: that the existence of "two Baltimores" - one empowered, wealthy and thriving, the other still redlined and marginalized - is not sustainable.As it stands now, the Port Covington Master Plan is a prime example of structural inequality on a massive scale. Our combined areas of concern include transportation and a lack of inclusive affordable housing, diverse commu