13 New Year’s Resolutions That Will Make 2014 The Best Civil Liberties Year Ever!

Sure, going to the gym, spending less time on Facebook, and cutting back the amount of hours spent obsessing over Scandal (can’t help it!) are all worthy New Year’s resolutions, but what about some resolutions that honor our love of liberty and justice, for all?

1. We should all resolve to spread the love!

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Currently, same-sex couples have the freedom to marry in 17 states and the District of Columbia, but roughly 2/3 of states do not permit loving, committed same-sex couples to marry. It’s time to spread the love to the rest of the country. The ACLU is working in the courts, state legislatures, and with a broad range of partners (including Republicans and Democrats) to relegate discrimination against gay and lesbian couples to the dustbin of history.

2. UPS should resolve to stop pushing out their pregnant employees.

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Both Peggy Young and Julie Desantis-Mayer were pushed out of their jobs by the shipping giant UPS. Employers, including UPS, must give pregnant women reasonable accommodations at work, instead of clinging to the stereotype that women belong at home, barefoot and pregnant, instead of on the job.

3. Extremist politicians should resolve to stop F-ing with women. Seriously, just stop it.

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Over 300 anti-abortion restrictions were introduced during the 2013 state legislative session. From motorcycle vaginas to claims that "women don't get pregnant that often from rape," we have seen some politicians and their political allies go to ridiculous lengths to push through anti-choice measures. These politicians MUST think we are stupid if they think we want politicians playing doctor.

4. The NSA should resolve to stop tracking our phone calls.

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Edward Snowden and The Guardian famously revealed that the National Security Agency is collecting metadata on virtually every call made by virtually everyone in the United States. The ACLU sued within a matter of days, and we all know by now that metadata (which includes who calls whom, when those calls are made, and how long they last) can be even more revealing than the content of your phone calls. Do you want the government knowing when you call your shrink, pastor, or lover? Yeah, neither do we, and neither does our Constitution.

5. Congress and Obama should resolve to do what it takes to close Guantánamo.

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Of the 155 detainees remaining at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, 76 have been deemed to pose no security threat to the United States, and have been cleared for transfer. But they’re still there. Does indefinite detention without charge or trial make sense for a country that prides itself on due process? Not so much. Detainees whom the government seeks to prosecute should be transferred to federal court if there’s evidence against them that’s untainted by torture. The rest should be sent home (or to a third country, if they’d be in danger at home). There’s no overstating the toll that Gitmo has taken on our values and our human rights record, and it’s time to close it – and fast.

6. The NYPD should resolve to stop spying on Muslim New Yorkers.

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Can you imagine your routine coffee-shop conversations – or your wedding – being monitored by police informants? Hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslim New Yorkers can. Whole communities have been treated as terrorists and swept up in a dragnet that reportedly hasn’t generated even one terrorism lead. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) needs to review the constitutional ABCs and figure out that freedom of religion doesn’t entail treating the members of an entire religious group as suspect – based on nothing more than their faith.

7. The House of Representatives should resolve to stop procrastinating and pass immigration reform.

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The Senate did it. Americans want it. What are you waiting for, House of Representatives? The millions of immigrants who contribute to our country every day can’t wait any longer.

8. Politicians everywhere should resolve to let people vote.

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Listen, we know you’re scared about keeping your jobs. But cutting back early voting, stopping people from voting in federal elections, and other blatant attacks to suppress the vote, particularly among minority voters, isn’t the way to do it. It’s just hurting our democracy.

9. Hobby Lobby should resolve to stop standing in the way of their employees’ access to birth control.

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Access to birth control should be between a woman and her doctor. Not her boss! We’re all about freedom of religion, but Hobby Lobby and other businesses that won’t provide no-cost contraceptive coverage need to stop imposing their religious beliefs on their employees.

10. Arizona officials should resolve to let sick kids get the medicine they need, without threatening to prosecute them.

wjlondon.com

Two brain surgeries did not help, but after taking medical marijuana for a short time, five-year-old Zander Welton’s severe seizures have all but stopped. He can walk backwards, stack more than two blocks at a time, and recognize his parents’ laughter. But his progress is in jeopardy because some law enforcement officials believe the marijuana oil he’s being treated with is illegal.

11. President Obama should resolve to help people destined to die behind bars for seriously WTF reasons.

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Because of our overly extreme sentencing laws, thousands of people will never spend another holiday season with their families. Instead, these people will be behind bars until they die for relatively minor crimes like shoplifting a jacket or selling a single crack rock. This is an injustice, but it’s not an injustice that’s set in stone. President Obama commuted eight excessively long sentences two weeks ago. Please keep them coming, Mr. President!

12. States and the federal government should resolve to stop locking kids alone in tiny, cement rooms for 23 hours a day.

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Imagine yourself at 13. Maybe you'd just started 8th grade. Maybe you'd just seen your first PG-13 movie. Frankly, it’s shocking that it’s legal, but everyday across the country, kids as young as 13 are held in solitary confinement – spending over 22 hours a day locked in a room the size of a parking spot. For young people who are still developing, the consequences are devastating. It’s time the government committed to ending youth solitary once and for all.

13. School administrators and law enforcement should resolve to keep more children doing school work, not doing time.

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Overly harsh disciplinary policies – like these – push students down the school-to-prison pipeline and into the juvenile justice system. Shut down the school-to-prison pipeline, now!