In 2006 and 2011, the Michigan state legislature expanded the Sex Offender Registry Act (SORA) originally passed in 1994, creating harsher measures that imposed geographic exclusion zones barring registrants from living, working or spending time with their children in much of the state; imposing extensive reporting requirements; and automatically extending registration to life without due process and without a mechanism for review or appeal for the vast majority of registrants.

As we honor Martin Luther King, Jr and his legacy this week, it’s important to examine the intersection of two issues that he devoted energy and attention to: race relations and economic equality. Though his fight for economic equality of the United States’ black citizens occurred decades ago, countless examples let us know the disparities still persist. One such example is in Michigan.

A little more than a year ago, the ACLU of Michigan’s Racial Justice Project convened an important hearing on law enforcement best practices. At the time, the public’s alarm about police violence was at fever pitch, and to the extent the need for clarity about how to address this problem was not already apparent, the popular demand for answers drove the point home.

ACLU at the Michigan Capitol – May 16, 2016

In January 2016, the U.S.. Supreme Court settled an outstanding question in the interpretation of their series of promising opinions addressing the moral and legal question of whether juvenile defendants in our criminal justice system should be treated in the same manner as adults. 

DETROIT—The ACLU of Michigan on Wednesday will urge a state appeals court to overturn the conviction of Benton Harbor civil-rights firebrand Rev. Edward Pinkney, arguing that Pinkney was unfairly jailed in retaliation for his activism and political views.

The ACLU of Michigan has been working to abolish modern-day debtors’ prisons for the past seven years. As part of this work, I have observed courts and represented clients throughout the state, from Muskegon to Port Huron.

No place, however, has resonated with me like the tiny Detroit suburb of Eastpointe, where the constant incarceration of people too poor to pay fines—many of them black—eerily reminds of the sort of exploitative court practices recently uncovered in Ferguson, Mo.

Continuing a series of programs centered on special-education students in public schools, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan will sponsor a panel discussion at Birmingham Unitarian Church in Bloomfield Hills on May 28 on the rights of students with disabilities and the impact of dwindling resources, harsh zero-tolerance laws and other factors.

Last week, the federal education and justice departments took a firm stance against overly punitive school discipline policies that push millions of children each year into the pipeline to prison.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder unveiled guidelines for states to keep schools safe and ensure their discipline policies and practices comply with federal laws.