April 20, 2012 - Open House: Milwaukee's Third Ward Gallery Night at the ACLU

ACLU of Wisconsin, 207 E. Buffalo St. #325, Milwaukee, 5:00 - 9:00 p.m., free, donations accepted

Contact Marion Ecks at mecks@aclu-wi.org for more information.

April 27, 2012 - Annual Meeting: Fox Valley ACLU Chapter

Robbins Restaurant, 1810 Omro Rd, Oshkosh, 5:30 p.m., event cost includes dinner

For more information, please send your questions to  liberty@aclu-wi.org . More details to come.

May 8, 2012 - Film and Panel: Choose Privacy Week
UW-Milwaukee Union Theatre, 2nd floor, 2200 Kenwood Blvd, Milwaukee, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m., free
In honor of Choose Privacy Week, attend a screening of the film, "Big Brother, Big Business: The Data-Mining and Surveillance Industries." After the film, a Q&A will include ACLU of Wisconsin Youth and Program Director Emilio De Torre, Associate Director of the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom Angela Maycock and Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Zimmer from UWM's Center for Information and Policy Research.

Transgender Rights: SCOTUS rejects state appeal of ruling denying transgender prisoners' medical care 

We claimed another victory on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the State of Wisconsin after the ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Lambda Legal successfully challenged a state law that prohibited medically necessary treatment for transgender people in prison.  

After it was introduced in 2005 by Rep. Scott Suder (R - Abbotsford), the Wisconsin legislature ignored testimony of state prison medical and mental health directors about the human suffering, monetary costs, and staff burden caused by a law banning medically necessary treatment to transgender prisoners. Act 105 was enacted and took away prison doctors' discretion to prescribe hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery no matter how serious a transgender prisoner's medical need for the treatment.

Fortunately in 2011, the Seventh Court of Appeals struck down the law and a subsequent appellate court hearing upheld that decision. The courts' actions supported the basic notion that medical decisions should be made by doctors, not legislators. Singling out transgender prisoners for discriminatory and cruel denial of medically necessary care is unconstitutional. That the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a further challenge to Fields v. Smith reinforces our position that people should be treated equally by our government: even those behind bars.

For more on this topic, please read the Lambda Legal blog post by one of the attorneys who worked on the case, Dru Levasseur: http://www.lambdalegal.org/news/20120326_wisconsin-anti-transgender

Our Civil Libertarians: Recognizing some of Wisconsin's outstanding civil liberties activists 

If you couldn't join the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation in Milwaukee on St. Patty's Day, visit our Forward for Liberty blog to read more about the incredible activists we recognized with our annual civil liberties awards.

Milwaukee activist Rose Daitsman accepted the lifetime achievement award and spoke about how defending equality and human rights must be the work of every generation. We thanked youth legal observers for their energy and tenacity while volunteering at the Capitol and around the state during major demonstrations in 2011. And Chris Reeder from the Solidarity Sing Along gave a moving speech about how the persistence of the singing event over the past year has ingrained in him, and many other participants, a new value of individual rights to free expression and assembly. You can read more excerpts from Chris's speech from this blog post written by Carrie who attended the Bill of Rights Celebration with other sing along participants.

Read more about the event on our Forward for Liberty blog. You can find photos from the event in the 2012 Annual Bill of Rights Celebration photo album in the ACLU of Wisconsin Facebook page. Please visit and tag your friends.

We don't pick cases that will make a great headline: We go where we are needed and where we will make a great difference.   

It seems like each week comes with a new battle to fight. We are facing an escalating assault on our freedoms in Wisconsin, from voting rights to freedom of speech, and even reproductive rights (again!). We may not win every battle, but make no mistake, we will win the war.

The ACLU of Wisconsin will fight so that our citizens can vote. We will fight to keep the State Capitol open and accessible. We will fight for the students who are bullied and for children who are denied equal access to a quality education. We will fight for female inmates who do not receive adequate and equal health care.

The ACLU of Wisconsin can only expand its reach and strengthen its protection of civil liberties and civil rights with your help. We need to you to make a commitment to us in 2012 - that you will help us grow in our fight for what's right. There will be more battles, and we will be ready to play our role as litigators, educators and advocates.

Please confirm your support for the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation's litigation and education work by making a tax-deductible gift today at www.aclu-wi.org. Freedom can't protect itself!

The ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation will host a Gallery Night open house to celebrate free expression and acknowledge banned art in 2012. Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served. Find out more about the event at on the gallery night website to find out more about other Marshall Building and neighborhood galleries that will be opening their doors to the public for this annual event.

See what the ACLU of Wisconsin did for gallery night a year ago when we unveiled our youth artists' mural wall in our new office space.