New York Civil Liberties Union

09/13/2026

A Trump administration that calls its political enemies “terrorists.” License plate readers that track us everywhere we go. An NYPD with spying capabilities that would make some authoritarian governments green with envy. A hyper-militarized battalion of masked ICE agents who use facial recognition, social media monitoring, and other invasive tools to separate families and intimidate protesters.⁠
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The seeds for each of these dystopian realities were planted by federal, state, and local government officials in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001. A quarter of a century later, these are just some of the many harmful consequences of the policy response to that historic tragedy. Read more at our link in bio.

09/11/2026

In the months and years following the attacks of 9/11, a newly emboldened Bush administration waged forever wars, birthed new, metastasizing government agencies, and provided cover for law enforcement across the nation to dismantle existing civil rights and privacy protections.

This legacy has not just continued but snowballed, producing previously unthinkable outcomes. Here are just a few:

A Trump administration that calls its political enemies “terrorists.” License plate readers that track us everywhere we go. An NYPD with spying capabilities that would make some authoritarian governments green with envy. A hyper-militarized battalion of masked ICE agents who use facial recogniti...

09/10/2026

NEW: We're filing a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for its unjustified, military-style raid at a Cato, NY factory in September 2025 that violated the Fourth Amendment rights of over 100 New Yorkers.⁠
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On September 4, 2025, 60 armed and masked federal agents, working together with two county sheriff offices, stormed into the Nutrition Bar Confectioners (NBC) Facility and grabbed over 100 workers, including some U.S. citizens and green card holders. Body camera footage shows agents calling immigrants animals, referring to children as “literal street rats,” and gloating about denying people medical care or access to counsel in detention.⁠
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We cannot stand idly by as officers walk into workplaces and seize whoever they want — including U.S. citizens — for questioning, with no basis whatsoever. With the Worker Justice Center of New York and Paul Tuck of Paul Tuck Law, we'll see the Trump administration in court.

09/09/2026

Anyone using the tragedy of 9/11 to spew Islamophobic hatred is shameful.

NYC has, and always will be, a city of diverse faiths and ethnicities. Racist and repugnant rants against NYC's first Muslim mayor have no place in New York.

New York City mayor confirms he will attend memorial service but declines to respond to Giuliani’s remarks

09/08/2026

📆 Happening next week! 📆

Join NYCLU and Yaffed for a screening of "Unorthodox Education," a documentary examining educational practices in Hasidic and Haredi communities and highlights the impact of limited access to secular education.

After the screening there will be a short panel discussion with filmmakers, the NYCLU and YAFFED where you can ask questions, get updates, and delve deeper into this complex issue.

RSVP today 👇👇👇
https://action.aclu.org/unorthodox-education-screening

09/07/2026

It’s time to end the exploitation and treat incarcerated workers with dignity.

09/04/2026

It’s disturbing that Mt. Sinai is capitulating to the Trump regime by inking an agreement suspending gender-affirming care for transgender young people.

Our state’s hospitals and providers have both a moral and legal obligation to provide needed healthcare to all patients, including trans youth.

As the Trump and his cronies try to erase trans people from public life, we will keep fighting to defend their rights.

Mount Sinai is the latest in a string of U.S. hospitals to reach similar agreements with the Trump administration, including Texas Children’s Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and the Connecticut Children’s Hospital.

09/04/2026

ICE is breaking the law.⁠
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ICE agents in New York are refusing to release people from custody even when they don’t pose a safety or flight risk and in direct violation of a court-ordered settlement.⁠
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Again and again we've sued ICE over its cruel no-release policy - and won - but time and again ICE has ignored both the settlement and the court's enforcement order. So, we're taking them back to court.⁠
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Every New Yorker has the right to remain in their communities, places of work, and homes while their immigration cases play out in court - and we will fight like it.

09/03/2026

Mass surveillance does not equal safety.

09/02/2026

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers have their DNA sitting in a rogue, illegal, and unaccountable database that serves as a constant reminder of how little the NYPD cares about our privacy or due process.⁠
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Earlier this summer we submitted an amicus brief arguing that the NYPD's massive “Suspect DNA Index” violates state law, and that the DNA people inevitably leave on items they discard can’t be seized, searched, or stored by the NYPD without a warrant.⁠
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The NYPD can't be trusted to operate its lawless and invasive database in the shadows.