The ACLU of North Carolina works in the North Carolina General Assembly and local communities to defend and advance the civil rights and civil liberties of all North Carolinians. When the state legislature is in session, we review every bill for its potential impact on civil liberties and often conduct advocacy on dozens of pieces of legislation at any given time.
The ACLU works with a variety important issues for North Carolinians within the legislature, including:
Criminal Legal Reform We seek to end excessively harsh criminal legal policies that result in mass incarceration, over-criminalization, and racial injustice, and stand in the way of a fair and equal society.
LGBTQ Equality We work to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people can live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression and association.
Reproductive Freedom We work to ensure that every person can make the best decision for themselves and their family about whether and when to have a child without undue political interference.
Voting Rights Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy and the fundamental right upon which all our civil liberties rest. We work to protect and expand Americansʼ freedom to vote.
Immigrant Rights We are dedicated to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of immigrants and to combating public and private discrimination against them.
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Senate Bill 382 is a blatant power grab that would strip away the powers of the governor and attorney general.
Changes made by the bill include the following:
This bill rolls back protections for minors in the criminal legal system.
The SHALOM Act codifies into law the IHRA definition and examples of antisemitism, wrongly conflating criticism of the state of Israel with antisemitism.
This bill circumvents the local authority of sheriffs by requiring them to cooperate with ICE and assist in the federal government’s deportation pipeline.
This bill addresses some technical implementation issues with the Second Chance Act, which allows for automated expungement of dismissed or “not guilty” charges.