Tag: ACLU of West Virginia

Former House of Delegates member Danielle Walker of Morgantown is no longer leading the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of West Virginia.

A statement provided by Anne Farmer, ACLU-WV Board of Directors president, notes, “We are unable to provide comment at this time, as this is a personnel matter. We can confirm that Eli Baumwell has been serving as the interim executive director since Sept. 15.”

The organization’s website says Baumwell will continue to serve as ACLU-WV’s chief lobbyist at the West Virginia Legislature. 

An outspoken, progressive Monongalia County Democrat, Walker took the executive director post in April of this year, becoming the first Black woman to hold the position. 

She was elected to the House of Delegates in 2018. With a fiery, church pulpit oratory, Walker often helped lead demonstrations at the Capitol protesting abortion bans and LGTBQ+ issues.

She resigned from the legislature and as vice-chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party to take the ACLU-WV job.

Walker told West Virginia Public Broadcasting when she took the ACLU leadership role that an initial priority would be to make the unaware in West Virginia understand how the ACLU-WV can help people to help themselves. 

“ACLU has done some wonderful things and is still doing wonderful things in our state,” Walker said on April 3. “But we also have some pockets regionally, where some folks don’t even know the mission of ACLU. And so those are the target areas that we’re going to look towards.”

Messages to Walker for comment remained unanswered at the time of publication. 

A transgender student in Harrison County can continue to participate on her school’s track team, a federal court has ruled.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, has denied a bid by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to allow the state to enforce a ban on transgender student participation in school sports.

Lawmakers passed, and Gov. Jim Justice signed, HB 3293 in 2021. The student, Becky Pepper Jackson, challenged the law, represented by the ACLU of West Virginia and Lambda Legal.

A U.S. district judge in Charleston upheld the law in January. Pepper Jackson appealed to the Fourth Circuit, which allowed her to continue her participation on the track team.

On Friday, the Fourth Circuit rejected Morrisey’s assertion that Pepper Jackson’s improvement in discus and shotput was unfair to her teammates and she should be ineligible to participate.

Judge Steven Agee, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, dissented.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) has filed a lawsuit in the Jefferson County Circuit Court against Jefferson County Commissioner Steve Stolipher. In May 2022, Stolipher blocked constituent Christy Stadig, a resident of Harpers Ferry, from his official government  Facebook page. 

Stadig had responded to a comment on Stoliphers Facebook page asking him about what he had posted. She got a notification that the commissioner had responded to her comment but when she went back to his page, her original comment and his response had been deleted. A few hours later, she realized she had been blocked.

Stadig went to a Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee meeting where she asked Stolpher to unblock her from his Facebook. He responded by laughing at her request.

Aubrey Sparks, the legal director at ACLU-WV, says that blocking a person from an official Facebook page is one of the most common complaints her department gets. She says sometimes there is no malicious intent, just a lack of knowledge. 

“Sometimes public servants just legitimately don’t know that this is something they aren’t permitted to do, and so they rather block someone than really engage.” Sparks said. “Blocking is a problem that is incredibly widespread, and we want to make the point that it’s not okay at any level of government…it is a big deal to our client because she was relying on that access to information to learn about her representatives and policies that would affect her as a resident of Jefferson County.”

Del. Kathie Hess Crouse, R-Putnam, has three Facebook pages. Her personal, campaign, and official Delegate page. While she occasionally blocks or deletes from her personal and campaign pages, she does not on her official delegate page. She says she engages with those with similar and opposing views. 

“Most of the time I let them vent, I’ll read what they’ve said, if it’s something I need to take into consideration I will, but I let them vent and say whatever they want to say,” Crouse said. 

Government official’s social media pages are seen as public forums and blocking a constituent is restricting their freedom of speech. The ACLU-WV has a toolkit to let people know their rights if they have been blocked by a government official.

Jefferson County residents voiced their concerns Thursday at the Jefferson County Commission meeting over a new county ordinance that limits drag performances in front of minors.

The ordinance bars minors from attending what it defines as “Adult Live Performances” featuring obscene or sexual material  —  the ordinance defines that as “nudity, stimulated sexual acts, lewd behavior, and other obscenity.”

County Commissioner Jennifer Krouse, who introduced the ordinance, said it’s intended to keep kids out of “obscene situations.”

Violators could face a $500 fine or 30 days in jail on first offense, and a $1,000 fine and six months in jail for subsequent convictions.

The above screenshots are screenshots of the draft version of the ordinance that was passed by the Jefferson County Commission on Thursday, June 1, 2023. Credit: Jefferson County Commission

Though drag is not specifically mentioned in the ordinance’s text, citizens attending a public meeting say its wording is similar to anti-drag laws passed in other states, like Tennessee’s Senate Bill 3, and goes against the First Amendment rights of the LGBTQ community, for whom drag is a tradition.

“My concern is that it’s going to be used to create issues for LGBTQIA people, and especially trans people in our community,” Jefferson County resident Kelly Pannill-Perkins said. She was present and made comments during a lengthy public hearing portion of the meeting. “I’m also concerned it’s going to unnecessarily prohibit our theatrical and music and dance productions in our area, which are vital to not just our culture, but our economics in this region.”

That sentiment was echoed by Bill Veldran, a Charles Town resident who has performed in drag for 25 years.

“Does this ruling mean that if I step out of my house in drag, that I could be attacked by the police?” Veldran said. “It’s so vague, for one thing, and it just seems to encompass everything.”

The American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia branch also addressed the ordinance Thursday afternoon, tweeting, “If this ordinance is used in any way to quell the rights of performers, we will not hesitate to take swift action.”

Commissioner Krouse responded to concerns following the meeting.

“I’ve been to a drag show, I had a great time. It was fun,” Krouse said. “There was no reason to have kids there. It was not a political thing, but it was funny, it was light-hearted, nothing serious about it. These days, that’s changed. It’s become overtly political. It’s become very, very sexual in nature.”

The ordinance passed 3 to 2 after a committee discussion. Opposition included Jefferson County Commission President Steve Stolipher, who advocated for a public hearing before the ordinance’s passage.

A similar bill at the state level, Senate Bill 253, was also introduced during the 2023 West Virginia Legislative session. It was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee but did not make it past the Senate before the session’s end.

Last week, 23rd Judicial Court Chief Judge Stephen Redding issued an administrative order restricting the general public from bringing electronic devices that can record into the Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan county courthouses. 

The order focuses on safety and security while exempting courthouse employees and courtroom personnel, and provides special exemptions for things like weddings and drug court graduations. 

Eli Baumwell, ACLU West Virginia advocacy director, said cell phones are an everyday tool, and this ruling will disproportionately hurt people by treating cell phones like weapons. 

“It’s going to really cause problems,” Baumwell said. “Particularly for low-income people, people of color, people who are really disproportionately represented in these courts and oftentimes rely on their phones to do things like present evidence.”

The order notes that witnesses and jurors who have not necessarily consented to or volunteered to come to the courthouse have a right not to be photographed, recorded or their coming and goings disseminated outside the courthouse complex. The order states the use of such devices in the common areas of the courthouse may be authorized by the Chief Circuit Court Judge, or the presiding judges of Jefferson and Morgan counties.  

Don Smith, executive director of the West Virginia Press Association, said without knowing more about the safety and security reasons behind the order, it seems an impractical and inconvenient overreach. 

“For residents of the counties who have a lot of information on their phones or need to record information on their phones, be it in a clerk’s office or anywhere else in the courthouse,” Smith said. “It is something that will have to be challenged in terms of the legality of him being able to do this.”

The order said exemptions can also come from presiding judicial officers, and that violators can be fined or imprisoned or face a contempt of court charge.

Redding’s law clerk responded to West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s request for comment and said, “the rules of judicial conduct do not permit this office to comment on what may become a litigated matter.”

West Virginia abortion providers and advocates dropped a federal lawsuit challenging multiple provisions of the state’s near-total abortion ban.

The Women’s Health Center of West Virginia said in a court filing Monday that one of the physicians involved in the suit “has now determined that he will not be able to resume providing abortion care in West Virginia at this time.” The other physician involved in the lawsuit is “no longer available for that role.”

“The physicians who previously worked at the clinic are not able to resume providing abortion care in West Virginia at this time, and so the plaintiffs have decided to discontinue the lawsuit, but have reserved the right to refile if and when the circumstances are right,” said Aubrey Sparks, managing attorney of the ACLU of West Virginia. “The ACLU remains committed to using every tool at our disposal to ensure that everyone in West Virginia can get the essential care they need.”

The lawsuit filed on Feb. 1 claimed West Virginia’s Unborn Child Protection Act is unconstitutional, irrational and caused irreparable harm to the clinic and its patients.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a press release that his office will continue to defend the state’s near-total abortion ban.

“As West Virginia’s first pro-life attorney general, I stand firm in the belief that it is our duty to protect innocent life,” Morrisey said. “We need to save as many innocent babies’ lives as legally possible. I am proud to stand for the most vulnerable of our society and the sanctity of life. My office stands ready to defend this clearly constitutional law to the fullest should this lawsuit be refiled, or against any other legal challenge.”