Oklahoma

Op-ed | Lawmakers Can’t Turn Classrooms Into Sunday Schools

The ACLU is fighting against laws in Arkansas and Texas that require public schools to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom, as well as efforts to incorporate religion into other public school activities, in order to defend the separation of church and state and students’ rights.

Consent Decree Aims to Dismantle Wealth-Based Detention in Oklahoma

The ACLU of Oklahoma, the ACLU, and Covington & Burling LLP have reached a settlement agreement with court leadership in Canadian County, Oklahoma, to end the practice of jailing people solely because they cannot afford bail, requiring judges to determine a person’s ability to pay before imposing cash bail and prohibiting conditioning release on bail unless a judge finds that nonfinancial conditions are inadequate.

Oklahoma AG Fights to Keep Wrongly Convicted Man in Prison

A federal judge has found Channen Smith to be “actually innocent” in the 2010 killing of Dominique Jasper, but Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is pushing to keep Smith incarcerated despite the court’s ruling and new evidence suggesting he was wrongly convicted.

Critics Slam Oklahoma’s New Law for Stifling Voter Power

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1027 into law, which restricts citizens’ ability to initiate ballot measures and imposes a county-based vote weighting system that dilutes the influence of urban voters, while critics say it is an attack on direct democracy and the principle of “one person, one vote”.