At year's end, we’re reflecting on all we accomplished in 2024.
We continued our legal and advocacy work to make voting easier for more people across the state, to challenge politicians' invasion of privacy in healthcare, to reduce mass incarceration, and to protect students' right to learn. Below are some of the crucial issues we tackled head-on.
Criminal Legal Reform
We took action against the overuse of pre-trial detention and harsh sentencing practices by getting the Fulton County Commission to withdraw its approval to build a new jail. We filed a lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 63, the state's unconstitutional criminal bond law and we were successful in halting the bill's criminalization of charitable bail funds. We also won a groundbreaking settlement to end discriminatory hurdles that make it harder for deaf and hard-of-hearing Georgians to avoid prison and live safely in their communities.
Speech and Privacy
We took action on nearly 20 bills that threatened the speech and privacy rights and freedoms of Georgians. The ACLU of Georgia joined the fight to stop a religious rights bill that would have harmed the LGBTQ+ community and people seeking reproductive healthcare or HIV treatments. We also stopped bills aimed at censoring sex education in schools and banning government funding to public and school libraries because lawmakers want to censor the content of books.
Reproductive Justice
We advanced our fight against the state's restrictive abortion ban with a court win that blocked the six-week ban and affirmed Georgians' reproductive rights. Although the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the ban, we continue to pursue all legal means to give Georgians the right to make their own health care decisions free from political interference.
Voting Rights
From blocking gerrymandering to defeating last-minute rules that would have complicated the voting process to opposing more than 50 election-related bills, our focus on protecting voter access was at the forefront of our work. Wins included increasing majority Black districts in Georgia – four in the House and two in the Senate. In a win for Black and Latinx voters, we blocked a gerrymandered Cobb County School Board map. We also made it possible for hundreds of Cobb County absentee voters to have their votes counted.
In the coming year, we’ll continue focusing on these priorities. Our most pressing task is planning for Georgia’s 2025 Legislative Session. The work will involve promoting legislation and policies that expand rights rather than trample them. It’s safe to assume some state lawmakers will introduce and push forward a slew of bills aiming to do the opposite. With your ongoing help, we’ll continue defending and strengthening civil rights and liberties with our full force.
