By Udi Ofer, Director, ACLU Justice Division

An earlier version of this blog appeared in The Hill.

This year marks 50 years since President Richard Nixon declared drugs “public enemy number one,” launching a war on drugs that has pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into law enforcement, led to the incarceration of millions of people — disproportionately Black — and has done nothing to prevent drug overdoses.
 
As President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris prepare to take office, they have an opportunity to begin to put an end to this failed war. And it is abundantly clear that they have a mandate from the electorate to tackle this issue.
 
Today there are more than 1.35 million arrests per year for drug possession, with 500,000 arrests for marijuana alone. Every 25 seconds a person is arrested for possessing drugs for personal use, and on average, a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates. At least 130,000 people are behind bars in the U.S. for drug possession.
 
While tens of billions of dollars are spent each year to prosecute this war, more than 70,000 people still die of drug overdoses. Deaths from heroin overdose in the United States rose 500 percent from 2001 to 2014. Overall deaths from drug overdoses remain higher than the peak yearly death totals ever recorded for car accidents or guns.
 
The war on drugs has failed, and Americans on the right and left are ready for it to end. These views were on display at the ballot box in 2020, when voters across the country approved every ballot measure on scaling back the war on drugs. From Arizona, Oregon, and Montana to South Dakota, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., Americans turned out in droves to say that it’s time to stop criminalizing drug use.
 
The effort in Oregon, led by the Drug Policy Alliance and supported by the ACLU, was the most groundbreaking. This ballot measure decriminalized the possession of drugs for personal use, funding drug addiction treatment and recovery programs with the savings and tax revenue from marijuana legalization. Measure 110 will prevent more than 3,000 arrests a year for drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines. Oregon is now the first state in the nation to decriminalize all drugs, laying the foundation for reorienting the government’s response to drugs to a public health approach rather than a criminal law one.
 
Other states also showed that drug law reform is a winning issue on both sides of the aisle. Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota all legalized marijuana, joining 11 other states and Washington D.C. South Dakota, where Trump received 62 percent of the vote, showed that legalizing marijuana is a bipartisan issue, as did Montana, which elected Republicans to every major office in the state, while also voting to legalize marijuana.
 
Then in December, Congress delivered two victories, joining states in the movement for reform. On Dec. 4, the House of Representatives passed the most comprehensive marijuana reform legislation in Congress, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (H.R. 3884; S. 2227), which decriminalizes marijuana by removing it from the list of scheduled substances, expunges past convictions and arrests, and taxes marijuana to reinvest in communities targeted by the war on drugs. Sen. Harris is the primary sponsor of the MORE Act, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain despite bipartisan support. Then on Dec. 21, Congress passed a COVID-19 stimulus package that included repealing the prohibition on students with drug convictions from receiving federal financial aid, helping thousands of students get an education.
 
With resounding victories in red and blue states, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris now have a clear decree from voters. Here are the five things they can do to begin ending the war on drugs.
 
First, President Biden should issue an executive order within his first 100 days declaring an end to the war on drugs and directing his federal prosecutors and law enforcement to use their discretion to stop prosecuting the war on drugs. Thousands of people are prosecuted in federal court for drug possession and prosecutors have failed to adequately use their discretion to decline these cases, let alone to not seek incarceration as sentence. This must end. An executive order by President Biden should also incentivize states to end the war on drugs, where the large majority of incarceration for drugs takes place.
 
Second, President Biden should commute the sentences of people currently incarcerated for the war on drugs, and pardon people living with the consequences of this failed war. Candidate Biden committed to “reform[ing] the criminal justice system so that no one is incarcerated for drug use alone.” This is his chance to follow through on this promise by at the very least commuting sentences and pardoning people who fall under this category. That would be a good start.
 
Third, President Biden should direct federal funds to pilot new depenalization approaches to drug-related issues, as recently recommended in a report issued by the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. This should include overdose prevention centers, where people can use illicit substances while under medical supervision and can access various treatments and referral services. Such models have existed for many years in countries such as Canada, Germany, and Denmark, and have reduced the likelihood of overdoses.
 
Fourth, President Biden should direct the Department of Justice to withdraw from litigation challenging overdose prevention centers that have been approved at the local level. As cities across the nation attempted to address record number of fatal overdoses, the Trump administration cracked down on cities and challenged them in court. President Biden should reverse this policy and refrain from filing new lawsuits.
 
Finally, the Biden administration should work with Congress to pass legislation such as the MORE Act. Polling has consistently shown that marijuana legalization is a bipartisan issue. Five Republicans voted for the MORE Act in the House. A Biden-Harris administration should use their influence to convince Republicans in the Senate to support the MORE Act.
 
Today, policymakers and the public alike are increasingly adopting approaches that treat substance use as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice one. This recognition is bipartisan, as the war on drugs has not differentiated between blue states and red states, and the public understands the importance of addressing addiction through public health measures. The Biden-Harris administration can begin healing our nation by moving decisively on this issue and beginning to repair the harm caused by 50 years of this failed war.
 

Richard Siegel left legacies of commitment to human and civil rights, the creation and growth of multiple organizations, memorable teaching, and a family that includes two sons and a daughter as well as seven grandchildren.

For fifty years, he worked to make the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nevada an increasingly strong force for the protection of civil liberties and rights. He simultaneously pursued a long career at the University of Nevada, Reno. He remained dedicated to the causes of academic freedom and human rights, and the stimulation of the minds of thousands of political science and other students.

His work with the ACLU of Nevada started in his twenties and continued through his late seventies. In that organization's first years he joined Elmer Rusco and Hazel Erskine to provide necessary initial leadership. Rich continued to serve the state ACLU as a volunteer in almost all capacities, but particularly as a legislative lobbyist and public spokesperson. He recalled exciting moments of change in Nevada law that the Nevada ACLU helped make possible, including breakthroughs in women's and LGBT rights, free expression, and the beginnings of the state's retreat from mass incarceration.

At critical junctures, Rich helped devise ways for the ACLU of Nevada to overcome challenges and go on to reach greater heights. For much of his half century with ACLU of Nevada he served as state board president or Northern Nevada chairperson. The organization twice honored him with lifetime achievement awards, and his work also was acknowledged by the Reno-Sparks chapter of the NAACP.

While Nevada benefited most from his efforts, his life journey included service on the ACLU National Board of Directors as well as research fellowships at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Columbia University and the New York University School of Law. He also contributed to American Association for the Advancement of Science and United Nations human rights initiatives.

For the national ACLU, Rich pioneered efforts to establish public education programs and helped introduce global human rights concerns to the expanding agenda of the organization.

Rich's passions included public speaking and the advancement of numerous organizations concerned with education, law and politics. In his later years, he worked to advance Reno's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) as a place for continuing education available to all the area's older residents. He also left his stamp on such other organizations as The Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, the Nevada Faculty Alliance, the Nevada Committee on Foreign Relations, the Northern Nevada International Center, Nevada's Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice, the Education Alliance of Northern Nevada, and the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

When asked about his passions, he often mentioned his pride in and love of his family, the opportunities he had to discuss issues with hundreds of foreign visitors brought to Reno by the Northern Nevada International Center (and on their overseas turfs), teaching and public speaking, and trying to advance Nevada laws and policies. From the time he arrived in Reno in 1965, he rarely passed up an invitation to speak to an audience in Nevada or abroad about what he cared about most. After his formal retirement from UNR in 2004, he continued to teach International Human Rights for its Honors Program for fourteen years.

Rich's roots were in Brooklyn, New York, where he cut his teeth on civil rights as a passionate fan of Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers. His father, Sam, was a manufacturer in New York's garment district and both of his parents (mother Clara) were strong role models as leaders of their synagogue and in various other organizations.

His most formative experience as a young person was at Brandeis University, where he was introduced to intellectual thought and human rights and met Joan, his first wife and mother of his children. He often spoke about the Brandeis class on The United Nations and Human Rights that he took from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1960, this perhaps the only college course taught by that First Lady.

His path to a career as a professor continued at Columbia University, where he committed himself to a career as a specialist on the Soviet Union and the Cold War. This part of his life included courses and mentoring from such eminent scholars as Zbigniew Brzezinski and Alexander Dallin.

Rich was initially hired at UNR for a position in Soviet studies. Halfway through his fifty years at the University of Nevada, Reno, however, he followed a stronger passion for international human rights, making that his primary teaching and research field. This field brought together his long-term interests in civil liberties and international relations.

Rich is survived by his children (Naomi Siegel Morse, Daniel Siegel, and Jordan Siegel), son-in-law Rick Morse, daughter-in-law Traci Siegel, seven grandchildren (Rachel, Sam, Noah, Max, Tom, Isaac and Maya), his brother William Siegel and sister Roberta Valins.

A virtual memorial service to celebrate his life will take place on January 10, 2021, at 2pm PST. Please RSVP to [email protected], and a Zoom link will be sent before the event.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the ACLU of Nevada or the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

By Sonia Gill, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel

President Trump has assailed the right to vote during his entire time in the Oval Office. Trump’s term was bookended with baseless claims of voter fraud, an unoriginal yet effective trope that has been used throughout our country’s history to erect barriers to discriminate against Black, Hispanic, and Native American voters. Trump’s goal is obvious: to intentionally weaken public trust in our elections and embolden voter suppression efforts. Manufactured claims of fraud to explain away Trump’s loss of the popular vote in the 2016 election led to the creation of a sham commission that eventually disbanded after failing to provide any factual evidence to support Trump’s preposterous statements that millions of people had voted illegally. And following his loss of the 2020 presidential election, Trump has led a rabid assault on American democracy, which has eroded the public’s faith in the outcome of the election and catapulted efforts to subvert the will of voters by overturning the results of the election.

Undeniably, there are problems with our democracy that must be fixed. But these issues do not arise from purported voter fraud. Rather, they are the legacy problems of our republic: systematic efforts by politicians to erect voting barriers and to discriminate against voters of color to tip the balance of power. These problems are enduring, persistent, and verifiable. 

In Georgia and Arizona, the 2020 presidential election demonstrated the power of voters of color to disrupt entrenched political power structures, a development that has unnerved politicians who rely on low voter turnout to maintain the status quo. Next year will also mark the first national redistricting cycle since the Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required state and local governments with the worst records of voting discrimination to preclear voting changes with the Justice Department to ensure the changes did not racially discriminate. For the first time since 1965, congressional, state, and local government legislative districts will be drawn without the protections of Section 5 to prevent state and local officials from diluting the rising political power of minority voters.  

It is imperative that President-elect Biden’s administration take ambitious action to protect the right to vote and improve the future of American elections under our existing federal voting laws and to champion new federal protections for voting rights. Here are the ACLU’s key recommendations:

Executive Action to Enforce Federal Voting Rights Laws

• Designate Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys for Voting Rights
  Direct the Attorney General to designate a special Assistant U.S. Attorney for voting rights in every U.S. Attorney office to work in coordination with the Civil Rights Division to investigate and enforce potential violations of federal voting rights laws. Multiplying the Justice Department’s capacity to enforce federal voting rights laws in this way will — in the absence of Section 5 — provide the critical federal oversight of local redistricting efforts to ensure such actions are not racially discriminatory, and will also help protect against other official acts impacting the right to vote, such as polling place closures and voter purges, so these local changes don’t flyer under the radar. 

• Upgrade Federal Voter Registration Services
  Consistent with the requirements of Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), President-elect Biden should direct federal agencies to provide voter registration services as part of their regular services to members of the public, agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service, and Department of Education. State agencies are already required to provide these services under the NVRA. The Biden administration should also direct federal agencies to consent to designation as a voter registration agency if requested by a state, pursuant to Section 7(a)(3)(B)(ii) of the NVRA.  

• Improve Voter Registration and Access to the Ballot for Voters with Disabilities
  Voters with disabilities continue to be one of the most underserved groups of voters by our electoral system, which is the reason why these voters consistently face the greatest obstacles to casting a private and independent ballot and have among the lowest participation rates. The Biden administration can direct federal agencies newly responsible for providing voter registration services to ensure such services are fully accessible for people with disabilities, direct the National Institute for Standards and Technology to produce recommendations for making the federal voter registration form provided online fully accessible for people with disabilities and to analyze barriers with voting technology and absentee voting, and direct the attorney general to prioritize enforce actions of voting rights violations against voters with disabilities. 

• Help Protect Voting Rights of Eligible or Soon-To-Be Eligible Incarcerated Individuals
  The Biden administration should direct the Bureau of Prisons and Federal Marshals Service to provide voter registration services and information to eligible incarcerated people and allow third-party voter registration organizations to help register those who are eligible, consistent with relevant federal and state laws. Roughly 125,000 people are currently incarcerated in custody of the Bureau of Prisons. These people, if eligible, should be provided an opportunity to register to vote. Additionally, the Bureau of Prisons should provide voter registration information and services as part of release services. 

• Improvements to Vote.gov
  Vote.gov is a place where every qualified voter should be able to easily register to vote and access state-specific voting information. The Biden administration should direct the General Services Administration to improve and modernize Vote.gov, including by ensuring that it adopts a user-friendly interface of the federal voter registration form available online, is compliant with federal disability rights laws and accessibility standards, and is accessible in different languages.

• Improve Absentee Voting for Military and Overseas Voters 
  The 2020 election showed how important mail ballot programs are to administering safe and reliable elections, a process especially relied upon by military and overseas voters. Requiring the Department of Defense and Military Postal Service to create a single, uniform end-to-end ballot tracking system would provide all military and overseas voters the ability to track their ballots in one place and give these voters increased confidence that their ballots are received by their local election official. The secretary of Defense should also examine and recommend a process for automatically registering enlisted service members to vote, with the consent of the potential voter, since the Department of Defense has current and reliable registration data for these voters.  

Help Advance Legislation to Protect Voting Rights

• Voting Rights Advancement Act
  In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder by effectively putting a stop to the preclearance process. Vital protections against voter suppression and discrimination were consequently weakened, and voting discrimination was unleashed on the nation’s minority voters unlike anything seen in decades. The Voting Rights Advancement Act will restore and update necessary protections for minority voters to ensure legal remedies are available to stop discrimination before it impacts voters.

• Uniform Federal Standards to Protect the Right to Vote
  Baseline federal rules to reduce or eliminate needless barriers to voting are long overdue. Federal law must require an option for every voter to be able to vote by mail and expanded early in-person voting opportunities. Expanding access to early voting and voting by mail will let voters avoid crowds at polling locations and provide a convenient and accessible voting experience that will improve participation rates. The ACLU also supports federally mandated voting modernization policies that would require online registration, same-day registration, and automatic voter registration.   

• Federal Funding for Elections
  The federal government should provide the funding necessary to ensure our election infrastructure is reliable, secure, and resilient. National elections should be reinforced with federal funds like any other important infrastructure essential to our society, including roads and bridges. Elections in 2020 also demonstrated the dedication and commitment of local elections officials to ensuring people could vote safely and reliably; these local officials should be able to access federal funding directly and without having to jump through bureaucratic hoops.

• Accessible Voting Act (AVA)
  The AVA would establish new federal accessibility requirements to improve access to voting and voter registration for individuals with disabilities and older Americans. The legislation establishes specific procedures, technical assistance, and guidance to election administrators and voters alike and increases federal and state support to help all Americans, regardless of disability status, vote privately and independently.

• Washington D.C. Admission Act
  This bill would grant statehood to the residential areas of the current District of Columbia as the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, and defines the reduced federal territory that would continue to serve as the seat of the federal government, consistent with the U.S. Constitution. D.C. statehood would give the more than 700,000 residents of Washington D.C. full voting representation in Congress with two senators and one member of the House of Representatives. The people of Washington D.C. want statehood and with it the guarantee of the full rights and privileges that come with citizenship; passage of the Washington D.C. Admission Act is simply the right thing to do.

• 26th Amendment Enforcement Legislation
  Fifty years ago, Congress in a broadly bipartisan manner expanded the right to vote to Americans 18 years and older and outlawed age-based voting discrimination. The promise of the 26th Amendment remains unfulfilled, however, as low youth voting rates continue to plague political participation by this block of voters. Young people, who are increasingly voters of color, also continue to be targeted by voter suppression tactics. Congress is empowered to enforce the article by appropriate legislation, and should act accordingly.

The year 2020 proved to be a reckoning for our democracy — as voters turned out in record numbers to vote by mail, early, or on Election Day. The Biden administration has an opportunity to make historic gains in our country’s continuing quest to finally secure the fundamental right to vote for all our citizens.