Racial & Economic Justice

The discriminatory history of our country makes racial and economic injustice inextricably linked. Disparities in wealth, income, access to resources, and other economic opportunities remain based on race and ethnicity, preventing us from attaining racial justice.

Placeholder image

The discriminatory history of our country makes racial and economic injustice inextricably linked. Explicit racial restrictions have prevented people of color from accumulating wealth for centuries, and those racial and economic inequities continue to reinforce each other in ways both overt and subtle.

Disparities in wealth, income, access to resources, and other economic opportunities remain based on race and ethnicity, preventing us from attaining racial justice. Covert and overt discrimination, structural inequality, and implicit biases combine to create unacceptable racial gaps in the criminal legal system, housing, employment, education, health care access, and every other realm of civic life.

The ACLU-NJ confronts these deep sources of inequality with advocacy to ensure that opportunity is not allocated according to race or income, and so that all people have equal access to government resources.

The Latest

Press Release
Press Release ACLU of New Jersey

ACLU-NJ Celebrates Third Round of Releases Under The Clemency Project

The ACLU of New Jersey today celebrates Governor Murphy’s announcement of eight commutations under the organization's Clemency Project, an initiative to encourage the use of categorical clemency to examine holistic injustices that have impacted groups of people and consider relief for each person within the identified class.
News & Commentary
gov

Pardons Change Lives – Categorical Clemency Proves New Jersey’s Commitment to Racial Justice and Rehabilitation

Pardons represent a crucial part of clemency work because they center rehabilitation and second chances.
News & Commentary
Governor Phil Murphy speaking at a podium with a sign that reads "New Jersey: The State for Second Chances"

Clemency is More Than Mercy – It's Freedom

When a person’s prison sentence is commuted through clemency, miracles happen for people and their families.
News & Commentary
Black Lives Matter is handwritten in thick black on a white poster and held at a rally

Five Years After George Floyd, The Cry for Racial Justice and Police Accountability Remains

The 2020 protests following Floyd’s murder demonstrated the potential for confronting police violence in communities of color. Yet half a decade later, the legislative response has still fallen short.
Court Case
Aug 08, 2024

El Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA) v Platkin

Affirmative litigation challenging the constitutionality of excluding New Jersey farmworkers from equal wage and overtime pay.
Court Case
Dec 08, 2021

State v. Goldsmith

Amicus brief addressing the standard required for stopping a person on the street, based largely on the character of a neighborhood.
Court Case
Jul 02, 2018

Kneisser v. McInerney

Challenge to a man put in jail for not paying a fine for littering same day as court date.
Court Case
Jun 29, 2018

In re N.J.A.C. 6A:8

Challenge to discriminatory regulations requiring certain scores on PARCC standardized tests to receive a diploma.