Podcasts

Book banning fights used to be hyper-local affairs, argued and settled in county school board meetings. The current censorship wave seeks to impose ideological purity at the level of state government, and the self-appointed bookshelf cops have rich and powerful allies on their side. Today we’re talking about local and statewide censorship battles with school librarian Katherine Freligh and ACLU-SC Advocacy Director Josh Malkin. If you would like to join the Freedom to Read SC Coalition, visit aclusc.org/FTR. Music on this episode is by Daft Hartley and A Spot on the Hill.

There’s an old saying that South Carolina is too small for a republic but too large for an insane asylum. But what if there was a better way of thinking about our state’s problems? What if we knew our system of representative democracy was broken on purpose, and we could name the people who broke it? And what if we fought back? On this episode, we’re diving deep on gerrymandering. Members of our legal team have an update on our landmark racial gerrymandering case that received a devastating 6-3 opinion from the Supreme Court this week. They also give us some ideas of how to keep fighting even when the system seems rigged. If you would like to learn more and sign a petition to end gerrymandering in South Carolina, visit aclusc.org/fairmaps. Music on today’s podcast is by Daft Hartley and A Spot on the Hill.

May 9th, 2024, marked the end of a two-year legislative session in the South Carolina State House ... sort of. On this episode we dig into the bad bills that passed, the bad bills we stopped, and how we can fight back against a legislature that’s increasingly hostile to civil liberties. One bill that is still live in the legislature is the classroom censorship bill, H. 3728. If you would like to join the more than 600 South Carolinians who have written to the conference committee members asking them to stop this censorship bill, you can do so at aclusc.org/censor24 If you would like to take one small action to end partisan gerrymandering today, we have more information and a petition you can sign at aclusc.org/fairmaps Music credits: A Spot on the Hill, Daft Hartley

Our guests are three people living with the consequences of South Carolina’s extreme anti-abortion law. They are Dr. Jessica Tarleton, an OB/GYN from South Carolina; and Emma and Zach Giglio, a married couple from Summerville who were forced to seek an abortion out of state. To sign the Repeal the Ban petition, visit aclusc.org/RepealTheBan. Repeal the Ban Disclaimer: The participants in this podcast episode are not lawyers, and the contents of this episode should not be taken as legal advice. Music on today’s episode is by Daft Hartley and A Spot on the Hill.

Today we're going to housing court. South Carolina is in the midst of an eviction crisis, and special dockets within local courts have been set up to hear case after case of residential evictions. We'll listen in on some high-stakes, high-stress cases. On the second half of the episode, our guest is Charlotte Martin, a renter and organizer with the South Carolina Housing Justice Network. We're talking about how tenants can build power and protect each other's rights. Music credits: A Spot on the Hill and Daft Hartley. For more information about the S.C. Housing Justice Network, visit ⁠SCHJN.com⁠. To write your lawmaker in support of Eviction Right to Counsel, visit ⁠ACLUSC.org/eviction⁠.

The eviction crisis is ongoing in South Carolina. Our first guest today is Tony Jones, a student at the University of South Carolina School of Law who has a deeply frustrating story to share involving South Carolina's landlord-tenant laws. In the second half of the show, we have an interview with Michelle Mapp about what Eviction Right to Counsel means and how we can achieve it. Use this link to write your lawmaker about Eviction Right to Counsel and South Carolina House Bill 3844, which could make that right a reality: aclusc.org/eviction Our study on the economic benefits of Eviction Right to Counsel: ⁠https://www.aclusc.org/en/south-carolina-renters-should-have-right-legal-counsel-when-facing-eviction⁠ Eviction Lab study on serial eviction filings in Charleston, S.C., and Birmingham, AL: ⁠https://evictionlab.org/serial-eviction-filings/ Music credits: A Spot on the Hill, Daft Hartley

Being homeless in the capital city of South Carolina means having your rights curtailed. Your daily decisions about where to sit, eat, or sleep are in part made up for you; your range of movement is limited; and your actions are closely monitored by police. One wrong move and you’re arrested, spending the night in one of the most dangerous jails in South Carolina. Being homeless in Columbia is, in short, a civil liberties nightmare. This week on the podcast, we’re diving into the root causes of homelessness and the eviction crisis. Our guests are homeless aid provider Regi- Solis and Glynnis Hagins of the South Carolina NAACP. For more information about South Carolina housing justice issues, visit our Housing Justice landing page. For more about Columbia’s ineffective, inhumane, illegal response to homelessness, see our open letter Homes, Not Handcuffs. If you would like to push for housing justice in our state, ask your state lawmaker to cosponsor House Bill 3844, guaranteeing Eviction Right to Counsel. Music by Daft Hartley and A Spot on the Hill

“While I Breathe, I Hope.” It’s the state motto of South Carolina. It’s about surviving and fighting and overcoming despair. This is Paul Bowers from the ACLU of South Carolina, here to announce we’re starting a podcast. It’s called While I Breathe. It’ll be a wide-ranging program about the most important civil rights and civil liberties issues of our time. We’ll feature interviews with people living and working on the front lines. I hope you’ll join me as we learn a few things and get to work building the state we deserve. The first several episodes will be about housing justice. We live in a national hotspot for evictions, and we want to change that, in part by guaranteeing more civil liberties for people facing eviction from their homes. I can’t wait for you to hear it. Go ahead and subscribe via the links below, and you’ll be hearing from us soon. APPLE PODCASTS SPOTIFY OTHER PODCAST APPS NOTE - If the podcast is not yet available on your preferred listening app, try copying and pasting this RSS feed link into the search bar in your app: https://anchor.fm/s/f3c9f088/podcast/rss