Research & Publications

My name is Canyen Ashworth, and until recently I never did more than the bare minimum. I have always been politically conscious, even when I was growing up in rural Vermont, where political woes tended to be extremely local. I followed national politics and thought them to be important, but never did much other than vote, and gripe about injustices to my friends. It wasn't until I moved to Kansas, and Trump was elected a second time, that things finally began to change for me. It wasn't like injustice wasn't happening before Trump's second term, or that it didn't make me angry before. I've never been ignorant to the suffering of others. But I finally realized that sitting around, waiting for someone else to do something, was unacceptable. Not only that, I was tired. Of being angry. Of feeling powerless. I genuinely could not look myself in the mirror anymore, knowing that I was all but sitting on the sidelines as fascism spread.   I had done what I was told to do growing up to participate in our democracy. I donated to causes I care about. I cast my ballot and received my "I voted" sticker with patriotic pride. And yet here we are. Civil rights are being sold off like cattle at an auction. The world plunges deeper into climate driven turmoil. We are watching our country descend into authoritarian regime draped in the American flag.   So what can I do about it? What can anyone do about anything when it feels like the world is spinning out of our control. The answer is deceptively simple. Build community, and resist.   I looked for the first group I could think of the, the ACLU. I attended a training to become a part of their community action group. While in the training, I noticed a lot of people were having trouble learning how to use their app. So, while on the call I helped some other people get situated with their app, relying on my IT skills to get everyone onboarded. Afterwards, I thought to myself that training must happen a lot. It'd be useful to have a video to follow through setting up the app, so I went ahead and used another skill set of mine, video production and voice over. Now there's a tutorial video to help people get to know the Beehive app.   A few weeks later, I met up with a representative of Loud Light, another local KC organization. Pretty soon I worked a phone bank for them, urging callers to shame or uplift their local representatives for supporting legislation that supports groups like ICE. Next thing I know, I'm doing know your rights trainings, and showing up to ICE raids. Then I have a radio in my ear, and am acting as a police liaison for no Nazis protest with KC Women's Alliance. Now I am a member of our states Socialist Rifle Association, and I don't even plan on owning a firearm.   Through these actions, I have found peace, purpose, and a guiding truth. That the only way we can repair our home and preserve it into the future is if we are a community united. By looking for activist groups, mutual aid foundations, and just meeting people, I am remembering the words of "we the people." When we gather, we reclaim our power.   We live in a world where our town squares our no longer ours, replaced with cheap imitations that are social media sites controlled by oligarchs. This is no coincidence considering our current discontent. The town square is where we hold our leaders responsible, and in our current state, we have no control, no mechanism to hold the people who harm us accountable. We have lost our cultural understanding of community.   I feel that many Americans think community activism and engagement is hard, when that couldn't be further from the truth. There are so many other people out in Kansas alone doing good work, and getting into good trouble. Sometimes, I'm using my unique skillset to make an entire training video for an app. Other times, I'm just a body in a crowd, showing solidarity for people who live in fear. You don't need to be the spearhead of a movement. You just need to be apart of it. But to do that, you must make concessions.   You must be willing to be uncomfortable. You must be willing to be inconvenienced. Engaging in activism is not an all or nothing gambit, but it's important work that requires frequent maintenance. If anything it's like a garden. It must be tended, lest the flowers we plant wilt and the weeds creep back into our beds.   Yes, the times we live in are daunting. Some day I wake with worry fresh on my mind before I've even gotten out of bed. But every time I feel that way, I immerse myself in the community of resistance. I talk to people. I get involved. Through the bonds I make with others, I am reminded of our power. United we stand, divided we fall.

If you were to ask someone what the First Amendment protects, they would likely say that it protects free speech. This paints only a partial picture of what the First Amendment protects. The founding fathers did enshrine the protections of free speech within the First Amendment, but their initial concern was people’s right to freely exercise their religious beliefs. That is why when they wrote the First Amendment it does not begin with protecting speech; instead, it begins with protecting freedom of religion. The First Amendment begins, “[c]ongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This statement is known as the Establishment Clause.

In Sedgwick County, Kansas, your freedom before trial often depends on your bank account—instead of whether you pose a risk to the community or whether you’re likely to show up for court. Our latest report examines the county’s use of cash bail, and the findings are both troubling and urgent.

CoreCivic claims repeatedly it will have a provision "strictly prohibiting the release of detainees into the community" from its Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth. However, this statement demonstrates CoreCivic's fundamental disregard for the rule of law. Such a representation is legally unenforceable in every respect.

Despite existing in the Midwest for hundreds of years, Asian American Midwesterners are broadly invisible, and our stories are severely underrepresented. Today, Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders are two of the Midwest’s fastest growing racial groups (Asian Americans Advancing Justice, 2012). We’ve been here, you just might not have known.

With so many organizations clamoring for my time and money following the disastrous 2024 election, I ultimately chose to focus the bulk of my effort with the ACLU of Kansas Beehive. I care deeply about what is happening nationally, but I also believe that ACLU of Kansas’s focus on winnable objectives at the state and local levels provides the best opportunity to have an effect that will ripple outward.

While the 2025 Kansas Legislative Session has officially come to an end, we know that the fight to protect civil liberties in Kansas is not over. President Trump has repeatedly pledged to pursue an agenda of extreme attacks on our constitutional rights, targeting democracy, immigrants, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ equality, and anyone he perceived as a political opponent — and now his administration is carrying that agenda out.

As the legislature begins to wind down over the next several weeks before the veto period, there have been fewer bills moving through the legislative process due to a targeted focus of the supermajority to accomplish their legislative agenda. Over the past two weeks, the ACLU of Kansas has focused on blocking several key bills involving voting rights and the Kansas Supreme Court. This week’s update includes an in depth analysis of several important pieces of legislation as we begin to close out the legislative session.

The fate of the ballot collection period is in question after the legislature passed SB 4 and sent it to Governor Kelly's desk. But If we looked at how to make voting easier instead of always trying to make it harder, what could we achieve?