Civil rights and equal protection

The protection of law extends equally to all persons regardless of race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or political belief. The state does not target, exclude, or disadvantage people on the basis of who they are or what they think. This ideal is also the substantive content of the Fourteenth Amendment's promise: equal protection is not a slogan but a constraint on what government is permitted to do.

The patterns tracked here include policy that disadvantages specific groups outside any lawful basis, enforcement and surveillance disproportionately directed at marginalized communities, voter-roll maintenance that disenfranchises eligible voters, and the use of government power to establish, prefer, or burden specific religions. The publication does not treat membership in any group as a license to commit abuses, nor does it treat membership in a majority group as a defense against them.

Further reading: National Constitution Center Interactive Constitution — Fourteenth Amendment (Equal Protection), First Amendment (religion clauses).