This is one in a series of profiles marking the 60th anniversary of the ACLU of Kentucky’s founding. Each week through December 2015 we will highlight the story of one member, client, case, board or staff member that has been an integral part of our organization’s rich history.
Jessica Loving
“We have to re-establish the principles of the Bill of Rights and re-educate people all the time, re-litigate, and re-legislate all the time because people will continue to try to erode the basic rights that are part of the foundation of this country because there are people who disagree with other people and think the way to get their point across is by autocratically controlling what other people can do or think or have in their head. It’s human nature." -Jessica Loving
Jessica Loving initially came in to contact with the ACLU of Kentucky by way of her involvement with the women’s movement and pro-choice activism. She would eventually become the Executive Director of the ACLU-KY and some of the first work Loving did was in reproductive freedom, trying to prevent restrictive abortion legislation from passing at the local level in Louisville.
Eventually, Loving would go on to challenge similar legislation in Frankfort. Loving recalls that restriction efforts back in those days were “similar to the efforts that are being tried still.” In the years following Roe v. Wade, piecemeal restrictions were being used to work around the monumental court case. Through litigation, Loving was able to reverse legislation that restricted “access of women to safe, legal abortion [by] either imposing restrictions on clinics or imposing restrictions on women themselves.” Loving would go on to become one of the original organizers that helped get the ACLU-KY Reproductive Freedom Project up and running.
Loving’s role as a rights advocate took many forms. After the Kentucky General Assembly passed a law that required the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms in the state, Loving joined the team fighting the legislation. Despite having no legal experience, Loving worked as a researcher. She enlisted the help of the Southern Baptist Seminary, “which had a number of professors who were very liberal thinkers and very strong on separation of church and state.” The case eventually reached the Supreme Court which overturned the General Assembly’s law.
Loving noted that the ACLU-KY sets itself apart “because it’s the only organization that [she’s] aware of that’s solely dedicated to protecting and promoting the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. And it stays very true to that purpose, I would say since the beginning.” Loving appreciated the work of the organization to uphold rights for all, even groups such as the KKK. Loving remembered how she worked to get the KKK their constitutional right to assemble, and would then use her own rights to protest the KKK right back.