Filed
May 25, 2021
Fighting For The Rights Of Trans Youth in Arkansas
Brandt et al v. Rutledge et al
Several doctors and families are challenging a discriminatory Arkansas law that would prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or even referring transgender youth for medically necessary health care. Their case is being heard this week in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
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Arizona
May 2023
Fund for Empowerment v. Phoenix, City of
Fund for Empowerment is a challenge to the City of Phoenix’s practice of conducting sweeps of encampments without notice, issuing citations to unsheltered people for camping and sleeping on public property when they have no place else to go, and confiscating and destroying their property without notice or process.
Status: Ongoing
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Arizona
Apr 2023
Jensen v. Thornell
UPDATE: In a thorough and sweeping injunction issued on April 7, 2023, U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver is requiring the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (“ADCRR”) to make “substantial” changes to staffing and conditions so that medical care and mental healthcare at Arizona prisons comes up to constitutional standards.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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U.S. Supreme Court
Mar 2023
303 Creative, Inc. v. Elenis
This case concerns whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel a business that chooses to serve the public to provide wedding website design services without discriminating against a same-sex couple violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.
Status: Ongoing
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U.S. Supreme Court
Feb 2023
Wikimedia v. NSA - Challenge to Upstream Surveillance
The ACLU is challenging the constitutionality of the NSA’s mass interception and searching of Americans’ international Internet communications. At issue is the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance, through which the U.S. government systematically monitors private emails, messages, and other data flowing into and out of the country on the Internet’s central arteries. The ACLU’s lawsuit was brought on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation and eight legal, human rights, and media organizations, which together engage in trillions of sensitive communications and have been harmed by Upstream surveillance.
Status: Closed (Dismissed)
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U.S. Supreme Court
Feb 2023
United States v. Helaman Hansen
This case is about whether the First Amendment permits criminal punishment of speech that merely encourages a noncitizen to remain in the United States, without any requirement of intent to further illegal conduct, and when remaining in the United States unlawfully is itself not a crime.
Status: Ongoing
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Sep 2022
Alex A. v. Edwards
The ACLU National Prison Project and partner civil rights attorneys filed a federal class-action lawsuit to prevent the transfer of children in the custody of Louisiana’s Office of Juvenile Justice to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola Prison.
Status: Ongoing
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U.S. Supreme Court
Jun 2022
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
The case concerns the constitutionality of a Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after the fifteenth week of pregnancy. The state used the case as a vehicle to ask the Supreme Court to take away the federal constitutional right to abortion it first recognized 50 years before in Roe v. Wade. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States accepted the state’s invitation and overturned Roe eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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U.S. Supreme Court
Apr 2022
FBI v. Fazaga
In a case scheduled to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 8, 2021, three Muslim Americans are challenging the FBI’s secret spying on them and their communities based on their religion, in violation of the Constitution and federal law. In what will likely be a landmark case, the plaintiffs — Yassir Fazaga, Ali Uddin Malik, and Yasser Abdelrahim — insist that the FBI cannot escape accountability for violating their religious freedom by invoking “state secrets.” The plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, the ACLU of Southern California, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Council for American Islamic Relations, and the law firm of Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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U.S. Supreme Court
Apr 2022
Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center
In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Kentucky filed a suit on behalf of Kentucky abortion providers and their patients challenging a state law banning physicians from providing a safe and medically proven abortion method called dilation and evacuation, or “D&E.” If it were to take effect, this law would prevent many patients from being able to obtain an abortion altogether. After two courts held that the law is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled in March 2022 that Kentucky Attorney General Cameron can continue his pursuit to push abortion out of reach by intervening in the underlying challenge to an abortion ban, which is proceeding in a lower court.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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All Cases
1,327 Court Cases
Texas
Aug 2023
PFLAG v. Abbott
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Texas, and Baker Botts filed a lawsuit in Texas State Court on behalf of PFLAG National and three Texas families. This is the second of two lawsuits challenging unlawful attempts to ban essential health care for transgender youth by Texas state leaders.
Status: Ongoing
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Texas
LGBTQ Rights
PFLAG v. Abbott
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Texas, and Baker Botts filed a lawsuit in Texas State Court on behalf of PFLAG National and three Texas families. This is the second of two lawsuits challenging unlawful attempts to ban essential health care for transgender youth by Texas state leaders.
Aug 2023
Status: Ongoing
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Montana
Aug 2023
Van Garderen et al v. State of Montana
Transgender adolescents, their parents, and two medical providers who work with transgender youth are challenging a 2023 Montana law that bans gender-affirming care for trans youth. The plaintiffs charge the law with violating their rights under the Montana Constitution, including the right to equal protection, the right to access medical care, and the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children.
Status: Ongoing
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Montana
LGBTQ Rights
Van Garderen et al v. State of Montana
Transgender adolescents, their parents, and two medical providers who work with transgender youth are challenging a 2023 Montana law that bans gender-affirming care for trans youth. The plaintiffs charge the law with violating their rights under the Montana Constitution, including the right to equal protection, the right to access medical care, and the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children.
Aug 2023
Status: Ongoing
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Texas
Aug 2023
Loe v. Texas
In the spring of 2023, Texas became the largest state in the country to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth after Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 14. In July 2023, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Texas families, three medical professionals, and two organizations representing hundreds of families and health professionals across the state. The five Texas families challenging this law come from diverse backgrounds across the state with transgender children and teenagers. The bill’s passage alone resulted in families splitting up or planning to leave Texas to continue treatment for their children. The families are suing pseudonymously to protect themselves and their children, who are transgender Texans between the ages of 9 and 16.
Status: Ongoing
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Texas
LGBTQ Rights
Loe v. Texas
In the spring of 2023, Texas became the largest state in the country to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth after Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 14. In July 2023, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Texas families, three medical professionals, and two organizations representing hundreds of families and health professionals across the state. The five Texas families challenging this law come from diverse backgrounds across the state with transgender children and teenagers. The bill’s passage alone resulted in families splitting up or planning to leave Texas to continue treatment for their children. The families are suing pseudonymously to protect themselves and their children, who are transgender Texans between the ages of 9 and 16.
Aug 2023
Status: Ongoing
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Alabama
Aug 2023
Corbitt v. Taylor
The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Alabama filed a federal law suit against officials of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) for depriving transgender people of driver licenses that reflect their gender. The lawsuit states that the Alabama government has violated the privacy, due process, free speech, and equal protection rights of Darcy Corbitt, Destiny Clark, and a third, unnamed plaintiff.
Status: Ongoing
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Alabama
LGBTQ Rights
Corbitt v. Taylor
The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Alabama filed a federal law suit against officials of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) for depriving transgender people of driver licenses that reflect their gender. The lawsuit states that the Alabama government has violated the privacy, due process, free speech, and equal protection rights of Darcy Corbitt, Destiny Clark, and a third, unnamed plaintiff.
Aug 2023
Status: Ongoing
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