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A.N.A. v. U.S. Department of Education - First Amended Complaint (05/19/2008)

Open Records Request - ACLU of Georgia Greene County School District (04/07/2008)

J.K. v. Arizona Board of Regents - Amicus Brief (03/03/2008)
On March 3, 2008, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, joined by the ACLU of Arizona and six other leading women’s advocacy organizations, filed a brief as friends of the court in J.K. v. Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of a student who was raped in her dorm room by an Arizona State University (“ASU”) football player. The brief argues to the United States District Court for the District of Arizona that ASU is liable under Title IX for the rape and for the related discrimination suffered by the plaintiff, because ASU knew that the football player in question was a serial sexual harasser. ASU had expelled the harasser for severe sexual harassment of multiple women at ASU over the summer, and then weeks later arranged to re-admit him – with no supervision -- to ASU and to the ASU dorms where he raped the plaintiff a few months later.

Fitzgerald v. Barnstable - ACLU First Circuit Amicus Brief (03/23/2007)
This First Circuit case presented the question of whether a school district can be held liable for deliberate indifference to sexual harassment under Title IX when the sexual harassment does not recur after the school receives notice of it, because the victim’s parents have interceded and taken action that stops the harassment. Also at issue was whether the plaintiff can pursue sex discrimination claims under both Title IX and the Constitution (through section 1983). In March 2007, WRP and the ACLU of Massachusetts, on behalf of several local and national women’s rights organizations, filed an amicus brief for the appellants in this case , arguing that established civil rights law recognizes that schools deny girls and women equal opportunity when they show deliberate indifference to known harassment. The brief also argued that the Title IX claim does not preclude seeking a remedy under the Constitution. In October 2007, the First Circuit affirmed the trial court’s decision, finding that the defendants in this case responded reasonably to the reported harassment. The court also held that the availability of a remedy under Title IX precluded the plaintiff from also bringing an Equal Protection Clause claim by way of section 1983. On June 9, 2008 the Supreme Court granted cert in Fitzgerald on the question whether Title IX precludes the plaintiff's constitutional claims brought under section 1983.

Simpson v. University of Colorado - Amicus Brief (08/24/2006)
On August 24, 2006 the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and Racial Justice Program, joined by the ACLU of Colorado, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Legal Momentum, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and many other leading civil rights and women’s rights organizations filed a brief as friends of the court in the matter of Simpson v. University of Colorado on behalf of the appellants Lisa Simpson and Anne Gilmore. Ms. Simpson and Ms. Gilmore were sexually assaulted by University of Colorado football players and recruits while they were students at the school. They sued the University for sexual harassment, but lost in the trial court. The ACLU brief argues that the University is liable under Title IX for the sexual assault of the appellants because the University was on notice of a pattern of sexual assault and harassment in the football program and acted with deliberate indifference to the ongoing culture of hostility and abuse of women. In September 2007 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit found for the appellants and reversed the trial court’s summary judgment. In December 2007 the University of Colorado settled the case and agreed to pay Lisa Simpson $2.5 million, hire a new counselor for the Office of Victim’s Assistance and appoint an independent, outside Title IX advisor.

Selden v. Livingston Parish School Board - Complaint (08/01/2006)

Selden v. Livingston Parish School Board - Temporary Restraining Order Memorandum (08/01/2006)

ACLU Letter to Livingston Parish School Board (07/31/2006)

Barns v. Gifford - ACLU-NV Complaint (10/14/2004)
A Muslim high school student, who wore her traditional hijab to school, was routinely harassed by peers at school with school officials’ knowledge and participation. She was routinely called a terrorist, and her pleas for help to school officials met with similarly inappropriate comments and no action. On October 19, 2004, the ACLU-NV in cooperation with attorneys at the O'Melveny and Myers firm in San Francisco filed Title VI, Title IX, and First Amendment Freedom of Religion claims on behalf of the student (Jana Elhifny) against the school district (Washoe County Schools) and various school employees who permitted this abusive treatment to continue. On July 12, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada granted defendants’ motion for partial reconsideration of order granting in part and denying in part plaintiff's motion for leave to file first amended complaint and ordered the adoption of the parties’ stipulated request to file an interlocutory appeal of that order. On Sep. 13, 2007, the Ninth Circuit granted both plaintiff and defendants a joint petition for filing an interlocutory appeal (9th Cir. docket No. 07-16743).