The 2020s
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2020
ACLU Adjusts to Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Joseph Cohen, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia, is interviewed by a local television station about the treatment of jail and prison detainees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ACLU Argues at Supreme Court to Affirm LGBTQ Employees Are Protected from Workplace Discrimination
In Bostock v. Clayton County, a 2020 case consisting of three related cases, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination. The Court also established that firing an individual for being homosexual or transgender inherently constitutes discrimination “because of sex.” The ACLU served as counsel in two of the three consolidated cases. Ria Tabacco Mar (top left), attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, stands behind ACLU client Aimee Stephens, seated, and her wife Donna Stephens, in pink, outside the Supreme Court. Stephens was the lead client in one of the three cases.
The Team Behind “The Fight,” an ACLU Documentary Following Four ACLU Cases
In 2020, Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing released “The Fight,” a documentary following four ACLU cases against the Trump administration. The film is an inspiring tribute to the courtroom advocates defending civil liberties, offering an inside look at some of the most important legal battles of our time. Pictured posing at the Sundance Film Festival, from top left: Executive Producer Kerry Washington, Director Eli Despres, Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt; from bottom left: Reproductive Freedom Project Deputy Director Brigitte Amiri, Reproductive Freedom Project Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg.
Poster for “The Fight”
In 2020, Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing released “The Fight,” a documentary following four ACLU cases against the Trump administration. The film is an inspiring tribute to the courtroom advocates defending civil liberties, offering an inside look at some of the most important legal battles of our time. Pictured is the film’s promotional poster.
2021
ACLU of Tennessee Staffer Becomes a Client
In 2021, ACLU of Tennessee staffer Cathryn Stout was driving to Jackson, Mississippi, when she was pulled over by a Mississippi state trooper because her car had a sorority license plate holder — which was not illegal. Cathryn refused to consent to a search. Still, troopers went through her suitcase, took apart the interior door panels, and looked under the hood of her car. Cathryn started recording the encounter on her phone, and when an officer told her to stop, she stopped because she was afraid of being arrested. An hour later, after they found nothing, the troopers sent her on her way without a ticket or an apology. The ACLU of Mississippi filed suit on Cathryn’s behalf, alleging that the stop and search violated her Fourth Amendment rights, racial profiling violated her rights under the Equal Protection Clause, and ordering her to stop filming violated her First Amendment rights.
2022
ACLU Submits Amicus Brief to Defend Constitutional Right to Abortion
Mississippi took its last remaining abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, to the Supreme Court to uphold its abortion ban, arguing that the ban was consistent with Roe v. Wade. After Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Court, Mississippi changed its strategy and asked the Court to overrule Roe outright. The ACLU and ACLU of Mississippi filed an amicus brief, seen here, in support of the clinic. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe, eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion.
2023
Haaland v. Brackeen: Protestors Rally in Support of Indigenous Rights
The ACLU and 12 state affiliates filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in Haaland v. Brackeen, urging it to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which seeks to ensure that Native families stay together and that Native children are raised by tribal members. In 2023, the court issued its ruling upholding ICWA in a landmark victory for tribal sovereignty, rejecting all constitutional challenges to the law. Seen here are protestors rallying outside of the Court in support of Indigenous rights.
2024
ACLU Campaign: Protecting Indigenous Students’ Right to Wear Tribal Regalia
Graduation from high school is a pivotal, once-in-a-lifetime achievement. For Indigenous students, this moment can be dampened by school dress codes that prohibit them from wearing tribal regalia at graduation. In 2023 and 2024, the ACLU worked with Indigenous youth on a Know Your Rights campaign to help students defend their rights to wear tribal regalia. In this video, Indigenous students discuss their tribal regalia.
ACLU Artist Ambassador W. Kamau Bell at the ACLU’s Know Your Rights Bus Tour
In 2024, the ACLU launched the Know Your Rights Bus Tour, a series of stops across several states to create an energizing community experience. The initiative combined entertainment with critical information about fundamental rights and freedoms while empowering historically disenfranchised voters in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. In this photo, comedian, television host, and ACLU Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice, W. Kamau Bell, is seen speaking to the Know Your Rights Bus Tour crowd at the final stop in Detroit, Michigan.
United States v. Skrmetti Rally
Protestors rally outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, demanding the Court protect trans rights. Unfortunately, the Court ultimately ruled that states could ban gender-affirming care for minors, a devastating blow for trans youth, their families, and the communities that support them. But the ACLU isn’t going anywhere in the fight for trans justice.
Chase Strangio’s Good Luck Charm For United States v. Skrmetti: “Oh Mary!” Playbill
In U.S. v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, made history as the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the Supreme Court and brought this playbill of Broadway’s “Oh, Mary!” into court as a good luck charm. In a 2025 Cultured interview with the irreverent comedy’s creator and star Cole Escola, Strangio explained the playbill was “a reminder that I’m also doing a performance… I’m channeling people who inspire me when I enter those spaces that are meant to be so serious, but are in fact so absurd.”
Protesters Mobilize Outside Supreme Court for Reproductive Freedom
Demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court in support of abortion rights while the Court heard oral arguments in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. As anti-abortion groups were asking the Court to impose nationwide restrictions on mifepristone, protestors rallied to fight for reproductive freedom.
Strange Bedfellows: ACLU Legal Director David Cole Representing the NRA for Free Speech
In 2024, the ACLU represented the NRA before the Supreme Court in NRA v. Vullo, arguing that any government attempt to blacklist an advocacy group because of its viewpoint – as the State of New York tried to do to the NRA – violates the First Amendment. Legal Director David Cole, pictured here, was the lead attorney for the NRA.
2025
Democracy Is a Verb
In April 2025, longtime ACLU supporter and writer Clyde Watson gifted a staff member this card, designed and printed by ACLU supporter Darrell Hyder, to buoy staff spirits in difficult times.
Oklahoma City’s Pride Festival: Liberation Is Love
Every year, Oklahoma City hosts a Pride festival with free events for all to join. At the June 2025 festival, Liberation is Love, ACLU staff and supporters joined others in the streets with Pride flags, posters, and other merchandise to show support for LGBTQ rights.
A History of the ACLU Advancing the Rights of Veterans, Servicemembers, and Their Families
This 2025 report details the ACLU’s long history of advancing the rights of veterans, servicemembers, and their families. In the 1940s, the ACLU challenged the injustice of the segregated draft. In the 1970s, the organization’s Veterans Education Project assisted thousands of World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans in securing upgrades to their less than honorable discharges. At the same time, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, co-founder of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, blazed the trail for gender equity in the military. And, more recently, as the Trump administrations have escalated attacks on the rights of servicemembers, the ACLU has pushed back — defending First Amendment protections, privacy rights, and the dignity of LGBTQ individuals in uniform.
Trump Administration’s Spending Cuts Impact Head Start
In August 2025, a press conference was held outside of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle to discuss the Trump administration’s attempt to bar immigrant families from Head Start, a long-standing federally funded program that has provided assistance to low-income families for child education, nutrition, and health. In this photo, ACLU Women’s Rights Project attorney Jennesa Calvo-Freidman addresses the press.
#HandsOff: NYC Fights Back Protest
New York Civil Liberties Union and ACLU staffers, seen here, joined an estimated 100,000 New Yorkers marching in the #HandsOff: NYC Fights Back protest on Saturday April 5, 2025, to stand up for civil rights and democracy. The march, one of over a thousand that took place all across the country, was organized by groups that included the NYCLU, Rise and Resist, Indivisible, and the Planned Parenthood of Greater NY Action Fund.
Hundreds Gather to Honor Voting Rights in 60th Anniversary of the Selma Bridge Crossing
A large crowd fills the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama, at the annual Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee. 2025 marked 60 years since Bloody Sunday, where hundreds of civil rights activists were brutally beaten by police and civilians as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge in a march for voting rights. Among the hundreds gathered on the bridge were Representatives Hakeem Jeffries and Maxine Waters, civil rights leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, ACLU staff and supporters, and ACLU President Deborah Archer, at far right.
2026
Photo of ACLU Asian American and Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group Original Zine
Every other year for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the ACLU’s AAPI employee resource group curates a zine of contributions from team members nationwide. The zine shares recipes and food from their cultures and their favorite AAPI restaurants in their local communities.
ACLU of DC’s Fight for DC Statehood
These buttons were worn by advocates and supporters of the ACLU of DC’s campaign for DC statehood. Many were visible during congressional testimony supporting the Washington, DC Admission Act, which called for DC to become the 51st state and end one of the most egregious forms of ongoing voter suppression in our country.
Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana Alanah Odoms Breaks Down Louisiana v. Callais Decision
The Supreme Court’s shameful decision in Louisiana v. Callais is a devastating blow to hard-fought progress, but it is not the end of the road. By gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that ensured Black voters were fairly represented, the Supreme Court betrayed the legacy of the civil rights movement.
ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang Presents Arguments on Birthright Citizenship
President Trump made history on April 1, 2026, by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court for Trump v. Barbara. He sat silently in the front row of the public gallery for roughly an hour to observe his administration’s defense of an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. He left during ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang’s arguments. In a 6–3 decision, the Court struck down President Trump’s executive order attempting to end this core American principle.
Audio Clip of ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang Successfully Arguing Birthright Citizenship Case Before Supreme Court
In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s executive order attempting to end this core American principle. This decision reaffirms what the Constitution has made clear for over 150 years: if you are born in the United States, you are a citizen of the United States. Hear some of ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang’s arguments in this clip.
ACLU Honors Bruce Springsteen
At the ACLU Awards Program in 2026, Bruce Springsteen is shown accepting the Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science, and Sports award alongside ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, right. Introduced that same year, the award honors author Ralph Ellison’s profound contributions to American thought and culture with works such as “Invisible Man.” The award underscores the ACLU’s recognition that the defense of our rights takes place across many forms, disciplines, platforms, and generations. Earlier in the year, the ACLU launched a national ad campaign ahead of the organization’s arguments before the Supreme Court in the landmark case Trump v. Barbara. The campaign offers an uplifting visual tapestry of what it means to be an American, and, in a rare move, Bruce Springsteen authorized the ACLU’s use of his song “Born in the U.S.A.” to highlight what’s at stake in the case and how the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship is integral to American values and the very fabric of our nation.
Introducing the Ralph Ellison Award at the 2026 ACLU Awards Program
This photo shows ACLU President Deborah Archer at the podium for the 2026 ACLU Awards Program, where Bruce Springsteen and Colin Kaepernick were honored with the Ralph Ellison Award for Defenders of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Arts, Business, Science, and Sports. Along with serving as Chair of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee at the ACLU, Archer is a leading expert in civil rights, civil liberties, and racial justice whose articles have appeared in leading law reviews. Archer is also a tenured professor and associate dean at New York University School of Law, and she previously served as chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the nation’s oldest and largest police oversight agency.
