ACLU Asks Supreme Court to Hear Gene Patents Case

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of the District of Columbia (ACLU of D.C.) today filed an amicus brief in support of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico in their lawsuit against the Trump administration over the revocation of their reporters' White House press credentials. The brief filed by the ACLU and ACLU-D.C. warns that retaliation against the press is a tactic that “belongs to a society much different and more oppressive than our own.” The brief supports the media companies' claim that the White House violated the First Amendment when it restricted their access to official events because Donald Trump has been unhappy with their coverage. The brief argues that incursions on free expression, left unchecked, frequently lead to greater repression, as demonstrated by American history and the modern experience of other nations. The brief also catalogues the Trump administration’s alarming campaign of retaliation against dissenting voices. “It’s unconstitutional for the president to ban certain media outlets from the White House because he doesn't like how they report about him," said Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel for the ACLU of D.C. “The White House is the people’s house, not the president’s private golf club.” On September 18, Trump announced that the outlets’ reporters would be banned from the White House, and they were denied entry the next day. On September 21, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico filed a First Amendment challenge to the ban. Two days later, a federal court in the District of Columbia issued a temporary restraining order against the administration. That order lasts 14 days, so the plaintiffs are now filing for a preliminary injunction in their favor. “The White House press pool guarantees the public’s timely access to important information about the president and the executive branch,” said Brian Hauss, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “If the president can banish media outlets just because he doesn’t like their coverage, the American public will hear exclusively from sycophants and stenographers.” This isn't the first time that Trump has barred a media outlet from the White House over his discontent with its coverage. In 2025, the administration banned the Associated Press over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." The AP challenged the administration in a case that is ongoing. The ACLU also filed an amicus brief supporting the AP in that lawsuit. CNN et al. v. Trump was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The ACLU's brief is available here.

NIH is targeting and terminating grants for research studies that it thinks will communicate disfavored viewpoints on diversity, gender identity, climate change, and more, violating First Amendment rights and threatening the future of public health.

MEMPHIS — Today, a federal district court heard arguments in a lawsuit, filed on behalf of four plaintiff residents, to prevent the Memphis Safe Task Force from retaliating against them for exercising their First Amendment right to film the Task Force’s immigration and law enforcement activity. Plaintiff Hunter Demster has experienced approximately 20 incidents of retaliation for recording, including Task Force agents using their vehicles to swerve at him and box him in, pulling him over for unwarranted traffic stops, staking out his house, and relentlessly photographing and tauntinghim by name. At the end of August, Task Force agents sat outside his home twice and photographed or filmed him and his home. “The Memphis Safe Task Force cannot continue punishing me for exercising my First Amendment right to record,” said Hunter Demster, lead plaintiff. “For the last year, I have been subjected to a terrifying campaign of retaliation and intimidation simply for observing how the Task Force has overtaken our neighborhoods. But despite what the Task Force may think, every person has the right to hold government officials accountable in every state and every city, including Memphis.” The lawsuit also challenges the Task Force’s unlawful application of the state’s “Halo Law,” which criminalizes approaching law enforcement within 25 feet after one warning to back up. Task Force agents have repeatedly used the law to prevent civic observers, including our plaintiffs, from gathering information and recording their public operations. Recently, Task Force agents wrongfully tackled and arrested Mr. Demster, even though he was abiding by the state’s Halo law and remaining 25-feet away from their activity. Videos of this incident were filed as supplemental materials in court and are available here. Co-plaintiff Melissa Peeler has also experienced the Task Force’s unlawful tactics. “Over the course of this year, I have seen firsthand how the Task Force has tried to intimidate witnesses at a scene, either by boxing us in with their vehicles, taking photos of us, calling us by name, or by attempting to criminalize us by wrongfully using the Halo Law,” said Melissa Peeler, plaintiff. “But I will not allow the Task Force to silence me, my co-plaintiffs, or anyone here in Memphis. We have a First Amendment right to witness and record. We have a right to live without fear of being punished for observing what goes on in our own neighborhoods.” With Task Force abuses upending daily life in Memphis — a city already rocked by historic and pervasive law enforcement violence — ordinary Memphians have taken to the streets to observe and record their activities. While observing and recording Task Force activities, civilians have reported a disturbing and pervasive pattern of retaliation. Plaintiffs allege Task Force agents have: Threatened them with arrest; Physically intimidated them, including by swerving at or boxing them in with their vehicles, and making threatening gestures at them, like miming shooting a gun; Tailing, stopping, and questioning them without reasonable suspicion of a crime; Staking out their homes; Shining bright lights at their cameras and faces to obscure recording; Photographing their faces, vehicles, and license plates; and Repeatedly identifying and taunting them by name. “Recording publicly visible law enforcement activity is a core First Amendment right,” said Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Like folks in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere across the country, our clients have picked up their phones and cameras to document the massive influx of law enforcement officers into their community. In response, the Memphis Safe Task Force has relentlessly subjected them to intimidation, harassment, and retaliation. We hope the court will order relief against this egregious suppression of First Amendment protected activity.” Since September 2025, thousands of federal, state, and local agents have flooded the streets of Memphis as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, a 31-agency Task Force that has aggressively patrolled the city at the invitation of Governor Bill Lee. Agents and officers working with the Memphis Safe Task Force have terrorized local communities, conducting mass traffic stops and large-scale immigration arrests. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett once stood in this city and shined a light on wrongs to expose them, even after she herself faced threats for it,” said Zee Scout (she/her), staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee. “Our four clients are doing similar work today. They are documenting what the Memphis Safe Task Force is doing to Memphians, and in response, agents have threatened them with arrest, swerved vehicles at them, and staked out their homes. That is not a coincidence. It is the latest chapter in a long legacy of trying to silence people who tell the truth about power. Our clients will not be silenced.” The motion for preliminary injunction asks the court to block the Task Force from retaliating against our plaintiffs for documenting their activity and from applying the Halo Law to them. The lawsuit was filed in mid-May by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, the ACLU Foundation of Tennessee, Selendy Gay PLLC, and BraunHagey & Borden LLP in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. The named defendants include Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the heads of DHS, ICE, CBP, the U.S. Marshals, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

WASHINGTON — Today, the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International USA released a new report, "Student Speech Under Attack: Suppression of Pro-Palestine Speech and Dissent on Campus," analyzing how higher education institutions, the federal government, and policymakers censored and suppressed speech in support of Palestinian rights and critical of the Israeli government. The report documents fierce retaliation against pro-Palestinian speech and expression that began in late 2023 and continues today. This repression has infringed on academic freedom and violated students’ and scholars’ free speech, association, and assembly rights across the country. The report provides an in-depth review of university and college administrations’ punitive responses to campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has been declared an ongoing genocide by Amnesty International. The report documents how colleges and universities aggressively enforced campus policies and wielded disciplinary actions against community members based on their viewpoint, such as by suspending students, terminating faculty, and banning student organizations. It also documents how campus police and law enforcement used unlawful and unnecessary force against largely peaceful protesters, often leading to serious psychological harm and physical injuries. This nationwide crackdown has also contributed both to the rise of surveillance on campus to identify those who expressed pro-Palestinian views, and to universities’ failure to protect international students and scholars who spoke out under the Biden and Trump administrations from harassment and immigration enforcement. The report also details how the Trump administration retaliated against universities and colleges that were sites of pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide activism. Under the guise of applying civil rights laws to combating campus antisemitism, the federal government withheld federal funding and research grants to coerce universities into accepting overly broad agreements that curtailed lawful expression on campus. "Universities and colleges must take all possible measures to ensure that their campuses are spaces where students may exercise their rights to freedom of speech and expression without fear of unwarranted punishment or retaliation regardless of viewpoint," said Jennifer Turner, principal human rights researcher in the ACLU's Human Rights Program. "Schools should resist the pressures placed on them to silence and punish students or faculty who engage in protest or advocacy for Palestinian rights. Instead, they should stand up to the federal government’s intimidation tactics and defend the university’s core mission of fostering free-flowing inquiry and debate." The report closely documents the federal government's targeting of noncitizen students and scholars for arrest, detention, and deportation based on their political views and in direct retaliation for their advocacy for Palestinian rights. Such actions include revoking the visas and green cards of noncitizen students and scholars who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy – such as Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Dr. Badar Khan Suri, among others – and arresting, detaining, and attempting to deport them solely because of their political viewpoints and constitutionally protected expression. “Universities and colleges should prepare students for open discourse in a pluralistic society. Instead, campus leadership has suppressed free speech and peaceful protest while enabling the Trump administration to advance its anti-rights agenda and seek ideological control over higher education,” said Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA. “The Trump administration’s targeting of students and faculty who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza is dangerously reminiscent of McCarthy-era censorship and a blatant violation of academic freedom. The Trump administration must stop stifling political expression on campus and end its relentless push for ideological conformity in higher education. Students' rights must be respected, protected, and fulfilled.” The report is based on a two-year investigation that covered instances at 46 public and 34 private university and college campuses nationwide, located in 28 states and the District of Columbia. It additionally includes detailed case studies of six universities and colleges that were sites of student activism: the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Michigan; Columbia University; City College of New York; Tulane University; and the University of Texas at Austin. The "Student Speech Under Attack: Suppression of Pro-Palestine Speech and Dissent on Campus" report concludes with recommendations for college and university leadership, as well as any law enforcement to: Uphold free speech protections for all students and scholars, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, and race, and ensure that campus policies on political speech and protest are viewpoint neutral. Refrain from adopting overly broad and vague policies against discrimination and harassment that punish or chill protected political speech. Resist demands from the federal government that undermine academic freedom and students’ and faculty’s civil and human rights. Impose strict limits on the deployment of law enforcement and use of less-lethal / crowd-control weapons, especially in the context of protests on college campuses. The report also includes urgent calls for the Trump administration and Congress to: Cease the campaign to deport students and faculty involved in Palestinian rights advocacy and end all pending removal proceedings against students and faculty targeted in retaliation for their lawful advocacy in support of Palestinian rights. Cease the misuse of Title VI investigations to compel universities and colleges to impose unconstitutional policies and measures that violate free speech and undermine academic freedom. Oppose any legislation that would punish noncitizens for exercising their First Amendment rights. Oppose any legislation that threatens free expression and academic freedom to suppress criticism of the Israeli government or support for Palestinian rights. You can read the full report and findings here. You can also read the executive summary here.