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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Featured

LGBTQ Rights
303 Creative, Inc. v. Elenis
Status: Ongoing
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.
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National Security
Wikimedia v. NSA - Challenge to Upstream Surveillance
Status: Closed (Dismissed)
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.
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Free Speech
United States v. Helaman Hansen
Status: Ongoing
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.
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Prisoners' Rights
Alex A. v. Edwards
Status: Ongoing
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.
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Prisoners' Rights
Jensen v. Shinn
Status: Closed (Judgment)
UPDATE: In a thorough and sweeping order issued on January 9, 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.
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Reproductive Freedom
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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.
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Privacy & Technology
FBI v. Fazaga
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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.
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Reproductive Freedom
Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center
Status: Closed (Judgment)
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.
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All Cases
March 17, 2023

March 17, 2023
Brandt et al v. Rutledge et al
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Ongoing
Four families of transgender youth and two doctors have challenged an Arkansas law that would prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or even referring transgender young people for medically necessary health care. The law would also bar any state funds or insurance coverage for gender-affirming health care for transgender people under 18, and it would allow private insurers to refuse to cover gender-affirming care for people of any age. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that House Bill 1570 is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
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March 17, 2023


March 17, 2023
Billard v. Charlotte Catholic High School
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Ongoing
Lonnie Billard worked at Charlotte Catholic High School for more than a decade – both as full-time drama and as a long-term substitute teacher – and has won numerous teaching awards, including teacher of the year. In October 2014, Lonnie wrote a Facebook post announcing that he and his long-time partner were getting married. Later that year, the school told Lonnie he could no longer work as a substitute teacher because his engagement and marriage to another man was contrary to the religious principles of the Catholic Church.
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March 17, 2023

March 17, 2023
B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Ongoing
Becky is a middle school student in West Virginia. She has been a cheerleader and wants the opportunity to try out for the cross-country team. A new law in West Virginia would ban her from doing so because she is transgender. Becky and her parents sued and are represented by the ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, Lambda Legal and Cooley LLP.
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March 17, 2023

March 17, 2023
Hecox v. Little
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Ongoing
Lindsay is a college student at Boise State University. She wants to run on the track team so she can form friendships with other girls. A new law in Idaho would ban her from doing so because she is transgender.
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March 17, 2023

March 17, 2023
Corbitt v. Taylor
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Ongoing
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.
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