Supreme Court Term 2025-2026

Emergency lawsuit in federal court to again halt removals under the Alien Enemies Act for people within that court’s judicial district.

Emergency lawsuit filed in federal court to again halt removals under the Alien Enemies Act for people within that court’s judicial district.

The American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union, in partnership with The Legal Aid Society whose clients are plaintiffs in the litigation, filed an emergency lawsuit in federal court in New York to again halt removals under the Alien Enemies Act for people within that court’s judicial district.

This case arises from the November 2024 election for state supreme court justice in North Carolina. Incumbent State Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs defeated Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, but Griffin has filed a petition seeking to invalidate more than 60,000 votes from the election. He argues that the state Board of Elections impermissibly allowed over 60,000 people to register without providing their driver’s licenses or social security numbers, and that the Board impermissibly allowed thousands of overseas voters to cast absentee ballots without photo identification. The petition has resulted in both federal and state litigation, and the ACLU has submitted amicus briefs in both venues. In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of North Carolina filed an amicus brief explaining that the petition’s attempt to cancel tens of thousands of votes threatens democratic backsliding in North Carolina. Separately, in the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative and the ACLU of North Carolina submitted an amicus brief explaining that, even if the Board did make mistakes, cancelling votes as a consequence of those mistakes would violate the popular sovereignty provision of the North Carolina Constitution because voters relied on the Board to know how to register and vote.