Supreme Court Term 2025-2026

On December 20, 2024, CLRP, along with ACLU-DC and Jenner & Block, filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and its Director for incarcerating thousands of people longer than the law allows under the First Step Act.

For decades, the Department of Justice has been responsible for advising the President on the use of the military within the United States. By filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU obtained over a dozen DOJ opinions on the domestic use of the military, none which had previously been released to the public.

The ACLU and partner organizations have sought to intervene to represent the rights of voters and voting-rights organizations in a case seeking to unlawfully purge the Texas voter rolls and block certification of the results of the 2024 election.

A group of midwives and doctors filed a lawsuit in state court challenging actions by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), which imposed a de facto ban on freestanding birth centers throughout Alabama. Birth centers provide midwifery care to low-risk pregnant patients, a model of care that is proven to be safe and beneficial to patients. Despite that, ADPH took actions that forced one center to abruptly shut down in 2023 despite a perfect safety record, and then passed onerous regulations that would require birth centers to meet hospital-like standards, preventing birth centers from operating in the state. After hearing oral argument in late September 2023, the Circuit Court of Montgomery County granted our request for a Preliminary Injunction on September 30, 2023, preventing ADPH from refusing to timely license freestanding birth centers that comply with nationally-recognized safety standards for birth centers while litigation continues. In May 2025, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court issued judgment in Plaintiffs’ favor blocking the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) from regulating freestanding birth centers like hospitals and imposing onerous licensing rules that would have made it effectively impossible for these centers to provide evidence-based midwifery care in the state. The ruling ensured that plaintiffs Oasis Family Birthing Center in Birmingham and Alabama Birth Center in Huntsville, which had been safely operating for the past year, could continue providing midwifery care to pregnant Alabamians. Defendants appealed this ruling in July 2025, and in January 2026, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals reversed the lower court's decision, ruling that ADPH does have authority to require freestanding birth centers to be licensed and regulated as "hospitals." Plaintiffs are seeking further court review of the decision, and Alabama birth centers will continue operating and providing essential care to their patients while litigation is ongoing.