Disability Rights
S.R. v. Kenton County Sheriff's Office

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S.R. v. Kenton County Sheriff's Office
Disability Rights
Status: Settled
A deputy sheriff shackled two elementary school children who have disabilities, causing them pain and trauma, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Children's Law Center, and Dinsmore & Shohl.
What's at stake

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All Cases
Apr 28, 2022


Apr 28, 2022
Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, P.L.L.C.
Racial Justice
Status: Decided
Whether civil rights statutes that prohibit federal financial recipients from discriminating on the basis of disability, race, and sex allow plaintiffs to be compensated for emotional distress injuries where they show that they were victims of discrimination.
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Dec 07, 2021


Dec 07, 2021
California v. Texas
Disability Rights
Status: Decided
Whether Congress’s zeroing out of the tax assessment in the Affordable Care Act for people who fail to obtain health insurance renders the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional?
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Nov 12, 2021


Nov 12, 2021
CVS Pharmacy, Inc. v. Doe
Disability Rights
Status: Voluntarily Dismissed
Whether Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act creates a private cause of action for disparate impact claims.
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Aug 27, 2021


Aug 27, 2021
J.W. v. Paley
Racial Justice
It is critical that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals clarify that the Fourth Amendment applies to the use of force against schoolchildren. J.W. v. Paley involves Fourteenth and Fourth Amendment claims stemming from a police officer tasing a high school student with disabilities who was attempting to exit the school building to calm down following an incident with another student. The district court dismissed the Fourteenth Amendment claim based on precedent, but allowed the Fourth Amendment claim to proceed, denying qualified immunity to the officer. The Fifth Circuit, however, reversed the lower court’s decision regarding the Fourth Amendment claim, ultimately leaving schoolchildren without any constitutional protection from excessive force by law enforcement in the Fifth Circuit.
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Apr 06, 2021

Apr 06, 2021
Mihal v. McMaster
Women's Rights
Status: Filed
On March 5, 2021, Governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order mandating all non-essential state employees to return to the office in person. On March 30, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of South Carolina, sent a letter urging Governor McMaster to take immediate action and rescind the executive order, or at minimum, delay the return date to in-person work until the end of the school year, and allow agencies to grant employees any and all individualized reasonable accommodations. When the Governor failed to respond by April 1, the ACLU, joined by the ACLU South Carolina and the law firm of Bloodgood & Sanders LLC, filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order as exceeding the Governor's emergency authority.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a non-essential state employee and the ACLU of South Carolina on behalf of its members who are non-essential state employees. The lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction halting the operation of the discriminatory return-to-in-person-work requirement in the executive order. The suit argues that the executive order not only exceeds the governor's emergency authority because it does not protect the health and safety of state employees--and on the contrary, actively puts their health and safety at risk, ignoring the serious health risks posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but also discriminates against women, who disproportionately bear caregiving responsibilities, and/or may be pregnant or breastfeeding and unable to get vaccinated, as well as people with disabilities, many of whom have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
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