Although Texas law clearly prohibits prosecuting people for terminating their pregnancies, Starr County officials indicted, arrested, and jailed Lizelle Gonzalez for having an abortion. The ACLU’s Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative and Criminal Law Reform Project, alongside the ACLU of Texas and south Texas firm Garza Martinez, are representing Ms. Gonzalez in a lawsuit against Starr County and local officials based on violations of Ms. Gonzalez’s constitutional rights.

When must a person file a Section 1983 civil rights case based on fabrication of evidence in a criminal proceeding?

Whether the “dual-sovereignty” exception to the Double Jeopardy Clause—whereby a state and the federal government can each prosecute a person for the same crime, even where neither would be able to do so alone—violates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.