In the latest front in the nationwide fight against criminalization of poverty and, specifically, debtors' prisons, on June 1, 2017, the ACLU's Racial Justice Program, the ACLU of South Carolina, and Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC filed a federal lawsuit challenging the illegal arrest and incarceration of indigent people in Lexington County, South Carolina, for failure to pay fines and fess, without determining willfulness or providing assistance to counsel. Those targeted by this long-standing practice can avoid jail only if they pay the entire amount of outstanding court fines and fees up front and in full. Indigent people who are unable to pay are incarcerated for weeks to months without ever seeing a judge, having a court hearing, or receiving help from a lawyer. The result is one of the most draconian debtors’ prisons uncovered by the ACLU since 2010.

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.

Whether excluding Puerto Rico residents from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program violates the equal protection component of the 5th Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

Whether a district court must or may consider intervening legal and factual developments when deciding if it should “impose a reduced sentence” on an individual under Section 404(b) of the First Step Act of 2018, which was enacted to ameliorate the unjust sentences imposed by overly harsh treatment of crack cocaine offenses under prior law.

On October 19, 2021 the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Oklahoma, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and pro bono counsel Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP filed a lawsuit challenging an Oklahoma classroom censorship bill, HB 1775, which severely restricts public school teachers and students from learning and talking about race and gender in the classroom.