Does the Constitution prohibit racial discrimination in redistricting regardless of the size of the group targeted by the state?

If the death penalty is racist, arbitrary and serves no valid penological purpose, does it violate the Kansas constitution? The Sedgwick County District Court will grapple with this question at an unprecedented evidentiary hearing beginning on February 6, 2023. The ACLU, together with the ACLU of Kansas and law firm Hogan Lovells US LLP, is challenging the Kansas death penalty statute under the Kansas Constitution and United States Constitution in the case of Kansas v. Kyle Young. Mr. Young is a Black man facing a capital trial in Sedgwick County, Kansas. Prosecutors are seeking a death sentence.

This lawsuit challenges Kansas’ documentary proof-of-citizenship law which requires people, when they register to vote, to show documents to prove their citizenship. It violates the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law designed to make it easier for Americans to register to vote and maintain their registrations.

The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit arguing a Kansas law requiring all state contractors to certify that they aren’t boycotting Israel violates the First Amendment.