Filed
May 25, 2021
Fighting For The Rights Of Trans Youth in Arkansas
Brandt et al v. Rutledge et al

Several doctors and families are challenging a discriminatory Arkansas law that would prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or even referring transgender youth for medically necessary health care. Their case is being heard this week in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

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Featured

Prisoners' Rights
Alex A. v. Edwards
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The ACLU National Prison Project and partner civil rights attorneys filed a federal class-action lawsuit to prevent the transfer of children in the custody of Louisiana's Office of Juvenile Justice to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola Prison.
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National Security
Wikimedia v. NSA - Challenge to Upstream Surveillance
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The ACLU is challenging the constitutionality of the NSA’s mass interception and searching of Americans’ international Internet communications. At issue is the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance, through which the U.S. government systematically monitors private emails, messages, and other data flowing into and out of the country on the Internet’s central arteries. The ACLU’s lawsuit was brought on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation and eight legal, human rights, and media organizations, which together engage in trillions of sensitive communications and have been harmed by Upstream surveillance.
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Prisoners' Rights
Jensen v. Shinn
Status: Decided
UPDATE: U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver found on June 30, 2022, that the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) systematically violates the constitutional rights of persons incarcerated in the state’s prisons by failing to provide them minimally adequate medical and mental health care, and by subjecting them to harsh and deprived conditions in solitary confinement units.
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Reproductive Freedom
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Status: Decided
The case concerns the constitutionality of a Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after the fifteenth week of pregnancy. The state used the case as a vehicle to ask the Supreme Court to take away the federal constitutional right to abortion it first recognized 50 years before in Roe v. Wade. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States accepted the state’s invitation and overturned Roe eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion.
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Privacy & Technology
FBI v. Fazaga
Status: Decided
In a case scheduled to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 8, 2021, three Muslim Americans are challenging the FBI’s secret spying on them and their communities based on their religion, in violation of the Constitution and federal law. In what will likely be a landmark case, the plaintiffs — Yassir Fazaga, Ali Uddin Malik, and Yasser Abdelrahim — insist that the FBI cannot escape accountability for violating their religious freedom by invoking “state secrets.” The plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, the ACLU of Southern California, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Council for American Islamic Relations, and the law firm of Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai.
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Reproductive Freedom
Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center
Status: Decided
In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Kentucky filed a suit on behalf of Kentucky abortion providers and their patients challenging a state law banning physicians from providing a safe and medically proven abortion method called dilation and evacuation, or “D&E.” If it were to take effect, this law would prevent many patients from being able to obtain an abortion altogether. After two courts held that the law is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled in March 2022 that Kentucky Attorney General Cameron can continue his pursuit to push abortion out of reach by intervening in the underlying challenge to an abortion ban, which is proceeding in a lower court.
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Reproductive Freedom
Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson
Status: Decided
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and coalition partners filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers and funds on July 13, 2021, challenging S.B. 8, a Texas law allowing private citizens to enforce a ban on abortion as early as six weeks in pregnancy—before many know they are pregnant. The ACLU’s challenge made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court three times in as many months. After hearing oral arguments in the case, the Court issued a decision on December 10, 2021, that ended the most promising pathways to blocking the ban. The Supreme Court’s decision makes it more difficult to obtain adequate relief from the courts and gives states the green light to ban abortion using bounty-hunting schemes. Texas’ abortion ban will remain in effect until relief can be secured from a court.
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Immigrants' Rights
Innovation Law Lab v. Wolf
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The American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s new policy forcing asylum seekers to return to Mexico and remain there while their cases are considered.
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All Cases
Jan 12, 2023

Jan 12, 2023
Doe v. Abbott
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Filed
A family in Texas had a child welfare investigator arrive at their home due to a directive from Governor Greg Abbott stating that health care that is medically necessary for treating gender dysphoria should be considered a form of child abuse. This family — an employee of DFPS, her husband, and their transgender teen — sued Governor Abbott and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Dr. Megan Mooney, a licensed psychologist who works with transgender youth and their families, also joined the lawsuit.
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Jan 12, 2023


Jan 12, 2023
PFLAG v. Abbott
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Filed
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Texas, and Baker Botts filed a lawsuit in Texas State Court on behalf of PFLAG National and three Texas families. This is the second of two lawsuits challenging unlawful attempts to ban essential health care for transgender youth by Texas state leaders.
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Jan 12, 2023

Jan 12, 2023
Corbitt v. Taylor
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Filed
The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Alabama filed a federal law suit against officials of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) for depriving transgender people of driver licenses that reflect their gender. The lawsuit states that the Alabama government has violated the privacy, due process, free speech, and equal protection rights of Darcy Corbitt, Destiny Clark, and a third, unnamed plaintiff.
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Jan 12, 2023

Jan 12, 2023
Brandt et al v. Rutledge et al
LGBTQ Rights
Four families of transgender youth and two doctors have challenged an Arkansas law that would prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or even referring transgender young people for medically necessary health care. The law would also bar any state funds or insurance coverage for gender-affirming health care for transgender people under 18, and it would allow private insurers to refuse to cover gender-affirming care for people of any age. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that House Bill 1570 is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
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Jan 12, 2023


Jan 12, 2023
Hersom v. Crouch
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Settled
Xavier Hersom applied for and was denied a gender marker change on his birth certificate. He said DHHR’s policy has created yet another layer of difficulty for him as a transgender person living in West Virginia. The ACLU, the ACLU of West Virginia, and the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic filed a federal lawsuit asking a court to declare West Virginia’s birth certificate policies relating to transgender people unconstitutional on behalf of Hersom and an another anonymous plaintiff.
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