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
Status: Filed
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
Status: Filed
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
Status: Filed
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
Soule et al v. CT Association of Schools et al
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Decided
The ACLU has joined a lawsuit defending the interests of trans student athletes in Connecticut.
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Jan 12, 2023

Jan 12, 2023
Hecox v. Little
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Filed
Lindsay is a college student at Boise State University. She wants to run on the track team so she can form friendships with other girls. A new law in Idaho would ban her from doing so because she is transgender.
Lindsay sued and is represented by the ACLU and the ACLU of Idaho, Legal Voice and Cooley LLP.
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Jan 12, 2023


Jan 12, 2023
Billard v. Charlotte Catholic High School
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Filed
Lonnie Billard worked at Charlotte Catholic High School for more than a decade – both as full-time drama and as a long-term substitute teacher – and has won numerous teaching awards, including teacher of the year. In October 2014 Lonnie wrote a Facebook post announcing that he and his long-time partner were getting married. Later that year, the school told Lonnie he could no longer work as a substitute teacher because his engagement and marriage to another man was contrary to the religious principles of the Catholic Church.
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Jan 12, 2023

Jan 12, 2023
Toomey v. State of Arizona
LGBTQ Rights
Status: Filed
On January 23, 2019, The American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona filed a class action lawsuit against the State of Arizona and the Arizona Board of Regents for denying medically necessary, gender-confirming health care to transgender people employed by the state. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Dr. Russell B. Toomey, an associate professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona, and all other transgender individuals employed by the Arizona Board of Regents or enrolled in the State health plan, including dependents.
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