NYCLU Responds to Trump Threat to Cut Funds to New York City

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has awarded its prestigious Pro Bono Attorney of the Year honor to solo practitioner Sara Norman, and the Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year honor to Ballard Spahr LLP. These honors recognize the tremendous pro bono support the ACLU receives from law firms and solo practitioners, and the years of partnership and tireless energy they have contributed to defending our civil rights and liberties. “Faced with attacks on civil rights and liberties from every direction, we count on the private bar to join forces with us on the most important fights to protect our rights and freedoms,” said Cecillia Wang, ACLU national legal director. “As one of our nation’s leading experts on the rights of incarcerated people, Sara Norman has been an extraordinary, longtime partner to the ACLU in our work in complex litigation holding prisons accountable for the health, safety, and fundamental rights of our clients. Sara centers the humanity and dignity of all people in her work. We are thrilled to name her our Pro Bono Attorney of the Year.” “The ACLU is delighted to name Ballard Spahr our Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year. At a time when the rights of transgender Americans are being tested in legislatures and courtrooms across the country, Ballard Spahr has stepped up time and again, alongside the ACLU, to advocate for the civil rights of our clients. We are grateful to the firm for fighting with us to make our Constitution’s guarantees a lived reality for all of us.” Sara Norman, a solo practitioner based in San Francisco, has served as co-counsel to the ACLU’s National Prison Project and Capital Punishment Project for over a year in Taylor v. Trump, our challenge to President Trump’s executive order directing that individuals who received commutations of their death sentences from President Biden should be incarcerated in the worst possible conditions in the federal prison system. The lawsuit is brought on behalf of 21 people whose death sentences were commuted by President Biden and who were designated under the Trump order to be transferred to the ADX Florence “supermax” prison in Colorado, which is known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies. Norman is an integral member of the Taylor v. Trump litigation team. She has worked closely with our clients, especially those with medical and mental health conditions, to advocate for a preliminary injunction enjoining the Federal Bureau of Prisons from moving people from their current prison at Terre Haute, Indiana, to ADX Florence. Norman has volunteered hundreds of pro bono hours for this case, and contributed her extraordinary expertise based on 30 years as a leading advocate for incarcerated people. Ballard Spahr has partnered with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project on multiple transgender rights cases, contributing extraordinary litigation experience, a shared commitment to civil rights and civil liberties, and thousands of hours of attorneys’ time. Ballard Spahr is currently co-counsel with us on three major cases at the forefront of the defense of transgender Americans’ civil rights: Loe v. Kansas, our state-court challenge to a Kansas law that prohibits medical care for transgender adolescents; Doe v. Kansas, our state-court challenge to another Kansas law, which prohibits updating the gender markers on driver's licenses and also bars transgender people from using restrooms in government buildings; and Robinson v. Labrador, our federal-court litigation challenging the deprivation of essential health care to incarcerated individuals, under an Idaho state law that prohibits the use of state funds for gender-affirming care. Previously, in 2024, Ballard Spahr partnered with the ACLU in Tennessee Equality Project v. City of Murfreesboro, a successful First Amendment challenge to a city ordinance banning drag shows.

Hosts Shereen Marisol Meraji and Matthew Beat give a glimpse into the ACLU’s new podcast covering some of the most influential court cases in history.

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today launched Let the Record Show, a new, irreverent American history podcast that looks back on the people and places behind defining legal moments for rights and freedoms in the United States. At a time when people are overwhelmed by the threats to our civil rights and civil liberties, Let the Record Show invites listeners to explore legal cases that give us insight into what we faced back then and what we’re facing today. Let the Record Show is hosted by schoolteacher and YouTube creator Matthew Beat, also known as Mr. Beat, and professor and audio journalist Shereen Marisol Meraji. On every episode, our hosts explore a major court case from U.S. history. Cases that shape how we live our lives today. And it’s more than just the case and its outcome – it’s about the people and places beyond the courtroom, and the nail-biting moments that came to define our country’s complex system of laws. “Let the Record Show is about more than just old court cases. It's about the real people behind the scenes, the stories they told, and the rights that we fought for and won along the way. I've told these stories in the classroom and online for 17 years, and I'm pumped to co-host the ACLU's new podcast to breathe new life into them,” said Matt Beat. “The ACLU has been at the center of so many important moments in our country’s history — from fighting for racial and gender justice to defending the rights of immigrants. And right now, there’s so much noise about what is happening to our civil rights and liberties that it can be hard to understand what matters most and why. We need a podcast like Let the Record Show help us decipher what’s at stake and figure out what we can do about it,” said Shereen Marisol Meraji. Listeners will be introduced to plaintiffs like Wong Kim Ark, who we can thank for affirming birthright citizenship; lawyers like Pauli Murray, who made it the nation’s business to take both racial and gender equality seriously; and everyday people who spoke up for their rights and the rights of their neighbors, especially when that took a lot of courage. Season 1 of the biweekly podcast will feature cases such as White v. Crook (exclusion of women and Black people from juries), Engel v. Vitale (school prayer), and Gitlow v. New York (free speech), and will be available on audio on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and on video on YouTube. Let the Record Show pulls from the ACLU’s century-long archive of legal cases to help listeners understand how, throughout history, key figures have stood up to defend their rights and freedoms in the face of brutality and injustice to expand freedoms for us all. Listeners will also hear from guests, including ACLU legal experts, as part of a recurring Sidebar segment where the hosts pause the story to explain a complex legal topic. The first episode of the podcast, on J.G.G. v. Trump, is available here: https://www.aclu.org/podcast/what-happens-when-the-president-defies-a-judge

In our series, the ACLU has teamed up with artists, authors, Hachette Book Group, and content creators to share books that have helped them better understand civil liberties and civil rights, fight for our communities and our Constitution, and increase engagement in creating a more perfect union.