Tag Archives: ACLU

Courthouse News reports: The American Civil Liberties Union sued a Kansas county election official in federal court Friday, alleging that her moving of Dodge City’s only polling location to a site half a mile outside of the city’s southern border creates a burden on the city’s majority Hispanic population. Dodge City, located in southwest Kansas about 160 miles west of …

Via press release: The Trump administration is reportedly working to dramatically roll-back protections for transgender students and narrow the definitions of sex and gender that courts have increasingly used to provide protections for LGBTQ people. This is an attack on the very lives and existence of transgender people. It is painful, it is hateful, and it will not go unchallenged. …

Posted last night to the ACLU’s blog: President Trump has a record of attacking the rights of protesters, from suggesting that protest be illegal to praising dictators who crush any kind of dissent. Now, the Trump administration proposes to dramatically limit the right to demonstrate near the White House and on the National Mall, including in ways that would violate …

The New York Daily News reports: The Trump administration is arguing in court that the American Civil Liberties Union is in a better position to locate deported parents forcibly separated from their children at the southern border after entering the U.S. The Department of Justice claimed in a court filing Thursday that the ACLU, which filed a class-action lawsuit against …

The Hill reports: The American Civil Liberties Union and two other groups are alleging in a lawsuit that illegal immigrants being held in a California federal prison are being denied their constitutional rights. The ACLU filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration alongside civil rights groups the Prison Law Office and Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, arguing that the …

The Associated Press reports: A judge on late Friday refused to grant the Trump administration a blanket extension of the deadline to reunite children separated from their parents at the border, instead acknowledging that more time may be justified only in specific cases. The administration said it needed more time to reunite 101 children under 5 years old to ensure …

The Associated Press reports: Civil rights lawyers sued the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday to try to stop plans to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The Manhattan federal court lawsuit on behalf of immigrants’ rights groups says racial animus was behind a recent announcement that the census will include a citizenship question for the first time since …

Via press release from the ACLU: The Supreme Court today reaffirmed the core principle that businesses open to the public must be open to all in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The court did not accept arguments that would have turned back the clock on equality by making our basic civil rights protections unenforceable, but reversed this case …

Via press release from the ACLU: A federal court today denied the Gloucester County School Board’s motion to dismiss a case brought by former student Gavin Grimm, holding that Title IX and the Constitution protect transgender students from being excluded from the common restrooms that align with their gender identity. The court directed the parties to schedule a settlement conference …

Ars Technica reports: Maryland Governor Larry Hogan allegedly had a habit of blocking Facebook users and deleting comments when people criticized him, but a lawsuit has forced him to adopt a more open social media policy. Four Maryland residents sued the Republican governor in a US District Court in August 2017, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) …

Via press release: Liberty Counsel filed a brief today in Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’ appeal of attorney’s fees awarded to the ACLU for suing Davis in 2015 when she stopped issuing marriage licenses while seeking an accommodation for her religious beliefs. Davis previously won her fight for religious freedom when U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning issued an …

The Associated Press reports: Protesters seeking to carry signs in an area being secured for Vice President Mike Pence to participate in the South’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parade won a brisk free speech fight Friday as city officials in Savannah backed off prohibiting signs and posters at the event. City officials reversed course and announced signs would be allowed …

Courthouse News reports: Federal prosecutors will drop charges against 129 of 188 people who were accused of felony rioting after President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said Thursday. Prosecutors will still press cases against 59 defendants they contend were most responsible for the demonstrations, which resulted in smashed windows, property damage …

Just in from Dan Savage: I’m thrilled to announce that ITMFA is sending a second round of checks to the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the International Refugee Assistance Project. This morning we sent off checks Planned Parenthood ($33,333.33), the ACLU ($33,333.33) and the International Refugee Assistance Project ($33,333.34)—money we raised selling ITMFA (“Impeach The Mother Fucker Already”) …

Law Newz reports: The ACLU-DC is trying to stop three search warrants that would let the Department of Justice snoop around protesters’ Facebook accounts over Inauguration Day protests. They filed in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday, saying the government’s demands violate the Fourth Amendment because they are so broad and threaten First Amendment speech. These warrants ask for too much …

USA Today reports: The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Wednesday against the state of Michigan challenging a law that allows adoption agencies to spurn potential LGBT parents under the guise of religion. Religious exemption laws let people, churches and sometimes corporations cite religious beliefs as a reason not to enforce a law — such as declining to marry a …

From the ACLU’s blog: Today we are filing a motion for a preliminary injunction asking the court to put an immediate stop to the President’s ban to ensure that the harms to our clients and the thousands of other transgender individuals serving our country are rectified immediately. Individuals like our client Staff Sgt. Kate Cole should not have to worry …

Politico reports: A pair of advocacy groups said Monday they are going to court to overturn the Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military, in the latest legal assault on the controversial directive. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of five transgender service members. The lawsuit, filed by the Maryland branch of the ACLU, …

From the ACLU’s blog: Can the government ban the text of the First Amendment itself on municipal transit ads because free speech is too “political” for public display? If this sounds like some ridiculous brain teaser, it should. But unfortunately it’s not. It’s a core claim in a lawsuit we filed today challenging the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) …

Via press release from the ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against four federal agencies demanding documents from the Trump administration that provide clarity on how the administration plans to implement its ‘religious freedom’ executive order. The ACLU initially filed records requests with the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, …