Search Results for: ACLU

A Texas federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday suspending enforcement of a Texas state law that criminalized illegal entry to the US from abroad. The law, SB4, criminalized a number of immigration offenses under state law and empowered state law enforcement to make arrests and hold people in detention. SB4 will now be [...]

A Texas judge ruled in favor of Barbers Hill Independent School District on Thursday, finding that the school district did not violate a new state law prohibiting race-based hair discrimination when it punished a black student for refusing to change his hairstyle. The case involved Darryl George, a junior in high school, who was initially [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU of South Carolina filed a lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) on Thursday, claiming the department’s ban on news media interviews for incarcerated people violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The department’s policy explicitly prohibits “personal contact interviews” with inmates, and in [...]

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos are children. What does this mean? And how might the ruling reverberate as the US grapples with reproductive rights in a post-Roe world? In this explainer, we will explore these issues and their possible implications. As succinctly as possible, what was this case about? LePage v. [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia filed two lawsuits Thursday against the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) on behalf of two transgender students challenging the department’s 2023 model policies. Virginia law authorizes VDOE to issue model policies regarding the treatment of transgender students, and the policies are required to reflect “evidence-based best practices” for [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against the state of Tennessee on Thursday seeking the invalidation of a law criminalizing “aggravated” prostitution citing the discriminatory impacts of its elevated penalties on those convicted of prostitution if they are HIV positive. The lawsuit also seeks expungement of state registries related to the law’s enforcement [...]

A Tennessee city settled with the ACLU on Wednesday, agreeing to pay $500,000 for the harm caused by its anti-drag ordinance and policy. The city of Murfreesboro agreed to repeal the ordinance, which was designed to ban drag performances on public property, and end the policy that denied all special event permit requests from the LGBTQ+ [...]

Iowa lawmakers declined to advance a piece of legislation on Wednesday that would have removed gender identity as a protected class under the state’s civil rights law. In a 3-0 tally, a subcommittee of the Iowa legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted against moving the bill forward. Although the bill sought to add a new category to [...]

The US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals declined Tuesday to rehear with the full Eighth Circuit panel of judges a prior appeals court decision curtailing private organizations’ ability to sue under section two of the Voting Rights Act for alleged racial gerrymandering in redistricting decisions. In the order denying the rehearing, Judge David Stras, writing [...]

The US Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Wednesday refused Kenneth Smith’s application for a stay of his execution by nitrogen hypoxia.   Kenneth Smith is scheduled to be executed by way of nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday night at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. According to the Alabama execution [...]