Latest American Civil Liberties Union News

Lawsuit says Ohio's gender-affirming care ban violates the state constitution

Mar. 26, 2024 17:48 PM EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two families of transgender minors filed a constitutional challenge on Tuesday to an Ohio law that severely limits gender-affirming health care for youth under 18. The litigation, brought in Franklin County Common Pleas Court by the American Civil Liberties...

New Jersey lawmakers fast track bill that could restrict records access under open records law

Mar. 11, 2024 19:09 PM EDT

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey lawmakers voted Monday to advance a measure that could make it easier for government agencies to withhold documents under the state's open records law, casting it as a modernizing bill that would cut back on profiteering businesses. Committees in...

A Kansas judge says barring driver's license changes doesn't violate trans people's rights

Mar. 11, 2024 18:12 PM EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge ruled Monday that the state isn't violating transgender residents' rights under the state constitution by refusing to change their driver's licenses to reflect their gender identities. District Judge Teresa Watson kept in place indefinitely an...

Nebraska's new law limiting abortion and trans healthcare is argued before the state Supreme Court

Mar. 05, 2024 16:51 PM EST

Members of the Nebraska Supreme Court appeared to meet with skepticism a state lawyer's defense of a new law that combines a 12-week abortion ban with another measure to limit gender-affirming health care for minors. Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton argued Tuesday that the...

Nevada county election official in charge of controversial 2022 hand-count plan resigns

Feb. 29, 2024 18:10 PM EST

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The top elections official in a rural Nevada county roiled by false claims of widespread election fraud that led to a controversial hand-count in the 2022 midterms is resigning, according to a resignation letter the county received. The reason for Nye County Clerk...

Judge rejects settlement aimed at ensuring lawyers for low-income defendants

Feb. 28, 2024 17:44 PM EST

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A judge has rejected a second proposed settlement for improving Maine’s system for providing attorneys for residents who cannot afford them, and she won't be waiting for a third try. Justice Michaela Murphy gave the ACLU of Maine until March 8 to file a new...

Ban on gender-affirming care for minors allowed to take effect in Indiana

Feb. 27, 2024 21:18 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed Indiana's ban on gender-affirming care to go into effect, removing a temporary injunction a judge issued last year. The ruling was handed down by a panel of justices on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. It...

Utah House kills bill banning LGBTQ+ Pride flags and political views from classrooms

Feb. 26, 2024 21:49 PM EST

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah teachers will be free to display LGBTQ+ Pride flags and other social, political or religious imagery after the state House blocked a bill on Monday that would have banned teachers from using their position to promote or disparage certain beliefs. The...

South Carolina bans inmates from in-person interviews. A lawsuit wants to change that

Feb. 22, 2024 18:26 PM EST

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina prison policy banning inmates from speaking to reporters in person or having their writings directly published violates the First Amendment free speech rights of prisoners, a civil rights organization said in a federal lawsuit Thursday. While...

Schools say dress codes promote discipline. But many Black students see traces of racism

Feb. 21, 2024 19:45 PM EST

For as long as schools have policed hairstyles as part of their dress codes, some students have seen the rules as attempts to deny their cultural and religious identities. Nowhere have school rules on hair been a bigger flashpoint than in Texas, where a trial this week is set to...