Court Cases

Ebosele Oboh was renovating his house without having obtained the necessary permits. The Department of Buildings issued him a fine for the violation, then doubled the fine as a penalty for not responding to the first. This amicus brief argues that the excessive penalty violates the 8th Amendment.

In 1969, seventeen-year-old Bruce Taylor enlisted in the army and volunteered for a secret weapons testing program at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, where he was used as a human guinea pig in experiments with chemical weapons. As a result, he has suffered from a lifelong health condition.

In December 2022, we filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights alleging discrimination based on family responsibilities and seeking compensation for our clients and changes to the DMV telework policy so it does not disadvantage parents and caregivers.

Immigrants have a right to legal representation in immigration proceedings, but do not have a right to government-appointed counsel. We filed this suit to challenge the failure to ensure compliance with constitutional requirements, federal law, and ICE’s own policies regarding access to counsel.

The government has long infringed on Americans’ fundamental rights and liberties under the guise of national security. We want to know DHS’s plan to safeguard civil liberties, civil rights, and privacy, or whether it even has one.

We filed this lawsuit, together with the ACLU National Prison Project and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, asking the court to compel the BOP to release the requested records relevant to its care and housing of people with mental illness in BOP custody.

The ACLU-DC filed a lawsuit on behalf of five people in ICE detention facilities who are medically vulnerable to severe illness and death in the event of COVID-19 infection, demanding that they be given COVID-19 booster shots.