Court Cases

The ACLU-DC filed this lawsuit, together with the ACLU’s National Prison Project and Immigrants’ Rights Project, on behalf of five medically vulnerable people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who have requested and been denied COVID-19 vaccine booster shots.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the National ACLU and ACLU-DC requested records providing information about people BOP moved to home confinement under the CARES Act, and for any DOJ and BOP policies implementing the OLC Memorandum.

Deon Jones, a gay man, has been employed by the D.C. Dept. of Corrections for more than two decades, where he has endured pervasive acts of harassment based on his sexual orientation. The lawsuit describes how Sgt. Jones faced constant harassment from co-workers and incarcerated persons alike.

Apparently recognizing that a law making “communicat[ion]” a crime risks the prosecution of speech protected by the First Amendment, the law provides that “[t]his section does not apply to constitutionally protected activity.” But the D.C. Court of Appeals has never explained what that means.

The ACLU-DC filed a lawsuit on behalf of two photojournalists against the District of Columbia and 8 D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers for unleashing chemical irritants and stun grenades one month after the D.C. Council instilled a ban on the use of these weapons during demonstrations.

A ransomware attack of MPD server files raised questions around the existence of a folder entitled "Felon in Possession Project." The ACLU-DC filed a FOIA request for documents affiliated with MPD’s “Felon in Possession Project.”