News Releases

The U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases on Dec. 4 – including one from Seattle – involving desegregation programs in public schools. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the cases.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in December 2008 rejected the government's request to reconsider its ruling that reinstated a lawsuit challenging the dismissal of Major Margaret Witt, a decorated U.S. Air Force flight nurse, on grounds that she engaged in homosexual conduct. The case was remanded to the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, with a trial scheduled for September 13, 2010 on the issue of whether Major Witt's presence in her unit is harmful to unit cohesion.

The American Civil Liberties Union today issued a report that details the problems with the manner in which counties provide criminal defense services to people in poverty. The report, “The Unfulfilled Promise of Gideon,” shows that a majority of Washington counties lack comprehensive standards and adequate oversight systems to ensure that these publicly funded legal services meet basic constitutional standards.

The City of Pasco and artists Janette Hopper and Sharon Rupp have reached a final settlement in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the artists. Under terms of the settlement, the City has issued an apology to the artists for “censoring their artwork” and further acknowledging it violated their First Amendment rights. The final settlement came recently, after the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2001 that the City of Pasco violated the rights of Hopper and Rupp when it excluded their works from a program to display art at the Pasco City Hall in 1996.

A former high school student who was suspended for creating a parody on the Internet is getting damages from the school district that wrongfully punished him.

At a hearing here today, the American Civil Liberties Union presented arguments to advance the first nationwide class-action lawsuit challenging the government’s controversial No-Fly lists, which are distributed to all airlines with instructions to detain or interrogate passengers whose names match thousands of names listed.

The Washington Court of Appeals today held that it is improper to deny a divorce to a woman solely on the basis of pregnancy.

The ACLU has filed a suit challenging a plan for suspicionless drug testing of students at Cle Elum-Roslyn High School, because it violates students’ privacy and interferes with parental rights.

The Nine Mile Falls School District has decided to stop searching students with drug-sniffing dogs. The decision avoided a planned lawsuit by the ACLU and the Center for Justice.