Court Cases

The federal government threatened to withhold billions of dollars in research funding from Harvard University after the school refused to adopt the government’s preferred ideological approach to who it admits to study, who it employs to teach, and what classes and other programs it offers.

The government cannot ban people from public events just because elected officials can't handle their jokes. We’re suing the federal government for retaliating against our client by blocking her from an official, taxpayer-funded public event simply because she criticizes Vice President Vance online.

We filed an amicus brief urging a federal appeals court to apply the correct test to determine if a Massachusetts police officer’s comments are protected by the First Amendment.

The ACLU of DC is representing dozens of federal workers – including a plaintiff from Maine – who were targeted in Trump's purge of federal employees associated with DEI initiatives.

On April 11, 2025, the ACLU and ACLU of Maine filed a lawsuit on behalf of two human rights advocates who, because of an executive order signed by President Trump, have been forced to stop humanitarian work with the International Criminal Court.

We filed a friend-of-the-court brief with Maine’s highest court arguing the state’s vague anti-stalking law opened the door to the criminalization of speech in violation of a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision. New legislation amended the law to ensure people cannot be prosecuted for protected speech.

We filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Maine Beacon reporter Dan Neumann. In a victory for journalists’ First Amendment rights, the First Circuit dismissed defamation claims filed by Cheng and Epoch Group.

In a victory for student free speech, a federal appeals court ruled that our client could not be suspended for so-called bullying after posting a note in a girl’s bathroom about sexual assault among students.