Texas
Featured
U.S. Supreme Court
Jun 2023
Reproductive Freedom
Danco Laboratories, LLC, v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine; U.S. FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine
The American Civil Liberties Union joined over 200 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of an emergency request to stay a decision issued by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that severely restricted the use of mifepristone — a medication used in most abortions in this country — and threatened the innovation of new drugs and the ability of Americans to access lifesaving drugs.
U.S. Supreme Court
Dec 2021
Reproductive Freedom
Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and coalition partners filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers and funds on July 13, 2021, challenging S.B. 8, a Texas law allowing private citizens to enforce a ban on abortion as early as six weeks in pregnancy—before many know they are pregnant. The ACLU’s challenge made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court three times in as many months. After hearing oral arguments in the case, the Court issued a decision on December 10, 2021, that ended the most promising pathways to blocking the ban. The Supreme Court’s decision makes it more difficult to obtain adequate relief from the courts and gives states the green light to ban abortion using bounty-hunting schemes. Texas’ abortion ban will remain in effect until relief can be secured from a court.
Texas
Jul 2021
Prisoners' Rights
Criminal Law Reform
Sanchez et al v. Dallas County Sheriff et al
Decarceration has always been an emergency, a life and death proposition, but COVID-19 makes this effort intensely urgent. The ACLU has been working with our partners to litigate for the rights of those who are incarcerated and cannot protect themselves because of the policies of the institutions in which they are jailed.
All Cases
52 Texas Cases
Texas
Nov 2023
Women's Rights
Free Speech
Spring Branch ISD Advocacy – Dress Code Discrimination
On March 1, 2023, WRP and the ACLU of Texas sent an advocacy letter to Spring Branch Independent School District (“District”) on behalf of G.H., a Spring Woods High School student athlete. The ACLU’s investigation had revealed that the District maintained a discriminatory, sex-specific dress code and gender-based inequities in the school’s athletics program, and that the student was mistreated after objecting to these policies and practices. The advocacy letter raised concerns that the District’s actions reinforced invidious sex stereotypes, treated girl athletes as lesser than boy athletes, and potentially violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The District’s policies and actions harm all students, regardless of gender, but have particularly egregious consequences for Black girls and other girls of color.
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Texas
Nov 2023
Women's Rights
Free Speech
Spring Branch ISD Advocacy – Dress Code Discrimination
On March 1, 2023, WRP and the ACLU of Texas sent an advocacy letter to Spring Branch Independent School District (“District”) on behalf of G.H., a Spring Woods High School student athlete. The ACLU’s investigation had revealed that the District maintained a discriminatory, sex-specific dress code and gender-based inequities in the school’s athletics program, and that the student was mistreated after objecting to these policies and practices. The advocacy letter raised concerns that the District’s actions reinforced invidious sex stereotypes, treated girl athletes as lesser than boy athletes, and potentially violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The District’s policies and actions harm all students, regardless of gender, but have particularly egregious consequences for Black girls and other girls of color.
Texas
Sep 2023
Free Speech
Free Speech Coalition v. Colmenero
Texas H.B. 1181, if allowed to go into effect, will impermissibly burden access to protected online speech by requiring users to verify their ages before accessing legal adult content online. The law will also unconstitutionally compel websites that carry lawful, fully protected sexual material to post “disclosure” statements reflecting Texas’s views about pornography.
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Texas
Sep 2023
Free Speech
Free Speech Coalition v. Colmenero
Texas H.B. 1181, if allowed to go into effect, will impermissibly burden access to protected online speech by requiring users to verify their ages before accessing legal adult content online. The law will also unconstitutionally compel websites that carry lawful, fully protected sexual material to post “disclosure” statements reflecting Texas’s views about pornography.
U.S. Supreme Court
Jul 2023
Smart Justice
Criminal Law Reform
Daves v. Dallas County
Whether federal courts have the power to remedy systemic unconstitutional pretrial detention practices that remain unchecked by state courts.
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U.S. Supreme Court
Jul 2023
Smart Justice
Criminal Law Reform
Daves v. Dallas County
Whether federal courts have the power to remedy systemic unconstitutional pretrial detention practices that remain unchecked by state courts.
U.S. Supreme Court
May 2023
Capital Punishment
Reed v. Goertz
When a prisoner pursues state post-conviction DNA testing through the state-provided litigation process, when does the statute of limitations for a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 procedural due process claim begin to run?
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U.S. Supreme Court
May 2023
Capital Punishment
Reed v. Goertz
When a prisoner pursues state post-conviction DNA testing through the state-provided litigation process, when does the statute of limitations for a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 procedural due process claim begin to run?
U.S. Supreme Court
May 2023
Free Speech
Gonzalez v. Trevino
This case is about what a plaintiff must demonstrate to sustain allegations that police arrested them in retaliation for First Amendment–protected expression. While retaliatory arrest plaintiffs generally must show that police lacked probable cause to arrest them, the petitioner in this case correctly argues that a recognized exception to that rule, for cases where police typically exercise discretion not to arrest people, must be robust to protect the free speech of government critics.
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U.S. Supreme Court
May 2023
Free Speech
Gonzalez v. Trevino
This case is about what a plaintiff must demonstrate to sustain allegations that police arrested them in retaliation for First Amendment–protected expression. While retaliatory arrest plaintiffs generally must show that police lacked probable cause to arrest them, the petitioner in this case correctly argues that a recognized exception to that rule, for cases where police typically exercise discretion not to arrest people, must be robust to protect the free speech of government critics.