Civil rights case docket
Summaries of our current and historical civil rights cases.
A rich history of litigating important civil rights cases.
Our cases have smashed remnants of Jim Crow segregation; fought against voter suppression; destroyed some of the nation’s most notorious white supremacist groups; and upheld the rights of minorities, children, women, people with disabilities, and others who faced discrimination and exploitation. Many of our cases have changed institutional practices, stopped government or corporate abuses, and set precedents that helped thousands.
Currently, our litigation is focused on several major areas: voting rights, children’s rights, economic justice, immigrant justice, LGBTQ rights, and mass incarceration.
We have also filed amicus “friend-of-the-court” briefs to support litigation from other organizations that are doing similar work.
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Willie Nash v. State of Mississippi
Willie Nash was sentenced to a 12-year prison sentence for bringing a cell phone into a county jail. After the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Nash’s sentence, the SPLC filed a motion on behalf of Nash, urging the court to rehear his case and arguing that the sentence is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
March for Our Lives Florida, et al. v. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, et al.
In 2019, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission violated Florida’s open meetings laws, effectively denying high school students and youth advocates the right to speak before the commission, which was created to investigate system failures in the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and to recommend broader changes to…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
A.P.F., et al. v. United States of America
After the Trump administration instituted a policy that separated and traumatized thousands of migrant families at the U.S. border, the SPLC and its allies sued the U.S government over the policy. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two immigrant parents separated from their children by immigration officials at the U.S. border, describes how the government…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Las Americas v. Trump
The Trump administration has weaponized the immigration court system to serve its anti-immigrant agenda. Categorizing people fleeing persecution as “invaders,” the government is using the immigration courts to target the asylum system and vulnerable migrants instead of lawfully adjudicating the merits of their claims. In essence, the government has created an adjudication system where applicants…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
A.A., et al. v. Harrington, et al.
Decades of research and experience have led to a consensus among mental health practitioners throughout the nation that intensive home- and community-based mental health services are much more effective and less expensive than institutionalizing children and youth who have ongoing mental health needs or who experience a psychiatric crisis. Children and youth with mental illnesses…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
White v. Shwedo
The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles’ policy of automatically suspending the driver’s licenses of people unable to pay traffic tickets resulted in the current suspension of more than 190,000 driver’s licenses as of May 2019. The SPLC and its allies filed a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as a violation of the 14th Amendment…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Randy Pennington, et al. v. Hal Taylor, et al.
Children tried and convicted as adults for sex offenses in Alabama are subject to the state’s Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Act, which imposes a lifetime obligation to register as a sex offender. The SPLC filed a lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs who as children were tried and convicted as adults and forced to…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
G.H., et al. v. Tamayo, et al.
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) places hundreds of children in solitary confinement on any given day. The SPLC, Florida Legal Services and the Florida Justice Institute filed a federal class action lawsuit to end the use of solitary confinement in the state’s juvenile detention facilities. The lawsuit cites scientific, medical and mental health…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Fraihat, et al. v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, et al.
Tens of thousands of immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were denied adequate health care and disability accommodations while being held in 158 immigrant prisons across the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of 15 people detained at eight facilities in…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Jerome Morgan, et al. v. Blair’s Bail Bonds, Inc., et al.
After Louisiana lawmakers passed legislation to prevent the bail bond industry from paying refunds after overcharging people for more than a decade, the Southern Poverty Law Center and its co-counsel filed a lawsuit. New Orleans bail bond companies faced the possibility of paying millions of dollars in refunds to people who purchased bail bonds between…