Daisy Pruett was already struggling to provide for herself and two children when a judge signed an order allowing Worldwide Asset Purchasing,a debt collector,...
We have a rich history of litigating important civil rights cases on behalf of the most vulnerable in society. Our cases have smashed remnants of Jim Crow segregation; destroyed some of the nation’s most notorious white supremacist groups; and upheld the rights of minorities, children, women, the disabled 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 five major areas: children’s rights, economic justice, immigrant justice, LGBTQ rights, and mass incarceration.
Here are summaries, in a searchable format, of our current cases in addition to many over the previous four decades.
Daisy Pruett was already struggling to provide for herself and two children when a judge signed an order allowing Worldwide Asset Purchasing,a debt collector,...
African-American students and students with disabilities in Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Public Schools were disproportionately referred to alternative school, where they often languish for months or even years before returning to regular classes. These students often were referred to alternative schools for minor misconduct, such as disrespectful behavior, use of profanity, disrupting class and horseplay.
"Dehumanizing." "Intolerable." "Grossly deficient." These were some of the words a federal judge used to describe conditions at Alabama's mental health facilities in the 1970s. Center attorneys worked with others for years to bring Alabama into compliance with the minimum standards of care ordered by the judge.
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...
Since at least 2016, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials used lies, threats, coercion and physical abuse, among other tactics, to deny migrants access to the asylum process at ports of entry along the southern border.
The SPLC joined a class action lawsuit in 2018 as co-...
Alabama is the only state in the Southeast that lacks statutory due process protections for students facing long-term suspension or expulsion. Without a state law, each of the 138 school districts in Alabama is left to develop its own protections and procedures. This has resulted in haphazard,...
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of migrant workers who have faced rampant wage theft by a major farm labor contractor, Lowry Farms, Inc. The guest workers planted sugarcane on farms throughout Louisiana and received pay well below what was required under...
South Carolina denied in-state college tuition rates to U.S. citizens living in the state but unable to prove the lawful immigration status of their parents – an unconstitutional policy that more than tripled the cost of tuition. The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit to end the practice.
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...
During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the SPLC and its allies filed a lawsuit seeking the immediate release of people with preexisting health conditions held at two south Georgia immigration detention centers, where they are at greater risk of contracting the virus that causes the disease....