Court Cases

The ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit challenging Boulder’s ordinance that criminalizes the city’s unhoused residents by making it a crime to sleep outside with a blanket.

In this case, the ACLU of Colorado provided criminal defense for Adam Wiemold, a homeless man who was charged with illegal “camping” by Fort Collins police for sleeping in his vehicle at a designated rest area where truck drivers regularly sleep in their vehicles undisturbed by police.

This lawsuit challenges a Greeley ordinance that bans all pedestrian presence in all medians throughout the city.

The ACLU of Colorado sent individualized letters to 31 municipalities with varied bans on panhandling, all of which were facially unconstitutional in light of recent court decisions.

The Wheat Ridge Municipal Court violated a Colorado law banning debtor’s prison practices by sentencing a homeless man to jail because he could not pay a fine, according to a filing made on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

ACLU client James Fisher was a victim of the unfair and unconstitutional debtors’ prison practices of municipal courts that ACLU of Colorado has criticized for years.

In this case, the ACLU of Colorado charged that Colorado Springs has been routinely violating the United States Constitution and Colorado law by jailing hundreds of people because they are too poor to pay court-ordered fines and fees.