Court Cases

The ACLU of Colorado filed an amicus brief arguing that Colorado’s Sexually Violent Predator designation is punishment.

In a precedent setting opinion, the court stated that “the use of less-lethal munitions—as with any other type of pain-inflicting compliance technique—is unconstitutionally excessive force when applied to an unthreatening protester who has neither committed a serious offense nor attempted to flee."

The ACLU of Colorado filed an amicus brief urging the Colorado Supreme Court to conclude that Colorado state protections preempt municipal sentencing schemes that punish identical conduct more harshly and such schemes violate Colorado’s longstanding equal protection guarantee. On December 22, 2025, the Court held that municipalities may not authorize harsher sentences than state law allows for an identical offense.

The ACLU of Colorado filed an amicus brief with the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition urging the Colorado Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling that fees for body-worn camera footage are not authorized by Colorado’s Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act passed in 2020.

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.

The ACLU of Colorado filed an appeal on behalf of a person incarcerated in the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) whose case challenging a prison disciplinary conviction was dismissed because he missed the deadline for filing. Our client alleges he did everything he could to file on time and only missed the deadline because of CDOC’s own delay in providing him the documents he needed. The lower court agreed he had shown good cause for filing late but concluded it had no choice but to ignore those circumstances and apply the deadline strictly to bar his claims.

In a lawsuit brought against Colorado and Denver by the federal government, the ACLU of Colorado filed an amicus brief defending state and local laws that limit the diversion of their resources for the purpose of federal civil immigration enforcement. The brief argues that these laws are good policy, as they protect public safety and the functioning of state government, keep state actors within constitutional bounds, and promote the overall well-being of our communities and economy.

The ACLU of Colorado filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the enforcement of President Trump’s recent executive order targeting National Public Radio (NPR) and threatening local public radio stations.

The ACLU of Colorado has joined an appeal with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, the ACLU of Oklahoma, and immigration lawyer Kelli Stump challenging the denial of a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of a noncitizen wrongfully detained in Oklahoma.