Court Cases

This lawsuit, in which ACLU lawyers participated as intervenors, is closely related to the ACLU’s challenge to the Choice Scholarship Pilot Program, the voucher program adopted by the Douglas County School District (DCSD) in 2011 that would channel public money to private religious schools.

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.

The ACLU of Colorado filed suit on behalf of Danny Ledonne, a former professor who was banned by school officials from the Adams State University campus in Alamosa, Colorado, after he created a website criticizing various university administration practices.

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.

In this case, ACLU attorneys challenged an Englewood ordinance that makes it a crime for registered sex offenders to live within 2,000 feet of any school, park, or playground, or 1,000 feet of any licensed day care center, recreation center, or swimming pool. As a practical matter, the ordinance bans previously convicted sex offenders from living in the city.

An ACLU investigation revealed that the Colorado Springs Police Department, the City Attorney’s Office, and the City’s Municipal Court are illegally enforcing the City’s panhandling laws against hundreds of impoverished people who have not violated those laws.

ACLU lawyers filed suit in federal court just five days before Grand Junction's new panhandling ordinance was scheduled to go into effect.

The ACLU of Colorado and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project filed suit on behalf of Ashley Provino, a Grand Junction woman who was fired from her job, in violation of state and federal anti-discrimination laws, for asserting her right to pump breast milk at work.