Court Cases

At its core, religion is a personal choice. Yet for prisoners in an El Paso County Jail, until recent intervention by the ACLU of Colorado, faith wasn't enough. For inmates whose religious beliefs extended to their meals, i.e. keeping kosher, halal, or vegetarian, simply stating a need for a particular diet was insufficient. They had to provide a letter from a “licensed/ordained clergy person” confirming their status as a practicing member of the faith before the jail would serve them religious meals.

A months-long ACLU investigation resulted in a resounding success for basic human rights and dignity for persons charged with crimes in Weld County.

In this case, the ACLU asserts that the Denver Police Department (DPD) violated the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act when it refused to disclose any documents from the file of its investigation of the African American clients’ complaints of racial profiling arising from a traffic stop in February 2009.

This case raises the question of when, if ever, a victim of domestic violence who obtains a court order of protection can sue for damages caused by the failure of police officers who ignore repeated pleas to enforce that order.