Court Cases

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Colorado, the Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the National Coalition Against Censorship filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the First Amendment requires subjective intent to threaten, in addition to objectively threatening words, as an essential element of any true threat.

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

In this case, the ACLU argues that public officials who operate their social media pages as opportunities for constituents to discuss issues of public importance are governed by the First Amendment. Accordingly, public officials cannot block posts from constituents because of the viewpoints they express.

In this First Amendment lawsuit, ACLU lawyers sued the Town of Fraser for prohibiting ACLU clients from posting communicative displays on their property that express their views on social and political issues.

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.

In this case, the ACLU successfully defended Anthony Nocella, whom the City of Durango charged with parading without a permit and obstructing the streets during a protest held on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2017.

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 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.