Court Cases

In May 2009, the Thornton City Council adopted a resolution significantly restricting free speech at city-sponsored events, such as the annual Fourth of July celebration and fall harvest festival. In response to concerns raised by the ACLU, the City revised some of the most onerous provisions, adopted official interpretations that were more free speech-friendly than the plain language of the policy, and provided assurance that no person could be criminally prosecuted for violating the resolution.

The City of Colorado Springs had a long history of conducting “sweeps” of public parks and other public areas where the City’s homeless commonly slept, ostensibly for cleaning up the parks and discarding trash. In response to public reports that homeless persons’ private property was commonly seized and destroyed during these “sweeps,” the ACLU interviewed dozens of homeless individuals affected by the City’s policy.

This case, which names the Weld County sheriff and district attorney as defendants, challenges the validity of the search warrant and the subsequent search of tax records and asserts that Weld County officials violated the right of privacy of thousands of innocent taxpayers who were not suspected of any wrongdoing.

This lawsuit, filed May 2, 2008, against Denver and the United States Secret Service on behalf of 12 national and local advocacy organizations, seeks to protect the First Amendment rights of individual and organizations that wish to express their views about issues of public concern during the time of the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, 2008.

This lawsuit, filed against Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe and the City and County of Denver, seeks disclosure of the policy and procedure manual for the downtown city jail, known as the Pre-Arraignment Detention Facility or PADF. The Manager of Safety refused to produce the manual under Colorado open records laws based on the ground that disclosure would be “contrary to the public interest.”