Court Cases

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

On February 10, 2015, ACLU of Colorado filed a class action lawsuit challenging an anti-panhandling ordinance that is being widely enforced by Fort Collins, in violation of the free speech rights of people who are impoverished and homeless, as well as street performers and non-profit canvassers.

Four Colorado taxpayers and the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed suit in state court seeking a declaration that the Governor’s proclamation of a Day of Prayer violated the “no-preference” clause of Article II, Section 4 of the Colorado Constitution, which states that “[n]or shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.”

The ACLU filed a complaint against the City of Colorado Springs seeking an order to permanently enjoin enforcement of their "no-solicitation" ordinance.

In early 2005, controversy erupted over the discovery of an essay that University of Colorado Ethnic Studies Professor Churchill had published in the fall of 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The essay is titled “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens.” Churchill argued that American foreign policies provoked the attacks, and he referred to workers in the World Trade Center as “little Eichmanns” who were complicit in the evils wrought by “America's global financial empire.”