Court Cases

In May, 2007, four ACLU clients who live at the Suites, a Longmont public housing complex, endured unconstitutional warrantless searches of their homes. The illegal searches were carried out by Longmont police officers and drug-detecting K-9s, who entered at the invitation of the Longmont Housing Authority.

The ACLU of Colorado filed this class action lawsuit in federal court against the Colorado agency that administers the Medicaid program. It is filed on behalf of thousands of low-income Coloradans suffering from Hepatitis C who have been denied access to life-saving treatment due to Colorado Medicaid restrictions that force them to incur serious harm to their health before gaining access to the cure.

In this lawsuit against Colorado Springs police officers and the City of Colorado Springs, the ACLU of Colorado charged that two Black clients, Ryan and Benjamin Brown, were victims of the police department’s “custom and practice” of engaging in racially-biased policing and carrying out groundless, racially-motivated stops and searches.

ACLU attorneys filed this lawsuit against the City of Trinidad on behalf of two innocent women who were falsely arrested and prosecuted as part of a highly-publicized “drug sting” in December, 2013.

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.

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.