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 case seeks monetary compensation for Saul Cisneros, who was illegally kept prisoner in the El Paso County Jail for almost four months after his daughter posted his bond.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Colorado, Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP, and Towards Justice filed two companion lawsuits against Frontier Airlines today for systematically denying its employees basic accommodations for pregnancy and breastfeeding.

The ACLU of Colorado sued three Colorado Springs police officers for racial profiling and biased policing.

In this case, the ACLU of Colorado provided criminal defense for Adam Wiemold, a homeless man who was charged with illegal “camping” by Fort Collins police for sleeping in his vehicle at a designated rest area where truck drivers regularly sleep in their vehicles undisturbed by police.

ACLU of Colorado and three private attorneys filed a class action lawsuit against the El Paso County Sheriff about the conditions inside the El Paso County Jail during the COVID-19 outbreak.

In this class action lawsuit, the ACLU of Colorado contends that El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder violates Colorado law by refusing to release prisoners who have posted bond, completed their sentence, or otherwise resolved their criminal case at the request of federal immigration officials.

In a groundbreaking ruling issued in 2017, federal district judge Richard Matsch declared that the Colorado statute requiring lifetime sex offender registry imposed cruel and unusual punishment on three convicted sex offenders whose cases the court heard in a bench trial. The civil rights case was litigated in the trial court by attorney Colorado attorney Alison Ruttenberg.

ACLU of Colorado filed a class action lawsuit against Governor Polis and the Department of Corrections seeking an emergency order to compel the DOC to protect medically vulnerable incarcerated people from COVID-19.