ACLU

Supreme Court Reargues Louisiana v. Callais, Threatens Voting Rights Act

| Importance: 9/10

The Supreme Court heard rare second-round oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could fundamentally weaken or eliminate Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The case questions whether Louisiana’s creation of a second majority-Black congressional district (which elected Rep. …

Supreme Court Louisiana ACLU NAACP Legal Defense Fund Cleo Fields supreme-court judiciary courts voting-rights redistricting +2 more
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San Francisco Police Allowed 1.6 Million Illegal License Plate Searches by ICE and Out-of-State Agencies

| Importance: 8/10

Records obtained by The San Francisco Standard in September 2025 revealed that the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) allowed out-of-state police agencies to run more than 1.6 million illegal searches of the city’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) database, including at least 19 …

San Francisco Police Department Immigration and Customs Enforcement Flock Safety Electronic Frontier Foundation ACLU surveillance alpr ice sfpd privacy +4 more
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Coordinated Constitutional Challenge Filed

| Importance: 9/10

Legal resistance network files simultaneous federal lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions challenging recent executive orders that potentially violate constitutional separation of powers. The ACLU and Protect Democracy lead a coalition challenging executive orders related to voting rights and …

ACLU Protect Democracy State Attorney Generals League of Women Voters litigation constitutional-defense legal-networks voting-rights birthright-citizenship
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Pro Bono Legal Support Coordination Mechanism Launched

| Importance: 8/10

Major law firms, legal nonprofits, and civil liberties organizations create a centralized, multi-organizational coordination platform to rapidly deploy pro bono legal resources for constitutional defense. Democracy 2025, a coalition of 650+ organizations, emerges as a key infrastructure, enabling …

Democracy 2025 ACLU Institute for Justice New Civil Liberties Alliance Lawyers for Good Government +1 more pro-bono-support legal-coordination civil-liberties-defense democracy-protection
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Multi-Organizational Civil Rights Litigation Coordination Summit

| Importance: 9/10

In response to Project 2025’s comprehensive policy proposals, major civil rights organizations launched a coordinated litigation and advocacy strategy to challenge potential executive overreach. The coalition, including the ACLU, Brennan Center, Lawyers for Civil Rights, and EarthJustice, …

Lawyers for Civil Rights Brennan Center EarthJustice ACLU The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights +3 more pro-bono-support litigation-strategy constitutional-defense project-2025-response civil-rights-litigation +2 more
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Surveillance State Expansion: Constitutional Concerns and Section 702 Reauthorization

| Importance: 9/10

In a landmark decision, Congress reauthorized and expanded Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), dramatically increasing domestic surveillance capabilities. The legislation allows warrantless access to Americans’ communications and compels a wide range of businesses …

Intelligence Community NSA FBI White House Tech Companies +3 more surveillance-state intelligence-community fourth-amendment domestic-surveillance fisa +2 more
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Trump Signs Unconstitutional Executive Order Challenging Birthright Citizenship

| Importance: 10/10

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order challenging birthright citizenship, targeting children born to non-citizen or undocumented parents. The order, which directly mirrors Project 2025 recommendations, seeks to reinterpret the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, …

Donald Trump Department of Justice Supreme Court Asian Law Caucus ACLU +1 more birthright-citizenship constitutional-crisis executive-order project-2025 immigration +1 more
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Nationwide Legal Resistance Network Established

| Importance: 8/10

The ACLU, National Lawyers Guild, and Protect Democracy formed a comprehensive legal resistance network to challenge potential constitutional overreaches. Developed as a multi-jurisdictional strategy, the network includes seven strategic roadmaps for coordinated litigation across voting rights, …

National Lawyers Guild ACLU Protect Democracy State Supreme Court Legal Advocacy Teams Julie Murray +1 more legal-networks coordinated-litigation pro-bono-support constitutional-defense civil-liberties-protection +1 more
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Legal Resistance Network Initial Coordination Meeting

| Importance: 9/10

First comprehensive inter-organizational legal resistance coalition meeting, bringing together over 650 organizations including ACLU, Protect Democracy, Brennan Center, and Democracy 2025. The coalition, representing 2000+ legal experts, strategizes coordinated legal approaches to defend democratic …

ACLU Protect Democracy Brennan Center Independent Legal Clinics Democracy Forward +1 more legal-networks coordinated-litigation pro-bono-support resistance-strategy democratic-defense +1 more
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Emergence of Coordinated Legal Resistance Networks

| Importance: 8/10

In response to increasing institutional challenges, a network of pro bono legal organizations begins systematic coordination to challenge unconstitutional policies and administrative overreach. Key civil rights and constitutional law organizations form a unified strategic litigation approach, …

ACLU Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Pro Bono Litigation Corps Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights New Civil Liberties Alliance legal-resistance pro-bono-litigation constitutional-defense civil-liberties legal-networks
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Flock Safety Network Expands to 5,000+ Police Departments Performing 20 Billion Monthly Vehicle Scans

| Importance: 9/10

Flock Safety’s automated license plate recognition network reaches unprecedented scale, with more than 5,000 law enforcement departments across the United States using interconnected cameras that perform over 20 billion scans of vehicles every month. The company now operates in more than 5,000 …

Flock Safety Garrett Langley ACLU Electronic Frontier Foundation surveillance ALPR mass-surveillance license-plate-readers warrantless-surveillance +1 more
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Edward Snowden Publishes Memoir "Permanent Record"; DOJ Immediately Sues for Proceeds

| Importance: 8/10

Edward Snowden published his memoir “Permanent Record” on September 17, 2019 (Constitution Day), through Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company. The book provided Snowden’s first-person account of his life, his work in the intelligence community, his decision to …

Edward Snowden Department of Justice ACLU edward-snowden whistleblowing memoir doj-lawsuit nsa-surveillance +1 more
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ACLU test reveals Amazon Rekognition misidentified 28 Congress members as criminals, showing racial bias

| Importance: 8/10

On July 26, 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released results of an independently verified test demonstrating that Amazon’s Rekognition facial recognition software incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress with mugshots from a database of arrest photos. The test, which cost …

ACLU Amazon AWS John Lewis Jimmy Gomez surveillance facial-recognition amazon rekognition racial-bias +4 more
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ACLU Exposes Geofeedia's Surveillance of Black Lives Matter Protests Through Social Media Platforms

| Importance: 9/10

The ACLU of Northern California released a report revealing that Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram had provided special data access to Geofeedia, a surveillance technology company that marketed its location-based monitoring tools to law enforcement agencies for tracking Black Lives Matter protesters …

ACLU Geofeedia Twitter Facebook Instagram surveillance social-media black-lives-matter protests civil-rights +3 more
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Second Circuit Rules NSA Bulk Phone Metadata Collection Illegal Under Patriot Act

| Importance: 9/10

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously ruled in ACLU v. Clapper that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata was not authorized by Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, effectively declaring the surveillance program …

Second Circuit Court of Appeals Gerard Lynch NSA ACLU nsa-surveillance judicial-oversight patriot-act section-215 privacy-rights +1 more
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