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Justice Souter Ends A Distinguished Career As U.S. Supreme Court Concludes A Relatively Quiet Term (06/29/2009)
NEW YORK – The Supreme Court concluded its 2008 Term today, clearing the stage for the confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, which are scheduled to begin in the Senate on July 13. It also marks the end of Justice David Souter's distinguished career on the Supreme Court.

ACLU Releases Report On Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor (06/08/2009)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today released a report summarizing the civil liberties and civil rights record of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated by President Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The report was prepared in accordance with ACLU policy, and will be made available to the public and members of the Senate.

ACLU Urges Supreme Court To Hear Case Of 17 Uighurs Detained Indefinitely At Guantánamo (05/07/2009)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union urged the United States Supreme Court in a friend-of-the-court brief to hear the case of 17 Chinese ethnic Uighurs who have been detained without charge for over seven years at Guantánamo Bay and whose continued detention was found unlawful by a federal district court. The district court ordered the Uighurs, who the government concedes are not "enemy combatants," released into the U.S. because they cannot be returned to China given the threat of torture there, and because no other country has agreed to accept them. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed that decision in February when it held that federal courts are powerless to order the men released into the U.S. even if their continued detention is illegal. In its friend-of-the-court brief filed yesterday, the ACLU urged the Court to review the D.C. circuit decision.

Supreme Court Hears Voting Rights Act Challenge (04/29/2009)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal today brought by a small municipal utility district in Austin, Texas challenging a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark federal law that ensured African-Americans and language minorities access to voting booths across the South and the nation. The challenged provision, Section 5, requires certain jurisdictions that have a history of racial discrimination in voting to obtain advance approval from the federal government before changing their election laws. The outcome of the case will have enormous implications for minority voters.

Supreme Court Rules FCC Ban On Fleeting Expletives Not "Arbitrary," Doesn't Rule On Constitutionality (04/28/2009)
NEW YORK – By a five to four decision, the Supreme Court ruled today that the Federal Communications Commission had not acted arbitrarily when it changed a long-standing policy and implemented a new ban on even "fleeting expletives" from the airwaves. The Court explicitly declined to decide whether the new rule is constitutional, and sent that issue back to the lower courts for their review.

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today On Unconstitutional Strip Search Of 13-Year-Old Student For Alleged Ibuprofen Possession (04/21/2009)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court today heard oral arguments over whether school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old Arizona girl when they strip searched her based on a classmate's uncorroborated accusation that she previously possessed ibuprofen. The American Civil Liberties Union represents April Redding, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, whose daughter, Savana Redding, was strip searched by Safford Middle School officials six years ago.

Supreme Court Refuses To Revive Online Censorship Law (01/21/2009)
WASHINGTON – In a clear victory for free speech, the Supreme Court has announced that it will not hear the government's appeal of a ban on the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), the federal law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet.

Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Voting Rights Act Challenge (01/09/2009)
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed today to hear an appeal brought by a small municipal utility district in Austin, Texas challenging a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark federal law that ensured African-Americans access to voting booths across the South. The American Civil Liberties Union represents an African-American voter who lives in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, the jurisdiction that brought the challenge. A number of civil rights organizations are also participating in the lawsuit.

Supreme Court Deals Blow To Bush Administration's Guantánamo Policy And Affirms Individual Right To Bear Arms (06/26/2008)
NEW YORK - The Supreme Court ended its 2007 Term by rejecting a centerpiece of the Bush administration's crumbling Guantánamo policy for the third time in four years while recognizing, for the first time in American history, an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Supreme Court Decisions Protect Workers From Retaliation For Reporting On-The-Job Discrimination (05/27/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed two decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court today protecting workers from retaliation when they complain about on-the-job discrimination.

Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection in Kentucky (04/16/2008)
NEW YORK – The ACLU expressed disappointment with today's 7-2 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the three drug lethal injection method of capital punishment used in Kentucky and other states.

Supreme Court Agrees to Review Indiana Voter ID Law (09/25/2007)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People welcomed today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court to grant review in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. The case challenges Indiana’s voter ID law, which is the most restrictive in the nation.

ACLU Welcomes Supreme Court's Decision to Hear Guantánamo Challenges (06/29/2007)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed today's decision by the Supreme Court to review an appeal by Guantánamo detainees, who are seeking the right to challenge the legality of their detention in federal court. The Court had previously declined to hear the appeal in April, but reversed course in an order issued today on the final day of the Supreme Court Term.