Race and Economic Justice
Fund for Empowerment v. Phoenix, City of
Fund for Empowerment is a challenge to the City of Phoenix’s practice of conducting sweeps of encampments without notice, issuing citations to unsheltered people for camping and sleeping on public property when they have no place else to go, and confiscating and destroying their property without notice or process.
Status: Ongoing
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All Cases
13 Race and Economic Justice Cases
New York
May 2020
![Francis v. Kings Park Manor](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Francis v. Kings Park Manor
On May 7, 2020, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the National Women’s Law Center, and Jenner & Block LLP, filed an amicus brief in support of Plaintiff-Appellant Donahue Francis, a tenant in a New York apartment complex who brought a Fair Housing Act (FHA) claim against his landlord for failing to respond to a racially discriminatory harassment by another tenant, where the landlord was aware of the conduct.
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![Francis v. Kings Park Manor](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
New York
Race and Economic Justice
Francis v. Kings Park Manor
On May 7, 2020, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the National Women’s Law Center, and Jenner & Block LLP, filed an amicus brief in support of Plaintiff-Appellant Donahue Francis, a tenant in a New York apartment complex who brought a Fair Housing Act (FHA) claim against his landlord for failing to respond to a racially discriminatory harassment by another tenant, where the landlord was aware of the conduct.
May 2020
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South Carolina
Oct 2019
![White v. Shwedo](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
White v. Shwedo
In the latest front in the nationwide fight against the criminalization of poverty, on October 31, 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of South Carolina, Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC, Southern Poverty Law Center, and South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s policy of automatically suspending the driver’s licenses of people with unpaid traffic tickets. The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles does not ensure that people who cannot pay will not lose their licenses in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of due process and equal protection under the law. South Carolina’s wealth-based license suspensions impact more than 190,000 people, funneling those who are unable to pay, particularly poor people of color, deep into cycles of poverty, job loss, traffic violations, and entanglement with the legal system.
Status: Ongoing
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![White v. Shwedo](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
South Carolina
Race and Economic Justice
White v. Shwedo
In the latest front in the nationwide fight against the criminalization of poverty, on October 31, 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of South Carolina, Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC, Southern Poverty Law Center, and South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s policy of automatically suspending the driver’s licenses of people with unpaid traffic tickets. The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles does not ensure that people who cannot pay will not lose their licenses in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of due process and equal protection under the law. South Carolina’s wealth-based license suspensions impact more than 190,000 people, funneling those who are unable to pay, particularly poor people of color, deep into cycles of poverty, job loss, traffic violations, and entanglement with the legal system.
Oct 2019
Status: Ongoing
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Virginia
Jun 2019
![Apartment building exterior](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-apartment-complex-1160x768-600x397.jpg)
Home of Virginia, Inc. V. Wisely Properties,Llc and Multifamily Management Services, Inc.
The ACLU and the ACLU of Virginia, along with Relman, Dane & Colfax, PLLC, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights law firm, filed a federal lawsuit against the owner of a Chesterfield County apartment complex for application policies that discriminate against black people. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc. (HOME), explains how the blanket criminal record screening policy used at Sterling Glen Apartments is intended to keep African Americans from living there and disproportionately harms people of color.
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![Apartment building exterior](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/web18-apartment-complex-1160x768-600x397.jpg)
Virginia
Race and Economic Justice
Home of Virginia, Inc. V. Wisely Properties,Llc and Multifamily Management Services, Inc.
The ACLU and the ACLU of Virginia, along with Relman, Dane & Colfax, PLLC, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights law firm, filed a federal lawsuit against the owner of a Chesterfield County apartment complex for application policies that discriminate against black people. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc. (HOME), explains how the blanket criminal record screening policy used at Sterling Glen Apartments is intended to keep African Americans from living there and disproportionately harms people of color.
Jun 2019
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May 2019
![A white hand on a computer mouse side by side with a black hand on a computer mouse](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2023/01/Mouse_V04_1160x864 -600x447.jpg)
Sandvig v. Barr — Challenge to CFAA Prohibition on Uncovering Racial Discrimination Online
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it a federal crime to access a computer in a manner that “exceeds authorized access.” This provision of the law often prohibits and chills academics, researchers, and journalists from testing for discrimination on the internet. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2016. The plaintiffs are academic researchers, computer scientists, and journalists who wish to investigate companies’ online practices through standard academic and journalistic techniques, but are limited by the terms of service of target websites.
Status: Ongoing
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![A white hand on a computer mouse side by side with a black hand on a computer mouse](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2023/01/Mouse_V04_1160x864 -600x447.jpg)
Race and Economic Justice
+2 Issues
Sandvig v. Barr — Challenge to CFAA Prohibition on Uncovering Racial Discrimination Online
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which makes it a federal crime to access a computer in a manner that “exceeds authorized access.” This provision of the law often prohibits and chills academics, researchers, and journalists from testing for discrimination on the internet. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2016. The plaintiffs are academic researchers, computer scientists, and journalists who wish to investigate companies’ online practices through standard academic and journalistic techniques, but are limited by the terms of service of target websites.
May 2019
Status: Ongoing
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U.S. Supreme Court
Sep 2018
![Timbs v. Indiana](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Timbs v. Indiana
Whether the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause is incorporated against the States, and therefore prohibits not only federal, but also state and local, fines, fees and forfeitures that are excessive.
Status: Ongoing
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![Timbs v. Indiana](https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
U.S. Supreme Court
Race and Economic Justice
Timbs v. Indiana
Whether the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause is incorporated against the States, and therefore prohibits not only federal, but also state and local, fines, fees and forfeitures that are excessive.
Sep 2018
Status: Ongoing
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