On April 11, 2024, the ACLU, ACLU of Southern California, ACLU of Northern California, and ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties filed an amicus brief with the California Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District supporting the California Civil Rights Department’s appeal of a lower court judgment finding that a bakery owner did not violate the California public accommodations law when she refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple.

This case concerns whether applying a public-accommodation law to compel a business that chooses to serve the public to provide wedding website design services without discriminating against a same-sex couple violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

After the Washington Supreme Court found that the refusal of Arlene’s Flowers to sell flowers to a gay couple violated Washington Law Against Discrimination and the Consumer Protection Act, the flower shop sought review by the Supreme Court of the United States. The US Supreme Court subsequently remanded to the WA Supreme Court and on June 6, 2019, the WA Supreme Court affirmed their earlier decision. On September 11, 2019, Arlene's Flowers filed to hear the case again, at the Supreme Court of the United States.

Evan Minton was turned away from a Dignity Health hospital because he is transgender. He filed a lawsuit against a Dignity Health medical center for withholding medical care because of a patient's gender identity, amounting to sex discrimination in violation of California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic marriage equality ruling in 2015, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis refused to issue any marriage licenses because of her personal, religious opposition to marriage for same-sex couples. The ACLU and the ACLU of Kentucky won a preliminary injunction on behalf of Rowan County couples enabling them to marry.