Our 47th President: Donald Trump

A week after Trump was inaugurated, he issued an executive order barring people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, carrying out his campaign promise to bar Muslims visitors and immigrants. Less than 24 hours after the order was issued, the ACLU and our partners filed the first lawsuit against Trump’s Muslim ban. The ACLU eventually brought 28 lawsuits against the ban, and blocked the first and second versions of Trump’s executive order, protecting thousands of people.

The ACLU sued the Trump administration when it attempted to ban transgender people from enlisting in the armed forces, as well as bar transgender service members from continuing to serve in the military or receiving medically-necessary health care. Filed on behalf of six transgender service members, the lawsuit argued that the directive violated due process and equal protection.

The ACLU filed an emergency lawsuit challenging a Trump administration policy denying abortion care for unaccompanied immigrant minors in government custody. Representing Jane Doe, a pregnant teenager who was denied an abortion, the ACLU successfully secured relief from the courts and our case ultimately led the Trump administration to abandon its policy.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking the immediate reunification of a mother and daughter who were forcibly separated after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. That client, Ms. L., became the lead plaintiff in a class action that revealed a devastating effort to use family separation to deter immigrants from entering the U.S. and resulted in a nationwide injunction ending the practice, followed by a landmark settlement providing critical support to thousands of separated families. The ACLU continues to work to reunify families and implement the settlement.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, which would have chilled participation by people of color and mixed-immigration status families. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of multiple immigrants’ rights groups, argued that the question would hurt states with large immigrant communities, causing them to lose seats in Congress and federal funding. We won the case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court level.

The ACLU and our partners filed multiple lawsuits challenging successive Trump administration attempts to dismantle the asylum system, including the so-called entry ban, transit ban, return to Mexico policy, “safe third country” arrangements, and Title 42 expulsions. We blocked some, but not all, of these restrictions.

Days after Trump declared a national emergency to illegally transfer military construction and Treasury forfeiture funds to build border wall segments that Congress had refused to fund, the ACLU sued. Filed on behalf of the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition, the lawsuit argued that the emergency declaration was unauthorized, and that border wall construction would hurt border communities, endanger wildlife, and damage the environment. After blocking Trump’s transfer of funds in the federal courts, we settled the case with the Joe Biden administration.

The ACLU sued the Trump administration, stating that its rush to execute Wesley Purkey during the COVID-19 pandemic violated his right to religious liberty because his spiritual advisor was medically compromised and could not attend the execution safely during the pandemic. The Trump administration’s brutal use of the death penalty led to 13 people being executed in the last nine months Trump was in office.