Court Cases

On July 29, 2024 the ACLU of Virginia and Butler Curwood filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Ellenor Zinski, whom Liberty University fired in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after she disclosed her identity as a trans woman.

On July 3, 2024 ACLU of Virginia and WilmerHale filed a Title IX lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of “Janie Doe,” a transgender student whom Hanover County Public School blocked from playing on a sports team for which she tried out and qualified.

On February 15, 2024, the ACLU of Virginia and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP filed two separate lawsuits against the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) on behalf of two transgender students who have been harmed by the department’s 2023 Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools.

The ACLU of Virginia joined the ACLU in filing an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief before the Supreme Court of Virginia in the case of Vlaming v. West Point School Board, arguing that public schoolteacher Peter Vlaming does not have an unfettered right to exercise free speech in the classroom when doing so results in discrimination against transgender students.

On behalf of Virginia bookstores & others, we urged a Virginia court to dismiss obscenity proceedings that would block two books from being sold & distributed in Virginia. Baseless claims of obscenity should not be allowed to override our First Amendment rights.

The ACLU of Virginia filed an amicus brief in the Loudoun County Circuit Court on behalf of ACLU Virginia, ACLU, Equality Virginia, Equality Loudoun, Side By Side, and He She Ze and We. The brief, filed on October 13, 2021, is in opposition to an emergency petition and preliminary injunction request filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf Mr. Cross and his fellow plaintiffs.

Implementing Marriage Equality