Court Cases

The ACLU of Virginia joined as counsel of record in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of Virginia resident Curtis M. Whateley, whose personalized license plate the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles revoked.

Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor and postdoctoral scholar on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia, is legally in the U.S. on a research scholar and professor visa. He is an Indian national who lives with his U.S. citizen wife and three children in Rosslyn, Virginia. When he arrived home on the evening of Monday, March 17 following a traditional Ramadan meal celebration, he was taken into custody by masked federal agents without being charged with or accused of any crime. In just over 72 hours, he was shuffled to multiple immigration detention centers, ultimately landing in Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where he was detained until his release on bond on May 14.

The ACLU of Virginia, American Civil Liberties Union, and ACLU of Kentucky filed suit against the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) in the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of 12 students that attend DoDEA schools after DoDEA removed books and changed curricular in violation of the students' First Amendment rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and the ACLU Foundation of Virginia, together with firm co-counsel, have filed a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit brought by the Young America's Foundation (YAF) against Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell, the hosts of the Know Your Enemy podcast, and Dissent magazine, asserting nine types of trademark infringement.

The ACLU of Virginia filed an amicus brief in support of Connor Bleakley and Sami Alsawaf seeking to allow Brandon Bleakley to perform the rites of their wedding ceremony, arguing that the Virginia code sections that govern their choice of officiant is unconstitutional.

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.

ACLU of Virginia and Muslim Advocates filed an emergency complaint on behalf of Dwayne Law, Jr., a Muslim man incarcerated at a state prison in Baskerville, VA. The complaint asks a federal court to force the facility to provide him with meals before sunrise and after sunset so that he may observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. By refusing to allow Mr. Law to eat with other fasting Muslims during non-daylight hours, Baskerville Correctional Center staff and Warden David Zook are unconstitutionally forcing him to choose between eating to survive during the day or adhering to his deeply-held religious beliefs.

The ACLU of Virginia filed a lawsuit on behalf of protesters and the youth activists of the Virginia Student Power Network (VSPN) against the City of Richmond, the Richmond Police Department (RPD) and the Virginia State Police (VSP) for violating their constitutional rights to free speech, assembly and protest.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen, and ACLU of Virginia filed an amicus brief urging a state circuit court to keep anonymous the identity of “Devin Nunes’ cow,” a Twitter parody account.