Court Cases

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a petition to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the Pennsylvania Human Relation Commission’s (PHRC) definition of sex discrimination as it applies to gender diverse Pennsylvanians. The litigation stems from a patient of Penn Health being denied gender-affirming care. EJ Stiles was scheduled for a gender-affirming surgery at Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center that had been months in the works. Mr. Stiles had been referred to a surgeon who had operating privileges at Penn State Health St. Joseph and had followed all the necessary steps ahead of the surgery. Just 13 hours before the scheduled surgery, the hospital informed Stiles that the surgery was cancelled because it was “against the Catholic Diocese. While Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center at one point was a private hospital (previously St. Joseph Medical Center), it is now a public institution under the auspices of Penn State Health. Thus, the hospital’s invocation of the Catholic Diocese was a violation of the First Amendment. In January 2025, the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a complaint with the PHRC on behalf of Stiles. In response, Penn State Health St. Joseph sued the PHRC in Commonwealth Court seeking to establish a religious exemption to the anti-discrimination protections of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and invalidate PHRC regulations that define sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of gender identity or gender expression. Even after PHRC dismissed the Stiles’ complaint, Penn State Health moved ahead with its lawsuit against the PHRC, seeking to invalidate PHRC’s regulations regarding sex discrimination.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has filed a motion to intervene in EEOC v. The University of Pennsylvania on behalf of five organizations affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania after EEOC issued a subpoena to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) demanding that Penn create and turn over membership rosters for the Jewish Studies Program and Jewish and Jewish-affiliated campus organizations, plus personal contact information and addresses of the Jewish members.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Sloane Wolfe, a high school student who has been advocating to end her school district’s use of its “Raider” mascot based on its stereotypical depiction of North American indigenous people.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center, and ACLU’s Voting Rights Project have filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit over the federal government’s demand that Pennsylvania turn over its entire voter registration rolls, including with voters’ sensitive personal data such as drivers’ license numbers and partial social security numbers. The motion to intervene was filed on behalf of seven Pennsylvania voters, many of whom were the target of baseless mass challenges to their mail ballots during the 2024 election cycle that resulted from faulty data-matching techniques. The voters’ experiences have heightened their concerns about the privacy of their voting data. Other plaintiffs are two non-partisan, good government organizations dedicated to voter engagement: the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and Common Cause. If intervention is granted, the civil rights groups will seek to prevent the federal government from forcing Pennsylvania to turn over the entirety of its voter registration database and to protect sensitive data within the voter rolls.

Seven voters, the Center for Coalfield Justice, and the Washington Branch NAACP sued the Washington County Board of Elections for concealing from voters errors they had made on their mail ballot return envelopes that meant their votes would not be counted in the 2024 primary election.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Catherine M. Harper of Timoney Knox, LLP filed a lawsuit against Upper Pottsgrove Township on behalf of Matthew Murray, a township resident who was advocating against the development of a piece of permanently protected public land. Mr. Murray filed a number of Right To Know requests to obtain township records regarding the development of the land. Using those records as evidence, Mr. Murray then successfully sued the township alleging that its development plan was in violation of the Pennsylvania Open Space Act. In retaliation, the township sued Mr. Murray in the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, asking the court to issue an injunction to prevent Mr. Murray from filing additional Right To Know requests.That request was denied by the court and the township’s case was dismissed. The ACLU-PA’s lawsuit against the township draws on Pennsylvania’s 2024 law allowing a party to assert immunity or seek legal fees against another party for filing a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation or “SLAPP” litigation as a means to silence or intimidate critics. The lawsuit asks Upper Pottsgrove Township to reimburse Mr. Murray for the legal fees he incurred defending himself against the township’s meritless litigation.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Community Justice Project have filed a lawsuit on behalf of Make The Road Pennsylvania, NAACP Bucks County, the BuxMont Unitarian Universalists, and an impacted Bucks County resident in the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County challenging a so-called 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the Bucks County Sheriff entered into without authorization of the county’s governing body, the Bucks County Commissioners. ICE uses such agreements to deputize local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. The lawsuit argues that Sheriff Fred Harran illegally entered into the 287(g) because he failed to consult with and get approval from Bucks County Commissioners, the majority of whom oppose the agreement. By entering into this agreement over the County Board of Commissioners’ objection, the Sheriff violated both the Pennsylvania Constitution and the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Cooperation Act. The lawsuit asks the court to issue an injunction that would prevent the agreement from taking effect.