Court Cases

In October 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of six plaintiffs, challenging the unconstitutional incarceration of people facing probation and parole revocation proceedings in Montgomery County. The lawsuit alleged that the county continued to violate both the Pennsylvania Constitution and the United States Constitution by incarcerating nearly every person accused of violating the conditions of their supervision for months until their revocation hearing and asked that Montgomery County hold prompt revocation hearings to assess probable cause and whether detention is necessary and appropriate, and that the court provide whatever relief it deems necessary to the class of plaintiffs named in the challenge. In January 2026, the ACLU and ACLU-PA dismissed the lawsuit in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania against Montgomery County after the county implemented a number of reforms to its probation and parole system. Since the lawsuit was announced, Montgomery County has created a Detention Hearing Officer ("DHO") program that has addressed many of the violations that prompted the lawsuit. Although Montgomery County’s policies on criminal legal reform are by no means perfect, a review of county data since the implementation of the DHO program shows that Montgomery County has provided detention hearings within five business days for 95% of cases with a scheduled detention hearing — a significant improvement from where the county was before.

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.

On April 15, 2025, the ACLU of Pennsylvania sued the University of Pittsburgh on behalf of Students for Justice in Palestine at Pitt (SJP-Pitt), a university-affiliated organization that the school placed on an indefinite, interim-suspension in March. With no obvious violation of Pitt’s policies, the university’s action was in apparent retaliation for a letter that SJP-Pitt organized with more than 70 other university-affiliated clubs and community organizations protesting the school’s repeated harassment of the club. The university also initiated disciplinary proceedings against the club in response to a silent “study-in” that club members attended in the university library. By suspending the club in retaliation for its speech, Pitt officials have violated the students’ right to free speech. The lawsuit accuses the university of violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. SJP-Pitt has been a registered student organization since at least 2009 and became more active after October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters led an attack in southern Israel and the Israeli government subsequently began its military assault against Palestinians living in Gaza. Since then, the club has organized, co-sponsored, promoted, and advertised numerous demonstrations and educational events on and off campus to raise awareness of Palestinian people's suffering. But its suspension is severely limiting SJP-Pitt’s on-campus activism. The ACLU of Pa. is asking the court to order the university to lift SJP-Pitt’s suspension and to cease further disciplinary proceedings against the club over the library study group and the open advocacy letter criticizing the university. On August 28, 2025, Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled that the University of Pittsburgh must lift the suspension of SJP-Pitt and reinstate the organization's full privileges on campus. The court affirmed that the open advocacy letter sent by SJP-Pitt is protected free speech under the U.S. Constitution.

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.

On April 15, 2025, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the National ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project (“IRP”) sued President Donald Trump and other high-level administration officials to stop the potential deportation of A.S.R., a Venezuelan man who has been living in the United States with his wife, his child, and two step-children since 2023. A.S.R. and his family fled Venezuela when groups associated with the Maduro regime threatened him with extortion. He has petitioned for asylum in the United States. A.S.R. was arrested on February 26, 2025 at his first ICE supervision check-in. ICE told A.S.R. that a neighbor had accused him of being a member of the gang Tren de Aragua, an allegation that A.S.R. adamantly denies. He was taken to ICE detention at Moshannon Valley Processing Center, an immigration detention facility in Philipsburg, PA that is run by the for-profit corporation GEO Group. The ACLU filed its lawsuit on behalf of A.S.R. and a class of similarly situated Venezuelan nationals who are at or may in the future be at Moshannon and are under threat of deportation as a result of Trump’s executive order improperly using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove people from the country. The act is intended for use only in wartime, in a declared war against a foreign invasion or government, and has only been used three times in the nation’s history – during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. The government has produced no evidence that A.S.R. is a member of Tren de Aragua. And its use of the Alien Enemies Act to remove him or anyone else from the country, sending them to a notorious prison in El Salvador where people are sent to die, is illegal, immoral, and unethical. On April 15, a federal district court in Western Pennsylvania issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deporting, and removing from the Western District of Pennsylvania, A.S.R. and similarly situated people detained at Moshannon. Unfortunately, ICE transferred A.S.R. and about ten other Venezuelan men out of the district on April 15, to Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas, where he remains detained. On April 17, the court extended that order pending further briefing. The ACLU is asking the court to continue its order stopping the deportation of A.S.R and others like him as the litigation proceeds and issuing a writ of habeas corpus, meaning that A.S.R. and others would have the opportunity to challenge their detention and the application of the Alien Enemies Act to him and others like him.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has filed a Freedom of Information Act request in federal court regarding the detention and deportation proceedings of Sereyrath "One" Van, a longtime lawful permanent resident who resided in Philadelphia prior to his detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mr. Van was born in Thailand in 1980 after his family fled the Cambodian genocide. He was admitted to the United States as a refugee at the age of four, and is now a Green Card holder. After a 2018 arrest, ICE began removal proceedings against Mr. Van. In 2021, an immigration judge ordered that Mr. Van be deported to Thailand, or if not possible, to Cambodia – a country that Mr. Van has never set foot in. At the time, ICE was unable to remove Mr. Van. They re-detained him briefly in 2023 but released him again, this time under ICE supervision. For months, Mr. Van complied with his order of supervision, which included regular check-ins at an ICE field office. In August 2024, ICE detained Mr. Van at his ICE check-in and brought him to Moshannon Valley Processing Center. The Freedom of Information Act request filed on behalf of Mr. Van seeks all records regarding ICE’s detention and planned deportation of Mr. Van, including any correspondence between embassy officials and ICE. This is particularly important because Mr. Van faces removal to a country where he has never set foot and his removal order, which ICE provided to him and which ICE has to provide to embassies to seek travel documents, had been visibly modified. Having an understanding of the representations ICE has made in seeking travel documents for him—including whether the altered removal order was used to seek travel documents under false pretenses—and ICE’s policies and practices on seeking travel documents is critical in protecting Mr. Van’s rights.