Court Cases

The ACLU of Pennsylvania and Juntos have filed a Freedom Of Information Act request with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding the enforcement actions by the Philadelphia ICE field office. The Philadelphia ICE field office has continued to take an aggressive stance on enforcement and removal during the Biden Administration. They have flouted their own agency guidance and have continued detaining people who clearly fall outside agency guidelines. Given the cruel track record of the Philadelphia Field Office and the Biden Administration’s unconscionable decision to triple the number of detention beds available in the state, it is critical that we obtain records about ICE’s compliance with their priorities and to hold the Philadelphia ICE office accountable for problematic enforcement patterns and potential violations of the law.

On January 5, 2022, the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed suit against Fulton County for its failure to comply with a September 2021 order by the Office of Open Records to produce all records related to Fulton County’s review of its election results and voting machines.

Both the Superior Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that sentencing courts have the statutory and rules-based authority to reduce or waive court costs at the time of sentencing if a defendant is unable to afford to pay those costs. However, sentencing courts have no obligation to exercise that authority if they choose not to. The result is broader flexibility for courts to avoid having to burden indigent defendants with unaffordable costs.

On October 28, 2021, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the law firm Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP filed a lawsuit against the Clearfield County commissioners for failing to follow state law when the commissioners voted to approve contracts with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On October 4, 2021, the ACLU of PA filed a motion to intervene on behalf of three advocacy organizations and eight individual voters in a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania attorney general challenging subpoenas issued by a state Senate committee for personally identifying information of voters.

After the Superior Court ruled that a $5,000 fine was properly imposed against a defendant, the ACLU of Pennsylvania assisted in filing for reconsideration of that decision. As is detailed in the ACLU’s amicus curiae brief, the court incorrectly ruled that the defendant waived any argument about the fine because his counsel failed to raise it with the trial court. The Superior Court misunderstood that Cannon’s argument fell within the scope of a legality-of-the-sentence claim that cannot be waived. The brief explains the nuanced distinctions between the various types of arguments about whether a fine is lawful, categorizing them between ones that can and cannot be waived. Unfortunately, the Superior Court denied reconsideration without clarification.

The ACLU of PA filed a federal lawsuit against Montgomery County and several administrators at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility alleging that the administrators have denied ACLU-PA attorneys and attorneys working with ACLU-PA the right to visit with people detained at the jail.

On March 18, 2021, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the law firm Offit Kurman P.C. filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas against the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia, challenging the board’s new policy limiting the number of speakers.

On March 2, 2021, the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a federal constitutional lawsuit against Allegheny County Judge Anthony Mariani, on behalf of Abolitionist Law Center and with co-counsel from the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center.