HARRISBURG - The 2019 ballot question amending the Pennsylvania constitution to overhaul criminal justice proceedings, known as Marsy’s Law, is unconstitutional and cannot be certified, a Commonwealth Court ruled today.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania, the law firm of Langer, Grogan & Diver P.C., and law professor Seth Kreimer of the University of Pennsylvania filed a class action lawsuit to stop the illegal practice by the Montgomery County court administration of charging defendants duplicative court costs.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania and two experts in criminal justice and statistics from Temple and Rutgers Universities released a report examining the imposition and collection of fines, costs, and restitution, and how these financial impositions impact Pennsylvanians of different means. 

Alongside the Stern Community Lawyering Clinic at Kline School of Law at Drexel University, the ACLU of Pennsylvania sent a letter of complaint to the United Nations, detailing the use of violence and excessive force by police against Black Lives Matter protesters in May and June of 2020.

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia upheld a district court ruling that denied President Trump’s attempt to block certification of Pennsylvania’s election results and to discard valid and legally cast ballots, dealing a near-fatal blow to the Trump campaign’s attempt to interfere with democracy.

A federal district court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by President Trump’s campaign for reelection against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and seven counties, dealing a crippling blow to the president’s attempts to undermine the election’s expected results in the commonwealth.

Voting rights organizations are fighting back against an attempt by Republican candidates in Pennsylvania to invalidate valid ballots cast by eligible voters.

The Philadelphia Police Department, at the request of the family of Walter Wallace, Jr., has released body camera footage of Mr. Wallace’s killing at the hands of police on October 26. 

In the wake of the killing of Walter Wallace, Jr., the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the national ACLU, today demanded that city officials divest from the Philadelphia Police Department and invest in community-based services and responses for people in crisis.