Articles Posted in Civil Rights

On Monday, May 23, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of social media companies that moderate content on their platforms because "the government can't tell a private person or entity what to say or how to say it."

On Friday, January 14, 2022, the United States Supreme Court granted a high school football coach's petition for a writ of certiorari. The court will hear the coach's case concerning postgame midfield prayers with players and coaches.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, a civil rights complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, against Nevada Governor Stephen F. Sisolak, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Darnell Ford, and the Clark County School District. The complaint seeks class action certification for alleged civil rights violations against parents and children in the Clark County School District related to Governor Sisolak's recent mandate that all students and staff in the Clark County School District wear a face mask while attending school.

On Friday, July 2, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of three Texas attorneys who filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that mandatory registration with the State Bar of Texas violated their First Amendment rights. The lawyers claimed that their rights were violated due to the State Bar of Texas's engagement in political and ideological activities not germane to the interests in regulating the legal profession.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s laws prohibiting ‘ballot harvesting’ and allowing counties to discard ballots cast in the wrong precinct.

The United States Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of protecting public school students' free speech rights on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. The ruling expounds upon Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, bringing student free speech jurisprudence into the internet era. "[S]ometimes it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary."

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments today, April 28, 2021, in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. At issue in the case is whether the precedential case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, applies to student speech that occurs off-campus.

On Friday, April 9, 2021, the United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 to grant an application for injunctive relief in Ritesh Tandon, et al v. Gavin Newson, Governor of California, et al. The lawsuit concerns California's restrictions on at-home religious gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals previously denied the request for an injunction. This marks the fifth time that the Supreme Court has rejected the Ninth Circuit's analysis of California's COVID-19 restrictions on religious exercise.

On Tuesday, February 23, 2021, Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, ruled that travelers have a clearly established right to record TSA screeners. Judge Gibney further ruled that the TSA agents involved in the lawsuit are not protected by qualified immunity.

On November 19, 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) proposed an expansion of facial recognition at the border to include photographs of every non-citizen coming in or out of the United States, regardless of their means of travel, entry and exit points, or even age.