Civil rights case docket
Summaries of our current and historical civil rights cases.
A rich history of litigating important civil rights cases.
Our cases have smashed remnants of Jim Crow segregation; fought against voter suppression; destroyed some of the nation’s most notorious white supremacist groups; and upheld the rights of minorities, children, women, people with disabilities, and others who faced discrimination and exploitation. Many of our cases have changed institutional practices, stopped government or corporate abuses, and set precedents that helped thousands.
Currently, our litigation is focused on several major areas: voting rights, children’s rights, economic justice, immigrant justice, LGBTQ rights, and mass incarceration.
We have also filed amicus “friend-of-the-court” briefs to support litigation from other organizations that are doing similar work.
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- Eliminating Poverty
Case
Scott, et al., v. Louisiana State Police, et al.
Amid evictions of unhoused people from encampments in public spaces in New Orleans, the Southern Poverty Law Center joined a case to protect unhoused people from this effort by state authorities. Ahead of major events held at the Caesars Superdome in October and November 2024, the Louisiana State Police and the state’s Department of Wildlife…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- Eliminating Poverty
Case
Barnes v. Felix
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dismissed a case where a Texas county constable fatally shot an unarmed Black man, and after the man’s family appealed that dismissal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed an amicus brief in support of the man’s family. The amicus brief…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Case
Ayota v. Fall
The Southern Poverty Law Center and civil rights groups filed an emergency lawsuit after Cobb County, Georgia, election officials failed to send out more than 3,000 absentee ballots to voters ahead of a Nov. 5, 2024, deadline to return their ballots by mail. The emergency complaint by the SPLC, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Case
Walton County (Georgia) School District discrimination complaints
After Georgia’s Walton County School District expelled and referred a Black middle school student with a disability to juvenile court, it denied the student the necessary support and services in its alternative school program, sparking two discrimination complaints by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC filed a state administrative due process complaint and a…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
- Voting Rights – GA
Case
Heimel v. Gregg, et. al
With about a month left until the general election in 2024, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU of Georgia, the American Civil Liberties Union and Akerman LLP intervened in a lawsuit filed against election officials in Oconee County, Georgia. In that case, the plaintiff asked the court to stop the local board of elections…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
- Voting Rights – GA
Case
Quinn v. Raffensperger
In 2021, the state of Georgia enacted SB 202, a voter suppression law with provisions allowing state elections officials to usurp the powers of local officials, including the authority to purge individual voters from the list of active, registered voters. In this 2024 case, two residents of Gwinnett County, the state’s second most populous county…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Case
Nancy Tray, et al. v. Florida State Board of Education, et al.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and its partners filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents of public school students facing discrimination under a state law that fails to provide them with a process for appealing decisions banning books from school libraries despite providing an appeals process for parents seeking such bans. This unequal law was…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
- Voting Rights – AL
Case
Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, et al. v. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, et al.
In March 2024, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), a sweeping new voter suppression law that targets, restricts and severely punishes civic engagement efforts that encourage voting and enable access to the ballot box. The following month, a coalition of civil rights, voting rights and disability rights organizations filed a federal…
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- Eliminating Poverty
Case
Johnson v. Grants Pass
With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to deliver the most significant ruling in 40 years on the rights of people experiencing homelessness, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed an amicus brief defending their rights. The amicus brief was filed in Johnson v. Grants Pass, which alleges that a public sleeping/camping law used against people experiencing…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Case
Rinderle, et al., v. Cobb County School District, et al.
Katie Rinderle, a fifth-grade gifted specialist in the Cobb County School District in Georgia, was fired from her teaching job in 2023 for reading to her class My Shadow is Purple, an age-appropriate picture book about self-acceptance and navigating gender stereotypes. In response, Rinderle and other educators are suing the Cobb County School District for…