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 and Economic Inequality
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
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…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- LGBTQ Rights
Wood, et al. v. Florida Department of Education, et al.
After a Florida law blocked transgender and nonbinary teachers from using the pronouns and titles that best express themselves, the Southern Poverty Law Center and its partners filed a lawsuit on behalf of three teachers challenging the anti-LGBTQ+ statute. The lawsuit describes how the ban, also known as Subsection 3, unlawfully discriminates on the basis…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Caicedo, et al. v. DeSantis
On Aug. 9, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, suspended Monique Worrell, a Democrat, from her elected position as state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties because of his opposition to her criminal legal reforms and a general hostility toward elected Democrats. Worrell’s reforms included measures supported by her constituents, such as curtailing the…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
NAACP, Vermilion Parish Chapter v. City of Abbeville
After the Abbeville City Council in Louisiana chose to use a district map that denies equal representation to voters, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Vermilion Parish NAACP to block use of the map. The federal lawsuit describes how the council-approved redistricting map denies equal representation to voters, in…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Caswell v. Horton, et al.
Content warning: The following case summary contains graphic descriptions of a mother almost dying during childbirth. Ashley Caswell filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in Alabama after her constitutional rights were violated when a notorious county jail restricted her access to necessary medical care during a high-risk pregnancy. Her pleas for help were ignored as…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
Grovner, et al. v. McIntosh County, et al.
When an unlawful zoning amendment threatened Georgia’s historic Hogg Hummock community, the Southern Poverty Law Center and its co-counsel filed a complaint challenging the amendment in the Superior Court of McIntosh County. Hogg Hummock, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the last intact Gullah-Geechee community in the Sea Islands of…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Rissling, et al. v. Bobo, et al.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and its co-counsel filed a federal lawsuit against three Alabama counties for their failure to provide an accessible option for absentee voting by blind and print-disabled voters. Filed on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind in Alabama and four individuals, the lawsuit alleges that Jefferson, Mobile and Tuscaloosa…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
- LGBTQ Rights
USA v. Skrmetti
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit allowed transgender health care bans for adolescents to take effect in Kentucky and Tennessee despite pending legal challenges, the Southern Poverty Law Center joined other advocacy groups urging the court to reinstate orders that had blocked the bans amid the challenges. The SPLC joined an…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Yellowhammer Fund v. Attorney General of Alabama Steve Marshall
After Alabama’s attorney general threatened to criminalize people helping pregnant Alabamians access legal abortion care in other states, The Lawyering Project, joined by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the attorney general from making good on his threat. The attorney general threatened organizations such as the plaintiff, the Yellowhammer…