吃瓜大本营

The ACLU is representing four people being sued for defamation because they exercised their right to free speech and voiced opposition to a coal ash landfill in their small town. The defendants, all residents of Uniontown, Alabama 鈥� a poor, predominantly Black town with a median per capita income of around $8,000 鈥� are being sued for $30 million by Georgia-based Green Group Holdings because the residents are fighting the hazardous coal ash that the company keeps in a residential landfill. The ACLU asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds. In February 2017, the parties reached a settlement in which the company dropped the lawsuit and agreed to better environmental protections at the landfill.

In the latest pushback against the national scourge of debtors' prisons, on October 21, 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging the illegal arrest and jailing of poor people in Biloxi, Mississippi, without a hearing or representation by counsel. Victims are told they can avoid jail only if they pay the entire amount of outstanding court fines and fees up front, in full, and in cash.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Iowa filed a complaint today with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission against The Drury Inn for discriminating against a Black transgender woman based on her gender identity and race in July 2015.

Whether tribal courts have jurisdiction to hear a tort claim against a defendant who is not a tribe member for activities occurring on tribal land.