The ACLU of Maryland’s legal program works with residents and partners across the state to realize the promise of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, with a focus on using the courts to protect and expand the rights of Marylanders – especially those whose rights have not been respected in the past due to white supremacy ingrained in our justice system. Over the years, legal staff have worked to build a more just Maryland one lawsuit at a time, with cases ranging from challenges to racially discriminatory election systems, leading to election of the first Black candidates to state and local offices on the Eastern Shore; to spearheading an innovative state constitutional challenge to underfunding of Baltimore’s education system that steals the futures of Black and Brown children; to filing the nation’s first civil lawsuit challenging police racial profiling on America’s highways; to working with people imprisoned since childhood for a second chance at freedom, long-since earned. In all of our legal work, we center the voices and experiences of people and communities directly impacted by injustice.
Additionally, the ACLU responds annually to thousands of requests for legal advice and provides assistance short of litigation as we seek to ensure that every person in Maryland shares in the protections afforded by our Constitution and laws.
The Plaintiffs in this suit reached a strong settlement with the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) following the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling finding the BPD’s pilot aerial surveillance program unconstitutional.
Public health experts, attorneys, and families filed a petition in Maryland's Court of Appeals to take “extraordinary” action to prevent COVID-19 spread in places of detention and beyond.
Immigrants' rights groups sue ICE to release Maryland detainees at risk of serious illness or death due to COVID-19
Determined to win justice and ensure that similar lockdowns never happen again, four residents of Baltimore’s Harlem Park neighborhood today filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) and former Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, charging that their state and federal constit
Defending her constitutional right to due process and to be protected against unlawful search and seizure, Sara Medrano, a Latina Frederick County resident, is challenging racial profiling and illegal detention she endured from two Frederick County sheriff’s deputies who tried to hold her for U.S
Taking action to protect their right to a free public school education, guaranteed to them under the Maryland Constitution, students in Prince George’s County filed a lawsuit challenging mandatory fees for summer school classes required for students to advance in school and to graduate.