As 2025 unfolds, the ACLU of Maryland legal department is facing one of the most challenging times ever as we push back against the authoritarian offensive against civil rights being mounted by the second Trump Administration – while continuing our dedicated work advancing racial and social justice throughout Maryland. Many legal challenges to Administration policies – by the National ACLU and other civil rights advocates – are being filed in federal court in Maryland, giving us a unique opportunity to engage in some of the most impactful litigation of our time.

While this report focuses primarily on our work in the court system, litigation is just a part of what we do in the legal department: Our lawyers and advocates work on a myriad of legal projects beyond litigation. Our legal advocacy program integrates aspects of outreach, public education, investigations and analysis, and administrative advocacy.to reinforce the value and agency of people our society unjustly pushes to the margins, providing the ACLU an important opportunity to equitably advance our mission outside litigation.

This includes reviewing requests for assistance, conducting in-depth research and investigations, developing and offering robust resources and referrals.

We also address civil rights violations and confront systems of white supremacy by conducting legal analyses to support our colleagues on public policy matters, and by drafting of legal policy reports, self-advocacy resources, and demand letters. Through all this work, we strive to offer our communities belonging, tools, and strategies to develop pipelines to partnership with their government, other advocates, and each other.

From fighting for voting rights, to pushing for transparency, accountability and systemic reforms in the tragic police killing of Anton Black, to the Maryland Parole Project’s celebration of homecomings for people too long imprisoned, the legal team is committed to doing all we can to advance the interests of our clients and partners in Maryland’s fight for justice.

Below we walk you through our recent and ongoing work in the courts, categorized by subject, highlighting some of our memorable legal efforts.

We publish this Legal Docket annually. The content we publish on the legal case pages on our website may reflect updates that occurred since we published this docket.