Supreme Court Term 2025-2026

A group of midwives and doctors filed a lawsuit in state court challenging actions by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), which imposed a de facto ban on freestanding birth centers throughout Alabama. Birth centers provide midwifery care to low-risk pregnant patients, a model of care that is proven to be safe and beneficial to patients. Despite that, ADPH took actions that forced one center to abruptly shut down in 2023 despite a perfect safety record, and then passed onerous regulations that would require birth centers to meet hospital-like standards, preventing birth centers from operating in the state. After hearing oral argument in late September 2023, the Circuit Court of Montgomery County granted our request for a Preliminary Injunction on September 30, 2023, preventing ADPH from refusing to timely license freestanding birth centers that comply with nationally-recognized safety standards for birth centers while litigation continues. In May 2025, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court issued judgment in Plaintiffs’ favor blocking the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) from regulating freestanding birth centers like hospitals and imposing onerous licensing rules that would have made it effectively impossible for these centers to provide evidence-based midwifery care in the state. The ruling ensured that plaintiffs Oasis Family Birthing Center in Birmingham and Alabama Birth Center in Huntsville, which had been safely operating for the past year, could continue providing midwifery care to pregnant Alabamians. Defendants appealed this ruling in July 2025, and in January 2026, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals reversed the lower court's decision, ruling that ADPH does have authority to require freestanding birth centers to be licensed and regulated as "hospitals." Plaintiffs are seeking further court review of the decision, and Alabama birth centers will continue operating and providing essential care to their patients while litigation is ongoing.

The ACLU and civil rights firm Wang Hecker LLP are representing a Columbia University faculty organization against claims that their speech in defense of students’ rights to free speech and protest injured several students.

In April 2020, the ACLU, ACLU of Southern California, and ACLU of District of Columbia filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of military service members challenging a 2017 Trump administration policy blocking their expedited path to citizenship. In August 2020, a federal district court certified the class and ruled that the policy’s requirement that non-citizens serve a minimum period of time before they can apply for citizenship is unlawful.

This case challenges the federal government’s authority to remove people from their homes, jobs, and loved ones and remand them to federal prison absent any alleged violation or process.