Arkansas
NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment
learn about our work in Arkansas
NAACP v. Arkansas Board of Apportionment
Voting Rights
Status: Ongoing
This case has two key parts: First, the Arkansas House district map diminishes the voting power of Black voters. Second, both the district court and Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals radically concluded that voters may not sue to protect their voting rights under Section 2, putting the VRA in further jeopardy and contradicting decades of precedent in which impacted voters — particularly Black voters — have challenged racially discriminatory voting laws.
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All Cases
14 Arkansas Cases
Arkansas
May 2021
Little Rock Family Planning Services, et al., v. Larry Jegley, et al.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Arkansas, and Planned Parenthood Federation filed a lawsuit challenging Arkansas’s new total ban on abortion.
Status: Ongoing
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Arkansas
Reproductive Freedom
Little Rock Family Planning Services, et al., v. Larry Jegley, et al.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Arkansas, and Planned Parenthood Federation filed a lawsuit challenging Arkansas’s new total ban on abortion.
May 2021
Status: Ongoing
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U.S. Supreme Court
May 2019
Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip
This lawsuit asserts that Arkansas’ Act 710, which requires government contractors to certify that they are not participating in boycotts of Israel or “Israeli-controlled territories,” violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Status: Closed
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U.S. Supreme Court
Free Speech
Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip
This lawsuit asserts that Arkansas’ Act 710, which requires government contractors to certify that they are not participating in boycotts of Israel or “Israeli-controlled territories,” violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
May 2019
Status: Closed
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Arkansas
Jun 2017
Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Smith
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in June 2017 challenging a new Arkansas restriction that would target reproductive health facilities with extreme and medically unnecessary overregulation and would effectively ban abortion care in Arkansas.
Status: Ongoing
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Arkansas
Reproductive Freedom
Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Smith
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in June 2017 challenging a new Arkansas restriction that would target reproductive health facilities with extreme and medically unnecessary overregulation and would effectively ban abortion care in Arkansas.
Jun 2017
Status: Ongoing
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Arkansas
Apr 2017
Lee v. Kelly
Ledell Lee has filed a motion in federal court asking the court reopen his case due to the breakdown in counsel over his decades of review, particularly the failure of counsel to bring evidence of his intellectual disability. Lee has presented new evidence showing that he has fetal alcohol syndrome disorder, significant brain damage, and intellectual disability. These facts were concealed by the line of counsel plagued with conflicts of interests, substance abuse, serious mental illness, and gross incompetence.
Status: Ongoing
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Arkansas
Capital Punishment
Lee v. Kelly
Ledell Lee has filed a motion in federal court asking the court reopen his case due to the breakdown in counsel over his decades of review, particularly the failure of counsel to bring evidence of his intellectual disability. Lee has presented new evidence showing that he has fetal alcohol syndrome disorder, significant brain damage, and intellectual disability. These facts were concealed by the line of counsel plagued with conflicts of interests, substance abuse, serious mental illness, and gross incompetence.
Apr 2017
Status: Ongoing
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Arkansas
Apr 2017
Ledell Lee v. State of Arkansas
Ledell Lee, an innocent man who had been on Arkansas death row since 1995, was executed on April 20, 2017, despite overwhelming evidence that he was intellectually disabled, evidence that had never been considered by any court due to two decades of repeated failures by the attorneys charged with protecting his life. In 2002, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities, noting that they “in the aggregate face a special risk of wrongful execution,” Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304.
Status: Ongoing
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Arkansas
Capital Punishment
Ledell Lee v. State of Arkansas
Ledell Lee, an innocent man who had been on Arkansas death row since 1995, was executed on April 20, 2017, despite overwhelming evidence that he was intellectually disabled, evidence that had never been considered by any court due to two decades of repeated failures by the attorneys charged with protecting his life. In 2002, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities, noting that they “in the aggregate face a special risk of wrongful execution,” Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304.
Apr 2017
Status: Ongoing
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