Texas
Crystal Mason v. State of Texas
Crystal Mason thought she was performing her civic duty by filling out a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. She didn't know it would land her a five-year prison sentence, upending her family and the life she had built. At the time, Ms. Mason was on federal supervised release, a preliminary period of freedom for individuals who have served their full time of incarceration in federal prison. Ms. Mason didn’t know, and nobody told her, that the state considered her ineligible to vote while on supervised release. Because her name didn’t appear on voter rolls, she filed a provisional ballot, consistent with federal law. The state never counted her ballot but has still sought to send her to prison for an innocent mistake.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
View Case
Visit ACLU of Texas
Featured
U.S. Supreme Court
Sep 2023
![United States v. Rahimi](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
United States v. Rahimi
Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which prohibits the possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic-violence restraining orders, violates the Second Amendment on its face.
Status: Ongoing
View case
U.S. Supreme Court
Jun 2023
![Danco Laboratories, LLC, v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine; U.S. FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Danco Laboratories, LLC, v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine; U.S. FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine
The American Civil Liberties Union joined over 200 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of an emergency request to stay a decision issued by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that severely restricted the use of mifepristone — a medication used in most abortions in this country — and threatened the innovation of new drugs and the ability of Americans to access lifesaving drugs.
Status: Stayed
View case
U.S. Supreme Court
Dec 2021
![Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and coalition partners filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers and funds on July 13, 2021, challenging S.B. 8, a Texas law allowing private citizens to enforce a ban on abortion as early as six weeks in pregnancy—before many know they are pregnant. The ACLU’s challenge made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court three times in as many months. After hearing oral arguments in the case, the Court issued a decision on December 10, 2021, that ended the most promising pathways to blocking the ban. The Supreme Court’s decision makes it more difficult to obtain adequate relief from the courts and gives states the green light to ban abortion using bounty-hunting schemes. Texas’ abortion ban will remain in effect until relief can be secured from a court.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
View case
Texas
Jul 2021
![Sanchez et al v. Dallas County Sheriff et al](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Sanchez et al v. Dallas County Sheriff et al
Decarceration has always been an emergency, a life and death proposition, but COVID-19 makes this effort intensely urgent. The ACLU has been working with our partners to litigate for the rights of those who are incarcerated and cannot protect themselves because of the policies of the institutions in which they are jailed.
Status: Ongoing
View case
Stay informed about our latest work in the courts.
By completing this form, I agree to receive occasional emails per the terms of the ACLU's privacy statement.
All Cases
37 Texas Cases
Texas
Oct 2016
![Texas Health and Human Services Commission v. United States of America](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Texas Health and Human Services Commission v. United States of America
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, National Immigration Law Center and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a legal response on behalf of the International Rescue Committee in order to prevent the State of Texas from illegally barring Syrian refugees from entering the state.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
View case
![Texas Health and Human Services Commission v. United States of America](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Texas
Immigrants' Rights
Texas Health and Human Services Commission v. United States of America
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, National Immigration Law Center and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a legal response on behalf of the International Rescue Committee in order to prevent the State of Texas from illegally barring Syrian refugees from entering the state.
Oct 2016
Status: Closed (Judgment)
View case
Texas
Aug 2016
![Texas v. U.S.](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Texas v. U.S.
Five leading national civil and LGBT rights organizations filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Federal Government issued guidance regarding public school districts’ responsibility to allow transgender students to use the same restrooms as other students.
Status: Closed
View case
![Texas v. U.S.](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Texas
LGBTQ Rights
Texas v. U.S.
Five leading national civil and LGBT rights organizations filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Federal Government issued guidance regarding public school districts’ responsibility to allow transgender students to use the same restrooms as other students.
Aug 2016
Status: Closed
View case
Texas
Feb 2015
![Paul Reid in July 1980 (l), Police Composite Bowling-Alley Murders (m), Max Soffar (r)](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2023/01/asset_upload_file849_29827-600x217.jpg)
State of Texas v. Max Soffar
An innocent man is dying of terminal liver cancer on Texas’s Death Row.
View case
![Paul Reid in July 1980 (l), Police Composite Bowling-Alley Murders (m), Max Soffar (r)](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2023/01/asset_upload_file849_29827-600x217.jpg)
Texas
Capital Punishment
State of Texas v. Max Soffar
An innocent man is dying of terminal liver cancer on Texas’s Death Row.
Feb 2015
View case
Texas
Oct 2014
![Manuel Velez](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2023/01/velez_300.jpg)
Manuel Velez v. The State of Texas
Manuel Velez, an innocent man, was released from a Texas prison today after almost nine years behind bars, four on death row. Rather than risk a new trial that could be plagued with the same problems that sent him to death row, Velez, an ACLU client, pleaded no contest to a lesser charge.
View case
![Manuel Velez](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2023/01/velez_300.jpg)
Texas
Smart Justice
Capital Punishment
Manuel Velez v. The State of Texas
Manuel Velez, an innocent man, was released from a Texas prison today after almost nine years behind bars, four on death row. Rather than risk a new trial that could be plagued with the same problems that sent him to death row, Velez, an ACLU client, pleaded no contest to a lesser charge.
Oct 2014
View case
Texas
Mar 2014
![Planned Parenthood v. Abbott](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Planned Parenthood v. Abbott
The American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Texas law firm George Brothers Kincaid & Horton have filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of their clients (over a dozen women’s health care providers) to block harmful and unconstitutional provisions of a recently enacted Texas law that would force a third of the health centers that currently offer abortion care to stop providing abortions altogether.
Status: Closed (Judgment)
View case
![Planned Parenthood v. Abbott](https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/themes/aclu-wp/img/fallback-case-gavel.png)
Texas
Reproductive Freedom
Planned Parenthood v. Abbott
The American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Texas law firm George Brothers Kincaid & Horton have filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of their clients (over a dozen women’s health care providers) to block harmful and unconstitutional provisions of a recently enacted Texas law that would force a third of the health centers that currently offer abortion care to stop providing abortions altogether.
Mar 2014
Status: Closed (Judgment)
View case