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The ACLU of Colorado sent a letter on January 25, 2017 demanding that the Denver Parks Department stop enforcement of an unconstitutional and ineffective temporary directive authorizing police to summarily banish people from city parks, without a hearing, conviction, or other due process, based on mere suspicion of illegal drug activity. The six-month....
Criminal Justice, Criminalization of Homelessness

The Wheat Ridge Municipal Court violated a Colorado law banning debtor’s prison practices by sentencing a homeless man to jail because he could not pay a fine, according to a filing made on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. Wilburn Taylor was cited for panhandling when a Wheat Ridge police officer found him with a blank....
Criminal Justice, Criminalization of Homelessness, End Debtors' Prisons

In a lawsuit filed on October 12, 2016 against Colorado Springs police officers and the City of Colorado Springs, the ACLU of Colorado charged that Ryan and Benjamin Brown were victims of the police department’s “custom and practice” of engaging in racially-biased policing and carrying out groundless, racially-motivated stops and searches. In....
Criminal Justice, Racial Justice

On Feb. 10, 2015, The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a class action lawsuit challenging an anti-panhandling ordinance that is being widely enforced by Fort Collins, in violation of the free speech rights of people who are impoverished and homeless, as well as street performers and non-profit canvassers. Fort Collins police have....
Criminalization of Homelessness, Freedom of Expression & Religion

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a lawsuit against the City of Trinidad and a pair of Trinidad detectives on behalf of two innocent women who were falsely arrested and prosecuted as part of a highly-publicized “drug sting” in December, 2013. According to the suit, Trinidad detectives Phil Martin and Arsenio Vigil relied on....
Criminal Justice

The ACLU of Colorado and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project filed suit on behalf of Ashley Provino, a Grand Junction woman who was fired from her job, in violation of state and federal anti-discrimination laws, for asserting her right to pump breast milk at work. Provino, a new mother, requested permission from her employer, Big League Haircuts, to....
Women’s Rights

A letter was sent to Denver Sheriff Gary Wilson requesting that Denver County stop honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, which are requests by the federal government that states and municipalities hold prisoners until ICE can determine their immigration status, often past the time they would otherwise be released . The letter....
Criminal Justice, End Immigration Detainers, Immigrants’ Rights

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed suit in federal district court challenging the City of Grand Junction's anti-panhandling ordinance, which bans a wide swath of speech that is protected by the First Amendment. Although Grand Junction officials have claimed that the ordinance aims only at “aggressive” panhandling, the ACLU contends....
Criminal Justice, Criminalization of Homelessness, Freedom of Expression & Religion

The ACLU of Colorado sent a letter on March 12, 2014 to DISH Network documenting multiple failures to accommodate nursing mothers at the company’s corporate headquarters in Englewood, where employees are forced to pump breast milk in front of their co-workers and supervisors, without privacy screens or curtains, and at a DISH Network call center in....
Women’s Rights

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado sent letters to three Front Range cities demanding a prompt halt to the illegal practice of jailing poor people for failing to pay court-ordered fines. The ACLU conducted an in-depth investigation into the municipal courts of Westminster, Wheat Ridge, and Northglenn, and found that each city routinely issues....
Criminal Justice, End Debtors' Prisons