







Some examples of our free speech work from recent years include:

  • The ACLU filed amicus briefs on behalf of The Slants, an Asian-American band that had been denied a trademark because the Patent and Trademark Office had deemed its name “disparaging” to Asian-Americans.
  • In 2016, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of environmental and racial justice activists in Uniontown, Alabama, who were sued for defamation after they organized against the town’s hazardous coal ash landfill.
  • In 2014, the ACLU filed an amicus brief in Elonis v. United States, arguing that subjective intent to threaten is required for someone to be prosecuted for making threatening statements.
  • In 2014, the ACLU of Michigan filed an amicus briefarguing that the police violated the First Amendment by ejecting an anti-Muslim group called Bible Believers from a street festival based on others’ violent reactions to their speech.
  • In 2012, the ACLU of Georgia filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia for denying the Ku Klux Klan’s application to participate in an “adopt a highway” program.
  • In 2010, the ACLU filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court arguing that the First Amendment protects the Westboro Baptist Church’s anti-LGBT protests at military funerals.