Court Cases

In 2019, the ACLU of Virginia filed a federal class action lawsuit against the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) seeking to end the practice of long-term solitary confinement in VDOC.

The ACLU of Virginia, Protect Democracy, and WilmerHale on the behalf of individual plaintiffs Melvin Wingate, Tati Abu King, and Toni Heath Johnson, as well as Bridging the Gap In Virginia, filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in federal court challenging the Virginia Constitution’s felony disenfranchisement provision. The case, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, claims that Virginia is in violation of the 150-year-old federal law that established the terms of Virginia’s readmission to representation in the United States Congress after the Civil War.

The ACLU of Virginia and Ali and Lockwood LLP filed two related cases challenging the Virginia Department of Corrections’ (VDOC) refusal to implement the earned sentence credit program according to the law, resulting in the over-detention of potentially hundreds of people in VDOC’s custody. Welch and Weerapunyanont v. Dotson et al. and Whitmore v. Walters, both class action lawsuits, seek damages to compensate people who have served more time than they should have, and injunctive relief to ensure that VDOC implements the law properly going forward.

The ACLU of Virginia and Legal Aid Justice Center filed an emergency motion on behalf of the Dream Project to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging Virginia's in-state tuition law for immigrant students.

The ACLU of Virginia filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of four young people and a class of those in similar circumstances who Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are unlawfully holding in Virginia detention centers, flagrantly ignoring federal laws that give these young immigrants a legal right to be in the United States.

The ACLU of Virginia, American Civil Liberties Union, and ACLU of Kentucky filed suit against the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) in the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of 12 students that attend DoDEA schools after DoDEA removed books and changed curricular in violation of the students' First Amendment rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Virginia, and ACLU of North Carolina today filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to obtain records regarding the agency’s potential plans to expand immigration detention across Virginia.

The ACLU of Virginia joined as counsel of record in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of Virginia resident Curtis M. Whateley, whose personalized license plate the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles revoked.

Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor and postdoctoral scholar on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia, is legally in the U.S. on a research scholar and professor visa. He is an Indian national who lives with his U.S. citizen wife and three children in Rosslyn, Virginia. When he arrived home on the evening of Monday, March 17 following a traditional Ramadan meal celebration, he was taken into custody by masked federal agents without being charged with or accused of any crime. In just over 72 hours, he was shuffled to multiple immigration detention centers, ultimately landing in Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where he was detained until his release on bond on May 14.