At issue before the Fifth Circuit is a lower court order invoking the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to block enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate as applied to two broad groups of people who have religious objections to the mandate based on the government, insurance companies and other individuals providing or procuring contraception under the law. ADL joined a brief opposing the order. It asserts that religious exemptions such as the order…
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This case involves a challenge to the Trump administration’s termination of temporary protected status (TPS) for approximately 50,000 Haitians and their 27,000 U.S. citizen children. TPS is a form of humanitarian immigration relief that allows individuals from designated countries to live and work legally in the U.S. if they cannot return safely to their country of origin due to armed conflict, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances. Most TPS recipients came to the U.S. at…
This case involves a challenge to the Orange County, Florida anti-discrimination ordinance that prohibits employment, housing and public accommodation discrimination. Unlike the State’s anti-discrimination law, it covers the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity. A trial court struck down the ordinance on the grounds that the State law is the only legal remedy for discrimination in Florida. ADL joined a brief filed on behalf of a diverse group of civil rights organizations…
This case involves a challenge to an Executive Order (EO) that requires state and local officials to consent in writing to refugees being resettled within that state and locality before the refugees can live there. Agencies that work with refugees to help them resettle within the United States sued to stop the EO from going into effect. ADL joined an interfaith amicus brief prepared by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and joined by 27 other coalition partners in support of the refugee…
This case challenges a law Louisiana passed in 2014 that imposed new requirements on abortion providers, including mandating that they have active admitting privileges at a local hospital. The impact of this law would be that only one abortion clinic would remain open in Louisiana, and there would not be any physician in the state providing abortions after 17 weeks. ADL joined with the National Women’s Law Center and 71 other organizations on an amicus brief urging that the law —…
The Montana Constitution contains a provision that provides for stricter separation of church and state than the First Amendment. Based on it, the State's Supreme Court struck down a tuition-tax credit program that on paper supports secular and religious schools, but disproportionately benefited faith-based institutions. At issue before the U.S. Supreme Court is whether the Free Exercise Clause requires states to fund religious education when they support private secular schools. ADL joined a…
The State of Maine does not operate public secondary schools in certain parts of the State and reimburses parents for the cost of tuition at private schools. The program is limited to secular institutions because Maine’s Constitution provides for stricter separation of church and state than the First Amendment. Parents seeking tuition reimbursement from the State for private religious schools that indoctrinate faith, proselytize and discriminate claim that the Free Exercise clause…
These cases involve a challenge by legal services agencies and the New York Attorney General to a federal government policy authorizing civil immigration arrests in and around New York State courthouses — a policy that disrupts the effective functioning of our courts, deters victims and witnesses from assisting law enforcement and vindicating their rights, hinders criminal prosecution, and undermines public safety. ADL joined amicus briefs in both cases, prepared by the Immigrant Defense…
New York State bars all state licensed adoption agencies from discriminating against prospective adoptive parents because of sexual orientation and gender identity, among other characteristics. At issue in this case is a free exercise challenge by a religious child placement agency that did not want to place children with same-sex couples. ADL joined an amicus brief in support of New York State filed by a diverse group of civil rights organizations. It asserts that as matter of law the Free…
At issue in the trio of DACA cases consolidated by the Court is the Administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. The DACA policy was created by President Obama in 2012 and granted work authorization and relief from deportation — subject to eligibility and agency approval — to undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children before 2007. DACA recipients would be able to renew their status every two years. The…
At issue in this case is whether under one of the oldest federal civil rights statutes — Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 — race discrimination victims must meet the burdensome “but-for” causation standard at the pleading stage instead of a more lenient “mixed motive” standard. ADL joined a coalition of civil rights organizations on an amicus brief arguing that the application of a “but-for” evidentiary standard would be inconsistent…
At issue in these cases is a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Rule that creates an overly broad and preferential religious exemption for healthcare employees, contractors and volunteers. The Rule effectively provides these individuals who have religious objections to certain medical procedures, including abortion or sterilization, with the right to hinder or even block a hospital from performing such procedures. ADL’s briefs filed on behalf of religious and civil rights…
At issue in these cases are the Department of Homeland Security’s Regulation (the “Regulation”) which significantly expands the meaning and application of the term “public charge.” A person determined by the government to be a “public charge” may be denied admission into the U.S. or denied lawful permanent resident status. While the term “public charge” has always meant someone who is primarily dependent on the government, the Regulation…
At issue in these cases is whether someone can legally be fired just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination “because of…sex” and federal and appellate courts have held that this prohibition extends to sexual orientation and gender identity. ADL joined a coalition of 59 civil rights organizations on an amicus brief arguing that it is important that the Court recognize that Title VII protects…
In North Carolina, the state appellate courts have never, in the thirty years since Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986) (the seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing the legal framework for claims of race discrimination in the exercise of peremptory strikes), found a single instance of discrimination against a juror of color, including in the two cases on appeal in this matter. ADL accordingly joined an amicus brief alongside a coalition of state and national criminal justice and…
This case involves an appeal for a new trial for Petitioner Randy Halprin, one of six individuals convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the murder of Irving, Texas police officer Aubrey Hawkins. The appeal notes that former state District Judge Vickers Cunningham was deeply prejudiced against Mr. Haplrin because he is Jewish. ADL filed an amicus brief in support of Mr. Halprin’s Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus in the United States District Court Northern District of…
This case involves challenges to immigration enforcement-related conditions imposed by the Justice Department in FY17 on the receipt of federal public safety grants by California and San Francisco under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (“JAG”) program and by California under the Community Oriented Policing Services (“COPS”) program and COPS Anti-Meth Program (“CAMP”). ADL filed a brief supporting California at the district court level, in…
At stake in this case are the administration’s final rules on religious and moral objections to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) contraceptive mandate. The federal court issued a nationwide injunction blocking the new rules, which would effectively repeal the contraceptive mandate and broadly allow employers and universities to invoke religion or morality to block their employees’ and students’ contraceptive coverage that is otherwise guaranteed by the ACA. On…
This case involves Equal Protection Clause and Title IX challenges to a county school board policy that prohibits transgender students from using the restroom which conform to their gender identity. ADL joined a brief filed by the National Women’s Law Center opposing this policy. The brief focuses on the claim under Title IX, a federal law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex at publicly funded educational institutions. The brief asserts that the law’s protections…
At stake in this case are the administration’s final rules on religious and moral objections to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) contraceptive mandate. The federal court issued a nationwide injunction blocking the new rules, which would effectively repeal the contraceptive mandate and broadly allow employers and universities to invoke religion or morality to block their employees’ and students’ contraceptive coverage that is otherwise guaranteed by the ACA. On…