The ACLU of Tennessee stands up for equality, fairness and justice in the courts. Through our impact litigation and other legal advocacy, we’re fighting for you. ACLU’s legal advocacy in Tennessee spans from the historic Scopes “Monkey Trial” and representation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the sanitation workers’ march in Memphis, to ensuring access to private prison records, protecting families’ religious freedom rights, advocating for gay and lesbian parents who were denied visitation with their children, defending voters’ right to have their ballots counted, and much more. You can learn more about specific cases below.
Tennessee saw a surge in voter registrations during the 2018 midterms. Lawmakers passed a measure that creates criminal and civil penalties against those who submit “incomplete” applications. The threat of...
During the civil rights movement, the Memphis Police Department (MPD) surveilled demonstrators in an effort to intimidate them from exercising free speech and free assembly. Through a 1976 lawsuit filed...
Cyntoia Brown is a young woman serving a life sentence in the Tennessee Prison for Women. Ms. Brown was a sixteen-year-old who had been forced into prostitution when she killed a man more than twice her age...
ACLU-TN has had an ongoing concern over police surveillance of Memphis residents engaging in protected free speech activities for many decades.