Civil rights case docket
Summaries of our current and historical civil rights cases.
A rich history of litigating important civil rights cases.
Our cases have smashed remnants of Jim Crow segregation; fought against voter suppression; destroyed some of the nation’s most notorious white supremacist groups; and upheld the rights of minorities, children, women, people with disabilities, and others who faced discrimination and exploitation. Many of our cases have changed institutional practices, stopped government or corporate abuses, and set precedents that helped thousands.
Currently, our litigation is focused on several major areas: voting rights, children’s rights, economic justice, immigrant justice, LGBTQ rights, and mass incarceration.
We have also filed amicus “friend-of-the-court” briefs to support litigation from other organizations that are doing similar work.
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
Gypson v. Lexington
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi (ACLU-MS) filed a lawsuit on behalf of plaintiff Terrance Gypson, alleging that the city of Lexington and Lexington police threw him to the ground and arrested him, violating his First Amendment rights. On May 24, 2024, police assaulted and arrested Gypson, a…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Salmeron v. Mullin
Together with Americans for Immigrant Justice, the SPLC filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of people held in custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Miramar, Florida, field office, challenging the unconstitutional conditions of confinement that have turned an administrative check-in site into a de facto detention facility with no…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
SPLC v. DOJ OIG
On Aug. 28, 2025, a Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) officer pushed Ervin Allen through a window at Florida’s Coleman Low Federal Correctional Institution, shattering the window and causing arterial lacerations on both of Allen’s forearms and borderline hemorrhagic shock. FBOP staff medevaced Allen to a hospital where he had emergency surgery, including a blood…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
Disability Rights Florida v. Kathryn Williams
Attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Criminal Legal System Reform litigation team filed a federal lawsuit against Kathryn Williams, the interim secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), for failing to meet state deadlines for transferring people found incompetent to stand trial from county jails to state hospitals. Under Florida law,…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
SPLC v. Rankin County Sheriff’s Department
The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the Rankin County, Mississippi, Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) alleging that RCSD violated the Mississippi Public Records Act (MPRA) by failing for more than a year to produce records requested by the SPLC concerning deaths that occurred in RCSD custody. This data is vitally important in providing an accurate accounting of…
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- Strengthening Democracy & Voting Rights
Black Voters Matter Fund, et al. v. Cord Byrd, et al.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Black Voters Matter Fund (BVMF) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The complaint, filed on Sept. 2, 2026, challenged HB 991, recently passed legislation that requires voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship or risk losing…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
SPLC v. Hinds County Sheriff
In March of this year, the SPLC filed a complaint against the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) and the Mississippi State Department of Public Safety for not responding to requests for information about in-custody deaths. The SPLC asked for a full and transparent account of all deaths that had occurred since 2022. The Chancery Court of…
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- Dismantling White Supremacy
U.S. v. Hutson
On April 3, 2026, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Al Otro Lado filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit between the United States and the sheriff of Orleans Parish to prevent the sheriff from being forced to surrender individuals in her custody to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE has sued the…
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- Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality
National Education Association, et al. v. United States Department of Education, et al.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island (LCRI) and the National Education Association (NEA), on behalf of its members, filed a lawsuit on June 3, 2026, challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s unlawful termination of millions of dollars in professional development grants for improving educational instruction for English learners. In September 2025, the Department of Education abruptly discontinued funding…
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- Ending Unjust Imprisonment
McElroy, et al. v. Houston County, Alabama, et al.
On May 13, 2026, attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Pregnancy Justice and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in Alabama on behalf of Tiffany McElroy and her infant daughter. In May 2024, McElroy was just days into her detention at the Houston County Jail in Dothan, Alabama, for a pregnancy-related charge when her…