Litigation

The MacArthur Justice Center represents the Chicagoans for an End to the Gang Database, a coalition of individuals and community organizations, in a federal class action lawsuit against the City of Chicago and Chicago Police Department (CPD) targeting the widespread use of an inaccurate, racially discriminatory Gang Database.

The MacArthur Justice Center and the ACLU of Missouri jointly a federal class action lawsuit challenging the Missouri Department of Corrections' (MDOC) systematic denial of potential life-saving medication to inmates with chronic Hepatitis C (HCV).

Martin Crowson suffered from metabolic encephalopathy while in Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility on an alleged parole violation. Instead of conducting diagnostic tests and treating him appropriately, the jail’s medical personnel simply assumed he was detoxing and treated him for substance withdrawal. This worsened his condition and delayed access to the care he actually required....

Dustin Lance developed a painful and dangerous medical condition while in pretrial detention at the Pittsburg County Jail. He was in severe pain and pleaded with corrections officers for three days to help him. But they did not take him to the nurse or take any steps to provide the emergency medical care that he needed....

In 2018, Florida citizens voted to restore the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of formerly-incarcerated people. In response, however, the Florida legislature passed legislation imposing severe restrictions on voting rights restoration, including a requirement that people must pay all fines, fees, court costs, and other legal financial obligations before they regain their right...

When Crishala Reed, a 28-year-old Black woman, received a jury summons, she was eager to go. But when she told the court that she supported the Black Lives Matter movement, it became clear that she was not going to be seated on the jury. She was questioned by the prosecutor about whether she supported rioting...

The MacArthur Justice Center is suing Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro in light of his office’s practice of gathering evidence using subpoenas that do not have the required advance approval of a court. The suit asks the Orleans Parish Civil District Court to order Cannizzaro to comply with a 2015 public records request for copies of district attorney...

  The Miami Police Department has a long-standing, widespread policy and practice of targeting community members with unlawful detentions and false arrests as well as a history of failing to hold accountable police officers who violate the law.

Together with our partners at the University of Chicago Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the New York Civil Liberties Union, we are challenging the constitutionality of this unprecedented scheme of domestic indefinite detention. We are also challenging the grossly unfair procedures the government has used, under which the government made the...

Despite being diagnosed severally mentally ill, Michael Johnson spent 24 hours a day for nearly three years, locked in a hermetically sealed box approximately the size of a parking space. His pleas to be transferred to a mental health unit were ignored, and mental health officials knowingly continued to sign off and renew his confinement....