Court Cases

In Nevada, people who are detained in a city or county jail are being held pre-trial or are serving a misdemeanor sentence and, therefore, have not lost their right to vote. Despite never losing this right, eligible voters detained in Nevada jails have continuously been denied meaningful access to the ballot box. Recognizing the unique constraints and widespread disenfranchisement of voters taking place in Nevada jails, the 2023 Nevada Legislature passed Assembly Bill 286, mandating that jail administrators work with the city or county clerk to implement policies and procedures that would ensure eligible voters detained in these facilities can register to vote and cast their ballot in an election. Since the bill took effect January 1, the ACLU of Nevada has been monitoring the implementation of the policies and procedures outlined in AB286, which should have been in place for the Presidential Preference Primary; however, public records requests revealed that Elko County Jail had not implemented such policies and continues not to be compliant. ACLUNV attorneys sent a demand letter to the jail, urging them to be compliant with the law or legal action would take place. The jail continues not to be compliant. Without the implementation of these policies and procedures as outlined in the bill, eligible voters detained in Elko County Jail will continue to be disenfranchised and have their voices silenced ahead of a critical election year.

Our client is a prisoner at Florence McClure Women's Correctional Facility in Southern Nevada. She was sexually abused by a prison chaplain, Donald Burse, on two separate occasions in August 2020. While Burse was fired after the abuse came to light, and there is a pending criminal case, we are taking on this case because we believe that the Nevada Department of Corrections has not done enough to make sure that such abuse will not happen again in the future.

We're challenging Clark County's pedestrian flow zone ordinance for its vague language that allows LVMPD to selectively enforce and, in effect, selectively target people. Our client uses a manual wheelchair, and under this ordinance, could be charged with a misdemeanor for stopping to take a break. In January 2024, the Clark County Commission voted to establish pedestrian flow zones on the pedestrian bridges at the Las Vegas Strip and charge people with a misdemeanor for stopping or standing on these bridges.

The ACLU of Nevada and the Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice filed an amicus brief in Aldape v. State, a case on appeal before the Nevada Supreme Court, discussing the importance of the internet to free speech and the First Amendment rights of people released on probation. Update: On September 28, 2023, the Supreme Court of Nevada issued a favorable ruling, arrfimed in part, reveresed in part, and remanded.

The ACLU of Nevada filed a lawsuit challenging Nevada's ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion, which discriminates against women and people who can become pregnant based on their sex in violation of the protections voters added to the Nevada Constitution. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year, Nevadans turned out to the polls to overwhelmingly adopt an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the state constitution, ensuring equality under the law regardless of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, and more. The lawsuit brought by Silver State Hope Fund — a Nevada nonprofit that offers financial assistance to help people pay for abortion, as well as travel, lodging, and childcare to ensure they can access care — challenges the state’s Medicaid coverage ban as a violation of Nevada’s ERA. The majority of Silver State’s clients have incomes that qualify for Medicaid. Nevada’s Medicaid program, managed by the Division of Health Care Financing and Policy, has set a mission to ensure equal access to health care by providing quality medical care for low-income individuals and families who otherwise may not be able to afford health care. Despite that mission, the program specifically denies coverage for abortion, and so the majority of Silver State Hope Fund’s clients cannot get full coverage for their reproductive health care needs. The abortion coverage ban reinforces sex-based inequalities by denying only women and those who can become pregnant the ability to make decisions about their health care options and reproductive futures. There are no similar restrictions on care typically accessed by men. The lawsuit requests that the state court order the Nevada Division of Health Care Financing and Policy to remove the abortion coverage ban in Nevada’s Medicaid program. UPDATE: On March 19, 2024, the court ruled in favor of the ACLU and our clients, blocking the state's abortion coverage ban.

In this joint filing by the ACLU of Nevada and Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice, we argue that the state can't make it harder for people working toward rehabilitation to reenter society by imposing excessive fines and fees if they are already meeting the requirements of their parole. The Nevada Division of Parole and Probation recommends early discharge from parole if a supervised person meets all the conditions in state law. One condition requires the person to be current with the supervision fees required by probation or parole. A Clark County Court found that the subject of this case, Valentine, fulfilled this condition and had proven he experienced economic hardship and was eligible for relief. On appeal, the state claims that Valentine was ineligible for early discharge because he had not paid off the entire balance of supervision fees. No one disputes that Valentine paid his fees on time, but the parole agency diverted those payments to cover his outstanding restitution balance instead. In the amicus brief, we pointed out that: State law only requires a person to be current with supervision fee payments, not that they are paid them off in full. The Division of Parole and Probation has no legal basis to transfer a person's supervision fees to restitution. There was no court order and no statute authorizing the agency to do it. UPDATE: On March 28, 2024, the Court dismissed the case on procedural grounds.

The ACLU of Nevada is representing seven incarcerated firefighters who were badly burned while working as wildland firefighters as part of a program in which the Nevada Division of Forestry and the Nevada Department of Corrections press incarcerated people into dangerous service on behalf of the state. The case is Leavitt v. Nevada, Case No. A-23-867730-C, and it was filed in Clark County. UPDATE: In November 2024, the State of Nevada agreed to pay $340,000 to the group of firefighters.

On Oct. 4, 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed a lawsuit against Nye County to prevent the county from moving forward with its proposed unlawful hand-counting scheme during this year’s elections. We are representing Nye County voters who risk having their freedom to vote suppressed by the county’s proposed procedures for this year’s election. The case is ACLU of Nevada v. Nye County, Case No. CV22-0503. We are asking the Fifth Judicial District court to prohibit the county from publicly announcing the selected candidates on each ballot prior to the close of polls on Election Day, from limiting the use of ADA touch screens to individuals with so-called “special needs,” from allowing election workers to ask about a voter’s disability or turn away otherwise eligible voters based on arbitrary decision making, and from using “stringent signature verifications” that violate state law. UPDATE: On November 15, 2022, the Supreme Court of Nevada denied to issue a ruling to stop Nye County from conducting a hand-count of ballots received in the 2022 midterm election.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed a lawsuit against Fremont Street Experience, LLC, and the city of Las Vegas in order to protect First Amendment rights on this important public forum. Fremont Street remains a public street. The case is Gordon v. City of Las Vegas, Case No. 2:22-cv-01446-RFB-EJY.