Court Cases

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada Foundation seeks to restore the ability of North Las Vegas residents to elect a municipal court judge of their choosing. On Feb. 17, the city of North Las Vegas adopted Ordinance No. 3060, creating a new municipal court department and appointing a judge, Christopher Lee, to a 6-year term without any election. The ordinance directly violates the North Las Vegas City Charter, approved by the Nevada Legislature, which mandates that when the city appoints a judge to fill a vacant position in the Municipal Court, “[n]o such appointment extends beyond the first day of the month following the next general municipal election, at which election the office must be filled for the remaining unexpired term.” The next elections to be held in the City of North Las Vegas are scheduled for June and November of 2022, 4 years and two full election cycles before the appointment described in Ordinance No. 3060 ends. In its writ, the ACLU of Nevada is asking the court to require the city to hold an election for Municipal Court Department 1 during the 2022 election cycle as required by the North Las Vegas City Charter.

On May 11, 2021, the ACLU of Nevada and the Policing and Protest Clinic at the UNLV Boyd School of Law filed an amicus brief in Cates v. Stroud, a case on petition for review before the United States Supreme Court. The case calls into question the qualified immunity doctrine and arises from an incident in which a Las Vegas woman was subjected to a humiliating strip search during a visit to Nevada’s High Desert State Prison in violation of her constitutional rights. The brief urges the Supreme Court to grant the petition and review the case. For Nevada, qualified immunity creates a serious problem: If there are no state-level mechanisms for addressing civil rights abuses, and the federal courts won’t do it, how does our community protect their constitutional rights?

This case arises out of a defamation lawsuit filed by Mr. Lazer, a white man, against Ms. Williams, a Black woman. Mr. Lazer represented Ms. Williams in a real estate transaction and, according to Ms. Williams, made statements that were racist and sexist during the course of the sale.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada filed this case on behalf of eleven individuals whose constitutional rights were violated by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Rio Hotel. On August 19, 2018, our plaintiffs were having a birthday celebration at the Rio Hotel. Each of the 34 guests in attendance that evening is Black. LVMPD, aided by Rio staff, stormed in with no warrant and no reason to believe that any crime was being committed. Despite having no reasonable suspicion, LVMPD officers handcuffed and searched every single guest in attendance. Each guest was made to sit in the hallway of the Rio handcuffed with no access to food, water, or restroom facilities for up to 6 hours. LVMPD alleged that the birthday party was a “gang party,” but no guest was arrested for any criminal gang activity. We’re suing to end LVMPD’s racially discriminatory practice of indiscriminately and unlawfully detaining and searching individuals in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada Foundation filed this case to secure the release of two men who are being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Henderson Detention Center. Our plaintiffs are medically vulnerable and at risk of severe illness or even death because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Constitution requires that detention facilities ensure the health and safety of the people in their care, but these facilities are unable to implement social distancing and other medical best practices to prevent exposure. The people housed at the Henderson Detention Center have already been exposed to COVID-19. Jail officials confirmed on March 28 that 13 individuals held in ICE detention there have been isolated in individual cells after they were transported by an ICE agent who later began to show symptoms of COVID-19. The only remedy to this constitutional issue is to release our plaintiffs.

The ACLU of Nevada and Prudhomme Law Office filed a petition for judicial review on December 16, 2016, with the Nevada District Court on behalf of Mr. Mohammad Al Falahi, seeking a de novo review of the denial of Mr. Al Falahi’s naturalization application by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The petition alleges that Mr. Al Falahi is otherwise eligible for citizenship, but his application was denied solely because USCIS surreptitiously subjected him to the unconstitutional Controlled Application Review Resolution Program (CARRP). CARRP is a little-known, unconstitutional program that disproportionally targets citizenship applicants from Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities. Under CARRP, USCIS unjustifiably labels law-abiding citizenship applicants as “national security concerns” based on lawful religious activity, national origin, and innocuous associations. Applications subject to CARRP are subject to substantial delays and are ultimately denied for pretextual reasons, all without ever being told why their applications were treated differently than other applicants.

The ACLU of Nevada submitted a public records request on June 15th asking for various records relating to lethal injection drugs and the Department of Corrections’ execution protocol, but the Department has refused to release any information prior to this execution. The writ petition seeks to force NDOC to release these records.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and Perkins Coie LLP on Nov. 21, 2017, filed a lawsuit in the First Judicial District Court challenging State Sen. Michael Roberson’s anti-immigrant ballot initiative. Our clients in this case include a former Nevada sheriff, a civil rights activist, and a nonprofit organization that works with immigrant victims of crime, including domestic violence. The ACLU of Nevada's complaint argues the entire “Prevent Sanctuary Cities Initiative” - from the language of the proposed amendment to the description of effect - is misleading to voters. Even the term “sanctuary cities” is deceptive, pejorative, and lacks a legal definition. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for the morning of Jan. 5, 2018, in Carson City.