Court Cases

On December 25, 2021, Asheville police officers cleared an encampment of unhoused people and community activists in a city park. Two journalists, Melissa Coit and Matilda Bliss, were reporting on the situation for a local publication called The Asheville Blade. The police officers ordered everyone to clear the area and began threatening arrests. Coit and Bliss identified themselves to the officers as journalists and did not interfere with police operations, but the officers arrested them, charged them with trespassing, and held Bliss’s phone for 25 days without a warrant. The ACLU of North Carolina filed a lawsuit on behalf of Coit and Bliss, arguing that the arrests violated their First Amendment rights and that the seizure of Bliss’s phone violated the Fourth Amendment and the Privacy Protection Act of 1980. On October 17, 2025, the City filed a Motion to Dismiss. On May 13, 2026, the judge held a hearing on the Motion to Dismiss. The judge has not yet issued a decision.  

North Carolina farmworkers and a coalition of civil rights groups are challenging a state law that guts the ability of farmworkers to organize and make collective bargaining agreements with employers.

On August 13, 2020, Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Casey Viser made a preliminary decision not to compel the immediate release of public records. We will continue to fight to ensure these records are eventually made public.

In response to a lawsuit filed by civil rights advocates, journalists, and protesters, a North Carolina Superior Court judge granted a temporary restraining order forcing the City of Charlotte to halt the use of force against peaceful demonstrators.

The ACLU together with a coalition of civil rights groups filed an emergency lawsuit against the city of Graham, North Carolina, seeking to immediately block a city ordinance that the government used to suppress protests against racism, police brutality, and white supremacy.