Court Cases

On January 11, 2016, ACLU-NH and NHLA filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Manchester police department’s practice of detaining, dispersing, and charging peaceful panhandlers for allegedly “obstructing vehicular traffic on public streets” under New Hampshire’s disorderly conduct statute.

The ACLU-NH has joined a federal lawsuit as amicus curiae challenging the Town of Farmington’s social media policy banning Town employees from making comments that “negatively affect the public perception of the town,” asking the federal court to strike it down as unconstitutional.

On July 6, 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and two legislators sued to bar New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner from illegally disclosing statewide information concerning New Hampshire voters.

On July 24, 2017, the ACLU-NH filed an amicus brief challenging the constitutionality of the City of Laconia's public indecency ordinance which bans “the showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any part of the nipple” in public places.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and the American Civil Liberties Union is suing New Hampshire for invalidating the absentee ballots of hundreds of voters, many of whom are disabled, without warning.

The ACLU of New Hampshire and five other New England ACLU affiliates filed a lawsuit on April 12, 2017 demanding government documents about the on-the-ground implementation of President Trump’s Muslim bans.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire (ACLU-NH) and the law firm Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A. filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a mail policy imposed by the NHDOC that prohibits prisoners from receiving original drawings and greeting cards.

The U.S. Constitution and New Hampshire state law prohibit courts from jailing people for being too poor to pay their legal fines, but local courts throughout New Hampshire have been doing it anyway.

A case before the New Hampshire Supreme Court concerning the fair distribution of property in a divorce between two women who were in a 20+ year committed relationship and joined in a civil union/married for four of those years.