Court Cases

A woman who retained a private attorney instead of a public defender was denied funds to secure an expert in support of her defense, effectively denying her constitutional rights unless she waived her right to retain willing private counsel; ACLU-NH appealed to the NH Supreme Court.

A woman was denied the right to establish legal parentage to a child she conceived, parented, and co-parented with her ex-partner simply because her ex-partner was also a woman and the NH law for establishing parentage was not explicitly gender neutral. Her case was appealed to the NH Supreme Court.

In a victory for free speech rights in NH, the NH Supreme Court held that a DMV regulation prohibiting vanity car license plates “which a reasonable person would find offensive to good taste” was unconstitutionally vague.

An incarcerated man was denied transportation in order to appear for his small claims hearing to present written evidence. Instead, he conducted his hearing over telephone without any way to submit the written evidence. A trial court ruled against him and he appealed to the NH Supreme Court.

A single mother of two was ordered to jail if she did not pay a fine she didn't have the means to pay. After spending a night in jail, the ACLU-NH filed an emergency petition for writ of habeas corpus seeking her release; she was granted release immediately.

A man was ordered to be jailed if he did not pay fines he was unable to pay. The ACLU-NH filed an emergency petition with the NH Supreme Court which ordered a stay on the enforcement of the order.

In its commitment to protect the First Amendment rights of the economically disadvantaged, the ACLU-NH sent a letter to the City of Rochester stating concerns about the constitutionality of their anti-panhandling ordinance. Not long after, the City repealed the ordinance and sent a powerful message.

In May 2013, the ACLU-NH filed a lawsuit on behalf of the homeless population in Concord, New Hampshire. The lawsuit is in response to state officials’ recent efforts to clear homeless camps from public land, although the people in these camps have nowhere to go.

This suit challenged the residency restrictions for sex offenders in the City of Franklin; the Superior Court found that restrictions unconstitutional because they burdened the fundamental right to use and enjoy property without demonstrating a sufficient reason for doing so.