The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire receives hundreds of requests for assistance each year, but because of limited resources only a small percentage actually become ACLU-NH cases. We are unable to take many cases, even those concerning real injustices. If your complaint is not pursued by our office, it does not mean it is without merit.
In order to request legal assistance, you must fill out an online legal intake form. This form does not give legal advice, and you should not rely on it as legal advice. This form is not an offer by the ACLU to represent you. We cannot promise you that the information you provide will lead to any specific action on the ACLU’s part. You may fill out a secure online legal intake form or you may print out this form and mail it to:
ACLU of New Hampshire Foundation
18 Low Avenue
Concord, New Hampshire 03301
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR LEGAL PROGRAM
Please review this information before filing a request. Even if your complaint falls within these guidelines, filing a complaint does not guarantee that the ACLU will provide legal assistance. If you do file a complaint, please expect to wait up to 60 days before receiving a response.
ACLU-NH does not generally accept this kind of case:
Before accepting a case, ACLU-NH considers the following:
1. Does the case raise a civil liberties or civil rights issue?
Civil liberties include freedom of speech, press, religion, and association; due process; equal protection; and privacy. Civil rights include, for example, voting rights; discrimination based on disability, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, or national origin; and police reform. Because of the nature of civil liberties claims, the ACLU only rarely takes a case that does not involve the government.
2. How likely is it that a court will reach the civil liberties issue?
Generally, the ACLU takes cases that do not involve complicated disputes of fact, and prefers cases that involve questions of law only. An example of a factual dispute is an employment discrimination case in which the employer claims he fired the employee because of poor job performance and has credible evidence to support that claim, but the employee disputes the evidence and has credible evidence of their own. Because employment claims are usually very fact dependent, it is not often that the ACLU takes this kind of case.
3. The potential impact, including:
The First Circuit Court has routinely vacated decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) because the BIA failed to apply the required clear error standard of review in reversing Immigration Judges’ factual findings – a failure that allows the BIA to
On June 21, 2022, the ACLU of New Hampshire filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire Superior Court challenging SB 418, a newly-enacted bill that would unconstitutionally diminish the secrecy of ballot
In this case, Petitioner fears torture and death inflicted by the MS-13 gang if he is removed to El Salvador. In his immigration case, Petitioner presented an expert and other country conditions evidence explaining in detail MS-13’s social and political status in El
On January 26, 2022, the ACLU-NH filed an amicus brief in this case arguing that the First Circuit should narrow its ruling in Meng Hua Wan v.
In this case, Plaintiff SIG Sauer, Inc. seeks a preliminary injunction prohibiting Defendant Jeffrey S. Bagnell and his law firm from displaying an animation that depicts alleged product defects in SIG’s P320 semi-automatic pistol.
On May 10, 2022, the ACLU of New Hampshire and Preti Flaherty LLP filed a lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of Jose Daniel Guerra-Castañeda, a man who was un