Equality

In 1960, as the fight for racial justice spread across the South, Miami became a battleground for equality. Black and white protestors staged sit-ins at Shell City, a local restaurant, refusing to leave when the manager ordered them out. For this act of defiance against segregation, they were arrested and charged under a state law that made it a misdemeanor to remain on a business’s premises after being asked to leave.

We stood with them, challenging the constitutionality of the statute that allowed segregation to persist. Taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, we argued that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1964, the Court agreed, overturning their convictions.

Justice Hugo Black wrote: “While these Florida regulations do not directly and expressly forbid restaurants to serve both white and colored people together, they certainly embody a state policy putting burdens upon any restaurant which serves both races, burdens bound to discourage the serving of the two races together.”

The Court’s ruling struck down state-backed restaurant segregation and affirmed that such practices violated the Constitution. This victory came a month before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, adding vital momentum to a movement reshaping the nation.

In 2004, Martin Gill and his longtime partner became foster parents to two children who faced neglect and uncertainty. The infant and his four-year-old brother had been removed from their biological parents, and by 2006, a judge had permanently terminated those parental rights. In Gill’s care, the children began to thrive—surrounded by love, stability, and the warmth of an extended family that included two devoted grandmothers and an older brother.

A psychologist testified that it would be devastating to remove them from the home, but Florida’s law banning adoption by gay people stood in the way. Determined to protect his family, Gill—represented by the ACLU of Florida—challenged the law.

On September 22, 2010, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals struck down this adoption ban as unconstitutional, and the state declined to appeal. Five months later, Gill and his family officially adopted the brothers, stating:

“We are thrilled that after so many years, we are officially a family in the eyes of the law. All children deserve a permanent, loving home. This is a happy day.”

After being in effect for 33 years, Florida's cruel adoption ban was gone, and two brothers grew up with Martin Gill as their father.

In early 2025, Florida’s immigrant communities endured a wave of racial profiling raids that tore through families, spread fear, and eroded trust in law enforcement. Parents feared walking their children to school. Workers worried about being stopped on their way to their jobs. Already vulnerable communities were left in a constant state of anxiety.

Instead of protecting its residents, the state escalated the harm — enacting SB 4C, a deeply unjust law that sought to criminalize immigrants simply for existing in Florida.

Alongside immigrant advocates, we filed a federal lawsuit to block SB 4C. And we secured a critical victory: a federal court halted the law’s enforcement, affirming a core principle of our democracy — that due process cannot be cast aside by fear or prejudice. When the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the request was denied.

Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, put it plainly: “This ruling affirms what the Constitution demands — that immigration enforcement is a federal matter and that no one should be stripped of their liberty without due process.”

This fight is about more than policy. It’s about people — families who deserve safety, communities that deserve dignity, and a justice system that must uphold equality for all, no matter where we come from.