Court Cases

Our client Naples Pride, a nonprofit that provides services and hosts events for the LGBTQ+ community, filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Naples and its entities for denying the nonprofit organization a special events permit to host a family-friendly drag performance in one of the city’s public parks as part of its annual Pridefest celebration. The city’s refusal to grant a permit was part of a years-long effort to target drag performances and LGBTQ+ pride events in violation of the First Amendment. The complaint was filed on April 10, 2025. The district court granted a preliminary injunction on May 12, 2025, but the Eleventh Circuit -- in a split, 2-1 decision -- placed a stay on that ruling on June 6, 2025, the day before the event. The event went forward on June 7 with the drag performance indoors.

This case challenges one congressional district and seven State House districts in South Florida as racially gerrymandered in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Legislature drew these districts along racial lines to form non-compact shapes, connect disparate neighborhoods, and divide established communities. In doing so, lawmakers ignored the nuanced, multifaceted, and diverse nature of the region’s Hispanic and Latino community, treating Hispanic voters as a monolithic group based on false and stereotypic assumptions, which dilutes their influence. The use of race to draw these districts was not justified by the Voting Rights Act or the minority-protection provisions of Florida's Fair Districts Amendments. We filed our complaint in May 2024, and the court denied the government’s motions to dismiss with respect to these eight districts in February 2025. In November 2025, the court granted partial summary judgment for the Florida House on our claims against four of the House districts.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) terminated Brittney Brown, a wildlife biologist who manages critical shorebird nests, in retaliation for sharing political criticism of Charlie Kirk through her personal social media. FWC publicly declared that her personal expression was “not in line with the FWC, our values, or our mission” in its public post announcing her termination. Ms. Brown sued two FWC officials in late September 2025, alleging retaliation and viewpoint discrimination in violation of her First Amendment right to free speech. She moved for a preliminary injunction seeking immediate reinstatement, which the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida denied on November 13, 2025 after oral argument. The Court ordered immediate discovery to resolve factual disputes necessary to determine if FWC had adequate justification to terminate Ms. Brown for her personal expression.

The ACLU of Florida and partners filed a lawsuit on April 2, 2025, challenging Florida’s new anti-immigrant law, Senate Bill 4C (SB 4C), which authorizes state and local law enforcement to imprison people based on their manner of entering the country — powers the Constitution reserves exclusively to the federal government. The district court granted a temporary restraining order against the law on April 4. Certain individuals were arrested after the issuance of the TRO, and on April 18, the district court extended the TRO, explicitly including within its scope law enforcement that had the power to enforce SB 4C, and directed the Attorney General to notify those entities of the injunction. On April 29, the court granted a preliminary injunction and certified a class. Both the Eleventh Circuit and Supreme Court denied the state’s request to put the injunction on hold. Oral argument in the Eleventh Circuit is set for the week of October 6 in Atlanta. On June 17, the district court entered an order holding Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt for violating a notification requirement of the April 18 order. Uthmeier has appealed the order finding him in contempt.

In June 2024, the ACLU of Florida and partners filed a lawsuit representing parents of Florida public school students who sued the DeSantis administration’s Board of Education for violating their First Amendment rights through the implementation of 2023’s HB 1069.

After a state circuit-court judge in Orlando overturned a racial discrimination jury verdict and directed a verdict for the defense, attorney Jerry Girley, who represented the plaintiff, criticized the judge and the legal system on a radio show.

The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) forbade Cambridge Christian School from leading a prayer at football games conducted by the Association, and the school argued this violated free speech and burdened its religion freedom.

In 2023, the Florida Legislature passed SB 266, which bans the funding of expression that “[a]dvocate[s] for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote[s] . . . political or social activism,” and restricts the viewpoints that can be taught in general education courses. Through the regulations implementing SB 266, the state has stripped hundreds of university courses of their longstanding general education status. Florida’s public universities also have denied scholarship and research funding to faculty and students that had been approved in the past, and have cut funding for initiatives promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. On behalf of educators and the broader university community, the ACLU of Florida and co-counsel filed a federal lawsuit on January 16, 2025, contending that SB 266 violates First Amendment protections by compelling viewpoint-based censorship and undermining the free exchange of ideas in public universities.

On September 30, 2024, the Florida Department of Corrections rescinded its policy regarding treatment of gender dysphoria, which allowed for hormone therapy when deemed medically necessary, as well as access to clothing and grooming standards that accord with one’s gender identity.