The ACLU of Idaho’s Legal Department files lawsuits in federal and state courts throughout Idaho. We rely on Idahoans to report civil liberties violations when they happen so that the Legal Department can identify major threats to freedom in Idaho and respond with action to vindicate fundamental rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights, the United States Constitution, and Idaho’s own laws and Constitution. The legal talent of pro bono cooperating attorneys is crucial to our success in the courts.
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REPORT A CIVIL LIBERTIES VIOLATION
Have you suffered or been a witness to a civil liberties violation in Idaho? If you would like the ACLU of Idaho to review your complaint, please fill out and submit our online complaint form.Before submitting an intake form, please review the following guidelines:
- We can only review complaints in writing (but if you need assistance making a written complaint because of a disability, please contact us however you can).
- We do not have legal staff to answer the phone personally or to see people on a walk-in basis.
- We will not be able to give you legal advice unless we accept your case. All new complainants are treated as prospective clients until reviewed.
- We cannot always respond quickly. If your complaint is urgent, let us know but please do not wait to hear from us before taking other action.
We look for the cases that will have the biggest impact in protecting fundamental liberties that are at the greatest risk in Idaho. Learn more about how the ACLU of Idaho picks cases.
Report a civil liberties violation ONLINE NOW.
Prefer to mail your complaint in? Download the appropriate form here:
GENERAL INTAKE FORM (PDF) QUEJA DE DERECHOS CIVILES (Spanish PDF)
PRISONER INTAKE FORM (PDF) QUEJA DE DERECHOS DE LOS PRESOS (Spanish PDF)
LEGAL DOCKET
These are just some of the cases our Legal Department is currently working on:Public Defense Reform
Defending the constitutional right to adequate legal representation in Idaho’s courts.The ACLU, the ACLU of Idaho, and the global law firm Hogan Lovells filed a lawsuit in 2015 (Tucker v. State of Idaho) against the State of Idaho over its defective public defense system.Thousands of Idahoans enter a defective criminal justice system with an overburden and under resourced public defense delivery system. Idaho’s leaders must establish and fund a statewide public defense system with uniform standards for workloads, performance, and training. They must make the Sixth Amendment a reality for all Idahoans. The case is currently on appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.
Due Process for All Idahoans
Giving Idaho’s most vulnerable adults a fair chance.The ACLU of Idaho represents adults with developmental disabilities throughout the state in a case called K.W. v. Armstrong. With functional ages of 8-years-old and below, these Idahoans rely on Medicaid assistance to live in their communities and with their families, rather than in costly institutional settings. When the State of Idaho drastically cut their assistance to dangerously low levels, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare claimed that the reasons for the cuts were “trade secrets” and refused to disclose the formula it used to calculate the reductions. We obtained a preliminary injunction stopping the cuts and requiring the State to make its Medicaid formulas public for all Idaho residents to review, which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld in 2015. The litigation remains pending as the ACLU of Idaho challenges formulas and procedures that deny vulnerable Idahoans a fair chance to understand the State’s actions against them.
Questions and Answers about the Idaho adult DD class action lawsuit
Freedom to Record
Protecting Idaho’s press, animals, and food sources.Over opposition from all across Idaho and beyond, the Idaho legislature in 2014 passed an “ag gag” law, gagging speech that is critical of industrial agriculture. Under this law, journalists,workers, activists, and members of the public could have been convicted for documenting animal cruelty, life-threatening worker safety violations, or threats to public health in our food supply. Promptly after the legislature passed the law, though, the ACLU of Idaho joined with a broad coalition, including the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Center for Food Safety, Farm Sanctuary, Western Watersheds Project, the Idaho Hispanic Caucus, and journalist Will Potter to challenge the law. In August 2015, we won, a federal court ruling that the law is unconstitutional because it violates both free speech and equal protection guarantees. The State of Idaho has appealed, and we will continue to defend freedom as the case goes to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Government Surveillance
Ending dragnet surveillance of Americans’ phone calls by the NSA and the federal government.Along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, we joined with the ACLU’s national office to represent an north Idaho neonatal nurse, Anna Smith, in a lawsuit against President Obama and several U.S. intelligence agencies over the National Security Agency (NSA) bulk collection of telephone records under the Patriot Act. In the lawsuit, Smith and her legal team argue that the NSA program violates her First and Fourth Amendment rights by collecting a wealth of detail about her family, political, professional, religious, and intimate associations. The case is currently on appeal at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Prison Violence
Ending rampant violence in Idaho’s “gladiator school” private prison.We filed this federal lawsuit, Kelly v. Wengler, to put a stop to the culture of rampant violence that has led to carnage and suffering among prisoners at officials at the Idaho Correctional Center (ICC), the state-owned facility operated by the for-profit company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The class action complaint identified epidemic violence at the facility as the direct result of, among other things, ICC officials turning a blind eye to brutality, a prison culture that relies on the degradation, humiliation and subjugation of prisoners, a failure to discipline guards whose misconduct precipitated assaults, and a reliance on violence as a management tool. After reaching a settlement agreement in September 2011, we learned that CCA had been violating the agreement the whole time, understaffing the prison at dangerous levels. In September 2013, we prevailed in holding CCA in contempt of court. The case is now on appeal at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Jail Conditions
Improving conditions at the Canyon County Jail.In two lawsuits filed against Canyon County officials, the ACLU of Idaho has dramatically improved conditions at the Canyon County Jail. Prisoners wrote to the ACLU of mold on the ceilings and walls of the housing areas, little or no outdoor recreation, severe overcrowding causing many to sleep on the floor, poor air circulation, respiratory and skin infections, scalding shower temperatures, inoperable showers and toilets, overflowing drains, discrimination against women, insufficient and unsanitary bedding, a faulty alarm system, arbitrary punishment, and retaliation by guards. After filing suit to challenge those unconstitutional conditions, the ACLU learned that jail officials were threatening prisoners with retaliation for exercising their constitutional rights to file grievances about conditions at the jail. The ACLU continues to monitor conditions at the jail closely.