The ACLU’s message to Donald Trump that they posted on his website the day after his election, “See you in court,” has proven more than true because of the nearly 400 lawsuits and legal actions they have filed against his administration since he took office. While Trump himself has not taken the stand in these proceedings and some of them have been met with setbacks, many of them have resulted in important victories for civil rights and liberties issues.
Since Trump took office, the ACLU has filed 237 lawsuits against the administration as well as approximately 160 other legal actions that include Freedom of Information Act requests, as well as ethics and administrative complaints.
174 lawsuits have dealt with immigrant rights and target the administration’s family separation policy, detention and deportation practices, and its repeated attempts to make it harder to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border. The other lawsuits address a range of issues that are high on the ACLU’s agenda, including voting rights, LGBT rights, and racial and social justice, amongst others.
The ACLU’s president, Anthony Romero said, “The assault on civil liberties and civil rights is greater under this administration than any other in modern history… It’s meant we’ve been living with a three-alarm fire in every part of our house.”
In response to this recent tally of legal actions, the White House said that the ACLU had strayed from its historical mission to its own detriment because of their preoccupation with opposing the president and his administration.
Many of these recent lawsuits still remain unresolved but Romero said that of those that have been decided, the ACLU has won far more often than it has lost. As well, even though it is at odds with the administration, the Trump’s election and subsequent presidency has fueled huge increases in donations and memberships.