Court Cases

U.S. v. Albence is a lawsuit filed by the federal government that seeks to force the State of Delaware to disclose sensitive personal voter data, such as driver’s license numbers and Social Security information, for hundreds of thousands of Delawareans. After making repeated demands for the data, the U.S. Department of Justice was unsatisfied with the State’s offer of the public voter registration list that is readily available to all Delawareans. The Department continued to demand all unredacted sensitive data while failing to answer Delaware officials' questions about the legality of the request. No explanation was given for why this sensitive information was needed, or how it could be transferred in a way that did not violate federal and state laws. This case is one of more than twenty cases the U.S. has filed against multiple states to forcibly extract data that can be used to further the current anti-immigration agenda and the federal government's heavy-handed and escalating threats to states it perceives as enemies of the Trump administration. The federal government's sweeping request for Delawareans' voter data threatens our right to privacy and our right to vote. Delaware voters should feel secure that their sensitive personal information will be handled carefully and lawfully by the state and will not be disclosed and weaponized against them by the federal government. We won't stop fighting to preserve the safety of Delaware voters.

In late 2015, we learned through our client Jonathan Rudenberg's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that the Delaware State Police had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase devices that spy on cell phones. DSP didn't want to tell us about that technology. So we sued.

The ACLU of Delaware recently filed addressing the application of the Fourth Amendment in the context of computer searches.

The ACLU of Delaware has challenged a Dewey Beach ordinance that violates rental property owners' and residents' Fourth Amendment rights.

On January 27, 2014, the ACLU of Delaware filed papers with Superior Court to object to the compelling of Facebook to provide the identity of the owner of the Facebook page: Peaceful Rioters for Wilmington, Delaware.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware works in the courts, in the state and federal legislatures, with government officials and at the grassroots level to protect and promote freedom of speech, religious freedom, racial justice, LGBT rights, women’s rights, immigrants’ rights, and more.

In September 2010, the City of Newark gave notice that it intended to amend its housing code. However, the Newark City Council rejected the changes to the city code that would have deprived city residents of important privacy protection after ACLU-DE objected to the proposed amendment.