One Down, Three to Go

Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 marked the beginning of a year of unprecedented challenges to civil rights and civil liberties, but the ACLU met the moment with fervor and determination to prevent their efforts.

During this first year of the second Trump administration, we saw that defending the Constitution required an unshakable belief that democratic norms are worth fighting for. We mobilized our lawyers, advocates, organizers, storytellers, and supporters to delay unconstitutional policies before they took effect, dilute their reach when full blockage wasn’t immediately possible, and defeat them through courts, public pressure, and sustained organizing.

The strategy paid off. We’re not just challenging the Trump administration’s policies — at the national and local level we're successfully thwarting their plans.

• On day one, when Trump issued an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship, we filed a case within two hours.

• When the government began arresting non-citizen students and scholars for their speech, we moved quickly to challenge their detention and secure their release.

• As Congress made multiple attempts to block access to critical health care for trans people, we worked relentlessly on the Hill to block these provisions from becoming law.

• When the administration bullied ABC into suspending Jimmy Kimmel, we mobilized nearly 500 artists and entertainers and 53,000 Americans to protect free speech. Kimmel was back on air within hours of our letter becoming public.

Here at NorCal, our efforts to interrupt the incessant abuse of power by the administration have also paid off. Here are just two examples.

• We filed a class action lawsuit challenging Trump policy that allowed ICE to arrest immigrants when they show up for mandatory court hearings. A federal district court in San Francisco has blocked these arrests while our lawsuit proceeds. With this ruling, people can pursue their asylum and immigration cases without fear of detention.

• We filed a lawsuit against Meta (a.k.a. Facebook) to prevent turning over personal information of our client who documented ICE raids in Los Angeles. We argued that the government's subpoena violated First Amendment protections for anonymous political speech. The Department of Homeland security backed down and withdrew their subpoena.

You can hear about more of our work in our 2025 year-in-review video here.

But we know Trump and his allies will control the White House for the next three years. We can expect hundreds of executive actions as the administration doubles down on their anti-civil rights and civil liberties agenda and set the stage for the mid-terms in 2026.

Also in 2026, the Supreme Court will decide several ACLU cases — rulings that will shape the future of birthright citizenship, voting rights, and the rights of trans youth. The outcome of these cases will surely give rise to additional litigation that will shape the remainder of the Trump administration.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we are reminded that the promise of this country — equality, freedom, and justice for all — has never been self-executing. It’s been carried forward, generation after generation, by the many people willing to defend it and turn its principle into practice. We will never back down.