Court Cases

In December 2025, the ACLU of Massachusetts filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of our client, Carlos Zapata Rivera. The lawsuit alleges that an ICE agent unlawfully applied a carotid restraint to Mr. Zapata Rivera while arresting him on Nov. 6, 2025, then refused him prompt emergency medical care. Mr. Zapata Rivera, a resident of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was driving his wife to work with their one-year-old daughter in the car when they were pulled over by several ICE agents. The agents informed Mr. Zapata Rivera’s wife that they intended to arrest her. The lawsuit alleges an unidentified ICE agent, listed in the lawsuit as Agent John Doe, climbed into the vehicle and pressed his thumbs forcefully on Mr. Zapata Rivera’s carotid arteries, restricting blood flow to his brain. Mr. Zapata Rivera lost consciousness, and he experienced involuntary seizure-like movements. The ICE agent continued to apply the carotid restraint with at least one hand while these involuntary movements continued. The Department of Homeland Security’s own policies prohibit agents from using carotid restraint techniques except when deadly force is justified. The lawsuit also alleges that ICE agents refused to allow Mr. Zapata Rivera to be evaluated by emergency medical personnel at the scene. After his release, he continued to suffer severe physical symptoms and went to the emergency room for treatment. The Department of Homeland Security’s public statements about the incident accused Mr. Zapata Rivera of faking a seizure and refusing medical care. An immigrant from Ecuador, Mr. Zapata Rivera applied for asylum in early 2024 and has been authorized to work in the United States while that application is pending. After his counsel sent a letter to ICE requesting that the agency preserve evidence relating to this incident, ICE abruptly sent Mr. Zapata Rivera a “call-in letter” demanding that he appear with his passport at ICE’s Burlington office at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. It was the first time he had received such a request since early 2023.

In July 2025, the ACLU of Massachusetts, together with the ACLU, law firm Rubin Pomerleau, P.C., and Boston College Law School Immigration Clinic filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the detention of an 18-year-old under the Laken Riley Act (LRA). The habeas petition alleges “John Doe”...

In May 2025, a multifaith group of Quincy residents and taxpayers filed a lawsuit to stop the planned installation of two large religious statues at the entrance of the city’s new public safety building. The plaintiffs are members of diverse faiths who do not want their government officials...

In March 2025, doctors from Harvard Medical School challenged the removal of their articles from the Patient Safety Network (PSNet), a government-run website for doctors and medical researchers to share information about medical errors, misdiagnoses, and patient outcomes.

In April 2025, researchers, along with American Public Health Association (APHA), the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), and Ibis Reproductive Health, filed a lawsuit challenging the abrupt cancellation of research grants by...

In September 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, together with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, the ACLU of New Hampshire, the ACLU of Maine, the law firm Araujo and Fisher, the law firm Foley Hoag, and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, filed a class action lawsuit in federal court to challenge the widespread denial of bond hearings to people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As the complaint demonstrates, this denial upends decades of settled law and established practice in immigration proceedings. The complaint alleges that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice recently and abruptly began to misclassify people arrested by ICE inside the United States. DHS and DOJ started systematically reclassifying these people from the statutory authority of 8 U.S.C. § 1226, which usually allows for the opportunity to request bond during removal proceedings, to the no-bond detention provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225, which does not apply to people arrested in the interior of the United States and placed in removal proceedings. This case is brought on behalf of Jose Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana and a putative class of similarly situated individuals. Mr. Guerrero Orellana has been living in the United States for over a decade. He brings this case to vindicate his own right to a bond hearing — where an immigration judge can determine whether his detention is justified to protect the community or ensure his appearance in court — and that of thousands of other detainees in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire who will be denied the opportunity to seek release on bond under the new legal ruling adopted by the executive branch. The complaint alleges that the government's new policy violates constitutional and statutory due process rights as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.