Impact Litigation

Our litigation team combines civil rights litigation with other strategies to expand legal protections for AANHPI and other marginalized communities and to advocate against unjust, oppressive laws and policies. We focus on the areas of immigrant justice and voting rights. Outside of the courtroom, we use tools like community education and policy advocacy to advance community-driven social and political movements. At the heart of all of our work is the fight to protect and empower immigrants, refugees, and people of color.

  • Immigrant Justice

    Immigrant Justice

    In our immigrant justice work, we fight to free people from immigration detention. We have represented a nationwide class of Vietnamese refugees subject to indefinite detention, medically vulnerable people facing a high risk of serious injury, and many other individuals held in ICE prisons.

  • Voting Rights

    Voting Rights

    Our voting rights work combats a variety of voter suppression tactics and has included litigation expanding language access at the polls and ending a discriminatory voter registration policy that impacted thousands of voters of color.

Immigrant Justice Cases

Featured
Alma Bella Bowman v. Jason Streeval, Ladeon Francis, et al.

Alma Bella Bowman, a longtime Georgia resident and immigrants’ rights activist unjustly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March 2025, has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia seeking her immediate release.

Status: Ongoing • Issues: Immigration Detention, Equal Protection, Derivative Citizenship

Silva v. U.S. Attorney General

In January 2022, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG), and Foley & Lardner LLP filed a petition for review with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the deportation of Kelvin Silva and asserting that the exclusion of unwed U.S.-citizen fathers from the former derivative naturalization statute violates Equal Protection.

Status: Ongoing • Issues: Derivative Citizenship, Equal Protection, Fifth Amendment

Martinez v. Donahue; Benavides v. Gartland

In April 2020, Advancing Justice-Atlanta, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Kilpatrick Townsend filed a habeas petition and civil rights complaint on behalf of several medically vulnerable immigrants detained at the three Georgia ICE detention centers to seek their release during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Status: Decided • Issues: Immigration Detention, Indefinite Detention

Trinh v. Homan

In February 2018, Advancing Justice-Atlanta filed a nationwide class action lawsuit against ICE to challenge the prolonged and indefinite detention of Vietnamese refugees.

Status: Decided • Issues: Immigration Detention, Prolonged Detention, Indefinite Detention

Singh v. Sessions

In May 2018, Advancing Justice-Atlanta appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals a federal judge’s decision denying the release of an immigrant whose removal ICE could not effectuate.

Status: Decided • Issues: Immigration Detention, Prolonged Detention, Indefinite Detention

Voting Rights Cases

Featured
Asian Americans Advancing Justice–Atlanta v. Raffensperger

Advancing Justice-Atlanta and several Asian American voters are challenging new and discriminatory state law restrictions on absentee-by-mail voting after AAPI voters relied heavily on voting by mail in 2020 and 2021.

Status: Ongoing • Issues: Federal Voting Rights Act, Intentional Discrimination, Undue Burden on the Right to Vote, First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment, Voting by Mail

GALEO v. Gwinnett County Board of Elections

Advancing Justice-Atlanta and several other local voting rights organizations are challenging Gwinnett County’s and the Secretary of State’s persistent failures to provide all election materials to Gwinnett County voters bilingually in English and Spanish.

Status: Decided • Issues: Language Access, Voting Rights Act

Kwon v. Crittenden

To protect LEP voters in the state-only December 4, 2018 run-off election, Advancing Justice-Atlanta filed a lawsuit in late November 2018 to challenge the law.

Status: Decided • Issues: Language Access, Voting Rights Act

Georgia Muslim Voter Project v. Kemp

In October 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia (ACLU of Georgia) filed a lawsuit on behalf of Georgia Muslim Voter Project and Advancing Justice-Atlanta, to protect Georgia voters who had their absentee ballots or absentee ballot applications rejected due to an alleged “signature mismatch.”

Status: Decided • Issues: Absentee Ballot, Constitutional Due Process

Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda v. Kemp

In October 2018, Advancing Justice-Atlanta and other civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit to challenge the new “exact match” law.

Status: Ongoing • Issues: Exact Match, Voting Rights Act, Constitutional Due Process

Georgia State Conference of the NAACP v. State of Georgia

In 2017, Advancing Justice-Atlanta joined several other civil rights organizations to challenge a Georgia statutory scheme that requires Georgians to register to vote three months in advance of a federal runoff election in order to cast a ballot.

Status: Decided • Issues: Federal Runoff

Georgia State Conference of the NAACP v. Kemp

In 2016, Advancing Justice-Atlanta and several other civil rights organizations sued the Georgia Secretary of State over Georgia’s voter registration verification process.

Status: Decided • Issues: Exact Match, Constitutional Due Process, Voting Rights Act