Current & Recent Litigation

As ICE detains more and more individuals from across Washington and conditions inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center (formerly the Northwest Detention Center) continue to deteriorate, CLS advocates have turned their attention to habeas corpus petitions as a mechanism for detained people to seek freedom.  A habeas corpus petition is made to the US District Court and asks the Court to order an individual’s immediate release from detention, or for that individual to receive a bond hearing.  In the process, a habeas corpus petition also requires that an individual tell the Court about the conditions inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center, bringing public attention to the deplorable conditions inside.  In April, CLS released a toolkit in English and Spanish to help detained people, their communities, and volunteer lawyers to understand the habeas corpus process and file their own petitions, even if they don’t have access to a lawyer.  Recently, CLS received new funding to continue this work, including translating the toolkit into more languages and embarking on a series of training workshops so that community organizations across Washington can use the toolkit to help people in their communities challenge their detention.  

Workers at a Sunnyside mushroom plant have faced discrimination, harassment, and retaliatory terminations for attempting to unionize. We’re representing workers alongside co-counsel Martinez Aguilasocho to challenge these unjust practices.

Current Status: After sending some of our clients’ claims to be resolved in private arbitration, requesting additional briefing, and holding multiple additional hearings, Yakima County Superior Court ordered that none of our individual clients’ claims could be heard in open court and must be arbitrated instead.  And the court ruled that the United Farm Workers’ claims, brought by the UFW on behalf of the entire workforce on issues distinct from the claims being sent to arbitration, could not be heard until all six of our individual clients’ claims completed arbitration.  Our clients – who were pressured to either sign new employment contracts with mandatory arbitration provisions or face unemployment in the middle of winter – deserve to have their stories heard in open court, as is their right.  Being forced to arbitrate pushes their claims into private, virtually unappealable proceedings that will take far longer and cost far more than public court proceedings, while also protecting Greenwood from community accountability. The Washington State Supreme Court accepted discretionary review of the lower court’s decision, and oral arguments are anticipated later this year.

We filed a class action lawsuit against the DOC for using unreliable drug tests to justify cruel punishments, including solitary confinement and extended prison time. After the court granted DOC’s motion to dismiss the case in August 2024, CLS appealed.

Current Status: In March 2026, the Court of Appeals ruled in our clients’ favor, allowing their claims to return to the lower court for trial. Unless DOC continues to appeal, the Court of Appeals decision ensures that our clients and others impacted by these harmful DOC practices will have the opportunity to tell their stories in the trial court. CLS continues to gather data and advocate for those who have been subjected to faulty, unreliable drug testing and lost access to hard-earned privileges, good behavior time credits, and people who have been placed into solitary confinement despite the lack of any credible evidence against them.