Columbia Legal Services (CLS) is engaged in multiple cases, at various stages of litigation, at all times. Our advocacy teams consist of lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants, and community engagement specialists working alongside communities impacted by the unjust systems of incarceration and immigration. Together, we seek a Washington in which everyone has equitable rights and opportunities.
Updated: 09/16/2026
ADVOCACY HIGHLIGHTS
Thoughts on the Close of the 2025-26 US Supreme Court Term
By Denise Diskin, Litigation Director
We at CLS, and many of you, waited months for the outcome of Trump v. Barbara, the case challenging President Trump’s Executive Order 14160 limiting birthright citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause explicitly affords citizenship to those “born or naturalized in the United States,” regardless of the immigration status of their parents – language so clear that many lawyers and advocates were stunned as the term stretched on without a decision. When it finally arrived on June 30, we were stunned again to see a 6-3 decision, not the unanimous decision we believe the Constitution demanded.
It is disheartening to see the U.S. Supreme Court be unable to unanimously agree on basic Constitutional language, and to see three Justices choose anti-immigrant racism over their duty to honor equality under the law. They argued that “born” does not actually mean “born,” but instead means “domiciled,” invoking the post-Civil War history of extending citizenship to Black Americans to argue against citizenship for some children of immigrants. In our view, that reasoning pits two communities with shared experiences of racism against one another and weakens our collective resistance to the Trump administration and its agenda of white dominance.
And the fight has not ended. President Trump has since issued a new Executive Order attacking birthright citizenship, defying the majority of the US Supreme Court. That new order has already been overturned by a second court and is very likely to rise to the US Supreme Court again later this year or next.
The effect of these efforts is to sow fear and distrust of immigrant families in the United States and create an environment where anyone with brown skin and immigrant parents are suspect Americans. As a legal organization working with Black and Latinx Washingtonians to dismantle incarceration and the oppression of the immigration system we resist that fear and distrust.
We are continuing to file lawsuits, making sure the courts hear from our clients about the damage done by incarceration, ICE violence, and farmworker abuses. But we also recognize that our work must increasingly be centered in the power of our communities, not in the courts. True justice lies in our connections to each other and the change we make together, in communities all over Washington. We won’t give up, and we are so glad you’re with us.
FEATURED CASE UPDATES
Protecting Dignity and Privacy for Our Clients
Earlier this summer, CLS filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of people incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center for Women who have been held in inhumane “dry cell” conditions. When placed in “dry cells,” incarcerated people are clothed in a restrictive suit they cannot remove and must be closely supervised by Department of Corrections personnel when they use the toilet, leading to invasive and dehumanizing experiences. To protect the dignity and privacy of CLS’s lead plaintiffs, the advocacy team sought and obtained orders allowing the plaintiffs to use pseudonyms in the litigation. This preserves their right to tell their stories and advocate for changed conditions, while protecting their identities and ensuring that they are not forever linked publicly to their most vulnerable and dehumanizing experiences.
Continuing Habeas Corpus Advocacy to Release People from ICE Detention
CLS advocates have been taking an incredible statewide leadership role in shoring up habeas corpus protections for people currently incarcerated by ICE in the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. Our Habeas Toolkit has made its way to many formal and informal community groups, been translated into Spanish, and is slated to be translated into several other languages over the coming months. CLS advocates are providing trainings on how to support detained people with habeas petitions and alongside our partners at Global Rights Advocates, are collecting data on the astronomical rise in habeas petition filings so that we have the best information possible about the conditions being reported and how our federal courts are responding. And, CLS advocates are working directly with the Seattle Clemency Project and private counsel partners to represent a group of detained Khmer individuals who are working together in solidarity to challenge denials of their due process rights.
ACTIVE LITIGATION PORTFOLIO
Protecting Workers’ Rights to Organize and Work Safely
United Farm Workers v. Windmill Farms
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.
Looking Ahead: The Washington State Supreme Court accepted discretionary review of the lower court’s decision, and oral arguments are set for October 22, 2026 at the Temple of Justice in Olympia.
Ensuring Fair Compensation for Agricultural Workers
Familias Unidas por la Justicia v. U.S. Department of Labor & Torres v. U.S. Department of Labor
We’re challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) wage-setting process that allows agricultural employers to underpay workers. In the Torres case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized DOL’s decade-long violation of its own regulations. In the Familias Unidas por la Justicia case, we secured an injunction blocking new regulations that would have eliminated prevailing wages standards, enabling agricultural employers to continue paying workers poverty-level wages. We are now requesting a final order from the federal court in Seattle to make changes to the Department of Labor’s prevailing wage regulations and the methodologies they use that negatively impact farmworkers.
Case Updates: While our work in Torres is complete, our litigation in Familias Unidas por la Justicia v. DOL remains very active after a lengthy stay this fall due to the government shutdown. After the release of new wage data, the United States Department of Labor continues to rubber-stamp survey results that lower wages for agricultural workers harvesting fruit under H-2A contracts.
Looking Ahead: We are currently awaiting a ruling on our Motion for Summary Judgment, hoping to reinstate higher wages and end require DOL to comply with the law in the future.
Fighting Unjust Punishment Based on Faulty Drug Tests
Bell v. Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC)
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, or those who have been placed into solitary confinement despite the lack of any credible evidence against them.
Ongoing Investigations and Advocacy
As communities across Washington face escalating threats—from immigration raids and detention to state rollbacks on racial justice—CLS is taking strategic, coordinated action. Our teams are not only responding in real time, but also launching deeper investigations into systemic harms affecting the people we serve.
This includes examining serious safety concerns at our local federal detention center, including failures in health standards and conditions. We’re also investigating the medical neglect and abuse experienced by incarcerated individuals in state facilities, and the systemic exploitation of female farmworkers—especially around issues of coercion and sexual violence. These cases are deeply disturbing, but they are not isolated. They reveal ongoing failures in our systems of accountability, protection, and dignity.
We are working closely with impacted communities, legal partners, and organizers across the state to collect evidence, uplift stories, and pursue both legal and legislative strategies to create lasting change. Our goal is not just to respond—but to dismantle the structures that allow these harms to happen in the first place.
CLS has seen moments like this before—and our advocates carry hard-won lessons from the last era of mass detention and systemic rollbacks. As we face what may be another chapter of widespread injustice, we are prepared, we are united, and we are clear on our purpose.
We are grateful to stand in this work with you.
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