Legal Docket

45,000 ballots were discarded - without notice - in California's November 2016 election. This ACLU Foundation of Northern California lawsuit asks that future voters be given an opportunity to fix any signature match problems before their votes are thrown away. Read More

We’re suing the Justice Department to disclose when the government tells people it electronically spied on them. 

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The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, and the law firm Covington & Burling LLP filed a lawsuit against Dignity Health for withholding medical care because of a patient’s gender identity, amounting to sex discrimination in violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act. Evan Minton, 35, is a transg... Read More

Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement A settlement has been reached in this case. Please see below for important information about the settlement. The settlement class includes: All noncitizen minors who were once detained in U.S. government custody by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (“ORR”), released to parents or other sponsors in the United States, and then re-arrested by the gove... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed suit in July of 2017 against the Madera County Board of Supervisors for violating California's open public meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act. On March 7, 2017, the Madera County Board of Supervisors, held a secret, closed doors session in which they adopted policies that significantly changed how ICE would interface with their county’s ... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed suit against the DMV on behalf of several voting rights groups, demanding that voter registration opportunities meet legal requirements. 

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American Civil Liberties Union Foundations across the country filed 13 coordinated Freedom of Information Act lawsuits demanding government documents about the on-the-ground implementation of President Trump’s Muslim bans. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the ACLU of Hawai’i Foundation, and the ACLU Foundation of Utah jointly filed a FOIA lawsuit on April 10, 2017. Davis Wright Tremaine... Read More

On March 22, 2017, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed two claims with the federal government on behalf of two teenage sisters who were assaulted by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. In July 2016, the sisters — then 19 and 17— lost their way while traveling to the United States from Guatemala, and encountered CBP officers after crossing the Texas-Chihuahua, Mexico, bord... Read More

In 2015, the California Legislature enacted SB 227 to try to ensure that prosecutors use a public process when deciding whether to criminally charge police officers accused in shootings or other uses of excessive force, as opposed to using secret grand-jury proceedings. The Court of Appeal held that the law is unconstitutional because it conflicts the constitutional role of the grand jury. The ACL... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California representing YWCA of Silicon Valley filed a motion to intervene in this lawsuit challenging President Trump’s executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from so-called "sanctuary cities." 

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The City of San Jose claims that that electronic messages dealing with official business that its employees send to one another are not public records if the employees send them using their personal accounts or devices. The ACLU Foundations of California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are asking the California Supreme Court to grant review in the interest of an open and transparent governm... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California sued President Donald J. Trump, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for establishing and enforcing an unconstitutional and discriminatory Muslim ban. Read More