Archive

By Judy PendletonAs a long-time resident of Visalia – yes, that small town in the heart of California’s Central Valley – district attorney and sheriff elections have never excited me much. These races historically go uncontested, and candidates use the same old “tough on crime” rhetoric in their campaigns. But what does public safety really mean to these candidates? What about corrections spending... Read More

The Drive California Coalition, comprised of a broad range of civil and immigrants’ rights organizations, applauds members of California’s Congressional Delegation for urging U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson to approve the California driver’s license proposed by the legislature in AB 60: “The Safe and Responsible Driver Act.” The license is carefully designed to pro... Read More

This Mother’s Day, I want to honor mothers of all ages—the young and old—including myself. As a seventeen year old mother, I know all too well both the joys and struggles of motherhood. When I became pregnant at 14, I knew my life would change dramatically but because of the way teen mothers are stigmatized, I never imagined I could be this happy. Read More

An Alameda County Superior Court Judge today ruled that Secretary of State Debra Bowen illegally stripped tens of thousands of people of their voting rights two years ago, saying people on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) and mandatory supervision under California’s Criminal Justice Realignment Act are eligible to vote. Read More

Drive California, a statewide coalition composed of a broad range of civil and immigrants’ rights groups including California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPIC), Presente, the ACLU of California, Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN), and TODEC-Training Occupational Development Educating Communities Center, strongly object to DHS’s refusal to let California move forward with creat... Read More

Today the ACLU of California and other civil rights groups sent letters to every county in California urging them to end compliance with immigration detainer requests in the wake of a recent federal court decision holding that the requests are unconstitutional and local law enforcement may be held liable for money damages for complying with them. Read More

Exciting news. The White House Big Data Report, Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values, was released today. While it does not address all of the ACLU’s concerns, the report recognizes the importance of moving forward on several legal and policy areas that have been a focus of our work here in California for several years. Read More

If you’ve been reading the news at all this week, you’ve been inundated with some pretty gruesome news in the death penalty arena. News that has caused outrage and should give every person in this country pause. Read More

Last May Day, hundreds of Fresno residents took to the streets to ask for a path to citizenship for the 11 million people forced to live in the shadows by our broken immigration system. There was momentum in Congress for comprehensive immigration and the Senate later managed to approve a comprehensive immigration reform bill. We were all so hopeful.Fast-forward one year later: Congress has stalled... Read More

California has long been a leader in ensuring social safety net programs for poor families but the Maximum Family Grant (MFG) rule is hurting our reputation. The MFG rule says that if a parent or guardian has been receiving aid from CalWORKS for ten months consecutively, any child conceived within that timeframe is blocked for life from receiving the same assistance granted to their siblings. Read More