Archive

Earlier this week, more than two dozen parent, student, policy, and legal advocacy organizations urged the California Board of Education to strengthen the rules that will govern the new Local Control Funding Formula to ensure that school districts spend the additional funding they will receive on the students it was intended to help. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and NCYL have charged school officials in two Humboldt County towns with intentionally discriminating against Native American and Black students by allowing the pervasive racial and sexual harassment of these students to go unchallenged. Read More

Local law enforcement agencies across the Bay Area have so-called stingray devices, a powerful cellphone surveillance tool, and more are planning to acquire the technology, according to public records recently obtained by Sacramento News10. The devices are highly intrusive and completely unregulated. Read More

In the strongest language yet used by any elected official in California, Newsom boldly offered a blistering critique of the criminal justice system and the willingness of too many in California to simply abide by the status quo, arguing that needlessly harsh sentences for low level, non-violent crimes have ravaged entire communities – particularly communities of color – and cost state taxpayers b... Read More

In 2010, Long Beach officers shot and killed Douglas Zerby when they mistakenly believed the garden hose nozzle he was holding was a gun. A concerned LA Times journalist requested the names of the officers involved under the CA Public Record Act, but the requested information was not disclosed. Read More

Question: Who are the most powerful elected officials most voters have never voted for? Answer: Your district attorney & sheriff. They speak for you, but what are they saying on these issues? Download this voter toolkit and vote on June 3. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California sent this letter urging the Oakland City Council not to approve the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Phase 2 Contract. The resolution does not reflect the views of City Councilmembers, missing key facts and legal info interfere with meaningful oversight by the Council, and there are concerns with federal access to DAC data under the Patriot Act. Read More

A year ago, Kyle Thompson a young, Black, freshman was led away from his school in handcuffs and ultimately expelled from school. His offense? Mistakenly thinking that his teacher's attempt to take a note for him was a joke and playfully trying to get the note back. When he realized this wasn't play, he immediately let her have the note. That misunderstanding left Kyle out of school and facing cri... Read More

Our new policy paper, Metadata: Piecing Together a Privacy Solution, examines how outdated laws and new technologies combine to put personal privacy at risk and proposes a way forward to ensure that sensitive data of any type gets the protection it deserves. Read More

Government agencies from the NSA to local law enforcement have taken advantage of weak protections for “metadata” to build huge databases about ordinary Americans. In response, the ACLU of California today released “Metadata: Piecing Together a Privacy Solution,” a new policy paper that offers a way forward. Read More