Archive

Just shy of the one-year anniversary of the inaugural Occupy Wall Street protests, the ACLU of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Guardian obtained initial documents from the FBI about surveillance of Occupy demonstrations in the region.The documents came after an ACLU-NC lawsuit filed after the FBI refused to release any documents in a Freedom of Information Act req... Read More

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a popular definition of insanity. Those of us across the country trying repeatedly to pass bills that would prohibit the shackling of pregnant women in jails and prisons are hardly insane. Dedicated? Yes. Stubborn? Possibly. Unwilling to accept women suffering? Absolutely.This year marks the third attempt to get a signature on ... Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California today announced its endorsement of Proposition 30, the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act. Read More

The state Supreme Court has dismissed review of a case centering on whether federal law pre-empts local medical marijuana regulations, pulling the plug on a proceeding that advocates and opponents once hoped would offer guidance in a wildly uncertain area of law.Noting that parties had dropped their disagreement over federal pre-emption and pointing to the fact Long Beach has abandoned the city or... Read More

A federal court in Sacramento issued a preliminary injunction this week protecting the free speech rights of a deputy sheriff in Trinity County to speak out about drug legalization and other political issues, in a suit brought by the ACLU of Northern California and the law firm of Keker and Van Nest LLP.The plaintiff in the case is Mark Potts, a deputy sheriff in the Trinity County Sheriff's Depar... Read More

In early 2012, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act request to enforce the public's right to information about government surveillance of the political movement "Occupy Wall Street." But after the FBI failed to provided documents, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California sued. The lawsuit is ongoing. Read More

California state law mandates that sexual health education in public schools be comprehensive, medically accurate, science-based, and bias-free. So why are Clovis Unified High Schools teaching teens from a book that makes no mention of condoms, even in chapters about HIV/AIDS and on preventing STDs and unintended pregnancy?Recent events, such as Representative Akin’s ill-informed statements a... Read More

Today the Location Privacy Act of 2012 passed through the California Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support. This is a critical step in protecting the privacy of all Californians in our modern world where a cell phone is closer to a necessity than a luxury.We shouldn't have to choose between using our smartphone and protecting our privacy. Unfortunately, outdated laws like the Electronic Co... Read More

Parents and physicians sued the Clovis Unified School District today over its high school abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education. The lawsuit charges that the district is violating California law and putting teens’ health at risk by teaching students misinformation and denying them critical instruction about condoms and contraception. The textbook that Clovis Unified uses for high school sex... Read More

Major civil rights organizations have reached a settlement agreement with the Dinuba Unified School District (DUSD) to ensure that young English learners have an equal chance to succeed. The agreement, which was finalized at a school board meeting last week, comes as the result of a lawsuit filed in May by Dinuba parents and teachers. The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU of Southern Californ... Read More