Archive

The report spotlights the discriminatory tactics that cities throughout California have instituted to target unhoused people, ignoring the bedrock principle of equal treatment under the law. It calls upon communities to amend anti-discrimination laws to include unhoused people and acknowledge their fundamental human rights.   Read More

The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU NorCal) submitted a California Public Records Act Request (PRA) to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office to demand documentation of the sheriff’s response to the developing Covid-19 outbreak at the Bob Wiley Detention Facility. ACLU NorCal and co-counsel Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP represent plaintiffs in Criswell v. Boudreaux, an ongoing class action lawsuit agai... Read More

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Community activists in Northern California today sued Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle for illegally sharing millions of local drivers’ license plates and location data with hundreds of federal and out-of-state agencies. Read More

Encounters with the law can be stressful or scary. People have various experiences with law enforcement, some of which are not always fair or legal. This guide provides you practical information that could help you avoid more trouble or potentially harmful situations. The underlined words below are “magic words” that you can repeat over and over to show you know the law. Memorize them. Know your r... Read More

Rap lyrics are protected free speech under the First Amendment. But all too often in trial after trial of Black men, prosecutors introduce this form of artistic expression to secure convictions for serious crimes carrying long prison sentences. Simply put, rap is unfairly seen in the courts, not as an art form, but as inherently incriminating evidence. Read More

Over the past few decades, police have become a dominant fixture in California schools. Their presence has devastating and discriminatory impacts on tens of thousands of California students. Read More

A disturbing trend has emerged in California—police officers are stationed in schools and are replacing educators as disciplinarians for minor offenses and student behavior issues. Further, on-campus policing often results in over-criminalizing students—mostly low-income students of color—and pushes affected students out of the educational environment and into the school-to-prison pipeline. This i... Read More

Now more than ever, it's important to know your basic constitutional rights when entering the United States from abroad. If you believe any of your rights were violated or wish to report mistreatment at an airport or land Port of Entry in California, please contact us. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California and our legal partners filed a lawsuit against the state of California and Pittsburg Unified School District for allegedly maintaining an illegal educational system where Black students, children of color with disabilities and English learners have been segregated in substandard learning environments, excluded from classrooms altogether through the use of unwarrante... Read More