Archive

The ACLU of California supports the striking prisoners' demands to end cruel and inhumane conditions in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison. These conditions include prolonged, solitary confinement in small, windowless concrete boxes with little to no human interaction and other severe physical deprivations.Not only are such conditions inhumane and harmful, but they also je... Read More

San Francisco – The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) today urged San Francisco Superior Court to order the city's Director of Elections, John Arntz, to remove the proposed circumcision ban from the ballot now. In an amicus curiae brief filed today, the ACLU of Northern California argues that Article 50 is clearly invalid because California law explicitly preve... Read More

Download the Summer 2011 ACLU of Northern California Newsletter and read about our latest events and initiatives. Read More

By Jay StanleyACLU National OfficeGeorge Washington University Law School professor Dan Solove is one of the preeminent law scholars working on privacy issues today. In his latest book, Nothing to Hide: the False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security, Solove translates his research and thinking into a succinct analysis intended for a general audience. Via e-mail, I recently asked Solove about... Read More

Just three death sentences were handed down in California from January to June 2011 compared with the same period last year when there were 13, according to a new report released today by the ACLU of Northern California. This is the lowest number of new death sentences in a six month period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978. Read More

Today the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education reached a significant settlement with the Tehachapi Unified School District, following an investigation into harassment of Seth Walsh based on his non-conformity with gender stereotypes. Seth Walsh killed himself in September 2010 after enduring years of bullying and harassment at school. (Please see the DOJ press release here)T... Read More

Google released its new transparency report this week, revealing that U.S. government demands for the personal information of Google's users, like chat records or emails, continue to rise. The report serves to emphasize the heightened importance of increased transparency about how often the government is accessing sensitive information about who we are, where we go, what we do and why. Read More

Catherine CrumpACLU National OfficeToday the Supreme Court announced it will consider whether the government may plant GPS devices on vehicles to track people without judicial supervision. In the case, United States v. Jones, the FBI and Washington, D.C., police attached a GPS device to Antoine Jones's car and tracked his movements continuously for a month. This case provides an excellent opportun... Read More

The Senate Education Committee today passed a law designed to address the pervasive problem of school bullying by providing California schools with tools to create a safe school environment for all students. The bill is named in memory of Seth Walsh, a 13 year-old gay student from Tehachapi, California, who took his life in September 2010, after facing years of relentless anti-gay harassment at sc... Read More

Yesterday, California lawmakers took an important step towards updating reader privacy for the digital age. The California Assembly Judiciary Committee passed the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602) with a bipartisan vote of 8-2.The Reader Privacy Act is authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), co-sponsored by the ACLU of California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and su... Read More