Archive

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers. In reaching its decision in Warshak v. United States, the court closely followed the reasoning in an amicus brief filed in the case by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the ACLU, and the Center for Demo... Read More

The California Assembly Judiciary Committee passed five important RFID bills today, including the Identity Information Protection Act (SB 30), which ensures that no RFID tags will be embedded into state-issued IDs, without privacy and security protections. The San Jose Mercury News published a story about the bills on the front page today. You wouldn't post your social se... Read More

The issue of still photography of the public streets presents the need to balance two important civil liberties issues- the right to privacy and the free speech right to photography in public spaces which has also been under assault since 9/11. Read More

A new reporter's shield law, the Free Flow of Information Act, has been introduced in Congress. It would protect a broader group of people than earlier versions, including bloggers. It covers anyone engaged in journalism, such as gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information. Read More

What was the Copley Press decision and what did it do?On August 29, 2006, the California Supreme Court in Copley Press v. Superior Court held that records of an administrative appeal of sustained misconduct charges are confidential and may not be disclosed to the public. The decision prevents the public from learning the extent to which police officers have been disciplined as a result of miscondu... Read More

The City of Fairfield and ten families adopted a settlement agreement yesterday providing for comprehensive new policies to address police conduct on school campuses. This agreement resolved a March 2, 2007 incident when the Fairfield police came onto the campus of Rodriguez High School and rounded-up a group of innocent students, accusing them of being gang members. Read More

Sacramento – The state Senate today voted to restore public access to records and public hearings related to complaints about police misconduct.In a 22 to 11 vote, the Senate approved SB 1019, overturning the state Supreme Court’s Aug. 29, 2006 decision in Copley Press v. San Diego, which blocked public access to records about police complaints and effectively stopped police commissions from... Read More

Google's new Street View service, which allows users of Google Maps to view and navigate street-level images may help some people get around, but it raises serious privacy concerns for individuals who are unwittingly captured by Google's candid cameras. Several websites have already taken up the sport of posting links to snapshots of the streets preserved by Google's camera vans. ... Read More

Today we filed a federal lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Company. We are suing on behalf of three victims of the United States government’s unlawful “extraordinary rendition” program—a program where terror suspects are flown to countries where the U.S. government knows detainees are routinely tortured or otherwise abused in violation of universally accepted legal st... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – The national American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Northern California today filed a federal lawsuit against San Jose-based Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Company, on behalf of three victims of the United States government’s unlawful “extraordinary rendition” program. The suit charges that Jeppesen knowingly provided direct flight services to the... Read More