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The issue in this case is whether the California Constitution allows the government to underwrite part of the cost of a religious school's borrowing money to construct facilities. The government issues tax-exempt bonds to nonprofit organizations, acting as a conduit between the organization and lender, so that the interest on the loan is not taxed. This allows the organization to borrow money at... Read More

In the Fall of 2002, three Southern California fundamentalist schools needed money to construct new facilities.  The schools discriminate in hiring and admission along religious lines and infuse every class and extracurricular activity with religion. The schools sought tax-exempt bonds from the California Statewide Communities Development Authority.  The government can issue tax-exe... Read More

On May 17, 2000, the ACLU Foundations of California, along with other civil rights organizations, filed a lawsuit against the State of California because of the terrible conditions in many of its public schools. We argued that the State is failing to provide thousands of public school students, particularly those in low income communities and communities of color, with the basic necessities req... Read More

For nearly 25 years, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) held an unwritten policy of segregating prisoners by race for, upon entry to a new facility. However, in February, 2005 the Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, declared this policy was not up to constitutional standards. The CDC implemented this policy in order to curb interracial violence. Upon entry to a new facility each... Read More

The Sutter-based company InCom announced last night, at a packed special school district meeting, that it would end its pilot program that required students to wear radio frequency identification badges that tracked the student's movements. The company pulled out when parents and civil liberties groups mobilized to end the program. On February 7, the ACLU of Northern California, Electronic Frontie... Read More

Download the Winter 2005 ACLU-NC Newsletter and read about our latest events and initiatives. Read More

Should a criminal defendant have the burden of proving that a prosecutor's peremptory challenges to all of the Native American jurors in the jury pool were "predominantly" based on race or is it enough to show that one of the reasons for the challenges was based on racial stereotypes? Read More

An appeal was filed to halt the execution of Donald Beardslee, arguing that one of the drugs used in the procedure, Pavulon, would paralyze and leave him unable to signal if he was in pain, violating Beardslee's Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Death Penalty Focus filed an amicus brief arguing that the paralyzing dr... Read More

As part of a settlement agreement the Oakland Police Department (OPD) has agreed to end the use of less lethal weapons against demonstrators. The suit was brought by 52 participants of a peaceful anti-war protest that occurred on April 7, 2003. Representation of the group included the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, and a team of civil rights attorneys. At le... Read More

May the government block the donation of the Unabomber's writings to a university library to prevent the glorification of his crimes? Read More