Archive

Every four years when there is a presidential primary, many voters who decline to state a party preference are surprised when their mail-in ballot arrives and it is missing the presidential candidates. They then scramble to get a replacement, which can result in one voter receiving two ballots. Elections officials in Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties have alleged that they discovered 191 ca... Read More

OAKLAND — A lawsuit challenging Caltrans’ practice of unconstitutionally seizing and destroying homeless people’s property will move forward as a class action in accordance with yesterday’s ruling from the Superior Court of California. The plaintiffs seek statewide relief from Caltrans’ encampment sweep practices. The case, Sanchez v. Caltrans, was brought by unhoused persons who have had prope... Read More

Two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Black people in Galveston, Texas were told that they were free. Juneteenth is widely celebrated as “Freedom Day.” Yet is commemorating this date when Black folks belatedly got the news that they could legally no longer be enslaved really the best way to mark their freedom? I often struggle with what it means to be f... Read More

For nearly three decades, my former colleague Rep. John Conyers of Michigan would introduce H.R. 40, legislation seeking to establish a commission to study and develop reparation proposals. Though many thought it a lost cause, he believed that a day would come when our nation would need to account for the brutal mistreatment of African Americans during chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and th... Read More

We are two months away from the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved people arriving in what would become the United States of America. It is time to renew the public discussion about reparations to descendants of Africans who were enslaved as our country was forming and growing rich.  First as colonies and then as a nation, America has existed longer with slavery (1619-1865: 246 years) than... Read More

FRESNO — The ACLU Foundation of Northern California today filed a lawsuit against Fresno County's chief elections official for her illegal removal of a polling place at Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno – for the sole reason that the church refused to cover up Black Lives Matter banners on the property. The suit argues that Brandi Orth, Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters, violate... Read More

On February 27, 2018, at 4:54 p.m., a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent typed a query into a database of driver locations collected by automated license plate readers across the United States. The license plate database returned nine results. As an explanation for why ICE was searching the database, the agent gave the following reason: "ADMINISTRATIVE SPOUSE OF TARGET" This was ... Read More

SACRAMENTO – Today, the ACLU of California and a diverse coalition of civil rights, racial justice, and digital privacy organizations sent a joint letter urging the California Senate Public Safety Committee to support AB 1215: The Body Camera Accountability Act. AB 1215, introduced by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), prevents California law enforcement from adding this surveillance tech... Read More

SACRAMENTO – Today, the California Assembly voted to pass Assembly Bill 392: The California Act to Save Lives, critical legislation that will change the use of force standard in California to a “necessary” standard to reduce the number of police shootings. If passed and signed into law, AB 392 will transform California from a state with one of the most permissive use of force laws, to a state with... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – In response to intensifying pressure from UCSF students and faculty, policymakers, and reproductive justice and LGBTQ advocates, the UCSF Chancellor and the President and CEO of UCSF Health today announced that they will not continue to pursue expanded affiliation with Catholic hospital system Dignity Health “as it had been envisioned.” Statement from Phyllida Burlingame, Reprod... Read More