Archive

A Fresno judge has ruled against the state of California in its effort to avoid responsibility for ensuring that people who can’t afford to hire their own lawyers are provided with effective counsel.The lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, and Paul Hastings LLP against the state and Fresno County for violating defendants’ right to counsel, due p... Read More

With a 5-1 vote in the Senate’s Public Safety Committee today, Senator Mark Leno’s Senate Bill 1286 will advance in the California Legislature. The bill gives the public access to crucial information about how police departments handle the most serious uses of force and confirmed instances of officer misconduct. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has filed a a lawsuit challenging the failure to provide adequate legal representation to criminal defendants throughout Fresno County who are unable to afford an attorney. Read More

We owe an apology to our community, and especially to the family and friends of Alex Nieto and Idriss Stelley. In our January letter to the US Department of Justice, we mischaracterized the shooting deaths of Alex Nieto and Idriss Stelley. We included language regarding Alex Nieto that was in published reports, but was both disputed by the family, and not relevant to the police shooting. And, we d... Read More

SACRAMENTO–Nearly two hundred ACLU members and allies rallied at the steps of the Capitol alongside state Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) today in support of legislation to curb police abuse in California, specifically Senate Bill 443 (Mitchell) and Senate Bill 1286 (Leno).“Police abuse can take many forms,” said Norma Chavez-Peterson, Executive Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperia... Read More

The Clovis Unified School District has a problem. School administrators in this small town in California’s Central Valley can’t seem to stop punishing students for being themselves. But this week, the school board took a brave leap into the 21st century and amended the dress code – bringing it into compliance with California law for the first time in recent memory. Read More

Where we spend our money says a lot about our priorities. That’s why California’s legislature must reject the governor’s plan to spend $250 million more taxpayer dollars to build new jails. Read More

This week, we’re attending the “Color of Surveillance” conference in Washington, D.C., meeting leaders and activists from across the country who are shining a light on discriminatory surveillance. When technology advances, the tools of surveillance change but the color of surveillance remains the same. Here in California, we’re seeing communities fighting back against the secretive purchase and un... Read More

Media Contact for GSA Network: Brittaney Carter, Communications Manager, (415) 612‐2402, bcarter@gsanetwork.org(Clovis, CA, April 5, 2016) On Wednesday, April 6, the Clovis Unified School District Governing Board will convene to vote on removing gendered provisions of its student dress code. Tomorrow’s meeting follows a vote on January 27, 2016, where the Board unexpectedly kept in place an outdat... Read More

Today we sent a letter to the Department of Justice. Racist and homophobic texts by SFPD officers again demonstrate why a review of department policies alone—with no enforceability—is not enough. We need a pattern and practice investigation. Read More