Archive

Sacramento – Several police officers from five Bay Area cities, including Oakland and Richmond, are currently the subject of internal investigations following allegations that over 20 current and former officers abused their power and had sex with a sex worker in exchange for protection and advanced warning about prostitution stings. Now 18, the woman says she was underage when some of the encount... Read More

San Francisco – Following the mass shooting and murder at Latin Night at Pulse, an LGBTQ club in Orlando, Florida, Abdi Soltani, Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California, issued the following statement:We hold in our hearts those who were injured, those who were killed, and the families and loved ones who are mourning in Orlando, and throughout the country after the shooting and mass ... Read More

ACLU of Northern California, along with a coalition of legal organizations, has brought suit against Solano County Superior Court, challenging the court’s practice of suspending the driver’s licenses of people who are too poor to pay exorbitant traffic fines. In California, millions of people do not have valid driver’s licenses because they cannot afford to pay traffic fines and fees. In 2015, ove... Read More

This piece originally appeared at The Huffington Post. When he was 10 years old, Audley Lyon moved from Jamaica to the United States. He grew up here, fell in love, married a U.S. citizen, and served honorably in the U.S. Air Force. Then Immigration and Customs Enforcement locked him up. It should have been simple for Mr. Lyon to obtain the certifications he needed to begin to fight the ... Read More

A lawsuit was filed today against Solano County Superior Court, challenging the court’s practice of suspending the driver’s licenses of people who are too poor to pay exorbitant traffic fines. In 2015, over 11,000 driver’s licenses were suspended in Solano County for failure to pay alone. Read More

Citing the continued widespread criminalization of young people of color through marijuana enforcement, the American Civil Liberties Union of California today announced it has endorsed the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (“AUMA”) to control, regulate, and tax adult use, sale and cultivation of marijuana in California. The measure is expected to qualify for the November state ballot. Read More

California voters will be asked to legalize marijuana in November – and we couldn’t be happier that our state might finally end this chapter of the failed war on drugs. Read More

In a first of its kind class action settlement, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has agreed to change its policies in four Northern California detention centers. Read More

After years of tireless work to see one of California’s most discriminatory laws repealed, today women and families across the state are rejoicing in news that Gov. Jerry Brown, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon agreed to include funds to repeal CalWORKs Maximum Family Grant (MFG) rule in the state's 2016 Budget Act. Read More

The human cost of detention and deportation has thousands of faces. Children, grandparents, parents, coworkers and neighbors, the majority of whom have endured the grave consequences of deportation proceedings without legal counsel.In California alone, two out of three detained immigrants go unrepresented in our immigration courts each year.Our broken immigration system continues to systematically... Read More