Blog

Since Michael Brown’s death, unarmed black men have been killed by law enforcement at alarmingly disproportionate rates. Specifically, reports indicate that black men account for 40% of 60 unarmed deaths at the hands of police this year, and are seven times more likely than white men to be shot to death by police while unarmed. At the state level, California holds the ominous record for the highes... Read More

Much of the recent outcry over policing reflects the concern that when cops violate the law, or shoot someone, the public doesn’t get the full story. Read More

Imagine you’re on your way to buy a used car and a police officer pulls you over. After asking you a few questions, the officer asks to search your car. Knowing you’ve done nothing wrong, you agree. The next thing you know, the officer is telling you that he’s suspicious that you have $2,500 in cash – and he takes it. You explain that you’re on your way to buy a car. He doesn’t believe you and tel... Read More

After three years of litigation, we’ve finally settled a portion of one of our long-running Freedom of Information Act suits against the federal government for information about its location tracking practices.  A person’s digital location information reveals detailed, private information that the government should only be able to get through a warrant based on probable cause.  As part o... Read More

A Catholic-affiliated hospital will now perform a common reproductive healthcare procedure after the ACLU threatened to sue. Read More

What if once a week the police drove by your home and took a picture?That is what the San Jose City Council proposed last week with an effort to install automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) on garbage trucks.ALPRs are high-speed cameras that sit atop patrol cars or on roadsides and are capable of snapping photos of thousands of license plate numbers per hour, including their location. This tech... Read More

While students, parents, faculty and school staff gear up for the excitement of a new school year, a critically important process is unfolding largely out of public view. Read More

Today a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling saved 11 men from the death penalty. They were sentenced to death for crimes committed before Connecticut's death penalty repeal and must instead serve life imprisonment without release. Read More

A new poll shows that California voters overwhelmingly see a problem with biased policing in our state and support reforms to address the issue. Read More

Public-records laws are designed to ensure that constituents and journalists have access to information on public affairs. They protect a bedrock value of our democracy: transparency. Read More

For communities of color, surveillance isn't just an invasion of personal privacy, it’s a tool for high tech racial profiling that can have disastrous and fatal consequences. Read More

According to documents recently obtained by The Intercept in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the government is surveilling the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Read More