Blog

Linda Lye and Nicole Ozer are legal stalwarts at the ACLU of Northern California, and for many years have advocated fiercely on behalf of privacy and free speech in our digital era. They are hard at work reining in the government’s use of technology for surveillance. Read More

Net neutrality is a civil rights issue. The open internet that we now enjoy allows minority groups and dissenting voices to engage in the political process and tell their stories like never before, bypassing traditional big-media gatekeepers. Read More

State programs that otherwise provide support to California’s poorest families include diapers on a list of disallowed items along with alcohol and cigarettes. This means that these families aren’t receiving the help they need to keep their babies in clean diapers. Read More

The San Francisco Police Department has agreed to stop warrantless searches of cellphones of people who are arrested. This is the result of a settlement announced today in the ACLU-NC's lawsuit against SFPD over this practice. Read More

A black canvas near Gate 18 in the Sacramento airport’s Terminal B sits in place of a billboards intended to promote healthcare access for immigrants in California. Why? The airport has refused to use the original ads, claiming that they are too political in nature.That, my friends, is exactly what censorship looks like.We all know immigration is a hot topic and that both sides of the debate have ... Read More

My name is James Prigoff. I am 86 years old and a retired senior corporate executive. I am also a professional photographer – in fact, I have been a photographer for most of my life. My specialty is photographing murals, graffiti art, and other community public art. Why have my artistic pursuits landed me in a national database potentially linking me to "terrorist" activities? Read More

One year ago Matthew Barrett was offered a job as a food services director at Fontbonne Academy, a college prep high school in Milton, Mass. With 20 years of work in the food services industry, Matthew was clearly well qualified. Read More

What does an 86-year-old art photographer have in common with a young man with a video game habit? Not just a proclivity for perfectly innocuous hobbies, unfortunately. These days, engaging in either activity can get the FBI on your case. Read More

There are children in cages along the U.S.-Mexico border right now. And more are showing up every day. Read More

Calaveras County Board of Supervisors passed a law to praise a local organization not just for its work in the community but also for its mission of “inviting” women in the community to “see for themselves the many blessings that can come from living the teachings of Christ.” They also failed to allow community members - many of whom were at the meeting to oppose this resolution - to speak out abo... Read More

This week’s unprecedented Hobby Lobby decision deserves the widespread criticism it has attracted: the Supreme Court decreed that corporations, which lack souls, have religious beliefs; even more jaw-dropping, it decreed that those anthropomorphic beliefs trump workers’ health, reproductive choices and equality. Read More

While immigration detention is supposed to be “civil” detention, as opposed to incarceration as punishment for a crime, the conditions that immigrants experience are anything but civil. People detained by ICE are bused daily to immigration court wearing jumpsuits and metal handcuffs, belly chains, and leg irons in San Francisco. Read More