News

ACLU of Northern California urges you to develop and implement holistic policies that align with guidance from public health experts and that will minimize the harm inflicted on people involved in the criminal legal system – and, by extension, the harm inflicted on broader communities. Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — In March, the Northern California Indian Development Council (NCIDC) hired an Indigenous Education Advocate. This newly created position is part of a larger collaboration between NCIDC and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, aimed at advancing educational equity for Native American students in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties and adjacent tribal lan... Read More

On Wednesday, the Santa Cruz Public Safety Committee voted to approve an ordinance that would bring oversight to government use of surveillance technology, prohibit government use of facial recognition, and ban government use of predictive policing technology. Read More

SACRAMENTO — A partial company list published today in an expose by Buzzfeed confirms that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and at least one California law enforcement agency have teamed up with Clearview AI to run people’s faces against the company’s shadily-assembled database of billions of photos. In fact, according to Buzzfeed, ICE agents have run more than 8,000 searches from about 60 acco... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – Under a proposed settlement announced today between the California Department of Transportation (“Caltrans”) and a class of homeless people whose property was taken by Caltrans crews in sweeps of their encampments, Caltrans will establish a $1.3 million fund to compensate people for the loss of property that was destroyed in the sweeps. In addition, Caltrans will be required to ado... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – The City of San Francisco has agreed to financially compensate seven black men and women who were purportedly arrested for selling small amounts of drugs by the San Francisco Police Department, which targeted them for federal criminal prosecution because of their race, while ignoring people of other races engaged in the same activity. In a $225,000 settlement, the City of San Fr... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — As the ACLU celebrates 100 years of landmark civil rights work nationwide, the ACLU of Northern California is simultaneously releasing the digital archives of our membership newsletter, in partnership with the California Historical Society. This treasure trove of civil liberties history, including every issue of the ACLU News newsletter dating back to 1936, will now be digitally... Read More

SACRAMENTO — The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Northern California along with its other California affiliates, and the law firms Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and Paul Hastings LLP have settled a lawsuit brought against the State of California and Fresno County. The settlement is a considerable step toward ensuring that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel is upheld throughout all of C... Read More

FRESNO — On Saturday, the children of Hugo Hernandez, an undocumented Fresno resident who was arrested during a traffic stop and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, will lead community members in a march to raise public awareness about ICE continuing to terrorize and traumatize immigrant families. ICE officers pulled Hernandez over on Nov. 5, while he was taking his ... Read More

MADERA — Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California reached a settlement agreement with Chawanakee Unified School District that calls for new school policies to protect LGBTQ students. The ACLU initially filed suit in March on behalf of two then-Minarets High School seniors, Steven Madrid and Mikayla Garaffa. Their pro-LGBTQ yearbook quotes were removed from their senior yearbook by an a... Read More

SACRAMENTO — Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California sent a letter to the San Juan Unified School District on behalf of a student and parent who were censored and retaliated against by school officials for expressing support of Black Lives Matter. A teacher singled out and prohibited Black Lives Matter posters that were created in an art class about activism. The letter argues that the D... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU NC), KQED, the California Historical Society, and the Equal Justice Society today launched “Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California,” a public education campaign that exposes chapters of California’s history that may come as a surprise, if not an outright shock, to many people. Little known is the fact that, while California en... Read More