News
Our lawyers and advocates are among the nation's leading experts on civil liberties and constitutional freedoms. Read the latest on the ACLU of Northern California’s work. To schedule a press interview, call (415) 621-2493 or contact press@aclunc.org.
ACLU Seeks Hearings for Kids Unlawfully Sentenced to Die in Prison
Feb 22, 2016
The ACLU of Northern California today asked the Supreme Court of California to provide justice to people unlawfully sentenced as teenagers to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Read More
New Legislation Increases Transparency in Law Enforcement Records
Feb 19, 2016
In an effort to improve transparency, accountability and trust between law enforcement and the public, Senator Mark Leno has introduced SB 1286, a bill allowing greater public access to peace officer records related to serious uses of force and sustained charges of misconduct.
Read More
California School District Changes Dress Code after ACLU Sues for Censorship
Feb 17, 2016
Last night, the Manteca Unified School District voted to update the dress code as part of a settlement with the ACLU of Northern California, which sued two Sierra High School officials on behalf of a lesbian student in October 2015. Eleventh-grader Taylor Victor was singled out, chastised, and censored after wearing a shirt to school identifying herself as a proud member of the LGBT community.
Read More
California’s Lethal Injection Plan Amounts to Human Experimentation
Jan 20, 2016
Legal and scientific experts are warning that California’s proposed lethal injection protocols were created without the transparency and public participation required by law and that these untested execution procedures will amount to human experimentation, with a grave risk that something will go terribly wrong.
Read More
ACLU of CA Report Finds Reproductive Health Abuses in California Jails
Jan 19, 2016
The ACLU of California today released a report that finds county jails are putting people’s health at risk by denying, delaying, and ignoring crucial reproductive health care.
Read More
Proposed State Budget Keeps Prop 47 Savings from Communities
Jan 07, 2016
The following can be attributed to Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, Director of Criminal Justice and Drug Policy for the ACLU of California:The governor’s proposed state budget released today includes the current Department of Finance estimate of savings resulting from Proposition 47. This first estimate puts FY 2015-16 savings at just $29.3 million, far below all previous estimates and despite a clearly ...
Read More
ACLU Files Lawsuit Against Hospital For Denying Reproductive Health Care
Dec 29, 2015
The ACLU and the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP have filed a lawsuit challenging Dignity Health’s use of religious directives to deny basic reproductive health care to its patients.
Read More
ACLU of Northern California Joins Black Lives Matter in Calling for Transparency after Shooting of Adriene Ludd
Dec 28, 2015
Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed Adriene Ludd. Months later, the Sheriff refuses to release the incident report and the dash-cam footage.
Read More
Civil Rights Coalition Ready to Launch Education Campaign Following Failed Anti-Transgender Ballot Push
Dec 21, 2015
A coalition of California civil rights and LGBT organizations said today that supporters of a proposed anti-transgender ballot initiative announced that they have failed to submit the signatures necessary to qualify it for the November 2016 ballot.
Read More
ACLU of Northern California Statement on the SFPD’s Fatal Shooting of Mario Woods
Dec 03, 2015
The ACLU of Northern California joins San Francisco community members in demanding justice for 26-year old Mario Woods. Woods died Wednesday after police shot him multiple times in San Francisco’s Bayview district.
Read More
Department of Defense Opens All Military Combat Jobs to Women with No Exceptions
Dec 03, 2015
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter today announced that the U.S. armed forces will open all combat jobs, units, and schools to qualified women beginning next year, making no exceptions for any branch of the armed services.
Read More
Catholic Hospital Continues to Deny Health Care Procedure for Pregnant Women
Dec 02, 2015
The ACLU today sent a letter demanding that Dignity Health, doing business as Mercy Medical Center Redding, a Catholic-affiliated hospital in California’s largest hospital network, stop unlawfully denying post-partum tubal ligation to patients based on religious doctrine.
Read More