News

Today the ACLU of California and the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project applaud the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to halt its troubling practice of arresting individuals at Kern County courthouses. Read More

An historic settlement was reached Thursday in a class action lawsuit between immigration authorities and immigrants bringing an end to the federal government’s practice of forcing detained immigrants to go through their civil immigration hearings in handcuffs, leg irons, and chains. Read More

Kern County Sheriff's actions damage public safety, waste resources, and hurt local families. Read More

The Department of Education and Department of Justice today released federal guidance to assist schools in administering discipline in a nondiscriminatory way and to provide alternatives to overly punitive school discipline practices. Read More

Transgender students, and their parents, educators and friends today are both relieved and concerned that while the California School Success and Opportunity Act (AB 1266), which helps schools better understand how to provide a fair opportunity for transgender students to participate and succeed, failed to qualify for a referendum based on a random count of signatures but may still qualify dependi... Read More

Transgender students and their families are celebrating California’s new School Success and Opportunity Act, which ensures that schools across the state understand their obligation to provide a fair opportunity for transgender students to participate in all school programs and to graduate with their peers. The law went into effect on January 1st. Read More

Class action lawsuit challenges inadequate telephone access for individuals in immigration detention, a violation of the right to a full and fair hearing under the U.S. Constitution. Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Center for Youth Law Wednesday charged that school officials in the Humboldt County towns of Eureka and Loleta, home to some of the state’s largest Native American communities, intentionally discriminate against Native American and Black students, and allow pervasive racial and sexual harassment to go unchal... Read More

The ACLU-NC, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, and co-counsel Keker Van Nest LLP, filed a statewide class action lawsuit on Thursday. The class action lawsuit urges that immigrants are entitled to go before an immigration judge to request release while they fight their deportation cases. Read More

The Public Policy Institute of California today released a report 'Public Safety Realignment and Crime Rates in California.' The report shows that California can reduce its reliance on incarceration without jeopardizing public safety. Read More

Today the ACLU of Northern California’s Michael Risher will be arguing in front of an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit in Haskell v. Harris, which challenges California’s mandatory DNA collection at arrest law. “People who have never been charged with a crime shouldn’t have their DNA put in a government database,” said Michael Risher, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. The... Read More

The ACLU and the Center for Popular Democracy today filed a lawsuit to compel the Federal Housing Finance Agency to provide details about its relationship with the financial industry and its efforts to block local municipalities from using eminent domain to prevent foreclosures. Read More