Legal Docket

In September 2020, the City of San Francisco filed a series of shockingly unprecedented lawsuits against 28 Bay Area residents. The City is seeking to use California’s public nuisance and Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) statutes to banish individuals from the San Francisco's Tenderloin District for allegedly engaging in a few instances of street-level drug dealing. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati filed a class-action lawsuit to prevent the San Francisco Sheriff's Office from requiring that individuals agree to unconstitutional “four-way” searches and GPS location data-sharing as conditions of pretrial release on electronic monitoring. Read More

On September 27, 2022, the Coalition on Homelessness and seven individual plaintiffs filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco and Mayor London Breed for their efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of brutal policing practices that violate the constitutional rights of unhoused San Franciscans. Plaintiffs are also seeking a preliminary injunction to stop these practices... Read More

For years, Siskiyou County officials and the Siskiyou Sheriff’s Department have threatened, targeted, and intimidated Hmong American and other Asian American community members in an effort to isolate them and drive them out of the region. A new class action lawsuit led by four Asian American community members details how county officials have waged a systematic campaign of racist hostility and per... Read More

Community activists are suing Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle for his practice of illegally sharing millions of local drivers’ license plate numbers and location data with hundreds of federal and out-of-state agencies Read More

On January 27, 2022, we filed suit against San Mateo County Superior Court for their unlawful practice of automatically imposing a $300 charge every time an individual misses a payment or court deadline in their traffic infraction case. The Court administers this additional fee, known as the civil assessment, without judicial review, adequate notice, or consideration for a person’s circumstances. ... Read More

On Nov. 15, 2021, our organization, along with co-counsel Conrad | Metlitzky | Kane LLP , sued Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones and Sacramento County for unlawfully transferring immigrants to ICE custody. Internal documents show that sheriff’s officials illegally transfer immigrants to ICE after they have completed their county jail sentences, rather than releasing them to their families and ... Read More

Two students, two parents of former students, and a current teacher, filed a claim in Contra Costa County Superior Court, against the State Board of Education, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the State of California, and Pittsburg Unified School District. The complaint alleges the state and district’s unlawful practices harm thousands of its most marginalized students, pr... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stop its illegal practice of using third-party contractor G4S Secure Solutions to arrest people at jails and prisons to transfer them to ICE for deportation. Read More

On July 6, 2021, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California joined the legal team defending the free speech rights of a Sacramento City Councilmember’s representative, Skyler Henry—a case with important First Amendment implications. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California, the Immigrant Defense Project, Just Futures Law, and Mijente sued the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection under the Freedom of Information Act seeking records of their use of Clearview AI’s face surveillance system. Read More

Five residents of Pacifica sued the city for attempting to banish RV dwellers from its jurisdiction. They obtained a court injunction requiring the city to set aside and publicize the availability of two miles of streets for RV parking, to set up a “safe parking” program, and to implement other measures to assist people living in vehicles. Read More