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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

The ACLU of Northern California and the Law Office of Mark E. Merin today charged that an ordinance adopted in May by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors banning panhandling is unconstitutional. A lawsuit filed today in U.S District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento on behalf of the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee and two individuals alleges the ordinance v... Read More

In May 2014, the County of Sacramento adopted an ordinance making it a crime to panhandle except when soliciting donations for charitable purposes. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California sued to stop the enforcement of the new law, which prohibits free speech. 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

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

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

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

When the government demands that your cell phone carrier reveal information about where you’ve been, or where you’re going to go, they should get a warrant. Location information is exactly the kind of sensitive information that the Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect. Read More

The San Jose City Council has approved a police request to acquire a drone – without public debate and with no policy overseeing its use. Read More

My family and I left Iran when I was 8 years old and eventually made our way to the United States. Today there are thousands of children who have fled from some of the most dangerous places in the world and are now detained throughout the country. Some have made the treacherous journey here alone. Read More