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Last week, two men who had been sentenced to death 30 years ago were proven innocent by DNA testing. Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown were teenagers when they were wrongly accused of the brutal rape and murder of a child in North Carolina. One of the most shocking parts of the story is that prosecutors hid evidence that linked a convicted rapist to the murder, a man who went on to kill another ch... Read More

New documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California appear to show the Florida-based Harris Corporation misleading the Federal Communications Commission while seeking authorization to sell its line of Stingray cell phone surveillance gear to state and local police. The documents raise the possibility that federal regulatory approval of the technology was based on bad information. The ACLU to... Read More

Today, the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced that the design for drivers' licenses for undocumented residents under California's AB 60 has been finalized. The front of the license will state "Federal limits may apply" on the top-right corner; the additional sentence on the back will remain as previously proposed. In response to this development, the Drive California coalition issue... Read More

Californians have an historic opportunity to bring about needed and long-overdue criminal justice reform by voting Yes on Proposition 47. This measure would improve public safety, reduce prison spending, and increase our investment in K-12 schools, victims’ services and mental health and drug treatment. Read More

This week is the 32nd annual Banned Books Week, the celebration of the freedom to read. All week, ACLU-NC staff members will be blogging about the impact that banned books have had on their lives.To kick off the week, here’s an overview of the dangers of censorship and some of the books that have been banned in this country. Think censorship is a thing of the past? Read on.The following blog post,... Read More

My parents are classical musicians. As a young girl, my parents demanded I practice my violin for hours, perfecting the work by the masters, gaining an understanding of the nuances that defined their artistic choices.They told me that in order to be an innovator, one must study and know the history of the art form. There are only seven notes in an octave.Throughout the history of classical music, ... Read More

When I was in high school, I had to choose three books to read as part of my summer reading prerequisites for one of my Advanced Placement classes. I chose The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. Read More

It’s back to school season, which means children across the country are gearing up for the new school year. While some students are excitedly stocking up on Lisa Frank folders and One Direction backpacks, others are dreading that first day of school, where they will have to suffer the indignity of being one of the only students in the whole class whose family couldn’t afford to buy them new school... Read More

Last week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved $2.1 million for legal services for refugee children and families in the County who are facing deportation. It is the first county in the country to do so, although legislation to allocate $3 million from the State for this purpose is currently on Governor Brown’s desk.Paola, mother of five year old Axa, testified before the Bu... Read More

On a visit to the ACLU office in San Francisco, my sons Cyrus and Juno, age 11 and 7, stood in the hallway. Come in my office, I asked them. But they wouldn’t budge. I stepped back in the hallway to see what had their attention. It was the giant “Banned Books” poster mounted on the wall. On the poster are some of their favorite books, including A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. Read More