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The Berkeley Police Association is seeking to shut down the open public hearing process that has made Berkeley's Police Review Commission (PRC) a model for the nation since its creation in 1973. In the wake of the recent Copley Press v. San Diego County decision (which severely limits public access to the disciplinary records of police officers), the police association is hoping to exclude the pu... Read More

The issue raised in Barrett v. Rosenthal was whether the protection of the Communications Decency Act's Section 230 applies to individuals who frequently use the Internet to pass on information obtained elsewhere, whether by forwarding an email written by someone else or, as was the case in Barrett, posting an email from someone else to a newsgroup. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed... Read More

A federal judge announced today his intention to issue a preliminary injunction stopping the City of Fresno from unlawfully destroying the personal property of thousands of homeless residents. The lawsuit, Kincaid v. City of Fresno, was filed in October and claims that the City has been violating the constitutional rights of homeless people by seizing and immediately destroying their personal pro... Read More

Video Surveillance: Stop Expansion of Video Surveillance Cameras at 16th and Mission Do you live, work, or walk around 16th and Mission? If you don't let the Police Commission know that you do not want public video cameras put up that will monitor your activities, while not preventing or reducing crime, you need to let them know now ! Come to the Police Commi... Read More

The Radelet-Pierce is the first state-wide study of the role of race, ethnicity and geography in death sentencing in California. The authors reviewed all homicides that occurred in California from 1990-99, using records from the FBI and Vital Statistics. During this period, 302 death sentences were returned (close to half the number of people currently on death row in California). The study finds ... Read More

Senator Joe Simitian introduced four RFID bills into the California legislature: SB 30 - Identity Information Protection Act of 2007- privacy and security protections on the use of RFID tags in all California government-issued identification documents. SB 28 – Prohibition of RFID tags in California driver's licenses. SB 29 – Prohibition of RFID ta... Read More

While studies from around the world show that video surveillance is not effective in preventing or reducing violent crime, another Northern California city is moving to install cameras. The City of Sacramento Police announced yesterday that it was starting a "pilot program" to install public video surveillance- claiming it will help make the community safer. The City of Sacramento Pol... Read More

California has a long history of treating all people with fairness, and we are hopeful that the Court will agree that it violates that fundamental fairness to deny same-sex couples and their families the dignity and respect that comes through marriage. Read More

On Wednesday, November 15, the San Francisco Police Commission voted to expand the City's video surveillance program to an additional six locations. The Commission approved the expansion over objections raised by ACLU of Northern California regarding inadequate notice to the community, privacy concerns, and the failure of the City to provide any evidence that cameras are an effective deterrent, as... Read More

San Francisco just announced it has finalized its contract with Earthlink/Google. There are a couple of good notice provisions in the contract, but ultimately, SF failed to protect the privacy and free speech rights of its residents. This is not free WiFi. If you use the Basic Service provided by Google, you will be paying for it with your privacy and free speech rights. ... Read More