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The California Supreme Court ruled today that the state can no longer exclude same-sex couples from civil marriage. In a 4-3 decision, drafted by Chief Justice Ronald George, the court ruled: “In light of the fundamental nature of the substantive rights embodied in the right to marry — and their central importance to an individual’s opportunity to live a happy, meaningful, and satisfying life as a... Read More

Statement on In re Marriage Cases decisionToday is the day we’ve been working for—a watershed for basic fairness and human dignity. The California Supreme Court has recognized that equality means that everyone must be free to marry the person they love.Profound social change starts in California, and does not end here.  It influences the rest of the nation. Today’s decision means th... Read More

A federal grand jury on Thursday issued an indictment against a Missouri woman accused of creating a fake MySpace page to bully a 13-year old girl who later committed suicide. The high profile, and emotionally charged case, has drawn media attention from around the world.Unfortunately, the prosecutors have relied on a novel and troubling interpretation of the law in order to go after the MySpace b... Read More

On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state to ban same-sex couples from civil marriage. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and co-counsel represent a group of committed lesbian and gay couples as well as two non-profit organizations, Equality California and Our Family Coalition. Our co-counsel are the National Center for Lesbian Rights, La... Read More

The blogosphere has been bubbling over the past few weeks over the subject of laptop searches and seizures at international borders. The source of the buzz? A couple of recent court cases. Read More

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San Francisco – Attorneys representing same-sex couples, Equality California and Our Family Coalition filed a legal brief today opposing a request to stay the court’s ruling and prevent couples from marrying for several months. The request to stay the California Supreme Court’s ruling was filed shortly before the Memorial Day weekend by an Arizona-based, right-wing legal group, the Alliance Defens... Read More

ACLU of Northern California and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) of the San Francisco Bay Area filed alawsuit on June 2, 2008, to compel U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to comply with a request for documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA request stems from concerns over alleged violations of law and due process during immi... Read More

San Francisco - The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) today filed a lawsuit to compel Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to comply with a request for documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA request stems from concerns over alleged violations of law and due process during immigration raids undertaken ... Read More

Issues of free speech, censorship, and harassment took center stage last week at Twitter, the very popular online messaging and "micro blogging" site. Twitter has become an Internet craze. Users rely on the site to publish brief messages which typically describe what that person is doing or other things that don't warrant a separate blog post or email. The short version of the recent free sp... Read More