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Gov. Brown signed a bill on April 4 that would keep individuals convicted of low-level felony offenses at the county level, either on probation or in jail, for terms of 16 months, two years or three years. The ACLU of Northern California, Drug Policy Alliance and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights criticized the plan for shifting the state's corrections overcrowding and overspending problems t... Read More

Today, the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) posted records handed over by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBR) on highly irregular activities by officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed the entry of controlled substances to be used in executions in Arizona and other states. Read More

On Nov. 17, 2010, the ACLU-NC filed a suit under the California Public Records Act to demand records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) about its recent acquisition of sodium thiopental, a controlled substance used as part of California’s lethal injection protocol for executing death row inmates. Here are the documents we have received from the CDCR to dat... Read More

By Amanda SimonACLU National OfficeThe Senate Judiciary Committee met this week to hear testimony from Obama administration officials on upcoming plans to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). You remember ECPA? That bill passed in 1986 — before we had the World Wide Web — to protect your electronic records and which hasn't been updated since?Well, at the hearing two government ... Read More

A new statewide poll released today finds that nearly three-quarters (72%) of California voters support reducing the penalty for possession of a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use from a felony to a misdemeanor, including a solid majority who support this reform strongly. The March 21-24 survey of 800 California general election voters was conducted by Lake Research Partners. Poll resu... Read More

Yesterday, California lawmakers took an important first step towards updating reader privacy for the digital age. The California Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602) with a strong bipartisan vote of 4-0.Authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), and co-sponsored by the ACLU California affiliates and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Reade... Read More

Yesterday we sent a letter to the San Francisco Entertainment Commission highlighting our concerns with proposed new rules for bars, clubs, and other venues that host various forms of live entertainment. The new rules would require the venue to use ID scanners and video cameras to monitor every performer and attendee. In doing so, they would constitute a massive invasion of the privacy rights that... Read More

Today the California Assembly Education Committee passed Seth's Law in a 7-3 vote. AB 9, also known as Seth's Law, is a comprehensive bill that addresses school bullying by providing California schools with specific tools to prevent and address the pervasive problem in order to create a safe school environment for all students. The bill is named "Seth's Law"' in memory of Seth Walsh, a 13 year-old... Read More

Download the Spring 2011 ACLU of Northern California Newsletter and read about our latest events and initiatives. Read More

We recently announced that it's time for a privacy check-in for location-based services and mobile devices. Apparently Apple didn't get the memo, as its latest iPhone and iPad regularly record your location in a hidden file. Join us and tell Apple that you demand control over your sensitive location information!As we discussed at our panel yesterday at Where 2.0, user trust is critical for a compa... Read More