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Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a popular definition of insanity. Those of us across the country trying repeatedly to pass bills that would prohibit the shackling of pregnant women in jails and prisons are hardly insane. Dedicated? Yes. Stubborn? Possibly. Unwilling to accept women suffering? Absolutely.This year marks the third attempt to get a signature on ... Read More

Just shy of the one-year anniversary of the inaugural Occupy Wall Street protests, the ACLU of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Guardian obtained initial documents from the FBI about surveillance of Occupy demonstrations in the region.The documents came after an ACLU-NC lawsuit filed after the FBI refused to release any documents in a Freedom of Information Act req... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed suit charging that the Dinuba Unified School District and the State of California were violating students' fundamental right to equal educational opportunity. Read More

On Sep. 19, 2012, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear the ACLU of Northern California's federal class-action challenge to a California law that mandates that DNA is collected from anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony, whether or not they are ever charged or convicted. The oral argument is scheduled for 10am in Courtroom 1 at the James R. Browning US Courthouse in San Francisco. Read More

This morning the ACLU of Northern California's important DNA privacy case, Haskell v. Harris, was reheard by an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit. I argued that the current California law – which says that DNA has to be collected from anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony, whether or not they are ever charged or convicted – is unconstitutional and wrong. Collecting DNA at the point of arre... Read More

Several of the state’s leading reproductive rights groups applauded Governor Brown for signing SB 623, an important bill authored by Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) that will allow the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), to continue evaluating the safety, effectiveness and satisfaction rates of early abortions performed by nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physic... Read More

Last week, LA Weekly ran a story indicating that the Los Angeles Police Department is using a device called a "Stingray" to track cell phones. Law enforcement seems to think that because these devices can track cell phones without going to the trouble of even interacting with mobile carriers, they don't need a search warrant. Please tell Governor Brown to sign the Location Privacy Act of 2012 into... Read More

Today attorneys for 21 UC Davis students and recent alumni announced the details of their settlement of the federal class-action lawsuit against UC Davis over the shocking incident in which campus police repeatedly doused seated, non-violent student demonstrators with military grade pepper spray at close range. The lawsuit charged that the police violated state and federal constitutional protectio... Read More

One year after the implementation of California's historic prison realignment plan, the state has failed to adopt the kinds of reforms necessary to ensure its success and a lasting reduction both in the number of people behind bars and recidivism rates. Read More

One year after the implementation of California's historic prison realignment plan, the state has failed to adopt the kinds of reforms necessary to ensure its success and a lasting reduction both in the number of people behind bars and recidivism rates, the American Civil Liberties Union of California said in a new assessment released today. Read More