Victory for Homeless Residents of Fresno

A U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of California has ruled that the City of Fresno’s practice of immediately seizing and destroying the personal possessions of homeless residents violates the constitutional right of every person to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. During oral argument on April 25, 2008, Judge Oliver W. Wanger declared that, “…the practice of announce, strike, seize [and] destroy immediately is against the law.” The class action lawsuit is brought by ACLU-NC, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and the firm of Heller, Ehrman, LLP. Read More »

FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional Nat'l Security Letter
The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union. As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI lifted the gag order associated with the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive’s founder and president to speak out for the first time about his battle against the surveillance demand. Read More »
Suit Protecting Native American Students Advances
The ACLU-NC’s class action lawsuit on behalf of Native American middle schoolers in the small town of Klamath advanced in April when a federal judge rejected the school district’s motion to have the suit dismissed. The ACLU-NC brought suit against the school district after it closed the sixth to eighth grades at the only school in the district where a majority of students are Native American children. The closure has meant that these students must be bused for approximately three hours, round-trip, to another school. Read More »

Residency Rule for Prenatal Care is Unconstitutional, Suit Charges
Health advocates and leading public interest law groups have filed a lawsuit against the state of California seeking to end a requirement that low-income working women be state residents for six months before they are eligible to receive prenatal care services through California’s Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) insurance program. The ACLU-NC and co-counsel hold that the requirement violates the constitutions of both California and the United States. Read More »