Archive

SACRAMENTO — Yesterday, the California Secretary of State confirmed that a bail-bond-industry-funded referendum campaign asking voters to overturn Senate Bill 10, the recent legislation that would eliminate the bail bond industry in California, has qualified to be on the November 2020 ballot. In response, the following statement can be jointly attributed to the three executive directors of the ... Read More

Lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court challenging the state of California for its retention of genetic samples and profiles from people arrested but never convicted of a felony. Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — Today, a bail-bond-industry-funded campaign turned in signatures in an effort to qualify a referendum for the November 2020 ballot asking voters to overturn Senate Bill 10, the recent bail reform legislation that would end commercial bail in California.  In response, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California Executive Director Abdi Soltani issued the following statem... Read More

Today we proudly announce the official launch of Debt Free Justice California (DFJC). We are a concerned group of legal advocates, policy experts, researchers, and — most importantly — movement-building organizations led by impacted people. Building on the recent momentum of local criminal justice reform efforts throughout California, this statewide coalition will put a stop to the unfair ways our... Read More

As firefighters in California battle the deadliest wildfires in the state’s history, they are joined by unlikely allies against the blaze. About 200 prisoners in California’s Conservation Camp program are fighting the fires alongside civilian employees, earning just $1.45 a day for their work. Their pay as workers is a fraction of minimum wage. The hazard to their lives is real, as evidenced by a ... Read More

In January 2018, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that the money bail system in California violated due process and equal protection by imprisoning defendants prior to trial solely because they could not afford to pay bail. The ruling required Superior Court judges to consider both a defendant’s ability to pay and non-monetary alternatives to money bail when setting an amount of money bail... Read More

New York — In response to reports that President Trump has asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony D. Romero issued the following statement: Jeff Sessions was the worst attorney general in modern American history. He was an egregious violator of civil rights and civil liberties. From his plot to deport Dreamers, remove police and... Read More

On October 19, a State Bar Court of California judge found San Francisco prosecutor Andrew Ganz culpable of four counts of misconduct and recommended 90 days of suspension. The charges were related to a 2012 murder case Ganz prosecuted while working in the Solano County District Attorney’s office. In response, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California is calling for outside counsel to review all ... Read More

California’s 2018 legislative session has ended, and we have some huge victories to celebrate! Read More

Schools should be safe learning environments, not arenas for immigration crackdowns. Yet many of the components of the school-to-prison pipeline that cast students of color into the criminal justice system pose a particular threat to immigrant students.Schools involve police in several ways: as district employees (school police officers), as local police officers working in schools (school resourc... Read More