Archive

Used tape. A dirty toothbrush. A rose with no petals. A chewed up piece of gum. The list goes on. Abstinence-only sex ed programs are notorious for using tragically bad sex metaphors to push their harmful agenda. Parents in Redding, California recently learned that their eighth-graders’ school would be teaching that “sex is like a fire” —dangerous and scary, outside the “fireplace” of marriage. Read More

We just got a pile of public records from the police department in Fresno, California. Fresno police have been using several different brands of social media surveillance software – all without the public’s consent. What’s worse, the ACLU has discovered that Fresno police have been using an especially offensive piece of software called MediaSonar, which encourages the police to identify “threats t... Read More

Rather than sinking more resources into incarceration, San Francisco should invest in smart approaches to crime prevention and public safety. Building a new jail will duplicate the mistakes of the past and exacerbate the failings of our current system. Read More

Never has it been more important for students to know their rights, especially in the face of increasing police presence in our schools. Look no further than what happened in Columbia, South Carolina last month, where video footage showed a school officer grabbing a student from her desk and throwing her to the ground. Introducing our newest campaign: My School, My Rights! This story... Read More

On Dec. 13, we're going to celebrate in Oakland—and here are 10 reasons why YOU should join us! Because the Bill of Rights belongs to us all. No matter how much money you make, what your skin color is, or your immigration status. Read More

Today, the ACLU sent the Butte County Board of Supervisors a letter to warn them that their proposal to take $650,000 from the Inmate Welfare Fund – a fund that is supposed to be used for inmates’ welfare and not everyday costs associated with housing them – to help pay for the cost of building a new county jail is illegal as well as just bad public policy. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California joins San Francisco community members in demanding justice for 26-year old Mario Woods. Woods died Wednesday after police shot him multiple times in San Francisco’s Bayview district. Read More

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter today announced that the U.S. armed forces will open all combat jobs, units, and schools to qualified women beginning next year, making no exceptions for any branch of the armed services. Read More

Four servicewomen and the Service Women's Action Network, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, filed an amended complaint in their lawsuit against the Department of Defense for its ongoing blanket exclusion of women from thousands of ground combat positions. 

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The ACLU today sent a letter demanding that Dignity Health, doing business as Mercy Medical Center Redding, a Catholic-affiliated hospital in California’s largest hospital network, stop unlawfully denying post-partum tubal ligation to patients based on religious doctrine. Read More