Archive

After three years of litigation, we’ve finally settled a portion of one of our long-running Freedom of Information Act suits against the federal government for information about its location tracking practices.  A person’s digital location information reveals detailed, private information that the government should only be able to get through a warrant based on probable cause.  As part o... Read More

Likely voters in California overwhelmingly support allowing public access to investigation reports in all cases where a police officer is accused of misconduct, a statewide poll released today has found. Read More

A Catholic-affiliated hospital will now perform a common reproductive healthcare procedure after the ACLU threatened to sue. Read More

Under the threat of a potential lawsuit, a Catholic-affiliated hospital in California’s largest hospital network has approved a previously denied doctor’s request to perform a post-partum tubal ligation. Read More

What if once a week the police drove by your home and took a picture?That is what the San Jose City Council proposed last week with an effort to install automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) on garbage trucks.ALPRs are high-speed cameras that sit atop patrol cars or on roadsides and are capable of snapping photos of thousands of license plate numbers per hour, including their location. This tech... Read More

While students, parents, faculty and school staff gear up for the excitement of a new school year, a critically important process is unfolding largely out of public view. Read More

Today a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling saved 11 men from the death penalty. They were sentenced to death for crimes committed before Connecticut's death penalty repeal and must instead serve life imprisonment without release. Read More

A new poll shows that California voters overwhelmingly see a problem with biased policing in our state and support reforms to address the issue. Read More

According to a new poll conducted by Tulchin Research, 69% of likely California voters support AB 953: The Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015, a state bill introduced by Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) to combat racial and identity profiling by law enforcement. The poll results come as the bill heads to the California Senate Appropriations Committee. Read More

Public-records laws are designed to ensure that constituents and journalists have access to information on public affairs. They protect a bedrock value of our democracy: transparency. Read More