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Gov. Brown signed a groundbreaking bill to limit civil asset forfeiture abuse in California, marking a victory for the larger asset forfeiture reform movement underway throughout the US. California lawmakers overwhelmingly approved SB 443 in October. The new law will go into effect Jan. 1, 2017. Read More

Today, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 813, a measure that provides innocent individuals and noncitizens with the opportunity to challenge legally invalid convictions after they have served their time. Read More

Today Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 2466 (Weber, D-San Diego), rolling back a discriminatory voting restriction in California that is a carryover from the Jim Crow era, when states made it harder for black citizens and other minorities to register and vote. Read More

On June 7, 2016, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a suit under the California Public Records Act demanding that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) release information about people serving life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles. Read More

It’s hard to speak with your face pressed against concrete. Or when you can’t breathe. Or with a broken neck. And even when you manage to speak, people in power seek to silence you. Just ask the San Francisco 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick. Read More

Earlier this month, a too familiar tragedy unfolded in East Los Angeles when Los Angeles police officers shot and killed 14-year-old Jesse Romero. Witness accounts vary — the police department says Romero fled when officers approached him on suspicion of scrawling graffiti in his neighborhood, then fired at officers. Some civilians say he had a gun but tossed it away.As is incr... Read More

A state bill to reform civil asset forfeiture, a practice that has come under fire nationwide following widespread claims of abuse, received strong, bipartisan approval from the California Senate today. Senate Bill 443 will now head to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. Read More

Asbury Howard, a black leader and organizer who headed an effort to register black voters in Alabama, was convicted in January 1959 for having a poster made from a newspaper cartoon. Read More

The State Senate just voted to pass AB 2466, a bill that would expand voting rights in California to people caught up in the criminal justice system. The law, if signed by the governor, will clarify who can and cannot vote with a criminal conviction in California. Read More

A bill to limit civil asset forfeiture abuses was approved today by the California Assembly. The bill will return to the Senate for a concurrence vote. SB 443 provides individuals with stronger property rights protections by requiring a conviction in most state civil asset forfeiture cases. Read More