Archive

Today, a federal judge approved a $2 million class-action settlement in favor of hundreds of homeless Fresno residents. The court had already determined that Fresno’s practice of immediately seizing and destroying the personal possessions of homeless residents violates the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. “The Court’s ruling and the settlement should send a str... Read More

Charter Communications, one of the nation's largest cable Internet providers, plans to begin monitoring the online activities of its high- speed Internet customers and then sell the data for targeted advertising.The announcement is already drawing criticism from activists, academics, and bipartisan members of Congressdue to privacy concerns.Charter is in the position to observe and analyze nearly ... Read More

A coalition of privacy and consumer organizations from California to Washington, D.C. have sent a letter today urging Google to post a prominent link on its homepage to its privacy policy in accordance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act (OPPA) and the widespread practice of commercial web sites.The organizations include EPIC, the California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the Wo... Read More

Issues of free speech, censorship, and harassment took center stage last week at Twitter, the very popular online messaging and "micro blogging" site. Twitter has become an Internet craze. Users rely on the site to publish brief messages which typically describe what that person is doing or other things that don't warrant a separate blog post or email. The short version of the recent free sp... Read More

San Francisco - The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) today filed a lawsuit to compel Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to comply with a request for documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA request stems from concerns over alleged violations of law and due process during immigration raids undertaken ... Read More

ACLU of Northern California and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) of the San Francisco Bay Area filed alawsuit on June 2, 2008, to compel U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to comply with a request for documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA request stems from concerns over alleged violations of law and due process during immi... Read More

San Francisco – Attorneys representing same-sex couples, Equality California and Our Family Coalition filed a legal brief today opposing a request to stay the court’s ruling and prevent couples from marrying for several months. The request to stay the California Supreme Court’s ruling was filed shortly before the Memorial Day weekend by an Arizona-based, right-wing legal group, the Alliance Defens... Read More

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The blogosphere has been bubbling over the past few weeks over the subject of laptop searches and seizures at international borders. The source of the buzz? A couple of recent court cases. Read More

A federal grand jury on Thursday issued an indictment against a Missouri woman accused of creating a fake MySpace page to bully a 13-year old girl who later committed suicide. The high profile, and emotionally charged case, has drawn media attention from around the world.Unfortunately, the prosecutors have relied on a novel and troubling interpretation of the law in order to go after the MySpace b... Read More