Archive

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

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

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a religious-liberty lawsuit seeking injunctive relief to end the Fresno County Sheriff's policy that denies people held in Fresno County jails access to food that complies with their religious dietary restrictions. Read More

All adult Californians have a constitutional right to vote except while they are “imprisoned or on parole for conviction of a felony” or are mentally incompetent. But the California Secretary of State has expanded this exclusion to include people who are neither imprisoned nor on parole but are on new forms of community supervision created by California’s 2011 Criminal Justice Realignment Act. As ... Read More

By withdrawing a voting rights challenge that was taken up by his predecessor, on Aug. 4, 2014, Secretary of State Alex Padilla sent the nation a message that California will not stand for discrimination in voting and that he will fight to protect the right to vote for all eligible Californians. Read More

Today the ACLU of Northern California filed a lawsuit charging two state agencies with leaving defendants with disabilities to languish in jail, denying them treatment and their right to due process. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California has joined the Federal Public Defender’s Office and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in supporting a warrant requirement for access to cell phone location information. Read More

SAN DIEGO – The 4th District Court of Appeal, in a stunning rebuke to San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, today ruled that Proposition 47’s sentencing reclassification provisions apply equally to children and adults.San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis had sought to deprive juvenile offenders of the retroactive relief the initiative provides. Her office argued that juv... Read More

San Francisco – The Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy released an extensive report detailing the complexities of marijuana legalization in California today. The report includes fifty-eight recommendations for policy makers and the public to consider before California decides to legalize recreational marijuana for production, sale and adult use.The panel of leading legal, academic, law enf... Read More

Executive summary The question of whether or not California should legalize adult use of marijuana beyond medical purposes is gaining increased attention by voters and policymakers in California. Four states and the District of Columbia have voted to legalize recreational marijuana use, and each offers important lessons for California. But there are circumstances that are unique to our state th... Read More