Archive

In Santa Clara County, people who want to voluntarily appear in court to address an outstanding arrest warrant must first go to jail if they are too poor to post bail. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Criminal Defense Clinic at Stanford Law School have sued Santa Clara County Superior Court over this unconstitutional policy that results in an unequal system of justice. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and our legal partner sued Santa Clara County Superior Court over its unfair policy requiring people who want to voluntarily address an outstanding arrest warrant to first go to jail if they are too poor to post bail. Read More

With the eyes of the world watching, California has released a historic report calling for reparations for the descendants of enslaved African Americans. A new ACLU of Northern California video connects the dots between the state's little known slavery past and its legacy of racist policies that have harmed Black people. Read More

The ACLU Foundations of Southern and Northern California and co-counsel Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Martínez Aguilasocho Law, Inc. filed a lawsuit today against Kern County and Kern County Superior Court for systematically denying poor misdemeanor defendants their constitutional rights to counsel and due process. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of UFW Foundation and three Kern County resident... Read More

Over eight years, more than 50,000 Kern defendants have pled guilty without lawyers at their first court appearance Read More

The lawsuit filed in 2022 challenged the legality of civil assessments imposed on low-income Californians. The courts used the unlawful late fees to raise revenue to fund operations. Read More

Sixty years after a landmark Supreme Court case guaranteed the right to a free attorney for criminal defendants who can't afford a private lawyer, millions of low-income people are still being denied this basic constitutional right. Read More

The Sikh Coalition and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California sent a letter urging the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to revise its discriminatory policy prohibiting full beards to accommodate staff who are either unable to shave due to a medical condition or who must maintain facial hair for religious reasons. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has filed a lawsuit to protect the constitutional rights of defendants with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities in California.

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An ACLU lawsuit urges the court to prevent the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office from requiring that individuals agree to unconstitutional “four-way” searches and GPS location data-sharing as conditions of pretrial release on electronic monitoring. Read More