Archive

When I was young, my mom was on welfare. She wasn't unlike other moms on our South Los Angeles block: single, working multiple jobs, and doing her best to keep her head above water. My mom braved the stigma that is tethered to receiving state benefits. Braving it is what poor people do... Read More

CRESCENT CITY – In a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Education on Thursday extended a 2009 agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California resolving allegations of racial discrimination against Native American students. The agreement, which has now been extended through August 2017, provides the district with additional time to ... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and NCYL have charged school officials in two Humboldt County towns with intentionally discriminating against Native American and Black students by allowing the pervasive racial and sexual harassment of these students to go unchallenged. Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Center for Youth Law Wednesday charged that school officials in the Humboldt County towns of Eureka and Loleta, home to some of the state’s largest Native American communities, intentionally discriminate against Native American and Black students, and allow pervasive racial and sexual harassment to go unchal... Read More

Today the ACLU of Northern California’s Michael Risher will be arguing in front of an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit in Haskell v. Harris, which challenges California’s mandatory DNA collection at arrest law. “People who have never been charged with a crime shouldn’t have their DNA put in a government database,” said Michael Risher, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. The... Read More

The ACLU and the Center for Popular Democracy today filed a lawsuit to compel the Federal Housing Finance Agency to provide details about its relationship with the financial industry and its efforts to block local municipalities from using eminent domain to prevent foreclosures. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California, along with other public interest and legal services organizations, won an important victory last week for families who live in public housing. Read More

The facts prove that life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP) is swift, severe, and certain punishment. The reality is that people sentenced to LWOP have been condemned to die in prison and that’s what happens: They die in prison of natural causes, just like the majority of people sentenced to death. The differences: Sentencing people to death by execution is three times more expens... Read More

In 1942, San Leandro draftsman Fred Korematsu was jailed for refusing to obey President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 ordering all citizens of Japanese descent to report to relocation centers. Korematsu and his fiancée had intended to leave California to marry.The ACLU of Northern California took on Korematsu’s legal challenge and was nearly alone in challenging to the wartime r... Read More

In the name of public safety, Black children in Oakland are being arrested at vastly disproportionate rates. This derails their opportunities for educational success while failing to ensure our children’s safety. From Report Card to Criminal Record: The Impact of Policing Oakland Youth describes the various and overlapping law enforcement agencies which police Oakland’s children. Read More