Archive

Federal class action lawsuit filed in 2008 charging that the city of Antioch and its police department are engaged in a concerted campaign of intimidation, harassment, and discrimination against African-Americans who receive federal housing assistance. Read More

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

A U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of California has ruled that the City of Fresno’s practice of immediately seizing and destroying the personal possessions of homeless residents violates the constitutional right of every person to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Read More

Two Southern California fair housing organizations sued Roomate.com, an Internet-based roommate matching service, arguing that the website must be held responsible for postings on the site that violate federal fair housing laws. Roommate.com argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects websites from liability for content posted by third parties, gives it complete immu... Read More

Twenty-three high school-aged young people from northern California spent eight days in the summer of 2007 investigating a civil liberties topic of their choice: the myths and truths of military recruitment and military service. The result is an empathic, impassioned, evocative series of essays, poems, photographs and drawings titled “The Truth Behind the Camouflage.” The young people, who were... Read More

The Radelet-Pierce is the first state-wide study of the role of race, ethnicity and geography in death sentencing in California. The authors reviewed all homicides that occurred in California from 1990-99, using records from the FBI and Vital Statistics. During this period, 302 death sentences were returned (close to half the number of people currently on death row in California). The study finds ... Read More

A federal judge announced today his intention to issue a preliminary injunction stopping the City of Fresno from unlawfully destroying the personal property of thousands of homeless residents. The lawsuit, Kincaid v. City of Fresno, was filed in October and claims that the City has been violating the constitutional rights of homeless people by seizing and immediately destroying their personal pro... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has historically opposed civil gang injunctions because of their unfair impact on civil liberties, their potential for racial profiling, and due process concerns. In September 2006, the City Attorney of San Francisco sought the city's first civil gang injunction in the Bayview neighborhood.  On June 21, 2007, the city filed two new gang injun... Read More

Without any trial or due process, hundreds of West Sacramento residents of a predominantly Latino neighborhood were served a permanent "gang" injunction. In addition to challenging this injunction in a separate case, California v. Broderick Boys, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California is representing one such resident, a 28-year-old father, who was served by the injunction that imposes a life... Read More

Police use of Taser stun guns to subdue suspects in California and around the nation has increased dramatically in recent years. Billed by their manufacturer, Taser International, as a non-lethal alternative to deadly force, Tasers have been purchased and deployed by a growing number of law enforcement agencies. However, while the Taser is less deadly than a traditional firearm, it is hardly ... Read More