Archive

Get a warrant -- that’s what I would say if the police showed up at my door asking to look around. Why? Because it’s my right. It’s one of the core principles that this country was founded on: the government, including local police, can’t come into my home unless they prove to a judge that they have a real reason to invade my privacy.If police want to search your house, they need to get a warrant.... Read More

A coalition of advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sent a letter this week to the San Jose City Council demanding that it have the necessary public debate of whether a drone should ever be used in San Jose well before it starts to consider how it could be used. Read More

Facing its final vote in the Assembly, the California Fair Sentencing Act (SB 1010) authored by Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) won strong approval on a bi-partisan vote today. SB 1010 now returns to the Senate for a final procedural vote before being sent to the Governor. Read More

Today the ACLU of California and the American Friends Service Committee released a report confirming the Latino community’s experience of being targeted for suspected unlicensed driving by California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers in Fresno County, with two officers being largely responsible for the racially disparate impact. Read More

It’s Time for a Public Debate and a New Vote Over San Jose Police Purchase of DroneThe San Jose Police Department (SJPD) is clearly getting ahead of itself. Despite there not having been any sort of public debate about whether or not to use a drone at all, the department today issued a statement saying it will develop policies and procedures for its deployment. With the history of police abus... Read More

This year the California Legislature can take another step toward ending a shameful chapter in the state’s history—coerced sterilization of its most vulnerable residents. Read More

The San Jose City Council has approved a police request to acquire a drone – without public debate and with no policy overseeing its use. Read More

The San Francisco Police Department has agreed to stop warrantless searches of cellphones of people who are arrested. This is the result of a settlement announced today in the ACLU-NC's lawsuit against SFPD over this practice. Read More

Today the ACLU of Northern California filed a religious liberty lawsuit against the Fresno County Sheriff over a policy that denies people held in Fresno County jails access to food that complies with their religious dietary restrictions. Read More

The United States Supreme Court unanimously acknowledged what common sense tells us and everyone who owns a cell phone (yes, that would be just about everyone) already knows: Our cell phones have a whole lot of private information about us. The Court therefore held that cops need a warrant to search a cell phone.In one of the best references to extraterrestrial life to appear in a recent (or perha... Read More