Archive

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco issued an order Friday that an American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) lawsuit charging unlawful collaboration between the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to unlawfully target, arrest, and detain Latinos in Sonoma County can move forward. ... Read More

The ACLU of Northern California is deeply disturbed following reports that staff at the San Jose Independent Police Auditor's (IPA) Office leaked inside information about complaints of misconduct to the local police union. If true, this breach of confidence severely undermines the City's already weak system of independent oversight. Longstanding structural problems at the IPA office limit its abil... Read More

Today, an Alameda County judge granted a preliminary gang injunction in North Oakland. The ACLU of Northern California opposed the injunction, and filed a brief outlining civil liberties concerns. Read the response of Jory Steele, Managing Attorney at the ACLU of Northern California... Read More

The Oakland City Attorney's proposed gang injunction is a misguided tactic for curbing violence, and a misappropriation of scarce public safety dollars.During a recent visit to a youth center in Oakland, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, "We don't want to get tough on crime, we want to get smart on crime."Being smart on crime requires winning strategies to enforce existing laws today and inv... Read More

San Francisco – As spending on California's massive prison system continues unabated, Governor Schwarzenegger's office has declared that the revised budget to be released tomorrow will propose "absolutely terrible cuts." The American Civil Liberties Union, Drug Policy Alliance and Ella Baker Center for Human Rights call on the Governor to choose three effective, budget-saving reforms over wasteful... Read More

On April 8, 2010, the ACLU of Northern California and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area filed an amicus brief with the Alameda County Superior Court opposing a proposed gang injunction in Oakland. If granted, the gang injunction would give the Oakland Police Department wide discretion to label people gang members without having to present any evidence to a judge... Read More

As the United States moves away from death sentences to permanent imprisonment, California – particularly Los Angeles County – lags behind, according to a new report on the death penalty by the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC). In 2009, the number of new death sentences nationwide reached the lowest level since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The Golden State, however, sent more peo... Read More

Many people are surprised to learn that it costs more to sentence someone to execution than permanent imprisonment, also known as life without parole. This page highlights key findings from the ACLU-NC's report The Hidden Death Tax: The Secret Cost of Seeking Executions in California to answer some frequently asked questions about the costs of California's death penalty system.Click to v... Read More

Good evening. My name is Kelli Evans and I am the new Associate Director of the ACLU of Northern California. I am also a civil rights attorney and have spent a number of years working on police accountability and integrity issues across the country. I want to thank Commissioner DeJesus for inviting me here to speak tonight.Last week I sent Lieutenant Reilly a memorandum prepared by my office for i... Read More

On a crisp Saturday in March 2009, Lily Haskell set out to join a peace rally in San Francisco to oppose the Iraq war. What she didn't know at the time was that by the end of the day, she would be forced to turn a DNA sample over to be placed in a national databank. During the demonstration, Haskell was arrested on suspicion of trying to help another protester held by police–a felony. She was h... Read More