Archive

The ACLU has long been committed to supporting and defending the rights of indigenous people and communities. From North Dakota, to Flint, to Alabama, to California’s Central Valley, the ACLU also recognizes the civil rights issues in struggles over clean water. We work to safeguard the vital roles peaceful protest, nonviolent civil disobedience, and activism play in defending our civil and human ... Read More

It goes without saying that speaking out against police violence or government overreach shouldn’t land you in a surveillance database. But it can, and it does.The ACLU of California has received thousands of pages of public records revealing that law enforcement agencies across the state are secretly acquiring social media spying software that can sweep activists int... Read More

The CA Supreme Court has agreed to review a case that could have allowed people to censor online speech without even giving the website’s owner an opportunity to come to court to defend itself. Read More

When you are having meetings about transparency and building trust with law enforcement, the last thing you expect to hear is that they may be secretly spying on you. But that is exactly what happened to us as community activists with Fresno Faith In Community/Live Free. Read More

Public cynicism about government is at an all-time high – and we all know the reasons. That's why it's pretty remarkable when activists use public government processes to attack a scary and overwhelming problem like surveillance – and it works. Read More

When Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA in 2013, I didn’t yet know that my own city of Oakland had futuristic surveillance problems of our own. Oakland had quietly embarked on a path towards building a city-wide surveillance network called the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), comprised of over 700 cameras throughout schools and public housing, facial recognition software, automated license p... Read More

School is back in session, and by now, many students and teachers have returned to their classrooms to new and improved lactation accommodations policies. Read More

It’s a victory for free speech and academic freedom – but Cal’s move to cancel the course for no good reason should never have happened in the first place. Read More

Throughout the nation, police officers are legally allowed to take and keep your cash and property - even if you are never charged or arrested for a crime. All it takes is officers claiming they think your belongings were obtained through illegal means. Read More

On June 7, 2016, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a suit under the California Public Records Act demanding that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) release information about people serving life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles. Read More