Archive

The Supreme Court’s decision could have far-reaching implications for unhoused people. However, most of the legal issues in Coalition on Homelessness v. City of San Francisco, which challenges the City’s costly and ineffective practice of citing, arresting, and moving unhoused individuals without offering real alternative shelter and destroying their belongings, are not under review in the Grants ... Read More

The ACLU of Northern California re-affirmed its opposition to the recall of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, following reports that Price's critics had obtained enough signatures to force a recall election. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California sued the California Department of State Hospitals for refusing to provide public records about severely mentally ill individuals who died in jail, while waiting to get treatment at a state facility. At least 35 people died in one five year period alone. DSH claimed it did not keep track of the in-custody deaths of people on its waitlist. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a lawsuit to compel the California Department of State Hospitals to produce records about severely mentally ill people who died in jail, while awaiting transfer to a treatment facility. Read More

Grants Pass v. Johnson involves an Oregon town that passed ordinances barring people from sleeping outside in public using a blanket, pillow, or even a cardboard sheet to lie on. Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that criminally punishing unhoused people violates the Eighth Amendment “if there are no other public areas or appropriate shelters where those individuals can sleep.” Read More

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Instead of replenishing our system of care, state legislators are asking voters in the March primary to consider Proposition 1, a zero-sum initiative that pits California’s housing and voluntary community-based mental health needs against one another while taking us back to a dark era of forced treatment and institutionalization.  Read More

A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office (SFSO) from requiring that individuals agree to unconstitutional “four-way” searches and GPS location data-sharing as conditions of pretrial release on electronic monitoring absent a court order. Read More

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