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Blog

We can be pretty sure that each new day will bring two things: new threats to our civil liberties, and new stories of people standing up for their rights and winning. Behind every court ruling is a person. Behind every landmark law is a movement. Read the stories and hear the voices that ground our work.

Student doing homework
Blog

Let's Fix School Discipline in California

Aug 14, 2013
Taxpayers spend more on the criminal justice system than what it would cost to educate every young person in California. AB 420 addresses the school-to-prison pipeline and will keep more kids in front of a blackboard instead of behind bars. Read More
Blog

California Must Follow the Attorney General's Lead

Aug 12, 2013
California must follow the Attorney General’s lead. We must abandon the failed and costly policies of the past that have left far too many people locked up for far too long who don’t need to be kept behind bars to keep our families and communities safe. Now is the time to focus on front end sentencing reforms, especially for low-level, nonviolent drug crimes, that will reduce wasteful spending on ... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

The Dream 9, Immigration Detention and Solitary Confinement

Aug 09, 2013
Solitary confinement completely isolates immigration detainees: They are generally confined to a small jail cell for twenty-three hours a day, with little to no human contact, and a slot in the door through which officers pass their meals. In some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, their one hour of daily “rec” time takes place in a human-size cage or in a narrow concrete yard o... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

SCOTUS to California: End Prison Overcrowding

Aug 02, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a request from the state of California for a stay of the federal court order that the state reduce its prison capacity to 137.5 percent of capacity.The following statement was issued this afternoon by the ACLU of California:"Today's Supreme Court ruling makes plain that state leaders can no longer avoid the urgent need to enact the kinds of reforms that will c... Read More
Blog

Ashton is Standing Up for Transgender Students

Aug 02, 2013
Many of us get a little nostalgic for high school sometimes: long summers off, overnight trips for sports competitions, pep rallies, and football games. For many, it brings back fond memories of a time with fewer responsibilities and a faster metabolism. But unfortunately, for some students, the memories they make in high school aren't so warm.Meet AshtonMeet Ashton, a 16-year-old who is an aspiri... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

ACLU Urges Oakland City Council to Put the Brakes on Surveillance Center

Jul 24, 2013
The ACLU of Northern California today urged the Oakland City Council to put the brakes on a proposed $11 million surveillance center because it would enable the City to engage in widespread warrantless surveillance of Oakland residents. (Read our letter here.)The so-called Domain Awareness Center (DAC) would consolidate a vast network of surveillance data. It would pull in over 1,000 cameras and s... Read More
Blog

Use of Automated License Plate Readers Expanding in Northern California, and Data is Shared with Feds

Jul 22, 2013
The feeling of freedom that comes from driving down California's sunny open roads is at risk—and rising gas prices are not to blame. Our investigations show that at least twenty Northern California law enforcement entities as well as the California Highway Patrol track the whereabouts of millions of Californians using automated license plate readers (ALPR), and some apparently even share rec... Read More
Trayvon Martin
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Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and Implicit Bias

Jul 17, 2013
As the mother of an African-American boy, the tragic, unnecessary death of Trayvon Martin and the trial and subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman have me heartbroken and filled with unanswerable questions. Does this verdict mean that some people view my son's (or my husband's or my father's) life as disposable? And how do parents like me protect our sons from people whose perceptions, unconscio... Read More
black lives matter
Blog

Oscar Grant Dies: Same Old Story

Jul 15, 2013
As a black man living in Oakland, I'm not immune to racist policing. I've experienced it repeatedly. Fruitvale Station reminded that like Oscar Grant, I may never come home. Read More
Blog

AT&T Wants Us to Pay Them With Our Money And Our Privacy - How to Opt Out

Jul 11, 2013
I received an email from AT&T today. Did you? It turns out that AT&T is revising its privacy policy to make it "easier to understand" and by the way, also to let us know that they want us to pay them with our money and our privacy, too. Unless we opt out, the company is going to start selling information about where we go, what we search for, what apps we use, and what we watch, to other businesse... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

ACLU Sues Government for Information About "Stingray" Cell Phone Tracking

Jul 08, 2013
Today, the ACLU of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice to find out more about the federal government's use of a sophisticated surveillance tool used to track people's cell phones and commonly known as a "stingray."Stingrays are highly intrusive and indiscriminate. To locate a suspect's cell phone, Stingrays mimic a cell tower and obtain ... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Blog

Why It Matters that the Legislature Changed Course and Protected Our Rights to Public Records

Jul 03, 2013
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California this week was forced to file a lawsuit against Sacramento County officials after they failed to respond to requests for public documents. It's a case that underscores why it was so important that the state legislature last month backed off plans to weaken the California Public Records Act: the fact is that even with the law intact, it often... Read More