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.
Preserving Our Cultural Rights At Graduation
May 24, 2023
My name is Job, and I am a current high school junior in Los Angeles, California. Although we have the right in California to wear our tribal, religious, or cultural regalia at graduation, some schools still try to stop Indigenous highschoolers from doing so.
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Join the Fight to Bring Carlos Home
May 02, 2023
Carlos Sauceda has the right to live in the U.S., but ICE won't let him return. Join the fight to bring Carlos home.
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ACLU Defends Constitutional Right to a Meaningful Criminal Defense
Apr 18, 2023
Sixty years after a landmark Supreme Court case guaranteed the right to a free attorney for criminal defendants who can't afford a private lawyer, millions of low-income people are still being denied this basic constitutional right.
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Lessons from San Francisco’s Killer Robot Debate
Dec 20, 2022
How could San Francisco, a purported “progressive” city, authorize deadly police robots? And how do we stop this policy, or something similar, from returning?
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San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors Grants Police More Surveillance Powers
Sep 23, 2022
By a margin of 4-7, the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to give the SFPD access to privately owned cameras. With the cameras, comes the power to put essentially the entire city under live surveillance indefinitely.
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California Must Sever Law Enforcement from Immigration Enforcement. The Central Valley Shows Us Why.
Aug 23, 2022
Over the course of four years, the ACLU uncovered documents showing that sheriffs throughout the Central Valley have worked behind the scenes to evade pro-immigrant laws. They have devised underhanded schemes to transfer people from jails to ICE and avoid the public reporting required under state law.
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Native Families' Right to Stay Together is at Stake at the Supreme Court
Aug 18, 2022
The Indian Child Welfare Act — a law that protects Native children from forced removal from their families, tribes, and culture — is currently under attack.
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Tribal Sovereignty Under Attack in Recent Supreme Court Ruling
Jul 12, 2022
Tribal sovereignty is once again under attack. In June, the Supreme Court issued a devastating ruling in Oklahoma v Castro-Huerta, giving states unprecedented power to prosecute crimes in Indian country at the expense of Indigenous people and tribal sovereignty.
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With Our Rights Under Attack, We Can’t Let SFPD Exploit Private Surveillance Cameras
Jul 08, 2022
Here in the Bay Area, we must do everything we can right now to bolster privacy protections, not build more surveillance.
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Why We Vehemently Oppose the Governor’s “CARE Court” Proposal — and So Should You.
Jun 28, 2022
Governor Newsom’s so-called “CARE Court” plan would create a new court system that subjects unhoused people with mental health disabilities to involuntary treatment.
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To Achieve True Reproductive Justice in California, We Must Look Beyond Roe v. Wade
Jun 24, 2022
The ACLU of Northern California fights for Californians’ bodily autonomy and the right to have children, not have children, and parent the children we have with dignity and safety. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a devastating step back by [dismantling/overturning] Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of precedent guaranteeing the constitutional right to abortion, we know that Roe was never e...
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