Free Speech

Our support of the Bill of Rights and the first amendment right to free speech is unequivocal. This includes challenging activities or actions that seek to curtail, limit or erase the free speech of others. However, we reserve the right to exercise our free speech by critiquing the speech of others, such as hateful speech, that is contrary to our core values, which support liberty and justice for all.

ACLU responds to excessive force used on protesters. Read more

ACLU defends "I can't breathe" t-shirts at school... Read more

Your free speech rights at demonstrations and protests. Know Your Rights

Privacy and Free Speech - It's Good for Business Graphic

ACLU Guide: How Companies Can Protect Privacy and Free Speech Read More

News

White and red text on blue background reads "Prejudice rewritten is still prejudice."

Californians Sue in Challenge to Latest Muslim Ban

March 13, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice

Plaintiff Eric Miller is in his fourth year of graduate studies in physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he conducts cutting-edge particle-physics research. He needs to continue this research in collaboration with an Iranian... Read more

News

January 2017 - SFO protest by Rachael Herron

ACLU of Northern CA Statement Condemning New Muslim Ban

March 6, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice

The new executive order banning the issuance of visas to people from certain countries is based on the same religious animus that fueled the Trump's first attempt at a Muslim ban. Read more

News

ACLU Comment on Trump's New Muslim Ban

March 6, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice

The Trump administration has conceded that its original Muslim ban was indefensible... The only way to actually fix the Muslim ban is not to have a Muslim ban. - Omar Jadwat, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Director Read more

Article

Censoring Free Speech Sets Dangerous Precedent

File Under :

Free Speech

The following Op-Ed by Alan Schlosser and Diana Tate Vermeire was originally published in the Daily Californian on Friday, February 10. Last week, free speech suffered a blow when force and intimidation by some protesters prompted the University of... Read more

Blog

We the People Must Seize this Moment. Our Democracy Depends on It.

February 15, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Racial Justice

What is America? From its beginning it has always been a painful paradox, a country founded on violent dehumanization but proclaiming the highest ideals of human kinship. As generations have before us, today millions join together to make it what it... Read more »

Article

Black History Month Artwork Banned by San Jose Superintendent

File Under :

Free Speech, Racial Justice

The National Coalition Against Censorship and the ACLU of Northern CA today sent a letter demanding artwork unjustly banned by a school administrator in San Jose is returned to the walls. Read more

News

Protesters at SFO hold signs speaking out against the Muslim ban

ACLU of Northern California Celebrates Ninth Circuit Ruling in State of Washington v. Trump

February 9, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice

Today’s ruling is reason to celebrate. If the court had granted the Trump administration’s request, U.S. citizens, residents, and their family members here and across the world would have once again been facing chaos and uncertainty. The Trump... Read more

News

California Students Barred From Traveling, Sue Trump Over Muslim Ban

February 2, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice

Three students at California universities, along with Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay, filed a lawsuit today against President Donald J. Trump, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border... Read more

News

People protest against Trump's Muslim ban at the airport

ACLU of Northern California Files Demands for Documents on Implementation of Trump’s Muslim Ban

February 2, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act request today with its local U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office to expose how Trump administration officials are interpreting and executing the... Read more

News

ACLU of California Statement on Trump Administration’s Discriminatory Executive Orders

January 25, 2017

File Under :

Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice

Today, President Trump and his new administration confirmed the institution of draconian, punitive, and discriminatory immigration policies that ignore the lessons of the last 30 years of immigration policy and betray our most basic values as a... Read more