News

MADERA — Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California reached a settlement agreement with Chawanakee Unified School District that calls for new school policies to protect LGBTQ students. The ACLU initially filed suit in March on behalf of two then-Minarets High School seniors, Steven Madrid and Mikayla Garaffa. Their pro-LGBTQ yearbook quotes were removed from their senior yearbook by an a... Read More

SACRAMENTO — Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California sent a letter to the San Juan Unified School District on behalf of a student and parent who were censored and retaliated against by school officials for expressing support of Black Lives Matter. A teacher singled out and prohibited Black Lives Matter posters that were created in an art class about activism. The letter argues that the D... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – The ACLU of Northern California (ACLU NC), KQED, the California Historical Society, and the Equal Justice Society today launched “Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California,” a public education campaign that exposes chapters of California’s history that may come as a surprise, if not an outright shock, to many people. Little known is the fact that, while California en... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Court of Appeal ruled today that Secretary of State Alex Padilla erred when he issued a directive to county election officials in 2017 that deprives tens of thousands of California voters of the language assistance to which they are entitled under state law. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – ... Read More

YUBA COUNTY — The ACLU of Northern California today sent a letter to Yuba Community College District and Tri-County Schools Insurance Group calling on them to immediately remove an illegal provision in the district’s employee health care plans that discriminates against transgender people with a blanket-exclusion for gender-affirming care. Our client Brian Condrey, an English Professor at Yuba ... Read More

SACRAMENTO – Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 24 (Leyva), groundbreaking legislation that will require student health centers at all 34 California public universities to offer medication abortion. The bill, also known as the College Student Right to Access Act, is the first of its kind in the nation, and has widespread support across the state. At the signing ceremony, Governor News... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a discrimination complaint under the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP), on behalf of two black Bullard High School students in the Fresno Unified District, for failure to comply with the California Education Code and Fresno Unified School Board’s requirements pertaining to racially hostile environments and bullying. The UCP c... Read More

SACRAMENTO — Today, the Repeal Ineffective Sentence Enhancements (RISE) Coalition celebrated Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature on SB 136: The RISE Act. The legislation, authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), dismantles a cruel, expensive, and ineffective sentence enhancement that adds an extra year to an individual’s base sentence for each prior prison or felony jail term they already... Read More

SACRAMENTO — California Governor Gavin Newsom today signed historic legislation to permanently bar county jails and state prisons from charging incarcerated Californians copays and other fees for medical and dental services. AB 45, state legislation introduced by Assemblymember Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay), goes into effect January 1, 2020, making California the first state in the country to abolis... Read More

SACRAMENTO — Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed landmark legislation making California the largest state in the country to block law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition and other biometric tracking technology in connection with officer body cameras. Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) introduced AB 1215: The Body Camera Accountability Act earlier this year in l... Read More

SACRAMENTO – Today, California Governor Newsom signed SB 72, legislation introduced by State Senator Thomas J. Umberg (D-Santa Ana) to allow all eligible Californians to register to vote and cast a ballot at all polling sites on Election Day. California now joins 13 other states and the District of Columbia in making Election Day registration available at polling sites to voters. In response, R... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — Today in an unforeseen move, Mayor London Breed appointed her favored candidate, Suzy Loftus, to be the interim San Francisco District Attorney following the premature resignation yesterday of DA George Gascón who is not seeking a third term. Gascón will leave his post on Oct. 18th, just weeks before what would have been the first open District Attorney race in San Francisco in 100... Read More