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Our lawyers and advocates are among the nation's leading experts on civil liberties and constitutional freedoms. Read the latest on the ACLU of Northern California’s work. To schedule a press interview, call (415) 621-2493 or contact press@aclunc.org.

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FBI Using "Mosque Outreach" to Gather Intelligence

Mar 27, 2012
For several years, the FBI's San Francisco office conducted a "Mosque Outreach" program that collected and illegally stored intelligence about American Muslims' First Amendment-protected beliefs and religious practices, according to government documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Northern California, Asian L... Read More
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ACLU of California Releases Statewide Analysis of Realignment

Mar 21, 2012
The decisions counties are making right now about how to implement realignment will have dramatic and long-lasting impacts on public safety and on local taxpayers. In a new 100-page report, Public Safety Realignment: California at a Crossroads, the ACLU of California finds that many counties have yet to embrace a central charge of the realignment legislation: to implement evidence-based ... Read More
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Californians Sentenced Under Realignment Have the Right to Vote, Argue Civil Rights Advocates

Mar 07, 2012
Three organizations concerned with voting rights have filed a lawsuit in the First District Court of Appeal to clarify that people who have been sentenced for low-level, non-violent offenses under the state’s historic reform of criminal justice known as Realignment are entitled to vote in the 2012 elections and beyond. The suit asks the Court of Appeal to clarify the voting rights of more than 85,... Read More
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SB 1501 Ensures All Women Have Access to Reproductive Health Care

Feb 28, 2012
Sacramento -- While the nation moves to limit women's access to reproductive health services, California is set to write a different story by removing barriers to abortion care. SB 1501, authored by Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, would ensure women receive safe and early access to comprehensive reproductive health care by allowing Nurse Practitioners, Certified Nurse Midwives, and Physician As... Read More
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CA Bill Would Reduce Penalty for Drug Possession for Personal Use

Feb 27, 2012
With an eye towards ending punitive drug policies that have made the United States the world’s largest incarcerator and cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year, Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) on Friday introduced legislation to reduce the penalty for Californians who possess small amounts of drugs for their own personal use. The bill, SB 1506, co-sponsored by the ACLU of California, Drug Po... Read More
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Students Sue UC Davis for Constitutional Violations Over Pepper-Spraying Incident

Feb 22, 2012
Today nineteen students and alumni filed a federal lawsuit against UC Davis over the University’s treatment of protesters during a Nov. 18 demonstration in which campus police were caught on video dousing seated protesters with pepper spray. The lawsuit seeks to determine why the University violated the demonstrators’ state and federal constitutional rights and seeks to result in better policies t... Read More
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Proposed Law Would Restore Local Control Over Intelligence Gathering

Jan 25, 2012
Supervisor Jane Kim introduced legislation before the Board of Supervisors today that would prohibit members of the San Francisco Police Department working with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) from collecting intelligence on San Franciscans unless there is reasonable suspicion that they are involved in significant criminal activity. Read More
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Bay Area Rights Groups Ask FBI Director to Address Racial Profiling, Islamophobia

Nov 17, 2011
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC), the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), and the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) have sent a joint letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller in advance of his visit to San Francisco today asking him to address issues of racial profiling and Islamophobia. Read More
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ACLU and National Lawyers Guild File Suit Against Oakland Police Department

Nov 14, 2011
Today the ACLU of Northern California and the National Lawyers' Guild filed a lawsuitin federal court against the Oakland Police Department (OPD) for its egregious constitutional violations against Occupy Oakland demonstrators. The lawsuit asks for an emergency temporary restraining order to stop police violence against political protesters. The restraining order is urgent because another police e... Read More
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LGBT Equality Groups Urge Ninth Circuit to Reject Attack on Prop 8 Trial Judge

Nov 08, 2011
Today, a coalition of groups advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a U.S. District Court decision that rejected a move to vacate the historic August 2010 ruling that invalidated Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that stripped the freedom to marry from same-sex couples in Califor... Read More
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City of Antioch Agrees to Federal Court Supervision

Oct 26, 2011
Putting an end to a divisive four year dispute, the City of Antioch last night agreed to a settlement in Williams v. Antioch, a class action civil rights lawsuit brought by five African American women. The suit accused the City of Antioch and its police department of engaging in a concerted campaign of intimidation, harassment and discrimination against African American families who get federal as... Read More