News

ACLU Foundation of Northern California and ACLU Minnesota along with Color of Change and MediaJustice have sent a letter to Twitter this morning demanding that they take immediate action to prevent its developers from facilitating government surveillance of its users. Dataminr, a Twitter developer, has provided law enforcement with tweets by activists organizing and participating in ongoing demons... Read More

Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed an Amicus brief to support groups who are representing unhoused people and requesting to intervene in legal action between UC Hastings and the City of San Francisco concerning conditions in the Tenderloin neighborhood. The settlement proposed by the parties would directly impact the lives of unhoused people whose voices have been excluded fro... Read More

Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California settled a lawsuit with Fresno County over the chief elections official’s removal of a polling place at Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno – all because the church refused to cover up Black Lives Matter banners on church property. Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area submitted a demand letter to the City of Sacramento this morning urging the City to drop all charges against individuals for violating the City’s June 1 curfew order. Seventy-two individuals were arrested and charged for violating the order, which imposed a sweeping ban on public as... Read More

Today, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California sent a letter to the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Napa as well as the cities of Palo Alto and San Francisco, demanding that they immediately rescind or substantially restrict the curfew orders that they imposed over the last three days. These sweeping measures, allowing police to arrest anyone outside from the early evening hou... Read More

Santa Cruz Mayor Cummings and Police Chief Mills are hosting an online community meeting to discuss police policies in the wake of national protests over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others at the hands of the police. Read More

The slew of hastily announced “curfews” enacted in cities across California lack clarity as to their scope and duration. This is the wrong way to handle disruptions to what have been otherwise peaceful protests, and they are far broader than necessary to address any problems that have arisen or may arise. Read More

Jah, who never appeared to pose a threat, was tackled, pinned, and punched by the officer on April 27, 2020 in the area of Mills Station Road and Mather Field Road in Rancho Cordova, CA. Jah and his family are in our thoughts as they heal and recover from this traumatic event. Read More

The ACLU of California, in partnership with a coalition of over 60 organizations, is calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to collect and provide race and demographic information on COVID-19 infections and outcomes. Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — In March, the Northern California Indian Development Council (NCIDC) hired an Indigenous Education Advocate. This newly created position is part of a larger collaboration between NCIDC and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, aimed at advancing educational equity for Native American students in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties and adjacent tribal lan... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – Under a proposed settlement announced today between the California Department of Transportation (“Caltrans”) and a class of homeless people whose property was taken by Caltrans crews in sweeps of their encampments, Caltrans will establish a $1.3 million fund to compensate people for the loss of property that was destroyed in the sweeps. In addition, Caltrans will be required to ado... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO – The City of San Francisco has agreed to financially compensate seven black men and women who were purportedly arrested for selling small amounts of drugs by the San Francisco Police Department, which targeted them for federal criminal prosecution because of their race, while ignoring people of other races engaged in the same activity. In a $225,000 settlement, the City of San Fr... Read More