News

A bill that would reform California’s drug sentencing laws for simple possession and significantly reduce incarceration costs for counties cleared an important legislative hurdle Tuesday. SB 649, authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), was approved by the Senate Public Safety Committee on a 4-2 vote, and moves now to the full Senate for consideration. Read More

Sacramento – The School Success and Opportunity Act (AB 1266), authored by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, has passed the Assembly Education Committee by a vote of 5-2.The School Success and Opportunity Act addresses the exclusion of transgender students from classes and activities, and clarifies existing anti-discrimination law to provide clear protections to transgender students."Today we are one st... Read More

A federal appeals court today ruled that the California Department of Transportation’s equal opportunity program for contracting businesses fairly and constitutionally ensures that minority- and women-owned businesses have equal ground to compete for federal contracts. Read More

Download the Spring 2013 ACLU of Northern California Newsletter and read about our latest events and initiatives. Read More

This morning the Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee voted to pass AB 154 – the Early Access to Abortion Bill – by a vote of 9 to 4. The bill is expected to move to the Assembly Health Committee later this month. Read More

Today, the ACLU of Northern California filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco and San Francisco Police Chief Gregory Suhr on behalf of a civil rights activist, Bob Offer-Westort, whose cell phone was searched by the San Francisco Police Department without a warrant after he was arrested while engaging in peaceful civil disobedience. Read More

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano has introduced the School Success and Opportunity Act, Assembly Bill 1266, co-authored by Senator Mark Leno and Senator Ricardo Lara. The bill will ensure that California public schools understand their responsibility for the success and well-being of all students, including transgender students, and will allow transgender students to fully participate in all school acti... Read More

Sacramento – Sen. Mark Leno has introduced new legislation, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of California and a mber of other organizations, that reforms California’s drug sentencing laws for simple possession.The bill, SB 649, allows counties to significantly reduce incarceration costs by giving prosecutors the flexibility to charge low-level drug possession for personal use as a ... Read More

On the 40th Anniversary of the landmark decision Roe v. Wade, state leaders, women's health and rights groups, announced the introduction of a bill that would improve abortion access. The bill, AB 154, authored by Assemblymember Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), improves access by expanding the types of health professionals who can provide early abortions. Read More

Today a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that challenges unconstitutional provisions in Proposition 35. "The court recognized that Prop 35's online speech regulations are overly broad and violate the First Amendment," said Linda Lye, staff attorney at the ACLU-NC. "Stopping... Read More

Following a California Superior Court order on Nov. 30, 2010, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) released 989 pages of heavily redacted records to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC). The documents reveal a "secret mission" by the Department to acquire sodium thiopental, a controlled substance used as part of California's lethal injec... Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will grant review in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the challenge to California’s Proposition 8, and in Windsor v. United States, the ACLU’s challenge to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. The ACLU of California was co-counsel with Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights in In Re Marriage Cases, the case that legalized marriage for Calif... Read More