Jun 23, 2003
The landmark case Clement v. California Department of Corrections was brought on behalf of Pelican Bay prisoner Frank Clement by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the Prison Law Office. Clement filed a federal court challenge to the California Department of Corrections policy prohibiting inmates at the prison from receiving any mail that contains material printed from the Internet. A U.S. district court judge ruled that prisoners have a First Amendment right to receive mail that contains material printed from the Internet and barred the California Department of Corrections from "enforcing any policy prohibiting California inmates from receiving mail that contains Internet-generated information."
Jun 18, 2003
Filed in 1999 on behalf of African-American, Latino, and Pilipino American applicants to UC Berkeley, Castaneda v. Regents of the University of California alleged that the university's admission procedures unfairly disadvantaged applicants of color in violation of their federal civil rights by not taking into account the full range of indicators of "merit." The parties were able to settle the case because of UC Berkeley's decision to use "comprehensive review" for every applicant. A federal judge in San Francisco approved a consent decree, which requires the Regents to take certain steps to ensure compliance with civil rights laws.
Apr 22, 2003
The federal government settles a lawsuit that made public, for the first time, hundreds of records about the government's secret "No-Fly" list.
Feb 27, 2003

Racial profiling by law enforcement has long plagued communities of color. The 2003 settlement in our racial profiling case established a moratorium on California Highway Patrol consent searches.

Aug 13, 2002

The Visalia Unified School District has agreed to adopt sweeping reforms to address anti-gay harassment, including groundbreaking measures to train staff and students with the goal of preventing harassment before it happens.

The settlement ends a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union over routine harassment of lesbian and gay students, some of whom were then forced into a special program for students with behavioral problems.

Aug 07, 2002
ACLU Amicus Brief asking the California Supreme Court to determine the extent to which the Constitution limits the state's power to authorize a content-based injunction restraining a private individual's criticism of his previous employer.
Jun 28, 2002

ACLU Foundation of Northern California Amicus Brief arguing that if a school superintendent does not offend the First Amendment by retaliating for the speech at issue in this case would be to find that teachers are automatons – that every moment of class time can be scripted, and that the school administrators can control every classroom utterance even if they have no constitutional or pedagogical justification for doing so.

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