Legal Docket
For decades, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California has used the courts to protect and expand the rights of all Californians. From fighting against the internment of Japanese Americans, to suing California Highway Patrol for targeting Black and Latinx drivers, the ACLU is building a more just state one lawsuit at a time.
Case
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and First Amendment Coalition v. City of Fresno (Public meetings law)
Nov 15, 2023
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the First Amendment Coalition have sued the City of Fresno for holding secret budget negotiations in violation of California’s open meetings law. The lawsuit calls on the court to order Fresno to comply with the Brown Act.
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Case
O'Neill Rogge et al v. Fleming (Criminal Justice)
Jul 31, 2023
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and our legal partner sued Santa Clara County Superior Court over its unfair policy requiring people who want to voluntarily address an outstanding arrest warrant to first go to jail if they are too poor to post bail.
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Case
In Re Ex Parte Application of Dr. Fredric Eshelman (anonymous online speech)
Jul 06, 2023
On June 21, 2023, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (“ACLU NorCal”) and co-counsel Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a motion to quash on behalf of J. Doe (“Doe”), an anonymous online user who was targeted by a subpoena seeking to unmask their identity after they criticized a wealthy pharmaceutical magnate named Fredric Eshelman.
Eshelman filed an ex parte application in fede...
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Case
UFW v. The County of Kern
May 09, 2023
The ACLU Foundations of Southern and Northern California and co-counsel Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Martínez Aguilasocho Law, Inc. filed a lawsuit today against Kern County and Kern County Superior Court for systematically denying poor misdemeanor defendants their constitutional rights to counsel and due process. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of UFW Foundation and three Kern County resident...
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Case
Asian Prisoner Support Committee v. CDCR
Apr 27, 2023
On April 27, 2023, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated Californians sued the state prison system for illegally discriminating against people suspected of being born outside the U.S. The lawsuit claims that the California prison system unlawfully discriminates against hundreds of people each year by referring people in custody to ICE for detention and deportation after they have served their tim...
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Case
Mendez v. ICE
Feb 24, 2023
Nine people detained at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, Calif., and the Golden State Annex in McFarland, Calif., filed a class action lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and GEO Group, the for-profit prison company that owns and operates the detention centers. They alleged that they and other detained people faced retaliation, including threats of solitar...
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Case
Martinez et al v. The City of Fresno
Feb 16, 2023
On March 16, 2022, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (“ACLU”) filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Fresno, urging the court to strike down a city ordinance that targets unhoused people, and puts unconstitutional restrictions on advocates, organizers, and reporters who try to draw attention to how the unhoused are treated during encampment sweeps. In February 2022, city officials am...
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Case
Stiavetti v. Ahlin (State Hospital Suit)
Dec 12, 2022
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has filed a lawsuit to protect the constitutional rights of defendants with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities in California.
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Case
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California v. Vallejo Police Department(Police misconduct)
Nov 22, 2022
The ACLU of Northern California has filed a lawsuit to compel the city of Vallejo to release public records that contain information about officers in the Vallejo Police Department who allegedly bent their badges after on-duty shootings as a badge of honor.
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Case
Navarro et al. v. City of Mountain View
Nov 04, 2022
On July 14, 2021, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Disability Rights Advocates, King & Spalding LLP, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise filed a class action complaint against the City of Mountain View for enacting two ordinances that, together, severely restricted when and where “oversized vehicles” (OSVs) could park in the City.
The plaintiffs i...
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Case
Yesue et al v. The City of Sebastopol
Oct 26, 2022
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, Disability Rights Advocates, Legal Aid of Sonoma County, and California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Sebastopol for enacting an ordinance that prohibits vehicles “used for human habitation” from parking anywhere within city limits during the day.
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Case
San Francisco's Attempt To Ban 28 Individuals from the Tenderloin
Oct 06, 2022
In September 2020, the City of San Francisco filed a series of shockingly unprecedented lawsuits against 28 Bay Area residents. The City is seeking to use California’s public nuisance and Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) statutes to banish individuals from the San Francisco's Tenderloin District for allegedly engaging in a few instances of street-level drug dealing.
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