Scales of Justice in Courtroom

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.

Fresno city workers trash peoples' possessions.
Case

Kincaid v. City of Fresno

May 21, 2009
A Federal judge approved an historic $2.35 million class action settlement to hundreds of Fresno's homeless residents. United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger had previously ordered that the City and the California Department of Transportation had violated homeless residents' constitutional rights in the practice of immediately seizing and destroying personal property. Throughout a two-year ... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

ACLU Foundation of Northern California v. City of Fresno

May 18, 2009
In February 2009, a Fresno television newscast aired a video of a police officer repeatedly punching Glen Beaty, a homeless man, as two officers took him into custody. In the video, Beaty does not appear to be struggling, resisting, or doing anything else that could warrant this level of force: he is lying on the ground as one officer holds his arm and the other punches him in the head. His arms a... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Sheehan v. San Francisco 49ers

Mar 02, 2009
Should San Francisco 49ers' fans have to give up their privacy as the price of admission to the game? Dan and Kathleen Sheehan think the answer is no and have filed a lawsuit challenging the 49er's policy, instituted in 2005, that requires every man, woman, and child attending a 49ers home game to submit to a pat-down search of their bodies. On March 2, 2009, the California Supreme Court rejected ... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Parkmerced Investors v. Does 1-18

Feb 12, 2009
Moving to protect the free speech rights of anonymous online posters, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a motion on Nov. 19, 2008 asking a San Francisco federal court to reject two landlords' attempt to require a website to identify people who had posted anonymous criticisms of their apartment complexes. The motion was jointly filed with Public Citizen. We further sought to have the... Read More
default statue of liberty torch
Case

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children v. Bowen

Jan 01, 2009
Throughout California, thousands of people are not allowed to vote because they are on parole for such statutory felonies as drug offenses and shoplifting. And while African-Americans constitute less than 7% of California's adult population, in 2006 they were approximately 28% of all those disenfranchised as a result of being in prison or on parole for a felony. The ACLU Foundation of Northern Cal... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Ahmadi v. Chertoff

Dec 22, 2008
Seeking to address years-long delays in the processing of citizenship applications, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and other civil rights organizations filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal government for its violation of the Constitution and federal law. Ahmadi v. Chertoff sought to enforce federal laws that require the government to decide a citizenship application within ... Read More
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Case

Maternal and Child Health Access v. Department of Health Care Services

Dec 16, 2008
On Dec. 16, 2008, the San Francisco Superior Court struck down a state law requiring that low-income working women must have resided in California for at least six months before becoming eligible to receive prenatal and other medical care services through California's Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) insurance program. Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Associated General Contractors of America v. California Department of Transportation

Oct 18, 2008
On September 14, 2009 ACLU Foundation of Northern California and civil rights allies filed a motion to intervene in Associated General Contractors of America v. California Department of Transportation.  The lawsuit, currently pending in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, was brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation and seeks to dismantle Caltrans' Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) p... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Kebin Reyes v. Alcantar

Sep 16, 2008
A settlement was finalized September 16 between the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in its case involving Kebin Reyes, a U.S. citizen who was six years old when he was illegally detained for ten hours by immigration officials. We argued that Kebin's constitutional rights were violated when he was taken from his home in San Rafael... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children; Immigrant Legal Resource Center; and Asian Law Caucus v. California Department of Corrections

Jul 29, 2008
The California corrections department is using underground, non-public guidelines, rather than lawful regulations, to decide whether to transfer California prisoners to other states as far away as Mississippi and Tennessee. This means that inmates and their families do not know how the prisons decide whom to transfer. It also leaves open the possibility that prison officials are using arbitrary an... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Settlement Protects Students from Anti-Gay Harassment

Jun 25, 2008
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California reached a settlement with a Lake County school district that contains a series of steps the district will undertake to protect students from anti-gay harassment and discrimination. The agreement is on behalf of a student who was persistently subjected to verbal taunting and physical abuse based on his sexual orientation.The ACLU Foundation of No... Read More