Legal Docket

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a class action lawsuit to compel Tulare County to take immediate precautions to prevent a severe spread of COVID-19 that would expose approximately 1,900 incarcerated people to serious illness or death. Read More

The Unitarian Universalist Church in Fresno has displayed Black Lives Matter Banners on its property since the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017—part of Unitarian Universalism’s national Side With Love campaign. The banners were on display when Unitarian Universalist Church served as a polling place during the June 2018 elections. But prior to the November 2018 elections, Fres... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a discrimination complaint under the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP), on behalf of two black Bullard High School students in the Fresno Unified District, for failure to comply with the California Education Code and Fresno Unified School Board’s requirements pertaining to racially hostile environments and bullying. The UCP covers alleged violation... Read More

On December 28, 2018, the Madera County Jail re-imprisoned Ivan Santos Cuevas and unlawfully transferred him into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Santos Cuevas had been arrested the previous night, and was scheduled for release in the early morning. However, at the time of his release, Madera County Jail re-detained him, and held him until ICE agents arrived. On June 26, 2019,... Read More

In July 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit demanding records related to the treatment of immigrants detained by ICE, particularly transportation by contractor G4S Secure Solutions. In regions throughout the country, ICE subcontracts with G4S to transport immigrants in its custody. The private contractor ha... Read More

On January 14, 2019, Steven Madrid and Mikayla Garaffa, two Minarets High School students, had their pro-LGBTQ yearbook quotes rejected by school administrators who called the quotes “politically divisive.” After the quotes were rejected, the two students sent the district a letter from the ACLU national office to Minarets High School’s yearbook advisor and school principal, asserting their fr... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the law firm Rukin Hyland & Riggin LLP filed a lawsuit on March 21, 2019 on behalf of Oliver Knight, a 29-year-old transgender man who was denied health care based on the hospital’s religious views, which do not recognize gender-affirming care. On August 30, 2017, minutes before Mr. Knight was scheduled t... Read More

The ACLU of Northern California filed suit against the city of Berkeley on behalf of Berkeleyside, an online publication that was denied police records under the police transparency bill SB 1421. On Jan. 2, 2019, Berkeleyside requested records now available under the historic new law. On Jan. 18, the Berkeley City Attorney responded and refused to release any records created before Jan. 1. T... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed suit against Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones on behalf of Black Lives Matter leaders who were unlawfully blocked from the sheriff's official Facebook page. Tanya Faison and Sonia Lewis, co-leaders of Black Lives Matter Sacramento, have been vocal critics of the sheriff and other law enforcement officials. Both had comments deleted and were blocked... Read More

In January 2018, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that the money bail system in California violated due process and equal protection by imprisoning defendants prior to trial solely because they could not afford to pay bail. The ruling required Superior Court judges to consider both a defendant’s ability to pay and non-monetary alternatives to money bail when setting an amount of money bail... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the ACLU Foundation and the law firm Durie Tangri LLP filed a lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco for its police department’s racially discriminatory enforcement practices. Read More

In 2004, the FBI conducted a “threat assessment” of long-time journalists and commentators Justin Raimondo and Eric Garris, as well as their website, Antiwar.com. In violation of the federal Privacy Act, this threat assessment compiled descriptions of the journalists’ First Amendment activities without any apparent law enforcement purpose. Attorneys at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California an... Read More