Legal Docket

The issue in this case is whether the California Constitution allows the government to underwrite part of the cost of a religious school's borrowing money to construct facilities. The government issues tax-exempt bonds to nonprofit organizations, acting as a conduit between the organization and lender, so that the interest on the loan is not taxed. This allows the organization to borrow money at... Read More

Should a criminal defendant have the burden of proving that a prosecutor's peremptory challenges to all of the Native American jurors in the jury pool were "predominantly" based on race or is it enough to show that one of the reasons for the challenges was based on racial stereotypes? Read More

An appeal was filed to halt the execution of Donald Beardslee, arguing that one of the drugs used in the procedure, Pavulon, would paralyze and leave him unable to signal if he was in pain, violating Beardslee's Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Death Penalty Focus filed an amicus brief arguing that the paralyzing dr... Read More

May the government block the donation of the Unabomber's writings to a university library to prevent the glorification of his crimes? Read More

Plaintiff Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund sued Governor Gray Davis (now Arnold Schwarzenegger) and other state officials for injunctive and declaratory relief seeking a determination that AB 205 was unlawfully enacted by the Legislature in violation of California Constitution, article II, section 10, subdivision (c), because it amends Proposition 22 but was not presented to the vot... Read More

Class action lawsuit to challenge the Transportation Security Administration's ("TSA's") administration and management of the "No-Fly List," a list circulated to commercial airlines and security personnel with instructions to detain and question any passenger whose name matches or is similar to one on the No-Fly List.The No-Fly List was implemented beginning in November 2001. Since then, it has re... Read More

In September 2003, President Bush signed the so-called “Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003,” the first federal criminal law banning abortion in the United States. This is one of three cases challenging that law. Read More

This case raises fundamental issues of freedom of expression in the creative arts.Literary artists and organizations supporting literary artists filed an Amicus brief contending that creative works such as a poem or painting cannot, on their face, constitute a true threat. Only the circumstances surrounding the communication of a poem or other creative work can transform it from protected expressi... Read More

This case challenged the threatened violation of the voting rights of thousands of California citizens, arising from the use of obsolete, unreliable, and discredited pre-scored punch card voting equipment in the election scheduled to take place on October 7, 2003 regarding the gubernatorial recall and the vote on Proposition 53 (Legislative Constitutional Amendment that would dedicate part of the ... Read More

This is a civil rights class action arising from unconstitutional and unlawful actions taken by the Oakland Police Department (“OPD”) in response to a peaceful nonviolent antiwar demonstration at the Port of Oakland on April 7, 2003. The named individual plaintiffs are demonstrators, legal observers, videographers, journalists, and dockworkers who were in the vicinity of the April 7th demonstratio... Read More

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... Read More

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 spec... Read More