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.

We are the 99%
Case

ACLU v. FBI (Occupy Surveillance)

Aug 24, 2012
In early 2012, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act request to enforce the public's right to information about government surveillance of the political movement "Occupy Wall Street." But after the FBI failed to provided documents, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California sued. The lawsuit is ongoing. Read More
Case

Palmer v. West Contra Costa County Unified School District

Jun 12, 2012
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed suit on behalf of two concerned taxpayers against the West Contra Costa Unified School District, over conditions at district's Community Day School Program. The lawsuit seeks to compel the district to relocate its Community Day School Program (CDSP) and to provide adequate staffing, instructional materials, and legally required services to its stude... Read More
DNA swab
Case

People v. Buza (Mandatory DNA Collection)

Jun 01, 2012
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has long been fighting against a provision of a 2004 California initiative (Prop. 69) that requires anyone arrested for a felony - including for crimes such as simple drug possession or joyriding - to provide a DNA sample that will be stored in a criminal database. Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

People v. Allen and Darocy

May 14, 2012
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed an amicus brief asking the Santa Cruz County Superior Court to dismiss felony conspiracy charges against two photojournalists who accompanied a group of activists into a vacant bank building. The journalists were arrested and charged with conspiracy, as well as trespass and vandalism, after they took and published photographs of the occupation. Read More
Case

ACLU Foundation of Northern California v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Dec 20, 2011
On Nov. 17, 2010, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a suit under the California Public Records Act to demand records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) about its recent acquisition of sodium thiopental, a controlled substance used as part of California's lethal injection protocol for executing death row inmates.In late September, the CDCR as... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Benjamin Brown v. Shasta Union High School District (Student Drug Testing)

Sep 06, 2011
Join the math team, take a drug test. That was the rule at the Shasta Union High School District, which enacted a policy requiring students to submit to random drug testing in order to participate in any school-sponsored activities, including choir, the science bowl, and the mock trial team. Mandatory suspicionless school drug testing, an approach promoted with fervor by the Bush Administration, v... Read More
needle
Case

ACLU Foundation of Northern California and SF Bay Guardian v. Food and Drug Administration

Aug 11, 2011
On January 4, 2011, The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and The San Francisco Bay Guardian (The Guardian) submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records related to the federal government’s role in assisting – or failing to oversee – efforts by state corrections agencies to acquire controlled substances. The lethal injection drugs wer... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Harris v. LADA (Death Penalty Costs)

May 18, 2011
The office of Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley has failed to disclose public documents on the costs of prosecuting capital cases, according to a lawsuit filed today by The American Civil Liberties Union Foundations of California (ACLU Foundations of California) on behalf of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ) at Harvard Law School. The lawsuit is for publ... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

ACLU Foundation of Northern California and SF Bay Guardian v. Drug Enforcement Administration

May 10, 2011
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and The San Francisco Bay Guardian (The Guardian) filed a preliminary injunction motion on April 28, asking the court to order the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to disclose records regarding the worldwide scramble for execution drugs by state prison officials. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and ... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Pacific News Service v. Cate

Sep 29, 2010
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a lawsuit in March 2006 raising a constitutional challenge to California's three-drug execution protocol. The lawsuit states that part of the three-drug regimen used to carry out executions in California acts as a chemical curtain. The drug conceals significant information, violating the First Amendment rights of the press and the public to be fully... Read More
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Case

Perry v. Schwarzenegger

Aug 25, 2010
On July 8, 2009, ACLU Foundation of Northern California, Lambda Legal, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights — representing LGBT community organizations Our Family Coalition, Lavender Seniors of the East Bay, and PFLAG — filed a motion to intervene in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which eliminated the right of ... Read More