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.

ACLU of Northern CA
Case

School District Changes Its Unconstitutional Cell Phone Search Policy

Apr 16, 2008
In response to a March 3, 2007, letter from the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the Linden Unified School District has agreed not to read private text messages stored on students’ cell phones unless there is good reason to believe that the search will provide evidence that the student was violating the law or breaking a school rule. The district’s new policy also limits the scope of the ... Read More
riot police at parade
Case

Free Speech and Olympic Torch: Seeking Answers from the City

Apr 10, 2008
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has serious concerns about the city's decision to change the route of the Olympic torch relay in an apparent attempt to avoid protestors. On April 10, the day after relay, we filed a request under the Sunshine Ordinance for records on the city's relay route planning and crowd control policies.Leading up to the torch relay, we worked to guarantee that... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommate.com

Apr 03, 2008
Two Southern California fair housing organizations sued Roomate.com, an Internet-based roommate matching service, arguing that the website must be held responsible for postings on the site that violate federal fair housing laws. Roommate.com argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects websites from liability for content posted by third parties, gives it complete immu... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

ACLU Foundations of California v. AT&T and Verizon

Mar 16, 2008
The ACLU Foundations of California has sued telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon to stop them from continuing to provide the National Security Agency (NSA) with the personal phone records of millions of California customers.Since September 11, 2001, the telephone companies have been providing the NSA with customers' records, including phone numbers for incoming and outgoing calls, and ti... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Bank Julius Baer & Co. LTD. v. Wikileaks

Mar 05, 2008
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) successfully defended the First Amendment when they persuaded a federal district court judge in San Francisco to dissolve an order requiring a domain registrar to shut down the domain name Wikileaks.org in a dispute over documents allegedly posted on the site by a former employee of Swiss Bank Julius Baer. Read More
student waiting for bus
Case

Scott v. Napa Valley USD (Redwood Middle School Dress Code)

Aug 20, 2007
In March 2007, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a lawsuit in Napa Superior Court on behalf of five families, seeking judicial relief from an unconstitutionally vague, overbroad, and restrictive dress code enforced by Redwood Middle School and the Napa Valley USD. Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

People v. Broderick Boys

Apr 23, 2007
The District Attorney of Yolo County in late December 2004 sought a permanent injunction against the Broderick Boys “gang,” attempting to place on permanent probation, without any trial or due process, hundreds of residents of a predominantly Latino neighborhood in West Sacramento. In July 2005, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a motion to set aside the permanent injunction for lac... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Zhang v. Gonzales

Feb 08, 2007
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, the Asian Law Caucus and the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a class action lawsuit challenging the United States Custom and Immigration Services' (USCIS) failure to process citizenship applications within a reasonable time period. The lawsuit is based on federal laws that require timely processing of imm... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Barrett v. Rosenthal (Internet Free Speech Victory)

Nov 20, 2006
The issue raised in Barrett v. Rosenthal was whether the protection of the Communications Decency Act's Section 230 applies to individuals who frequently use the Internet to pass on information obtained elsewhere, whether by forwarding an email written by someone else or, as was the case in Barrett, posting an email from someone else to a newsgroup. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

Berkeley Police Association v. City of Berkeley

Oct 31, 2006
The Berkeley Police Association is seeking to shut down the open public hearing process that has made Berkeley's Police Review Commission (PRC) a model for the nation since its creation in 1973. In the wake of the recent Copley Press v. San Diego County decision (which severely limits public access to the disciplinary records of police officers), the police association is hoping to exclude the pu... Read More
Police cruiser parked in front of police station
Case

San Francisco Gang Injunctions

Oct 05, 2006
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has historically opposed civil gang injunctions because of their unfair impact on civil liberties, their potential for racial profiling, and due process concerns. In September 2006, the City Attorney of San Francisco sought the city's first civil gang injunction in the Bayview neighborhood.  On June 21, 2007, the city filed two new gang injun... Read More
ACLU of Northern CA
Case

People of the State of California v. Oakdale Mob

Sep 27, 2006
In response to the City's first request for a civil injunction against an alleged gang in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed an amicus brief on October 17, 2006 asking the Court to deny the City Attorney's request for preliminary injunction at the scheduled October 30, 2006 hearing. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California asked the Court to c... Read More