Legal Docket

The Los Angeles Times sought release of records from the California Commission on Police Officers Standards and Training regarding the appointment, promotion, and termination histories of various police officers. Trial court granted access to some of the requested information. Court of Appeal reversed it. The Los Angeles Times appealed. The ACLU Foundations of California filed an amicus brief in t... Read More

On January 17, 2006 the ACLU filed the first lawsuit against the Bush administration in connection with their spying program. "President Bush may believe he can authorize spying on Americans without judicial or Congressional approval, but this program is illegal and we intend to put a stop to it," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eas... Read More

Ruling requires policies to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in juvenile correction facility. Read More

Must victims of discrimination affirmatively request and be denied equal treatment before they may sue under the Unruh Act or the Gender Tax Repeal Act? Does advertising a sex-based price discount violate the Unruh Act or the Gender Tax Repeal Act? Read More

In July, 2005 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that there may no be any reason to bar the media from witnessing executions. Judge Hawkins writes, in his opinion for the en banc court, "We agree that executions are unquestionably matters 'of great public importance.' Pell, 417 U.S. at 830 n.7. Moreover, we believe that more information leads to a better informed public." While it had previo... Read More

The New Haven Unified School District and the City of Union City have each reached groundbreaking settlements with students in Union City as a result of a federal lawsuit brought by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California on behalf of three high school students whose civil rights were violated. On February 22, 2002 the three were rounded up along with a group of mostly Latino and Asian students... Read More

Does compulsory testing and maintenance of DNA from persons who are arrested for felony offenses and persons with past convictions who are no longer supervised by the criminal justice system violate the Fourth Amendment and federal privacy rights? Read More

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

On May 17, 2000, the ACLU Foundations of California, along with other civil rights organizations, filed a lawsuit against the State of California because of the terrible conditions in many of its public schools. We argued that the State is failing to provide thousands of public school students, particularly those in low income communities and communities of color, with the basic necessities req... Read More

For nearly 25 years, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) held an unwritten policy of segregating prisoners by race for, upon entry to a new facility. However, in February, 2005 the Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, declared this policy was not up to constitutional standards. The CDC implemented this policy in order to curb interracial violence. Upon entry to a new facility each... 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