Legal Docket

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

As part of a settlement agreement the Oakland Police Department (OPD) has agreed to end the use of less lethal weapons against demonstrators. The suit was brought by 52 participants of a peaceful anti-war protest that occurred on April 7, 2003. Representation of the group included the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, and a team of civil rights attorneys. At le... 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

California Supreme Court affirms the validity of second-parent adoptions, which permit both partners in a lesbian or gay couple to establish a legal relationship with their child. Read More