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Today’s order from the three-judge panel overseeing the standing federal court order to reduce the state’s prison population to 137.5 percent of capacity gives the state an additional two year extension to comply, and Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ are justifiably concerned about ongoing constitutional violations inside the prisons due to the continued overcrowding. Read More

Just under a month ago, the California State Board of Education was tasked with reviewing and voting on the emergency spending regulations and accountability template, the rules that govern how school districts must use the funding they have received under Governor Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and how they will be held accountable to ensuring that the promise of the LCFF becomes a ... Read More

In 1996, the people of California passed an initiative to ensure that “seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes.” This initiative (Proposition 215), as well as a later law passed by the Legislature (S.B. 420), makes it clear that California patients and their caregivers can grow and cultivate marijuana for medical use. However, at the end of 2013 t... Read More

Oakland Police Department (OPD) documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California and released for the first time today reveal an example of OPD officers engaging in unconstitutional selective enforcement based on political ideology, underscoring serious and ongoing concerns about the city’s planned Domain Awareness Center and its potential for abuse. Read More

We are pleased that following our shareholder advocacy, AT&T has now joined Verizon and released its first transparency report. AT&T’s report shows how large volumes of customer information have been disclosed, typically without a warrant. Read More

Today, the effort to repeal the School Success and Opportunity Act—California’s new law ensuring that all children have opportunities to do well in school—failed to qualify for the ballot. Read More

Today parents and physicians dismissed their lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District (CUSD), whose sex education curriculum was not in compliance with California state law. As a result of the lawsuit, the district has made dramatic improvements to sex education, including removing wrong and biased materials, adding information about contraception, and training teachers. Read More

Government agencies from the NSA to local law enforcement have taken advantage of weak protections for “metadata” to build huge databases about ordinary Americans. In response, the ACLU of California today released “Metadata: Piecing Together a Privacy Solution,” a new policy paper that offers a way forward. Read More

Our new policy paper, Metadata: Piecing Together a Privacy Solution, examines how outdated laws and new technologies combine to put personal privacy at risk and proposes a way forward to ensure that sensitive data of any type gets the protection it deserves. Read More

A year ago, Kyle Thompson a young, Black, freshman was led away from his school in handcuffs and ultimately expelled from school. His offense? Mistakenly thinking that his teacher's attempt to take a note for him was a joke and playfully trying to get the note back. When he realized this wasn't play, he immediately let her have the note. That misunderstanding left Kyle out of school and facing cri... Read More