Court Cases

Complaint filed on behalf of Black students in the Visalia Unified School District who have faced ongoing racial hostility.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the ACLU Foundation and the law firm Durie Tangri LLP filed a lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco for its police department’s racially discriminatory enforcement practices.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California sued President Donald J. Trump, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for establishing and enforcing an unconstitutional and discriminatory Muslim ban.

The ACLU Foundations of California filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s Suspicious Activity Reporting program - a vast expansion of the federal government’s domestic intelligence network. The SAR program targets First Amendment-protected activity, encourages racial and religious profiling, and violates federal law. The plaintiffs are five U.S. citizens whose information has been entered into counterterrorism databases for engaging in lawful conduct.

The ACLU of Northern California filed a lawsuit against the City of Hayward and its Police Department for charging the National Lawyers Guild unlawful and excessive costs as the price of disclosing body camera footage the NLG requested under the California Public Records Act.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has filed a a lawsuit challenging the failure to provide adequate legal representation to criminal defendants throughout Fresno County who are unable to afford an attorney.

Lawsuit Seeks Information on FBI Activities in Northern CA Muslim Communities; Demand to comply with FOIA request stems from reports of community anxiety and fear over surveillance tactics. Following reports of anxiety and fear over FBI surveillance tactics in Muslim communities, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California joined with the Asian Law Caucus and the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2010 to file a Freedom of Information Act request in order to understand the scope of the FBI's activities, including the infiltration of Muslim communities and mosques through the use of informants.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California is asking Del Norte, Fresno, Mendocino, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Tulare, Madera, and Shasta counties to reverse their policies of requiring payment in advance of traffic court dates, or face possible legal action. These counties are currently withholding the right to contest a traffic citation until the fines and fees for the citation are paid in full. This practice is a clear violation of due process.