Court Cases

The California Racial Justice Act (“RJA”) prohibits the State from pursuing convictions or sentences based upon race, ethnicity, or national origin. The law also permits challenges when such outcomes show racial bias or disparities. The ACLU of Northern California works to force prosecutorial transparency, engaging in a statewide effort to access information to develop and pursue potential RJA claims.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, Disability Rights Advocates, Legal Aid of Sonoma County, and California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Sebastopol for enacting an ordinance that prohibits vehicles “designed or altered for human habitation” from parking anywhere within city limits during the day.

In September 2020, the City of San Francisco filed a series of shockingly unprecedented lawsuits against 28 Bay Area residents. The City is seeking to use California’s public nuisance and Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”) statutes to banish individuals from the San Francisco's Tenderloin District for allegedly engaging in a few instances of street-level drug dealing.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati filed a class-action lawsuit to prevent the San Francisco Sheriff's Office from requiring that individuals agree to unconstitutional “four-way” searches and GPS location data-sharing as conditions of pretrial release on electronic monitoring.

The Coalition on Homelessness and several individual plaintiffs sued San Francisco over its punitive practice of seizing and destroying unhoused residents’ belongings during encampment sweeps in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the city’s own policies.

For years, Siskiyou County officials and the Siskiyou Sheriff’s Department have threatened, targeted, and intimidated Hmong American and other Asian American community members in an effort to isolate them and drive them out of the region. A new class action lawsuit led by four Asian American community members details how county officials have waged a systematic campaign of racist hostility and persecution, including restricting Asian Americans’ right to water and executing unlawful traffic stops, search and seizure practices, and property liens that are blatantly aimed at Asian Americans.

California activists are suing the Marin County Sheriff for illegally sharing drivers’ license plate data with ICE, CBP and other out-of-state agencies.

On January 27, 2022, we filed suit against San Mateo County Superior Court for their unlawful practice of automatically imposing a $300 charge every time an individual misses a payment or court deadline in their traffic infraction case. The Court administers this additional fee, known as the civil assessment, without judicial review, adequate notice, or consideration for a person’s circumstances.