Court Cases

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a lawsuit against Dignity Health for the hospital chain’s use of religious directives to deny basic reproductive health care to its patients. The suit argues that withholding pregnancy-related care for reasons other than medical considerations is illegal in California.

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.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California today asked the Supreme Court of California to provide justice to people unlawfully sentenced as teenagers to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The ACLU is challenging a Fresno County ban on the cultivation and storage of medical marijuana in the California Supreme Court. The ban is inconsistent with California’s 1996 voter-approved Compassionate Use Act, which allows seriously ill patients and caregivers to grow medical marijuana.

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.

In April 2013, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Justice to enforce the public's right to information about the federal government’s use of a surveillance tool commonly known as a StingRay. StingRays simulate a cell tower and trick all wireless devices on the same network in the vicinity to communicate with the device. 

Four servicewomen and the Service Women's Action Network, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, filed an amended complaint in their lawsuit against the Department of Defense for its ongoing blanket exclusion of women from thousands of ground combat positions.