News & Commentary

As an organization committed to racial justice and the rule of law, it is our obligation to put a spotlight on racism and its overzealous cousin, white supremacy. The Trump administration’s immigration policies are explicitly and implicitly fostering a belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that this nation will be better or stronger, whatever superlative fits, with more white people and fewer people of color.

While other states have aggressively rolled back voting rights, California long bucked the trend, making automated voter registration available through the DMV, printing voting materials in many languages, and restoring voting rights to Californians on parole. But recent developments demonstrate that California is not immune to Trump’s corrosive attacks on the integrity of the American electoral system.

For the past six years, Sonoma County's code enforcement section has run an ever-expanding drone surveillance program. They’ve launched more than 700 low-altitude flights that monitor and record residents, their homes and the areas surrounding them.

California applies the death penalty disproportionately to people of color, especially when the victim is white. A recent, rigorous statewide study found that Black people are up to 8.7 times as likely to be sentenced to death as similarly situated non-Black defendants, Latino people are up to 6.2 times as likely to be sentenced to death, and defendants of all races are up to 8.8 times as likely to be condemned to death when at least one of the victims in the case is white.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has filed a lawsuit to block Sonoma County code inspectors from using drones to conduct surveillance of people's homes without a warrant.

The U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request to stay a federal district court's order that had preserved Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants. What happens next?