Gearing up for November: A Letter from Executive Director Abdi Soltani

Hands holding filled-out ballots

Ending Homelessness is Personal for John Do, ACLU NorCal Senior Attorney

John Do is the ACLU of Northern California’s lead counsel for a lawsuit challenging the city’s costly and ineffective practice of destroying unhoused individuals’ belongings, and citing, arresting, and moving them without offering shelter. For Do, who grew up poor in subsidized public housing, ending homelessness is personal. “I’ve always seen homelessness as a direct result of decades of poor policymaking and a lack of investment in affordable housing,” said Do, a senior attorney with the Racial and Economic Justice Program. “Without it, I know with one hundred percent certainty that my family would have been homeless.”

Senior attorney John Do traveled to the U.S. Supreme Court in April to hear oral arguments in Grants Pass v. Johnson,  the landmark homelessness case.

Dozens of Mentally Ill People Have Died in California Jails

Dozens of mentally ill people have died in California jails when they should have been in state hospitals receiving treatment. An ACLU lawsuit demands answers.

Markese Braxton

Human Rights and the US Constitution

Logo for the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

ACLU Defends Constitutional Right to a Meaningful Criminal Defense

Sixty years after a landmark Supreme Court case guaranteed the right to a free attorney for criminal defendants who can't afford a private lawyer, millions of low-income people are still being denied this basic constitutional right.

US Supreme Court Building

Why We Vehemently Oppose the Governor’s “CARE Court” Proposal — and So Should You.

Governor Newsom’s so-called “CARE Court” plan would create a new court system that subjects unhoused people with mental health disabilities to involuntary treatment.

Blue rectangle with a keychain that has a house trinket on it.

Our Vision to Achieve True Public Safety

We can increase equality, justice, and safety without resorting to criminalization and surveillance.

a person is holding a sign that says Black Lives Matter in front of the San Francisco City Hall building

Prosecutors Used Rap Lyrics as Evidence in a Murder Trial; that’s Racial Bias

Hip Hop artist on stage

Voters’ Decisions on Propositions 17 and 20 Bring Hope to Criminal Justice Reform in California

Young woman of color staffing desk at polling station with various voters in background, US flag on wall behind them.