News & Commentary

Facebook just announced concrete changes to its harmful “real name” policy. Following up on its promise to groups including the ACLU of California, the changes are meant to reduce risks such as abusive reporting and lockouts of users and their speech from the site.

I'm one of these brothers that have been through the front gates of San Quentin and the front gates of the White House, and I can't necessarily say that was a short stroll. I wish I could say it was an easy thing to do.

Used tape. A dirty toothbrush. A rose with no petals. A chewed up piece of gum. The list goes on. Abstinence-only sex ed programs are notorious for using tragically bad sex metaphors to push their harmful agenda. Parents in Redding, California recently learned that their eighth-graders’ school would be teaching that “sex is like a fire” —dangerous and scary, outside the “fireplace” of marriage.

We just got a pile of public records from the police department in Fresno, California. Fresno police have been using several different brands of social media surveillance software – all without the public’s consent. What’s worse, the ACLU has discovered that Fresno police have been using an especially offensive piece of software called MediaSonar, which encourages the police to identify “threats to public safety” by tracking #BlackLivesMatter-related hashtags.

Rather than sinking more resources into incarceration, San Francisco should invest in smart approaches to crime prevention and public safety. Building a new jail will duplicate the mistakes of the past and exacerbate the failings of our current system.

Never has it been more important for students to know their rights, especially in the face of increasing police presence in our schools.

On Dec. 13, we're going to celebrate in Oakland—and here are 10 reasons why YOU should join us! Because the Bill of Rights belongs to us all. No matter how much money you make, what your skin color is, or your immigration status.

Today, the ACLU sent the Butte County Board of Supervisors a letter to warn them that their proposal to take $650,000 from the Inmate Welfare Fund – a fund that is supposed to be used for inmates’ welfare and not everyday costs associated with housing them – to help pay for the cost of building a new county jail is illegal as well as just bad public policy.

Not only has the Orange County Sheriff’s Department been secretly facilitating efforts by jailhouse informants to elicit statements from fellow inmates, but the Orange County District Attorney’s office appears to have systemically concealed evidence about these informants from defense attorneys, including evidence that would exonerate defendants.