News & Commentary

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.

A few weeks ago, Alameda County Sheriff Ahern requested authorization from the Board of Supervisors to upgrade the county’s StingRay surveillance equipment. Today, the Board again postponed the decision in order to develop a use-policy.

Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling which had found California’s death penalty unconstitutional. But although death penalty proponents may be claiming a big victory, today’s ruling is just another example of how dysfunctional California’s death penalty system is.

Last Friday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) made public proposed regulations on a new lethal injection protocol. This triggered the public comment period under California’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which ensures the public has a right to participate in every step of the regulatory process so that our concerns are addressed in a meaningful way.

Immigration agents wanted Heleno to sign a document that would've resulted in his immediate deportation. So they forced him.

In June, Fresno County Sheriff Mims allowed ICE agents to be stationed inside the local jail, stirring fear in a community she vowed to protect.

In response to the demands of a global coalition, Facebook announced changes on Oct. 30 to its user name policy designed to reduce abusive targeting and increase due process for users.

I joined the ACLU of Northern California staff as Executive Director in April 2009 during the period of arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC.