News & Commentary

UPDATE! Gov. Brown has signed AB 302!

Beverly Tucker is a longtime supporter of the ACLU, serving on the board since September 2010 and previously from 1987 until 1990. We're honored to have Beverly's leadership expertise and deep knowledge of policy change in both the organizational and governmental spheres.

Every year, the ACLU of California sponsors several bills in the California Legislature. What does it mean to “sponsor” a bill? In most cases, it means we have been involved in drafting the bill, providing input on the text. But we never work alone. Most of our bills are co-sponsored with other advocacy groups. The bill language is thus the result of a collaboration between the co-sponsors and the legislator who is carrying the bill, called the “author.”

Here in California, students have a fundamental right to equal education opportunity. And yet, one in five students doesn't graduate high school in four years. So we’ve launched www.MySchoolMyRights.com, a multi-media campaign intended to educate students on their rights and empower them to have a say in their education.

In response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, the Sacramento Sheriff has now admitted that it used intrusive cellphone surveillance technology – commonly known as a “StingRay” – without obtaining court approval. Days after this stunning admission, the Sheriff publicly announced a new policy for the use of StingRay technology. While having an actual policy in place is certainly a step in the right direction, the new policy raises serious concerns.

Hi, my name is Ngan. I’m a tenth grader at Oakland Technical High School, and I’m a sex education activist.

It was a really good week in California for privacy rights. The legislature passed the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA SB 178) with strong bipartisan support. The bill is now on Gov. Brown’s desk, and he needs to hear from all of us that it’s time to update privacy law for the modern digital world and sign CalECPA into law.

SB 249 would allow the DMV to issue driver’s licenses that include a tiny RFID chip that broadcasts your personally identifying information.