News & Commentary

California had the chance to be a leader in requiring police to get a warrant to use surveillance technology. But Gov. Brown vetoed a bill, AB 1327, that would have done just that for police drones.

ACLU of Northern California report confirms Latino community's experience with racial profiling by California Highway Patrol in Fresno County.

On a visit to the ACLU office in San Francisco, my sons Cyrus and Juno, age 11 and 7, stood in the hallway. Come in my office, I asked them. But they wouldn’t budge. I stepped back in the hallway to see what had their attention. It was the giant “Banned Books” poster mounted on the wall. On the poster are some of their favorite books, including A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein.

Last week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved $2.1 million for legal services for refugee children and families in the County who are facing deportation. It is the first county in the country to do so, although legislation to allocate $3 million from the State for this purpose is currently on Governor Brown’s desk.

It’s back to school season, which means children across the country are gearing up for the new school year. While some students are excitedly stocking up on Lisa Frank folders and One Direction backpacks, others are dreading that first day of school, where they will have to suffer the indignity of being one of the only students in the whole class whose family couldn’t afford to buy them new school supplies.

When I was in high school, I had to choose three books to read as part of my summer reading prerequisites for one of my Advanced Placement classes. I chose The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya.

My parents are classical musicians. As a young girl, my parents demanded I practice my violin for hours, perfecting the work by the masters, gaining an understanding of the nuances that defined their artistic choices.

This week is the 32nd annual Banned Books Week, the celebration of the freedom to read. All week, ACLU-NC staff members will be blogging about the impact that banned books have had on their lives.

New documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California appear to show the Florida-based Harris Corporation misleading the Federal Communications Commission while seeking authorization to sell its line of Stingray cell phone surveillance gear to state and local police. The documents raise the possibility that federal regulatory approval of the technology was based on bad information. The ACLU today wrote a letter to the FCC asking for an investigation.