News & Commentary

Each year, thousands of Californians are kept in jail awaiting trial simply because they can't afford to post bail.

As a matter of organizational policy, the ACLU doesn't take a position supporting or opposing presidential or judicial nominations. We do, however, educate the American people and the Congress about nominees’ records and past positions.

Rallying in response to the news of Donald Trump’s election? Read, print, and share our new demonstrators’ rights wallet cards.

Back in the day, a student who broke school rules or otherwise misbehaved would be reprimanded by a teacher or sent to the principal’s office. But today, school administrators are increasingly relying on law enforcement to keep students in line, and the results can be dire.

California now has some of the strongest protections against policing for profit in the country. Although we had several legislative successes this year, two important, ACLU-sponsored bills died in the Legislature.

It’s hard to speak with your face pressed against concrete. Or when you can’t breathe. Or with a broken neck. And even when you manage to speak, people in power seek to silence you. Just ask the San Francisco 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick.

Earlier this month, a too familiar tragedy unfolded in East Los Angeles when Los Angeles police officers shot and killed 14-year-old Jesse Romero. Witness accounts vary — the police department says Romero fled when officers approached him on suspicion of scrawling graffiti in his neighborhood, then fired at officers. Some civilians say he had a gun but tossed it away.As

Asbury Howard, a black leader and organizer who headed an effort to register black voters in Alabama, was convicted in January 1959 for having a poster made from a newspaper cartoon.

Every year on the first Tuesday of August, the National Association of Neighborhood Watch sponsors a “National Night Out.” The tenor of these events usually reinforce the idea that neighborhood watch and police-community partnerships are the pathway to public safety.