News & Commentary

For the third time in five years, California rejected a bill that would have greenlit government use of facial recognition across the state.

John Do is the ACLU of Northern California’s lead counsel for a lawsuit challenging the city’s costly and ineffective practice of destroying unhoused individuals’ belongings, and citing, arresting, and moving them without offering shelter. For Do, who grew up poor in subsidized public housing, ending homelessness is personal. “I’ve always seen homelessness as a direct result of decades of poor policymaking and a lack of investment in affordable housing,” said Do, a senior attorney with the Racial and Economic Justice Program. “Without it, I know with one hundred percent certainty that my family would have been homeless.”

Dozens of mentally ill people have died in California jails when they should have been in state hospitals receiving treatment. An ACLU lawsuit demands answers.

The ACLU of Northern California is closely monitoring the campus protests and the university and law enforcement responses in our region, particularly at California Polytechnic Humboldt. We are receiving and reviewing legal intakes from campuses across the region, including Stanford University and UC Berkeley.

Automatic license plate readers collect and store highly sensitive information that can reveal where we work, live, worship, or seek reproductive health services. Sharing any ALPR information with out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies has been forbidden in California since 2016.

Companies and legislators are using misleading test scores to justify the expansion of facial recognition into our communities. That flawed approach understates the threat this dangerous technology poses to civil rights.

This guide is designed to assist people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who do not have a lawyer to complete and file a “petition for writ of habeas corpus.”