Court Cases

We're challenging the governor's authority to reverse parole as a violation of the rights of young people.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California, along with Sullivan & Cromwell, won a lawsuit to protect the constitutional rights of defendants with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities in California.

The ACLU and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a class action lawsuit seeking to stop censorship and termination of federally funded scientific research.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California sued the city of Modesto over an ordinance that unlawfully bans anonymity and safety gear at protests.

The ACLU of Northern California filed a lawsuit to compel the city of Vallejo to release public records that contain information about officers in the Vallejo Police Department who allegedly bent their badges after on-duty shootings as a badge of honor. Following litigation, the City of Vallejo was forced to release a long-suppressed third-party investigation into the allegations.

We filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's policy of arresting immigrants when they appear for court in Northern California and holding them in inhumane conditions inside the San Francisco ICE field office.

In November 2025, the ACLU and the ACLU of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking transparency about the Department of Homeland Security’s policies and practices related to people filming immigration and law enforcement activity.

Davi Luks, a retired schoolteacher and longtime Contra Costa County resident, wanted to protest the human cost of the war in Gaza. So, he posted several signs and flags on his property in El Sobrante in the county’s unincorporated area. County code enforcement fined him $4,300, claiming he had violated the county’s sign ordinance – a flagrant violation of his First Amendment rights. Today, the ACLU of Northern California filed a federal lawsuit against Contra Costa County on behalf of Luks. It calls for the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional. The suit also demands that county officials return Luks' unlawful $4,300 fine and remove the lien from his property.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the ACLU of the District of Columbia sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over its unlawful attempt to obtain from Google the personal and location information of a Canadian citizen who has posted content critical of the Trump administration online. This case is among a large number of instances of social media critics who have been targeted by DHS. Since the start of the second Trump administration, social media platforms have received hundreds of similar government demands for information designed to chill speech the government doesn’t like. Our lawsuit asks the court to rule that DHS is exceeding its legal authority by demanding vast swaths of personal information about the plaintiff, including his name, where he lives, extensive information about his physical movements, and detailed records about the websites he visits and the people he communicates with online. On his social media accounts, the plaintiff, John Doe, who uses a pseudonym to protect his privacy and family, regularly posts strongly worded criticisms of President Trump and his policies. In February, DHS issued an administrative demand to Google to release his personal information shortly after he posted online criticism of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis. The attempt to force Google to turn over information about Mr. Doe far exceeds DHS’s legal authority, which the agency issued without any involvement from a court, citing a customs enforcement law. Mr. Doe, a Canadian citizen who resides in Canada, has not entered the U.S. since 2015. The ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the ACLU national organization have filed three other cases challenging similar abuses, but DHS withdrew those subpoenas before a judge could rule on their legality. This lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, goes a step further than previous challenges. It asks the court to not only invalidate this summons, but also make clear that the government may not use its customs enforcement authority to attempt to identify and intimidate its critics.