Research & Publications

The California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (“CVRA” or “Act”) is one of the state’s most significant civil rights laws and a powerful tool to combat vote dilution. Authored by then-Senator Richard Polanco and inspired by the vision of voting rights giant Joaquin G. Avila, the CVRA was enacted in 2002 to address the persistent harms of dilutive at-large election systems in California—systems that have long silenced the voices of political and racial minorities and blocked communities from translating political organizing into electoral victories.

California's Native American students learn and grow amid a fundamental contradiction: while their families, cultures, and Tribes embrace education as central to their ways of life, California's school systems too often fail to provide them with an equitable and inclusive education.

Long before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state must provide a lawyer to poor people charged with crimes, many counties in California already did so. Yet today, after years of neglect by the state, California is in the midst of a decades-long public defense crisis.

This report highlights the remaining barriers that conviction and incarceration impose with respect to bodily autonomy, family unity, and reproductive futures, and proposes solutions to these challenges.

California’s immigration detention facilities are plagued by severe and ongoing human rights abuse.

In recent decades, surveillance has increased exponentially. It has not made us safer. On the contrary, the explosion in AI means that surveillance systems will become more powerful and more dangerous every year. This guide makes the case for non-surveillance interventions, giving policymakers the resources they need to meet this moment.

This joint report from ACLU NorCal and Catalyst California (formerly Advancement Project California) highlights strategies Sacramento County leaders should make to improve community safety and reduce systemic racial inequity in the criminal legal system. An analysis of 2019 data collected under California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) found that the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office disproportionately stops Black people for traffic violations.

California prisons systematically profile and report suspected immigrants to ICE, a new public record act investigation reveals.

In 2021, we partnered with the Black Bill of Rights to develop a community toolkit for people seeking to address systemic oppression and anti-Black racism. The Black Bill of Rights is a resource hub that provides education, templates, and data for communities to take action and develop policies and practices that restore freedom and opportunity for Black people in the United States. It is an ever-evolving online place for Black leaders to share, learn from one another, and grow together.