By Hector Villagra, Executive Director, ACLU of Southern California The consent decree secured by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the Justice Department accomplished its purpose by and large. This is no longer your father’s Los Angeles Police Department.
By Hector Villagra, Executive Director, ACLU of Southern California, and Stephen Rhode, Chair, ACLU Foundation of Southern California On May 15, 1923, angered by the LAPD’s brutal treatment of striking longshoremen, journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair appeared at a rally … Continue reading
By Peter Bibring, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU of Southern California and Jennifer Lynch, Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using sophisticated cameras, called “automated license plate readers” or ALPR, to scan and record the license plates of millions … Continue reading
by Joey Hernandez, LGBTQ Student Rights Advocate Over the years, the north steps of the State Capitol have seen some fierce advocacy by queer youth from across the state of California. The ACLU of California is keeping that legacy alive … Continue reading
by Hector Villagra, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California Historian Eric Foner has said that “[l]ike all great historical transformations, emancipation was a process, not a single event. It arose from many causes and was the work of … Continue reading
By Esha Bhandari, Equal Justice Works Fellow, ACLU & Carmen Iguina, Equal Justice Works Fellow, ACLU of Southern California In a landmark ruling yesterday, Federal District Judge Dolly M. Gee ordered the federal government to provide legal representation for immigrant detainees in California, Arizona … Continue reading
By Michael Tan, Staff Attorney, Immigrants’ Rights Project, ACLU National Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a landmark ruling that curtails one of the most wasteful and draconian features of our immigration lock-up system: the … Continue reading
By Elizabeth Gill, ACLU of Northern California Staff Attorney Today the LGBT rights world was a flurry of activity, with Facebook feeds full of red for marriage equality and people the country over intently focused on what was happening inside … Continue reading
By Carmen Iguina and Michael Kaufman This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s declaration in Gideon v. Wainwright that the Constitution guarantees indigent criminal defendants the right to appointed counsel. The Supreme Court described a “noble ideal” … Continue reading
By Jennie Pasquarella, ACLU of Southern California and Axel Caballero, Cuéntame Where would you expect to find half-a-dozen patrol cars on New Year’s Eve? In Bakersfield, California, ranked in the highest ten percent of the most violent cities in America, … Continue reading
Because freedom can't protect itself.
There are many who seek to consolidate their power at the expense of others, and the ACLU helps balance the scales by defending justice, freedom and fairness.
The American Civil Liberties Union has earned a four-star rating from 
