The ACLU Foundation of Southern California undertakes litigation when doing so is the most effective way to advance a civil liberties concern. We file lawsuits that will have an impact on people’s rights by setting a legal precedent or affecting the policies and actions of public officials. We both provide direct legal representation to people and file amicus (friend-of-the-court) briefs addressing civil liberties issues in cases initiated by others. All of the ACLU SoCal’s legal work is on a pro bono basis; we never charge for our legal services.
“The City and County of Los Angeles are attempting to use these curfews to suppress Black Lives Matter – L.A.’s right to protest,” said Melina Abdullah, a co-founder of BLM-L.A. “They are attempting to suppress our ability to fully mobilize and focus full attention on the true issue of concern
Pablo Simental, Jr. and three friends — all of whom were high school students — were walking towards the Wonderful College Prep Academy on their way to pick up prom passes when a police car pulled aside them as they walked.
In May of 2020, more than 900 people incarcerated in Lompoc had tested positive for the virus — that’s more than 65% of positive tests in all of Santa Barbara County, where the prison facilities are located.
More than 700 people, including several staff members, have tested positive for COVID-19 on Terminal Island in Los Angeles. At least nine have died.
Conditions at ICE detention centers and county incarceration facilities — where bunk beds are commonly three-feet or less apart, bathrooms are shared by large groups, and individuals are forced to be inches from each other, sometimes in chains — make it impossible to maintain the social distancin
This class-action lawsuit seeks to force Sheriff Don Barnes and Orange County to take urgent steps to remedy conditions in Orange County jails during the pandemic. Specifically, it calls for the immediate release of vulnerable and disabled people in jail, plus greatly expanded social distancing