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.
This lawsuit charges that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) violated California's Right to Know Act, also known as SB 1421, which gives the public the right to access certain records relating to police misconduct and serious uses of force.
The ACLU of Southern California, the ACLU of Arizona, and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis filed a federal lawsuit in Arizona on behalf of three migrant rights activists surveilled, detained, searched, and interrogated at the border by the federal government.
Joseph Safuto, a person experiencing homelessness, sued the City of Los Angeles, challenging the city's practice of towing vehicles as a mechanism for collecting debt — in this case two unpaid parking tickets that resulted in a lapsed registration.
At the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, pregnant dockworkers who are not yet union members are routinely denied access to job assignments that would allow them to keep working safely.
Beginning in October 2018, the government operation secretly tracked the movements and actions of humanitarian activists who provided aid to migrants, leading to the activists being harassed and detained at the border.
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP filed a lawsuit charging that the Orange County Board of Supervisors violates California's landmark Brown Act as well as the U.S.