News & Commentary

In response to the death of Geronimo Pratt, ACLU/SC Chief Counsel Mark Rosenbaum issued the following statement:

Not that we always agree with what we read in the O.C. Register's opinion pages, but an editorial proves today that on many issues, Libertarians (with a big "L") and civil libertarians share common ground.  

AB 9 is an important step toward creating a safer school environment for California students

We need checks on the government’s power -- we needed them when the country was founded, and we need them now -- because the government can and frequently does get it wrong.  And, when the government mistakenly marshals its resources against an individual, it can cause great harm. 

(LOS ANGELES)-The ACLU of Southern California announced that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of American citizen Samy Ali, to challenge the federal government’s revocation of his wife’s visa in retaliation for his exercising the right to counsel during FBI questioning.  The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Los Angeles – The U.S. Supreme Court today ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population in order to alleviate extreme overcrowding that endangers the health and safety of the state’s prisoners and prison staff.  The court ordered California to reduce its prison population to 137.5 percent of capacity. The system is nearly at 200 percent of capacity.

SACRAMENTO – Today, the California State Senate unanimously approved the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 – legislation that would require government agencies to seek a warrant in order to access consumers’ reading records from bookstores and online retailers. The bill – SB 602 authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) – would establish consumer protections for book purchases similar to long-established privacy laws for library records. 

ACLU