News & Commentary

With all the tumultuous news these days, it's easy to forget a national, ongoing tragedy — the more than 200 children who have yet to be reunited with their parents since the Trump administration forcibly separated them. For them, there is no luxury of having their attention diverted by the day's latest news. They are experiencing a profound trauma.

California's 2018 legislative session has ended, and we have some huge victories to celebrate! This year, California passed groundbreaking legislation to increase police accountability, provide quality sexual education to charter school students and keep innocent people out of prison, to name just a few.

In a disturbing trend, government officials and police departments have been thwarting public oversight by using communications apps that automatically delete messages.

In January 2018, Border Patrol agents boarded a Greyhound bus in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and demanded identification from passengers. Videos of the encounter went viral — showing these agents, with "POLICE" emblazoned on their vests, escorting a woman of Caribbean descent in her 60s off the bus. In the background, someone filming says, "This is new?"

On Saturday, we're celebrating Bisexual Pride in West Hollywood. Featuring a Bi Visibility Walk, an info fair, and of course a party, WeHo Bi Pride is believed to be the first event of its kind ever officially sponsored by a U.S. city and coincides with global observances of Bisexual Awareness Week. The ACLU SoCal is proud to co-sponsor WeHo Bi Pride 2018, alongside amBi and the Human Rights Campaign. Here are five reasons why we're showing up for Bi Pride:

For years, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has pulled middle and high school students out of class to conduct daily, metal detector searches. As numerous students have shared, school administrators walk into a classroom and pick out students at will, wand their bodies, and rummage through their belongings. Aside from losing valuable learning time, students undergo this humiliating procedure even if they have done nothing wrong.

Recent stories about Amazon's invasive face scanning surveillance technology and Cambridge Analytica's exploitation of Facebook data have brought the impact of surveillance and data misuse to the fore. But many people don't realize how often local law enforcement agencies acquire and use similar tec

The ACLU Fights Back by Getting Detainees Access to the Outside World — In the past few weeks, shocking images of children jailed by immigration enforcement officials have sparked protests, fundraisers and op-eds across the nation. But these cruel actions by anti-immigration forces was not new.

Many of us have been overwhelmed with emotion as we respond to the pictures and sounds of the separated — and sometimes caged — children, sobbing to be reunited with their parents. As experts tell us more about the damaging long-term effects of this kind of family separation, our horror only increases. For some, it’s just too painful to watch and listen.