News & Commentary

The Anaheim Police Department spent years secretly acquiring and deploying intrusive cell phone surveillance technology. Then they spent years fighting the ACLU's efforts to learn more about it. Today, we are releasing the complete set of documents that a court ordered Anaheim to release. Those documents show that Anaheim used a little-known "covert purchase" procedure to hide acquisitions valued at approximately $700,000, loaned its surveillance equipment out to jurisdictions all over Orange County and neighboring Riverside County, and claimed it would use the devices to catch "terrorists" when in fact they were later used to investigate a much broader array of crimes.

California is on the verge of passing Senate Bill 21 (SB 21), a strong bill that, in its current form, would help empower communities and their local elected officials to stop secret and discriminatory use of police surveillance technologies. Making sure state lawmakers enact robust surveillance reform laws is all the more important right now as the Trump administration equips its deportation force with surveillance capabilities, aggressively pursues political activists, and escalates pressure on sanctuary cities. Now is the time to make sure a strong SB 21 — with no further amendments — gets across the finish line.

“Apartheid was legal. The Holocaust was legal. Slavery was legal. Colonialism was legal. Legality is a matter of power, not justice.” —Jose Antonio Vargas

It's back to school time! You'll have your class schedules soon if you don't already, and we hope that you find a subject this year that really inspires you — whether it's art, math, history, science, P.E., or something else.

If you’re a middle or high school student in the Los Angeles Unified School District, you’ve probably been subjected to a “random” metal detector search – and if not, you’ve probably heard about them. Every day, school staff are required to interrupt class and search students and their belongings, even if they have done nothing wrong and there are no safety concerns at the school. This practice, like on-campus policing, is ineffective, intrusive, and excessive, and is applied in a discriminatory fashion against students of color and low-income students. Students aren’t suspects, and policing them undermines their education and damages school morale.

With a new school year comes new experiences, new choices, and new opportunities. One is the opportunity to make sure you and your friends have the information you need to help navigate the different decisions that may come up in your life. Some of the most important decisions you may face are around your reproductive and sexual health, and if you’re a young person in California, you have the rights and resources to get the health care you need.

There are some things you won't be able to avoid when the new school year starts up. Homework. Pop quizzes. Final exams.

In this time when our federal government has ordered ICE officials to aggressively pursue undocumented folks, it’s important to remind some of our most vulnerable populations about their constitutional rights.

Historian Timothy Snyder got it exactly right in his commentary on the political situation we face today "when the less popular of the two parties controls every lever of power at the federal level, as well as the majority of the statehouses."