News & Commentary

Eric Holder's recent announcement at the American Bar Association's Annual Meeting that he is taking steps as Attorney General to tackle the bloated federal mass incarceration crisis comes at a crucial, and welcome, time.

The California Assembly will soon vote on a bill (SB 397), which would allow the California DMV to distribute new drivers' licenses "enhanced" with tiny computer chips called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags.

A quarter of California’s public school students are English learners who are entitled by state and federal law to receive instructional support to become English proficient. This educational opportunity, however, has been denied to more than 20,000 of the English learner students who attend our state’s schools.

Today, we won another victory against one of the most draconian parts of our immigration system: the federal government’s practice of putting immigrants in long-term detention without the basic due process of a bond hearing.

More than 40% of all suspensions and about 10% of expulsions in California’s public schools are due to an offense known as “willful defiance.” But what is willful defiance?

Twenty years ago, I attended my first gay Pride celebration in my hometown of Nashville, Tenn. It marked the beginning of my advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ community -- and has informed all that I have done since. This is the work that drives me.

Throughout the summer, the ACLU of Southern California hosted a series of 'Brown Bag' lunch lectures led by attorneys, scholars, organizers and civic actors. This week, we are sharing highlights from these sessions in blog, video and Q&A format.

California’s adoption of a new funding system for our schools places us on the cusp of the biggest change to public school financing in a generation. This funding system, called the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), promises that the most vulnerable students in California will finally get a more equal chance at a good education.

Throughout the summer, the ACLU of Southern California hosted a series of ‘Brown Bag’ lunch lectures led by attorneys, scholars, organizers and civic actors. This week, we are sharing highlights from these sessions in blog, video and Q&A format.