News & Commentary

The Defense Department's longstanding policy barring women from thousands of ground combat positions was challenged today in a federal lawsuit by four servicewomen and the Service Women's Action Network.

Voting rights are under attack in this country as state legislatures nationwide pass voter suppression laws under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity. These voter suppression laws take many forms, and collectively lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right. 

By Duncan Roy, ACLU client Duncan Roy was arrested in November 2011 on a charge of extortion for threatening to blog about the legality of a real estate deal. He was held at a sheriff’s station in Lost Hills before being transferred to Men’s Central Jail.

Budget cuts, teacher layoffs and over-crowded classrooms have been headline stories across California in recent years, but Palisades High students were warned last week that now is the time to really pay attention to the crisis threatening their school year.'

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on behalf of people who say they were denied bail for minor offenses after being flagged by immigration authorities.

NEW YORK – A federal appeals court ruled today that the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) unconstitutionally discriminates against married same-sex couples. In striking down DOMA, the court held that government discrimination against lesbians and gay men now is assumed to be unconstitutional and that DOMA’s defenders could not offer any good reason for treating married same-sex couples differently from all other married couples.

By Sadhbh Walshe Last week, Sheriff Lee Baca of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) announced that he agrees with and plans to implement all of the 63 recommended reforms (pdf) issued by the Citizen's Commission on Jail Violence (CCJV). Baca's decision to embrace the reforms – he said, "I couldn't have written them better myself" – was met with cautious optimism by the CCJV, which was formed last year in the wake of scathing reports to investigate widespread and systemic abuses in the county jails. The questions remain, however, why it has taken the sheriff so long to actually acknowledge that the jail system he oversees is rife with abuse; and why, considering his failure to do so until now, he still has a job.