News & Commentary

Human Rights Day focuses on equality and non-discrimination – the bedrock principles for all human rights.

Growing up in Orange County, I experienced firsthand how the Latinx community and our interests have been overlooked by our local government — namely the OC Board of Supervisors.  

In the summer of 2020, when so many of us joined Black-led protests and peacefully took to the streets to march, mourn, demand an end to police brutality and call for justice for George Floyd and the many other Black lives taken by police, California police spied from above with high-definition video surveillance.

After decades of advocacy by community and grassroots organizations, California is making significant strides toward criminal and juvenile justice. This past year, Los Angeles County’s new district attorney began working to end cash bail for misdemeanors, enact new sentencing policies, and stop the transfer of children to adult court. Meanwhile, a 2020 state law and a budget directive from the governor’s office have resulted in plans to close all three of California’s juvenile prisons by 2023.  

The ACLU of Southern California does not endorse or oppose candidates for election. But a recall is a different matter, when it’s undertaken, as spelled out in our policies, “because of the official's distinctive record in protecting civil liberties.”

The court-ordered victory shows that decarceration is not only possible, it’s critically important

Immigration detention was cruel, abusive, and degrading before the pandemic hit — but as in so many other places, COVID-19 made the system's brutality impossible to ignore.

Upton Sinclair knew — and we must remember — that no civil liberties victory stays won.

As most Californians become eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, California is rightly centering equity in distributing doses to communities that have been hardest hit.