SAN FRANCISCO -- Transgender students and their families are celebrating California’s new School Success and Opportunity Act, which ensures that schools across the state understand their obligation to provide a fair opportunity for transgender students to participate in all school programs and to graduate with their peers. The law went into effect on January 1st.

The ACLU has been litigating abuses in the Los Angeles County Jails since the mid 1970s. In 1985, it was appointed monitor of the facilities that comprise the Los Angeles County Jails system. In January 2012, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Lee Baca and his top brass for condoning a longstanding, widespread pattern of violence by deputies against inmates in the Los Angeles County jails.

“’I didn’t know’ is Sheriff Lee Baca’s refrain to every disturbing incident that comes to light. That stock answer is unacceptable,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.

SAN BERNARDINO—The ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) sued the County of San Bernardino today for violating the free speech rights of Efren Montiel Jimenez, a local artist.

LOS ANGELES - Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that police and prosecutors violated the Constitution by enforcing a gang injunction against residents of Orange County before giving them a meaningful opportunity to contest the allegation that they were gang members.

LOS ANGELES - Today, the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) and a concerned taxpayer, Eric Preven, filed a lawsuit demanding that Los Angeles County and the Office of the County Counsel release invoices detailing the amounts of money billed by private law firms in lawsuits filed against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and its personnel.

LOS ANGELES -- The Honorable S. James Otero denied motions by the Regents of the University of California and Brentwood School to set aside an earlier ruling that numerous land deals approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on its campus in West Los Angeles were illegal.

TEHACHAPI, CA – Today, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) sent a letter to the California Correctional Institution (CCI) demanding that its officers follow the law and allow Muslim women to wear their hijab, a religiously-mandated headscarf, during visits.

LOS ANGELES – The ACLU of California (ACLU CA) made significant progress toward protecting the civil liberties of all Californians through the state Legislature in 2013. This year, the ACLU played a central role in getting to the governor’s desk 16 bills, dealing with a wide range of civil liberties issues including privacy, criminal justice and drug law reform, immigrant rights and LGBTQ rights. We are pleased to report that the governor signed 12 of those bills, of which most will become law on January 1, 2014.