“Immigration reform must improve the severe civil liberties problems built into our current system,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, ACLU senior staff attorney, before testifying at a Senate hearing. “Every person in the United States, including all immigrants, has fundamental rights under our Constitution, including the due process right to a fair day in court before being locked away for months in an immigration prison or permanently banished from our country.

The ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU/SC), and the law firm of Nixon Peabody LLP sent a letter to administrators at Sultana High School and the Hesperia Unified School District in San Bernardino County demanding that school officials stop censoring the speech and activities of the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) school club, stop discriminating against lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and queer/questioning (LBGTQ) students in the school, and allow students to wear gender non-conforming clothing to the upcoming prom.  

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano has introduced the School Success and Opportunity Act, Assembly Bill 1266, co-authored by Senator Mark Leno and Senator Ricardo Lara. The bill will ensure that California public schools understand their responsibility for the success and well-being of all students, including transgender students, and will allow transgender students to fully participate in all school activities, programs, and facilities. 

ACLU/SC Staff Attorney Lucero Chavez submitted the following letter to Anna Hinken, Non-Governmental Office (NGO) Liaison at U.S Customs and Border Protection. Ms. Hinken, We write to express our strong concern that, in targeting day laborers Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) is undermining the stated priorities of the President

Hundreds of immigrants spend months or even years in federal immigration detention centers without being offered a bond hearing, attorneys from the ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU/SC) told a panel of judges of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.

The ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU/SC) is proud to announce that California Lawyer Magazine has named ACLU/SC Legal Director Peter Eliasberg as one of its “Attorneys of the Year” for 2013.

By March 1, 2013 all public schools in California, including charter schools and alternative schools, must have a process in place for students and parents to file a complaint if they believe their school is charging fees as a condition of participating in educational activities. Such fees violate the California Constitution, which has guaranteed children free schools for well over a hundred years, and create a pay-to-learn system that discriminates against children from lower-income families. 

Under an agreement just reached by the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU/SC) and the County of Orange, the county will no longer require observant Muslim women in Orange County Sheriff’s Department custody to remove religious head coverings in full view of male officers, and will provide temporary headscarves for them to wear while they are in custody.

The ACLU of Southern California and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center are urging Los Angeles city leaders to sever sister city ties with St. Petersburg, Russia, following the passage there of increasingly repressive laws directed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.