The United States Parole Commission has entered into an agreement that all federal inmates eligible for a parole hearing who are incarcerated in prisons in the Central District of California will have that hearing in person rather than by video. The agreement arises from a settlement in a case filed by the ACLU of Southern California and the law firm of Greenberg Glusker.

Today, the ACLU of Southern California, the law firm Bird Marella, Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, and USC Law Professor Michael Brennan filed a major civil rights lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court challenging a secret program by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to conceal evidence of deputy assaults on Men’s Central Jail detainees from criminal defense counsel in cases where these deputies are sole or principal prosecution witnesses and a related operation by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office prohibiting disclosure of favorable evidence to criminal defendants, even though such evidence is deemed essential for disclosure by the United States and California Supreme Courts.

Yesterday afternoon, the California State Senate approved AB 1081 – the TRUST Act – with a vote of 21-13. Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) is the bill's author; State Senator Kevin de León (D - Los Angeles) served as floor manager for the vote and presented the bill to the Senate.

ACLU of California asks, “How would you change the system?” California’s budget negotiations are an exercise in high stakes tradeoffs.  And as legislators finalize deep cuts to education and the safety net, the ACLU is challenging Californians to acquire a real-time sense of how the state’s bottom line would fare if prisons and jails were placed at the center of the chopping block. 

Today, the ACLU of Southern California and Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian sued the City of Anaheim for violating the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). 

Clarissa Woo Hermosillo, Director of Policy Advocacy: “Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The ACLU of Southern California celebrates this decision as a huge victory for the millions of uninsured Americans who will now be able to participate more fully in the economic, political and social life of the nation.

Hector Villagra, ACLU/SC Executive Director: Today the Supreme Court struck down most of Arizona's SB 1070, the anti-immigrant draconian law that was passed in 2010. Three key provisions were struck down today and these were some of the most outrageous provisions in the law.

Hector Villagra, ACLU/SC Executive Director: The Supreme Court today struck down key provisions of Arizona’s SB 1070. In striking down these provisions, the Court upheld the exclusive power of the federal government to regulate immigration.  This is a strong rebuke to Arizona’s claim of broad authority to set immigration policy.