June 26, 2012, 12:05 AM
Proposed legislation aimed at ending illegal fees in public schools will no longer require superintendents to audit their schools to ensure compliance. Brooks Allen, director of education advocacy for the ACLU's Southern California office, said Assembly members tweaked the bill – AB...
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June 4, 2012, 12:05 AM
Civil rights groups are accusing the state of violating the constitutional rights of English learners in the Dinuba Unified School District by implementing a program that bars first- and second-grade non-English-speaking students from reading classes. District teachers and parents say the...
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April 11, 2012, 12:05 AM
Civil rights groups recently intervened in a free-speech controversy at the San Francisco Unified School District after a school suspended three high school seniors and banned them from graduation and prom over comments they made online. The students were suspended from George Washington High...
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April 2, 2012, 12:05 AM
FBI agents in San Francisco used “community outreach” as a cover to collect intelligence on Muslim individuals and organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union claims, based on new documents it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The advocacy group says that...
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March 30, 2012, 12:05 AM
A new bill that seeks to crack down on illegal school fees is moving through the state Legislature, but it faces a lukewarm reception from lawmakers and some education groups. With a 6-3 vote last week, AB 1575 [PDF] made it out of the Assembly Education Committee and is now being reviewed by...
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March 21, 2012, 1:05 AM
California counties receiving an influx of low-level convicts are preparing to spend millions of dollars for more jail space in the years ahead, but plans for reducing the number incarcerated are far less concrete. That is the overarching finding of a new report by the ACLU of California,...
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February 6, 2012, 12:05 AM
Bolstered by a recent court ruling, a Southern California assemblyman filed legislation last week that seeks to crack down on school districts that charge parents and students fees that violate state law. AB 1575, sponsored by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-South Gate, would require school...
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January 25, 2012, 12:05 AM
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, the California State Board of Education, the state Department of Education and the attorney general's office all want a judge to drop a lawsuit that seeks to hold the state accountable for school districts that illegally charge students...
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September 20, 2011, 12:05 AM
California public schools are not allowed to charge students for educational activities or supplies. That’s been the rule since the state Constitution was ratified more than a century ago, and it was reaffirmed in 1984 by the State Supreme Court. But if a student’s family is told...
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August 19, 2011, 12:05 AM
Law enforcement efforts to obtain cell phone location data and Internet records have prompted privacy rights advocates to launch a nationwide investigation. This month, the American Civil Liberties Union of California filed Freedom of Information Act requests asking more than 50 police agencies to...
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July 29, 2011, 12:05 AM
A San Francisco Superior Court judge yesterday threw out a voter initiative headed to the November ballot that would have outlawed the circumcision of males younger than 18, with jail or fines as penalties. Judge Loretta Giorgi found that the ballot initiative, even if passed by voters, could...
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July 21, 2011, 12:05 AM
An agreement [PDF] announced yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union limits the involvement of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office in enforcing federal immigration laws. In a lawsuit filed in September 2008 on behalf of the Committee for Immigrant Rights of Sonoma County and three...
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July 18, 2011, 12:05 AM
The ACLU of Northern California filed a court brief Friday supporting an effort to block a ballot measure that would ban juvenile male circumcision in San Francisco. The friend of the court brief bolsters the arguments of a coalition of Jews and Muslims who filed suit in June asking a...
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June 20, 2011, 2:33 PM
As soon as today, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to release a letter clarifying the Justice Department’s policy toward the 16 states that have approved medical marijuana laws. Of particular importance to California is whether federal authorities will tolerate states...
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May 27, 2011, 12:05 AM
A Northern California high school district is no longer restricting access to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy websites after the American Civil Liberties Union recently intervened on behalf of a student. "I wanted to start a gay-straight alliance at my...
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