American Civil Liberties Union

Court Ruling Could Wipe Slate for SFPD Accused of Misconduct

EFF, ACLU Go to Bat for Wikileaks

Internet Archive, EFF Smack Down FBI

Polling Place in Mission Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Letters

Dog Bite

Randy Shaw's Power Plays

Sixteen years ago, Randy Shaw started a housing clinic with $50 and a good idea: educating tenants. Now he's got more than $900,000 a year to spend -- and clout to match.

Classified Information

Sixteen years ago, Randy Shaw started a housing clinic with $50 and a good idea: educating tenants. Now he's got more than $900,000 a year to spend -- and clout to match.

Harry Belafonte, Patriot

Sixteen years ago, Randy Shaw started a housing clinic with $50 and a good idea: educating tenants. Now he's got more than $900,000 a year to spend -- and clout to match.

Prying Eyes

Sixteen years ago, Randy Shaw started a housing clinic with $50 and a good idea: educating tenants. Now he's got more than $900,000 a year to spend -- and clout to match.

What Part of "Wait Until Marriage" Don't You Understand!

Infiltrator goes to a teen abstinence educators' conference -- and gets laid!

The Minuteman's 15 Minutes of Fame (Minute 14.5)

At the Arizona border, Infiltrator checks in with Americans who help the government look for illegal aliens

Toothless Wonder

Why S.F.'s police watchdog agency has never been effective - and why Prop. H won't change that

Big Doctor Is Watching

As of April 14, the national security police can monitor your medical records without your knowledge. So can the local police.

An Alias for All Seasons

Our hero finds an interesting way to track the sources of his junk mail

The War on Raves

Forget terrorists; let's fight the dancers

Hard Lessons

Students without textbooks. Crumbling facilities. Rats. Spending time at Balboa High School can be a real education.

Babes in Toyland

Two hackers piss off Mattel and spawn an Internet legal imbroglio

Unspun

Two hackers piss off Mattel and spawn an Internet legal imbroglio

Fewer Pen Pals

As more prisons move to ban skin mags, California prisoners' rights lawyers turn a deaf ear to inmates' howls

Totems Are Taboo

But if the court's crucifixation is overblown, let a thousand icons bloom

Night Crawler

But if the court's crucifixation is overblown, let a thousand icons bloom

Dead Heat

Despite the deaths of Aaron Williams and Mark Garcia, the SFPD continues to use pepper spray on suspects who stand a good chance of dying in custody.

Chronic City: What If They Banned Zoloft Or Something Else Instead?

igougo.comIf you're a medical marijuana patient, Oceanside may decide on Wednesday that it doesn't want your business. Or your crime, or your noise. Wait, what?Oceanside, like 110 or so other cities in California, may impose a (temporary, they say) ban on medical marijuana dispensaries until the cit ... More >>

Chronic City: Marijuana Moratorium -- How To Ignore The Voters And The Law

Dispensary moratorium: Latest political fad?​One by one, across California, the lights are winking out.In city after city, town after town, patients who had dared hope they would at last have safe access to the medicine recommended by their physicians are having those hopes dashed  by politic ... More >>

Activists say the SFPD is unfairly impounding and selling cars owned by illegal aliens

Dispensary moratorium: Latest political fad?​One by one, across California, the lights are winking out.In city after city, town after town, patients who had dared hope they would at last have safe access to the medicine recommended by their physicians are having those hopes dashed  by politic ... More >>

Police Change Policy: Will Cease Towing and Impounding Cars of Unlicensed Drivers -- Sort Of

Still always good to have...​San Francisco is about to get a lot more friendly to unlicensed drivers. After a series of meetings over the last year with immigrants' rights groups and the ACLU, the police are halting their mandatory policy of towing off and impounding cars driven by unlicensed mot ... More >>

ACLU Launches Internet Privacy Campaign

Do you know your dotRights?Dot what?A portal to the soul​The American Civil Liberties Union's San Francisco-based Northern California office is launching a campaign to beef up Internet privacy. In a statement released today, the ACLU seeks to "spotlight the need to upgrade laws protecting consumer ... More >>

ACLU: Keep Your Hands Off Our Prop. 8 E-Mails!

​Yesterday, federal judge Vaughn Walker lowered the boom on the ACLU and Equality California, and insisted the organizations turn over their internal e-mails and memos even though they aren't actually part of the ongoing legal challenge to Proposition 8.Today, the ACLU employed the vaunted oh hell ... More >>

It Ain't 'Brave New World' Yet: Federal Court Strikes Down Human Gene Patents

​The Center for Genetics and Society, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that watchdogs bioethics issues nationwide, is trumpeting a ruling from a New York-based federal court that squashed a biotech company's efforts to patent human genes ... YOURS!Just kidding. Well, sort of -- central to the arguments ... More >>

Prop. 8 Trial -- Constipated No More

Justice delayed is justice ... wait, what were we talking about?​Remember the Prop. 8 trial that started in San Francisco in January starring Judge Vaughn Walker (gay) and featuring David Bois (liberal) and Ted Olson (conservative)? The trial that has been on hiatus longer than the presentation of ... More >>

A Report from Juarez, the Bleeding Front Line of the War on Drugs

Justice delayed is justice ... wait, what were we talking about?​Remember the Prop. 8 trial that started in San Francisco in January starring Judge Vaughn Walker (gay) and featuring David Bois (liberal) and Ted Olson (conservative)? The trial that has been on hiatus longer than the presentation of ... More >>

An Opportunity to Stand Up

Justice delayed is justice ... wait, what were we talking about?​Remember the Prop. 8 trial that started in San Francisco in January starring Judge Vaughn Walker (gay) and featuring David Bois (liberal) and Ted Olson (conservative)? The trial that has been on hiatus longer than the presentation of ... More >>

Amongst Us

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's reign of terror becomes Arizona policy, thanks to state Senator Russell Pearce and Governor Jan Brewer

SF Weekly Parent Company to Underwrite Legal Challenge to Arizona Immigration Bill

​Last week, there were some murmurs among local bloggers about whether SF Weekly would suffer as a result of a proposed city boycott of Arizona businesses because of the Grand Canyon State's harsh new immigration law. Editors at SF Appeal and SFist raised the prospect of city officials refusing to ... More >>

School That Deemed American Flag Clothing 'Incendiary' on Shaky Legal Ground

Higher-ups at Live Oak High School may be caught with their pants down, legally​Administrators at Morgan Hill's Live Oak High School who opted to send home students bedecked in American flag regalia on Cinco de Mayo likely ran afoul of the law, one of the nation's foremost constitutional scholars ... More >>

Arizona and America Join Joe Arpaio in Rushing to Inquire: Are Your Papers in Order?

Higher-ups at Live Oak High School may be caught with their pants down, legally​Administrators at Morgan Hill's Live Oak High School who opted to send home students bedecked in American flag regalia on Cinco de Mayo likely ran afoul of the law, one of the nation's foremost constitutional scholars ... More >>

Tracking Device Found On Santa Clara College Student's Car -- FBI Wants it Back

Hey! The college kid's getting some pizza!​Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old college student from Santa Clara, was surprised to discover a GPS tracking device on his car a week ago during an oil change. We can bet he was even more surprised when, after a friend posted photos of the device on Reddit.com, ... More >>

DADT Repeal: With All Deliberate Speed -- Or None At All?

​The Week in GayThe repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell is fucking mess, but I think there might be a way to fix things. If we act quickly. This is a real longshot -- and it's not guaranteed to work -- but we need get our hands on some mercury. Lots of it. A flock of Ibises in Florida has been rendered ... More >>

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

​The Week in GayThe repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell is fucking mess, but I think there might be a way to fix things. If we act quickly. This is a real longshot -- and it's not guaranteed to work -- but we need get our hands on some mercury. Lots of it. A flock of Ibises in Florida has been rendered ... More >>

ACLU Defends Student Who Called Teacher 'Douche Bag' on Facebook

Give me liberty or give me death, douche bags!​From the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights comes the latest tale of First Amendment issues in the digital age -- this one sparked by a high school sophomore who was suspended for calling his biology teacher a "douche bag" on Facebook.As California W ... More >>

New Questions Raised About State's Imported Lethal Injection Drugs

​Newly released documents raise questions about the quality of drugs imported from abroad by state corrections officials to carry out lethal injections, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.The documents, obtained by the ACLU through Freedom of Information Act (FO ... More >>

California Death Sentences at 33-Year Low

​Fewer death sentences were handed down by California courts during the first half of 2011 than during any six-month period since 1978, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.Just three defendants were sentenced to death from January to June of this ... More >>

This Is Your City: Housing Authority Bans San Franciscans from Public Housing

​Fewer death sentences were handed down by California courts during the first half of 2011 than during any six-month period since 1978, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.Just three defendants were sentenced to death from January to June of this ... More >>

ACLU Joins the Fight Against the Circumcision Ban

Cock fight ​As expected, we can now add the ACLU to the list of people officially against the proposed circumcision ban in San Francisco. Today, the organization's Northern California branch joined the Jewish Community Relations Council by filing an amicus curiae brief that urges the California S ... More >>

Gross Profit: Money Given to Clipboard Kids Rarely Makes It to Nonprofits

Cock fight ​As expected, we can now add the ACLU to the list of people officially against the proposed circumcision ban in San Francisco. Today, the organization's Northern California branch joined the Jewish Community Relations Council by filing an amicus curiae brief that urges the California S ... More >>

Bouncer Spies the Clipboard Peeps at House of Shields

Cock fight ​As expected, we can now add the ACLU to the list of people officially against the proposed circumcision ban in San Francisco. Today, the organization's Northern California branch joined the Jewish Community Relations Council by filing an amicus curiae brief that urges the California S ... More >>

Bouncer Visits House of Shields, a Beer Cave for the Clipboard Peeps

​From this week's Bouncer column: I found it ironic that I was walking to the House of Shields one afternoon when I found myself bombarded with people in bright pink T-shirts from Planned Parenthood. I, like most Tea Party Patriots, associate the organization with birth control, or "shields" ... More >>

Another Student Suspended for Dissing Teacher on Facebook

​We've seen a few times over the past year that the casual contact facilitated by Facebook is proving to be a sticky wicket for teachers and their students. Now a Louisiana high-school senior is arguing in federal court that he's the latest victim of unfair policing of online social space.The stud ... More >>

SFPD's Ugly History with Pepper Spray

It was a problem long before this guy.​When San Francisco Police came calling in June of 1995, 37-year-old Aaron Williams probably didn't think it would be his last day on Earth. But as the pet-store-burglary suspect emerged from his house, a dozen officers piled on him. Police pepper-sprayed him, ... More >>