Research & Publications

If the government yells “national security” in the middle of the harbor, will anyone hear it?

Police abuse of power has come under unprecedented and long overdue public scrutiny over the past few years. Yet, many people concerned about police accountability may overlook the egregious practices of the single largest law enforcement agency in the United States...

Ending San Diego County’s Decades-Long, Shameful ‘Attack on the Poor’

We lost a quiet but fierce champion of justice. Charles A. Bird died June 21, 2021 after a long illness. Charlie was many things—a brilliant lawyer, an avid outdoorsman, a bar and community leader, a believer in freedom of conscience and a colleague and mentor to generations of advocates.

This essay and accompanying artwork are together entitled A Moment of Reckoning. The essay decodes the visual voice of the art, in chapters that coincide with the featured protest signs. The ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties commissioned award-winning artist-activist Tony Washington..

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of millions of people around the world. It has been especially devastating for the most vulnerable in our society: people of color, people who are incarcerated and people who have no home where they can shelter in place.

On March 6, five days before the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project posed a series of challenging questions, beginning with “Are Our Prisons and Jails Ready for COVID-19?”