Welcome to the June issue of The Brief, the monthly email newsletter of the ACLU of Northern California. This Pride Month and every month, we celebrate the power and resilience of queer joy and defend the right of LGBTQ+ individuals to live authentically, with full equality, and without fear.

Death penalty challenge moves forward

In response to our historic challenge, the California Supreme Court ordered Attorney General Rob Bonta to explain why the state's death penalty should not be declared unconstitutional due to racial bias. Our petition will be heard in Sacramento County Superior Court. The unanimous decision acknowledges the four decades of data confirming stark racial disparities in California death sentences.

The court's ruling comes as faith leaders and civil rights advocates plan to rally at the state capitol on June 30 to call for Gov. Gavin Newsom to commute the sentences of the more than 560 people languishing on death row. We won't stop fighting until we end capital punishment in California.

Racial profiling in Sacramento traffic enforcement

Our new report, "Driving While Black and Brown: The Case for Banning Racially Biased Traffic Stops in Sacramento," reveals that Black people made up 33% of all traffic stops in Sacramento despite being just 12% of the city's population, according to 2023-2024 data collected under California's Racial Identity and Profiling Act. Most of these stops were for minor vehicle equipment or non-moving violations police routinely use as a "pretext" to stop and search Black and Latino drivers. Pulling people over for a missing license plate or expired registration tags doesn't make the roads safer, and police interactions like these can escalate quickly and prove deadly, particularly for Black people. Sacramento should follow the lead of cities like San Francisco and Berkeley that have restricted pretext stops.

Video: No ICE detention in Northern California

Due to years of organizing and advocacy to end ICE contracts with county jails, we've stopped ICE from gaining a foothold in our region. Today, there are no immigration detention centers in Northern California, but the Trump administration plans to add detention space. Learn more on YouTube.

Before Stonewall

In honor of Pride Month, we're delving into the ACLU News archives to highlight a little-known story about a 1956 police raid at a San Mateo County gay bar. Prosecutors charged 87 Hazel's Inn patrons with vagrancy, a vaguely defined offense that police used to target and harass marginalized communities. Of the 30 men ACLU NorCal attorneys defended, two were found guilty of "lewd and dissolute" behavior and banned from the county for two years.

Seven decades later, our commitment to the LGBTQ+ community remains stronger than ever in the face of resurgent bigotry. We won't go back to the days when a sheriff could declare without shame or fear of reprisal that he wanted to, "make it very clear to these people that we won't put up with this sort of thing."

San Francisco 'hill bomb' lawsuit deserves a trial

In July 2023, San Francisco police arrested more than a hundred children and young adults who had gathered for the annual “hill bomb” skateboarding event near Dolores Park. After giving unclear orders to disperse, police corralled a large group and held them for hours. In a brief supporting these young people in a class action lawsuit against the city, we argued that the mass arrests violated the right to free assembly, free association, and free speech. Police relied on guilt by association instead of determining if they had probable cause to detain each individual, as required under the Fourth Amendment. We asked the court to allow a jury to determine if San Francisco police cast too wide a net by arresting all the youth near the park.

Final Thoughts:

• Last year, we fought for justice and democracy in the courtroom and the legislature. Read our 2025 annual report for the highlights.
• Check out the upcoming dates on ACLU NorCal's Defend Democracy Tour with Executive Director Abdi Soltani.

Thanks for reading this issue of The Brief! We'll see you back here next month.