Friend –

We're proud to fight for you in the California Legislature, and this year, we did it under the banner of ACLU California Action, the ACLU's new statewide advocacy organization. With the help of our members and volunteers like you, we passed laws to strengthen and protect civil rights and civil liberties for all Californians.

Here are a few of the victories you helped deliver with your activism and advocacy:

✔Decertifying police who commit misconduct (SB 2): Brings California in line with the 46 other states that have a process to decertify officers who commit serious misconduct, and to update state civil rights laws to provide a legal remedy to victims of police misconduct and their families.

✔Providing Community Response to Local Emergencies (AB 118): Creates new programs for community-based response to local emergencies instead of police, including: public health crises, unhoused people in crisis, people exposed to intimate partner or community violence, people with a substance use disorder, and people impacted by natural or climate disasters.

✔Eliminating additional criminal system fees (AB 177, formerly SB 586): Eliminates 17 onerous administrative fees imposed on people in our legal system. AB 177 also discharges an estimated $534 million in debt that falls most heavily on Black and Brown communities.

✔Challenging invalid convictions (AB 1259): Grants thousands of people who are facing mandatory immigration detention or deportation the ability to challenge unjust convictions based on a misunderstanding of immigration consequences or ineffective assistance of counsel.

✔Advancing Menstrual Equity (AB 367): Requires college campuses and public schools from grades 6 to 12 to provide students with free menstrual products, affirming that menstrual products are a necessity not a luxury.

I'm excited to continue this work as the first executive director of ACLU California Action – building on our collective victories into 2022, while holding our lawmakers accountable to protect and defend the rights of all Californians.

We will need your activism in January to pass AB 256 to ensure the Racial Justice Act is applied to everyone; persuade the governor to sign SB 357 to eliminate the state's outdated and discriminatory loitering laws; and continue to advance gender equity, reproductive freedom, and fair treatment of immigrants, among other key issues.

We look forward to continuing to fight for you next year.

Onward,

Carlos Marquez III
Executive Director, ACLU California Action

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