Friend –

As you know, 2022 is proving to be a consequential year for democracies worldwide.

Here, at home, we are seeing threats left and right to our civil rights and civil liberties: the erosion of unfettered access to voting, the resurgence of 90s-era fearmongering and failed approaches to community safety, and the unprecedented attacks on reproductive rights – to name a few.

But this is what the ACLU was built for and why we are proud to announce a bold agenda for this upcoming state legislative session. See the ACLU California Action 2022 Legislative Agenda.

Here are a few of the critical bills we are sponsoring this year:

• Immigrants' rights: AB 937 (Carrillo) withdraws state and local cooperation from immigration enforcement that often results in deportation.
• LGBTQ+ rights: SB 357 (Wiener) repeals loitering laws that have enabled discriminatory policing of communities of color, including trans women of color.
• Racial justice: AB 256 (Kalra) allows prior racist convictions and sentences to be overturned. AB 2022 (Ramos) creates a process for eliminating racially offensive place names.
• Reproductive health: AB 2223 (Wicks) clarifies that pregnant people and those who assist them shall not be held liable for their pregnancy outcomes.
• Right to privacy: SB 1038 (Bradford) bans facial recognition technology with police body-worn cameras.
• Voting rights: AB 2841 (Low) protects voting rights for people with disabilities and for registered voters at risk of being mistakenly removed from voter rolls.

Learn more about these and other statewide priorities and how you can participate. Our democracy can only thrive when we all do our part.

Thanks for sticking with us,

Carlos Marquez III
Executive Director, ACLU California Action