Friend –

With the 2023 legislative session in full swing, we're advancing a bold new policy agenda that aims to address some of the most pressing civil rights and civil liberties challenges facing vulnerable Californians today.

We're also cultivating relationships with the largest freshmen class of state lawmakers sworn in to office in more than half a decade.

Amending the California Constitution is critical to our agenda this year. With your help, we'll fight to secure majority support from the California Legislature to approve these proposals for the ballot:

• Restore the voting rights of people currently incarcerated in prison (ACA 4).
• Ban the practice of forced labor and involuntary servitude in our prisons and jails (ACA 8).
• Enshrine a right to housing in the constitution.
• Repeal the discriminatory language against same-sex marriage from Proposition 8 (ACA 5).

To see our full list of sponsored legislation and to learn more about our bills, visit our website. Our bill package will continue to advance stronger protections for people encountering our criminal legal system: immigrants, the unhoused, people seeking abortion and gender-affirming care, students, and many more. Here are some of our priority bills:

Policing:

• Protect people from the dangerous deployment of police canines for arrest, apprehension, and crowd control (AB 742).
• Ban consent searches without evidence-based justifications by limiting police interactions that lead to more intrusive stops of people of color (AB 93).

Reproductive justice:

• Block law enforcement agencies from compelling tech companies to hand over the names and identities of all people whose digital data shows they've spent time near a California abortion clinic or searched for information about gender-affirming care online (AB 793).

Dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline:

• Eliminate mandatory notification requirements for educators to report certain student-involved incidents to police, thereby reducing interactions between students and law enforcement (AB 1323).
• Ensure students cannot be suspended or expelled for disruption or defiance, which disproportionately targets Black and Brown students, and students with disabilities. (SB 274).

Technology and civil liberties:

• Ban facial recognition surveillance technology (AB 1034).

Immigrant rights:

• Strengthen the California Values Act, which ensures that no state or local resources are diverted to fuel any attempt by the federal government to carry out mass deportations, and prohibit probation searches by immigration enforcement.

Redistricting:

• Modernize the redistricting process to foster stronger transparency and enact public engagement requirements for local jurisdictions, thereby reducing political influence in the process (AB 764).

2023 is a consequential year for the ACLU in California and nationally. We will need your voice and support to be successful at enacting these transformative policy proposals in the Legislature and on the ballot. Watch your inbox for messages to take action.

In Solidarity,

Carlos Marquez III
Executive Director, ACLU California Action