Home : Police Practices : Search and Seizure

NYCLU Says New NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Database Raises Major Privacy Concerns (02/05/2007)
NEW YORK - The New York Civil Liberties Union today raised major concerns about the revelation that the New York City Police Department is compiling a massive new database of law-abiding New Yorkers, mostly black and Hispanic, who have been stopped by the police. The NYCLU demanded that the NYPD take immediate steps to protect the privacy rights of persons who are stopped and frisked but not convicted of a crime.

ACLU of Southern California Acts to Stop Arbitrary Skid Row Searches (12/08/2006)
LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, and law firm Hadsell & Stormer today asked a court to extend a 2003 agreement that prohibits L.A. police from searching Skid Row residents without reasonable suspicion that they have committed a crime or violated parole or probation.

Nine Mile Falls School District Abandons Drug-Sniffing Dog Searches (03/30/2006)
SPOKANE, WA – In response to a threatened lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and the Center for Justice, the Nine Mile Falls School District has stopped using drug-sniffing dogs to search its middle and high school students.

ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Reaffirm Legal Limits of Police Search and Seizure Powers (02/22/2006)
WASHINGTON -- In a case being argued today before the Supreme Court, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the Justices to reject an appeals court ruling allowing police to search parolees on the public streets without any reason to suspect wrongdoing.

NYCLU Sues New York City Over Subway Bag Search Policy (08/04/2005)
NEW YORK -- In response to the New York Police Department's unprecedented policy of subjecting millions of New Yorkers to suspicionless searches, the New York Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit to halt the practice.

ACLU Denounces Boston's Random Subway Searches (07/22/2004)
BOSTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts today criticized a plan by Massachusetts transit officials to conduct random bag searches on the more than one million people who use the train and subway system each day. The ACLU is calling on commuters to assist in bringing a legal challenge to the random search policy, which is the first in the nation.

Michigan Court Strikes Down Breathalyzer Tests for Pedestrians as Unconstitutional (11/25/2003)
DETROIT - In a ruling that will impact young adults throughout the state, a federal judge ruled that Bay City police may no longer force pedestrians under age 21 to take a Breathalyzer test without obtaining a search warrant, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan announced today.

ACLU of Northern CA Challenges Mass Round-Up of High School Students for "Gang Database" (01/30/2003)
SAN FRANCISCO - The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a class-action lawsuit today challenging the unlawful round-up, detention and search of approximately 60 students whose names and photographs were then entered into a "gang database" maintained by the police.

ACLU of Georgia Challenges Mass Searches at School of Americas Protest (11/13/2002)
COLUMBUS, GA-The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia today filed a lawsuit challenging last minute plans by law enforcement officials here to search more than 10,000 marchers at the upcoming School of Americas (SOA) demonstration on Sunday, November 17.

Supreme Court Defends Driver's License Privacy, But Fails to Protect "Man on the Street," ACLU Says (01/12/2000)
NEW YORK -- Ruling in two key cases today, the United States Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the validity of a federal law prohibiting states from disclosing driver's license information, but broadened the right of police to stop people on the street for questioning.

ACLU Announces Settlement in Hmong Family's Lawsuit Against Yuba County Sheriff's Dept. (10/04/1999)
SACRAMENTO -- The settlement of a 1997 police misconduct lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and others on behalf of Yuba County family has resulted in new policies aimed at preventing future abuses by local authorities, the ACLU said today.

ACLU Expresses Significant Doubts About New Draft of Medical Privacy Bill (06/15/1999)
After weeks of negotiating the differences between three medical records privacy bills introduced this year, Senator James Jeffords, the Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, unveiled a new draft of his legislation before his committee today.