Three veterans who were all discharged under the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy have filed a new lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claiming that the policy violated their rights under the constitution. more ›

We want to like the ACLU, really we do, but sometimes they have to take difficult positions in order to secure legal precedents like privacy rights, as in the case they're arguing now to stop the state of California from doing their mandatory collection of DNA samples from all felony arrestees, even if they're later exonerated. Such DNA collection did, of course, lead to the capture of the Grim Sleeper which our pals down at LAist have been quite excited about. A judge at the 9th Circuit yesterday asked the ACLU how this process was different than collecting fingerprints, and they argue that a swab inside the mouth constitutes an illegal search and seizure. more ›

On Sunday, Matier and Ross carefully stepped into some potentially controversial territory in pointing out the open secret that federal Judge Vaughn Walker is gay. Walker will be delivering a decision concerning the overturning of Prop 8 — a judicial referendum on gay marriage which will next head to a federal appeals court and likely also to the Supreme Court, where it will create a national uproar. more ›

The gay marriage case that Hollywood made will be heading to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on January 11th, and the City of San Francisco will be included as a party to the case, says U.S. District Judge Vaughan Walker. Three gay rights organizations--Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights--were asking to be included as parties to the case on the side of the plaintiffs as well, but they were denied and will have to settle for filing friend-of-the-court briefs. Whether this will serve to un-clutter and speed up the proceedings remains to be seen. more ›